Grindr

Grindr has quite the reputation and infamy, and for good reason. Based on the three-star review on the app store, there are guys out there who think this is a gift from the goddess RuPaul herself. Other people say that Grindr is absolute trash, being riddled with flakes, scammers, and bots. To settle this once and for all, I downloaded the most recent version of the app to see where it is currently at.

The Basics Of This App (Hypothetically) Are Quite Simple

The idea behind Grindr was, and is simple: provide a means for men to hook up with each other with no strings attached, get lots of dates, or otherwise make connections. Being exclusively for mobile phones and tablets, this app was one of the first to take advantage of GPS technology to know exactly where your new beau is located. Although the early days were really shaky, after having tested it, I can say that the location feature has been honed down to near perfection.

There Are All Sorts Of Ways To Advertise Yourself

Unfortunately, there still are a lot of faceless, even picture-less profiles on Grindr, even in super gay-friendly areas. But just because those chods don't want to nut up and sell themselves, that does not mean you don't have to – and for the best results, you certainly should!

At a minimum, I would fill out all of the basic profile information such as your height, weight, get, and intos referring to whether you are looking for dates, hookups, friends, or whatever. You can also assign a tribe to yourself (i.e., Geek, Bear, Twink, etc), and multiple "interest" tags such as bareback, car play, and gaymer, among others. Of course, the inevitable question as to whether or not you are a top, bottom, or vers, is going to come up, so you might want to advertise it. Or you might want to keep fellas guessing and enticed, don't.

As far as pictures go, you cannot show anything explicit (other than a pic with your nips out), and all of them will be reviewed by the app's moderators. However, in private chat conversations, you can share as many NSFW images as you want. You can also set up a private album and unlock them for a sexy stud if you desire. Furthermore, members with premium accounts can also share video footage, too.

Oh, and if you do (or for some reason do not) want your inbox to be flooded with nudie pics, indicate whether or not you accept NSFW Pics on your profile. I tried it, and let's just say that it is surprisingly effective.

You now can link to your Spotify account and social media profiles, which can be handy if you want to show off more pictures of yourself if you upload the maximum number on your profile. But you should be aware that there are cyber stalkers on this app, so link carefully.

Find The Perfect Guy (Or Guys) With Sweet Search Features

The more recent versions of this app give you all sorts of methods to find a handsome guy, or perhaps several. The default search the app is set to will locate guys in your proximity. The basic package will only show ninety-nine profiles, but that is based on your location. So, if you are at work and go home, go out to a coffee shop, or are driving through town or on public transit, you're going to get exposed to a hell of a lot of new dudes.

You can talk to all of these guys privately and get their attention with a 'tap.' And if there is a guy who you really fancy you can save them to your favorites. Most hookup apps have that, but this one also adds a feature where you can add a series of private notes about why you find a certain fella to be fine.

Unlike other apps such as Scruff, you can access all of your chats in their entirety though sometimes images do not always save. As far as I can tell, this seems to be due to occasional server glitches. Furthermore, with the new updates, you can also access all of the albums that someone has unlocked for you for free.

And as far as finding new studs to potentially suck off, the search features will do wonders for you. You can select an age range, a tribe, and what your potential match is looking for. You'll have to pay for it, but the advanced features allow you to select every possible stat from a guy's weight, body type, relationship status, and whether or not they have chatted today. The only thing you cannot pick is a dude's dick size which is unfortunate. But the guys on Grindr are usually pretty willing to tell you their measurements and give you the receipts.

Going On Holiday? Then Use The Explore Feature

One of the nicer additions to the basic Grindr package is the Explore feature. With it, you can type in any location in the world and look at the guys in the area. You get all of their profile details and can even chat with up to three of them. To get access to even more, you'll have to upgrade to premium, but simply just looking at the new meat in your area can give you an excellent idea of what to expect.

Depending On Where You Are, Your Experience May Vary

The little-known fact about Grindr for people who do not travel much is that interacting with people might be completely different depending on where you are. And I really don't mean that it depends on which country you are in. Rather, it depends on population density. Does that sound strange? Well, as it turns out, most blokes who live in a big city, if not a major metropolitan area, treat Grindr primarily as a hookup app. To put it simply, guys tend to send you their stats, a slew of dick pics, and their location if they are hosting.

However, if you are in a rural area, people tend to treat Grindr like an open chatroom. So, there tends to be a lot more conversation. It could be easier to find dates and forge genuine business connections, or even make new friends – and not just the sort you have sex with. That or you might get hit up with closet cases who are looking to hook up with closet cases who are likely cheating on their wives.

As for getting the best of all worlds, moderately sized cities seem to get that sort of traffic. This has been pretty consistent with what I have seen no matter where I have gone, so keep that in mind.

With A Premium Account, Take Your Experience Further

If you want to turn your Grindr experience into a ball bigger than the one featured at the climax of Paris Is Burning then get a premium account. You can view up to six hundred profiles in the area around you, get access to the complete number of advanced filters, and cruise ad-free. The Xtra package will cost you $19.99 a month, $39.99 for three, and $99.99 for a year.

But it can get even better still. By upgrading to the Unlimited plan, you can get everything mentioned so far, you can also chat using the Explore feature, see expired photos in chat sessions, surf in incognito mode, and even get chats translated if you are not familiar with the language. For some reason, you can only pay month to month, and it will run you $39.99 every thirty days.

And beyond all of that, you can get even more attention. By having your profile boosted, you can get up to eight times the views for up to an hour. Usually priced at $9.99, this comes off as a little pricey to me, but if you are hard up for views and booty, then it just might be worth it. And they very often provide sales specials, so there is a good chance you can grab a sweet discount on all of these different packages.

As Far As Hookup Ads Go, This One Is Damn Great

Alright as far as flaws go, I will say that most of the problems have been dealt with. The tap bots have pretty much been neutralized, and the programmers finally got rid of most of the fake accounts. There still are committed scammers on here, so you will have to be careful. Also, sometimes you will get a tap, message, or notification, and no matter what your Grindr app's or phone's settings are, might not see it.

Fortunately, I have noticed that these are less of a problem than they used to be, but still, they persist.

Since there are still a few bugs that need to be ironed out on this app, I cannot give it a perfect score, but it has earned a good one. For that reason and all the ones given above, I am going to give this one four and a half hands. If you are into dudes and looking to get your lolly licked, do that to someone else, snag a date, or just make friends, do like gays do, and get Grindr.