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Read our recent review of Grindr XTRA.
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Grindr is the dating app for gay men. And while queer guys have more options in 2025, Grindr is still the go-to app for millions of gay and bisexual men seeking men. If you’ve had enough of the mainstream dating apps, Grindr is the perfect place to be yourself. It’s also a great option for those who want to experiment with their sexuality, as Grindr allows users to filter their search by sexual preferences, including bisexual men.
Keep in mind that Grindr is a very NSFW environment where many guys go to hook up. You might get lucky and meet your soulmate on the app, but that’s generally not why people use Grindr. We should also note that modern-day Grindr is plastered with ads and many beloved features are now behind a paywall, so you may want to consider upgrading to Grindr XTRA.
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I picked Grindr because it’s been the top gay dating app since 2009 for one simple reason: it’s damn near-instantaneous. Instead of swiping, the app uses geolocation to show you a grid of nearby guys, which is especially useful if you’re in a small town with a limited queer population. While the sheer number of users can be overwhelming, it also means there’s a huge pool of men ready to chat. Most users who are just looking to hook up will tell you that they’re not trying to make small talk — and that warning may come in the form of a dick pic.
That’s not to say it’s not for relationships — a lot of men do meet their forever person on Grindr — but on the surface, it’s a tool for quick, casual encounters. To make those in-the-moment meetups even faster, the app recently supercharged its “Right Now” feature with a live “Map View,” which shows users who are available immediately on a real-time map of their vicinity. (Don’t worry, it’s opt-in, and for safety, the map only shows an approximate location, not an exact address.) If you’re seeking something more serious, you can adjust your filter to look for “dates,” though this will decrease the number of potential matches.
The app has also added more tools for user control and safety. In March, Grindr added a feature called “Profile Hide” to deal with the potential awkwardness of seeing an ex, your boss, co-worker, or whoever else you’d rather not see your Grindr profile. It lets you preemptively make your profile invisible to specific users you haven’t chatted with and hides them from your grid.
To bring a little more reality to the grid, Grindr released “Taken on Grindr.” If someone snaps a pic using the Grindr camera inside the app, they get the option to add a small watermark showing it was “Taken on Grindr” plus a timestamp (like “just now” or “3 days ago”). It’s not mandatory, so don’t expect it everywhere, but seeing that little badge offers a bit more confidence that the photo is recent and actually from the person.
