Joel Simkhai, who lives in Los Angeles, launched Grindr five years ago. It now is seen as the dominant gay hook up app, claiming more than seven million users. Earlier this month it launched its first substantial update in an apparent effort to compete better with newer apps that are more targeted at specific gay communities. Among the new features is the ability to characterize yourself by “tribe.” The tribes include Bear, Clean-Cut, Daddy, Discreet, Geek, Jock, Leather, Otter, Poz, Rugged, Trans and Twink (yes, gay life is complicated).
You also can search by other characteristics, including age, height, weight, body type, ethnicity and relationship status. So if you’re NOT looking to meet a 5-foot-tall, 330-pound man in his 70s who is married, you can set your search so he won’t show up. A basic Grindr user can only sort by three criteria. If you pony up $11.99 a month (now $12.99) for Grindr Xtra, the premium version of the app, you can search using all criteria — the perfect way to find that 24-year-old, six-foot-tall, single Latino jock who is looking for a relationship (unfortunately no one met that criteria in West Hollywood on a recent search).
The tribe function is new, which may explain why a recent search turned up only 246 guys who had joined a tribe within five miles of our researcher’s WeHo location. Some of those results don’t mesh with the West Hollywood gay stereotype. For example, only four percent identified as Twinks while 28 said they were Jocks. On the other hand, the fact that only three percent identified as Bears and two percent identified as either Daddies or Leather guys suggests there’s some truth to be found there.
Grindr also lets you link to your Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts if you really want to share your life with the gay world.
What can’t you do with Grindr? Your profile is limited to 255 characters, including spaces. That might come as a relief to Scruff users confronted by guys who insist you read the entirety of their 1,000 word profiles before meeting.
Grindr also only lets you look for guys nearby. The premium version shows a maximum of 323 profiles, which in densely gay West Hollywood means our researcher’s quest for love was limited to a two-mile radius from his apartment. If you’re sitting in Helena, Montana, on the other hand, you’d likely be scoping out gay guys in far away North Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho (which is why we aren’t living in Montana). To find a guy in Silver Lake who you’re willing to drive for, you have to drive to Silver Lake. And to find a guy in Chelsea to make that business trip to New York City a bit more exciting, you’ll have to wait until you get there.
Grindr also doesn’t let you create a photo album that you can automatically unlock for your newest digital heartthrob. You’ll have to upload those photos from your mobile phone one by one. That might be a good thing in that it gives you a few seconds to consider just how revealing you want to be. Grindr also is known for being a very strict enforcer of Apple’s photo rules, barring even photos of shirtless guys who have forgotten to fasten the top button on their jeans.
And Grindr, which like all sites lets you “block” users, won’t let you “unblock” them on an individual basis. So if you’re regretting your rejection of that persistent Grindr cutie, you’re going to have to unblock all of those stalker trolls to let him back into your gay app world.
Finally, Grindr doesn’t let you send a standard message to a guy (like a “woof” on Scruff or GROWLr). That’s probably why so many guys on Grindr seem to introduce themselves with “sup,” which is kid speak for “what’s up?” On Grindr, for better or worse, you also can’t see who has viewed your profile.
Read WEHOville’s profile of Grindr founder Joel Simkhai here.
[hr]
Don’t miss our gay app overview:
The Perfect Gay Mobile App? WEHOville Reviews the Top Four
[hr]
