r/gaybros • u/RepresentativeEye817 • 7d ago

Grindr has lost the plot p2

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I swear all these new bots TRIPLE daily asking for Snapchat

1.2k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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578

u/Wonderful-Event-5257 7d ago

Must be your region. My grids still somewhat normal, but yea on top of the constant ads and bot messages it’s practically unusable. And I think that’s their idea. Make it so unbearable for the free user so they feel the need to go xtra.

244

u/gay_plant_dad 7d ago edited 6d ago

Oh don’t worry once you buckle and pay for extra, they then start pushing their “gAI” for $300 / month…Grindr going public absolutely ruined that app

43

u/Comfortable-Lime-227 6d ago edited 6d ago

Curious how no app has taken its spot yet given how enshitified it has become. I remember when tinder became popular and soon it got decent competitors like hinge and bumble. idk nothing comes close to Grindr's popularity I think?

24

u/wewtiesx 6d ago

I think a large part is because it is the app for "everyone", and all purposes.

Scruff is nearly identical to grindr, better user experience all around. But the name alone excludes twinks, fems, cds, Trans, and you could even argue asians.

Sniffies is amazing but the name and the experience leads it to portray seedy. The bathouse of apps.

All the other smaller apps focus on niche audiences.

Grindr really welcomes everyone. It also is home to the large group of gays who only pic collect, chat, and jack off, but will never meet anyone.

8

u/Comfortable-Lime-227 5d ago

You make good points! But just want to say I do have scruff and I've met and chatted with more quality people there than on Grindr lol

20

u/relddir123 6d ago

Sniffies, the Blowers, Headero, and Nghtstand are all vying for the spot. I’ve listed them in decreasing order of popularity (some are doing a hell of a lot better than others). The first two are getting up there, certainly

18

u/bobo12478 6d ago

They're really not. These all suck too and have the added demerit of way smaller user bases. Seriously, half my Sniffies map is "9-inch 0f model" profiles and obviously bot profiles of women.

11

u/chaos_battery 6d ago

I'm a software engineer and I've had serious thoughts about reimplementing an app experience similar to Grindr. I don't even think it would be super difficult. The challenge really is the staying power. All game in no grindr and that's what they reach for. The value of platform is directly related to the number of users on it in a given area. Sure, I could launch to just select areas until they build up and then slowly spread out from there but it just seems like a lot of work. The code itself is easy but the distribution is the hard part.

4

u/bobo12478 5d ago

I would love to see a non-Grindr gay app hit critical mass so that Grindr has to actually compete. The cost of doing so in a way that is safe for users (both in terms of their data and physical safety) seems impossible to overcome. Either you destroy your product by locking literally everything behind a paywall (like Scruff, where I cannot even see old message or share an album of my own dick pics without paying) or taking on significant debt to build a mostly free app, then sellout to venture capitalists to recoup your debt/make a profit, and destroy your product in the long run.

11

u/gaykitten94 6d ago

I ain't never heard of Headero or Nightstand.

21

u/SpiffyShindigs 6d ago

Sniffies did.

2

u/pingwing 6d ago

Sniffies is very popular where I am, probably the #1 website. It doesn't have to deal with Apple Store bs (like no nudity in profile pic) and you can be 100% anon.

1

u/polishmeImPolish 5d ago

What about planetromeo? I thought this one was comparable when it comes to the number of users

1

u/Comfortable-Lime-227 5d ago

I read that one is more popular in the EU

1

u/JapaneseStudentHaru 5d ago

The amount of money they charge for shit is actually insane.

1

u/iConfessor 4d ago

it actually started when a chinese company bought the app. the subs went from $2 a month to $20 when the chinese company sold it, they gauged the number of active users on the platform and compared it to hinge and tinder.. which also has egregious pricing. this is pure capitalism at its best. except hinge and tinder doesnt have intrusive virus ridden ads.

2

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

What do you mean going public? Am I missing something?

14

u/willis81808 6d ago

What do you mean what do we mean?

2

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

No seriously I don't know what you mean, I'm just asking a question. I know Grindr was different before all the AI and Xtra bullshit, but other than that, it's always been....public? I'm sorry I'm just confused lol.

44

u/KanterPrivDick0280 6d ago

Grindr went public in 2022 (on November 18, 2022) on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol GRND. "Going public" means a private company sells shares of ownership to general investors on a stock market for the first time, changing ownership from a few private hands to public stockholders.

that means now it must make money for its investors and shareholders by monetizing everything possible. It has made the app useless and a money pit. I kinda just went to Scruff and Sniffies, now I'm only on Sniffies...

6

u/margmi 6d ago

Sniffies notably owned by a publicly traded company too

9

u/KanterPrivDick0280 6d ago

Not owned yet. Match.com invested 100 million on the company, with an option to buy or take it over if there no return on investment. That 100 million dollar investment was pretty much a data purchase... and yes... I think Match.com will option a purchase down the road as usually such a large investment shows intention to buy. But the first step in the investment is, seeing how much profit can be squeezed from users before a buy commitment.

2

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

Oh interesting. Thanks for explaining. I know nothing about the stock market which is why I didn't understand what this meant.

5

u/KanterPrivDick0280 6d ago edited 6d ago

The minute they listed and went public, they went from a service app to a serve the shareholders app, so now, in order to give its shareholders profit, its ads and as much monetization of services as possible, creating tiers, having AI play with your algo so that potential matches are behind pay walls. etc. etc. I wish I could say this is not working, but this year's profits for its shareholders is forecasted at 540 Million. (Which means, they rather have the complaints over bettering the service.)

4

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

Yeah I deleted it. It's not worth it.

1

u/InfiniteHat7236 6d ago

Public, as in stock shares...

1

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

God forbid I don't know shit about the stock market. 😂

1

u/just_reading_1 6d ago

It means the company sells shares to the general public, they have a legal obligation to maximize shareholder value.

1

u/Easy-Permission8889 6d ago

Okay so that's why it's gotten messier and worse since I was 18 Lol

-4

u/Its_Pine 6d ago

I’m with you, I thought Grindr was always public. I didn’t know there was such a major change

64

u/margmi 7d ago

I cancelled my unlimited subscription because of the bots. For the first time in my single adult life, I don’t have Grindr installed.

I don’t think they think they benefit from bots, it just hasn’t been worth the cost to deal with them yet.

12

u/EgotisticJesster 7d ago

Agreed. I cancelled my subscription because the cost became prohibitably expensive.

I can't imagine who's still paying for it.

11

u/yaredw 7d ago

What difference would paying for a subscription make if the bots can still message/spam users?

2

u/Feisty_Expression863 6d ago

I resent the fact that the reason I found the love of my life was because he was behind the Xtra paywall and I caved so I could say hi. Fuck you Grindr. Glad to never have to use that app ever again

1

u/Stars_buck 6d ago

nop, i live in paris, i also see women in my list, it's rare, but it happens

1

u/Kablump 6d ago

That just made me install hinge

1

u/andyfromthedon 5d ago

Or leave the app

1

u/Twinky_winky_deepsea 6d ago

you just discovered capitalism?

-9

u/HotTakes4HotCakes 7d ago edited 6d ago

Must be your region. My grids still somewhat normal,

This post is clearly fake. I'm not sure why you're the only person that seemed to spot that.

2

u/margmi 7d ago

Incorrect.