Tag: dating apps

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‘Overcompensating’ Renewed For 2nd Season + More News

Screen capture from Prime Video's "Overcompensating"

Some news items you might have missed:

• Gay Times: Prime Video has renewed the acclaimed coming-of-age LGBTQ college comedy Overcompensating (above), created by comedian and actor Benito Skinner, for a second season.

• Kenneth-in-the-212: U.S. Open champ Carlos Alcaraz revealed a new platinum blond look after his big win. Continue reading “‘Overcompensating’ Renewed For 2nd Season + More News”

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West End “Hercules” Goes The Distance + Dating App Adopts Facial Recognition Tech + More News

Luke Brady as "Hercules" (photo credit - Matt Crockett)

Some news items I thought worth your time:

• Axios: The dating app Tinder will now verify new users in California using facial recognition technology in an effort to reduce impersonation (“catfishing”).

• Broadway World: Review round-up for the new stage musical Hercules in London’s West End based on the 1997 animated Disney film. Here’s a tease of easy-on-the-eyes-and-ears leading man Luke Brady singing “Go The Distance” (photo – Matt Crockett). Continue reading “West End “Hercules” Goes The Distance + Dating App Adopts Facial Recognition Tech + More News”

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11 Teens Charged In Violent Attacks After Victims Lured With Gay Dating App

A bill introduced in Oklahoma would make it a crime to text a nude photo to someone

Eleven teenage boys in Mount Prospect, Illinois, have been charged on felony counts of aggravated battery, criminal damage to property, and mob action after two separate attacks on gay men the evening of July 8. The teens had apparently used gay dating apps to lure their victims to the planned assaults. Continue reading “11 Teens Charged In Violent Attacks After Victims Lured With Gay Dating App”

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That Time When Gamers Discovered The Other ‘Manhunt’

Screen capture of Manhunt homepage

Screen capture of Manhunt homepage
Screen capture of Manhunt homepage
Gamers and gays found themselves at a Twitter intersection this afternoon when “Manhunt” began trending and folks got way excited. As gays know, Manhunt is the OG gay dating network founded back in 2001. Before we had smart phones and apps to swipe left on like Scruff and Grindr, Manhunt was the online destination of choice for guys looking for a “date.” The Twitter account for Manhunt even jokes in its bio about the company’s longevity writing, “Yes, we’re still here.” But on the other side of the social spectrum, “Manhunt” means a whole different thing to gamers. Part of the Minecraft series, ‘Minecraft Manhunt’ was created by a Minecraft YouTuber named Dream. The Urban Dictionary files this description: “The basic idea of Minecraft Manhunt is that Dream is trying to beat the Ender Dragon while his friend/s try to stop him, and they have a compass they can use to track him down.” Not being a gamer, I’m not really sharp on what that means, but it’s apparently really popular. Manhunt was also a horror-based video game launched in the 2000s. Gamers chatting on the idea of a reboot is apparently what actually got the word trending on Twitter.

BUT – when the term “Manhunt” began trending, true-blue gamer hearts began to flutter…until they discovered the ‘other’ Manhunt.

https://twitter.com/emilyto11232679/status/1374763789971783680

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Grindr Unwrapped: Countries With Most Tops, Bottoms, And More

(image via Depositphotos)

As the year 2020 is (finally) coming to a close, it seems everyone is doing year-end wrap-ups and lists. So, why not Grindr?

The popular gay dating app took a deep dive into some statistics regarding its worldwide audience of users.

In a series of posts titled ‘Grindr Unwrapped,’ inspired by Spotify’s annual Spotify Wrapped, the folks in the know took a look at sex and dating trends among the nearly 13 million gay, bi, trans and queer app users.

For instance, pointing out that the guys on Grindr “ran the gamut of positions,” the number crunchers note that the countries with the highest percentage of self-proclaimed tops were Morocco, India, Nigeria, Chile, and Israel.

(graphics via Grindr Blog)

Flipping that script, it seems the highest percentage of bottoms can be found in Vietnam, Sweden, Thailand, Peru, and South Africa.

And yes, vers guys do exist especially if you happen to be in Venezuela, Guatemala, Argentina, Mexico, and Australia.

The cities with the most guys getting their Grindr on (per capita) are Washington, D.C., Paris, Bogota, Santiago, and Houston.

Overall, as folks look to getting back in the swing of traveling, it might be useful to know that the countries with the most Grindr users are the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, India, and the U.K.

All in all, there were 7.85 billion taps sent out into the interwebs from our phones with 584 million getting marked as ‘favorites.’

It turns out that Sunday evenings are when folks are most likely to fire up the app, and the eggplant emoji (no surprise) was the top profile emoji.

Grindr does offer a caveat to this list by noting that not all app users include all of these categories of info in their profiles. Plus, keep in mind Grindr itself is its own subset of the gay/bi/trans community.

So, if you find yourself in Morocco or India and the number of top guys don’t seem to add up in your travels, don’t blame Grindr.

Click over to the Grindr blog for more stats from the informal report like top profile songs and where users like to play host the most.

 

 

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Funny: ‘Match Made In Hell’

Ok, this was quite clever. Ryan Reynolds’s new ad for the dating app Match featuring Taylor Swift’s song ‘Love Story.’ Reynolds calls it “a Love Story for the ages. Or at least this age.” Satan: Two zero two zero? 2020: Please, just call me 2020… So, where are you from? Satan: Hell… 2020: Me too.

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Grindr Deletes Ethnicity Filter, Stands With #BlackLivesMatter

gay dating app Grindr

In response to the ongoing protests across the country in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, a Minneapolis man who died face down on the ground, handcuffed with a knee on his neck for several minutes, the gay dating app Grindr says “We will not be silent.” In posts to the company’s social media accounts, Grindr has announced the ethnicity filter on its app is history. Gone.⁣

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We will not be silent. Black lives matter. ⁣ ⁣ We were planning to announce our #PridePerseveres initiative today, but in light of the ongoing violence and injustices against our POC family, that no longer feels appropriate. How can we launch a month of celebration when so many of us are hurting? How can we celebrate Pride without acknowledging that we wouldn’t even HAVE a Pride month if it weren’t for the brave black, brown, trans, and queer folks whose uprising against the police at Stonewall gave birth to the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement? It is our responsibility to speak out against the hate and violence that such a vital part of our community continue to face.⁣ ⁣ We stand in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the hundreds of thousands of queer people of color who log in to our app every day. We will not be silent, and we will not be inactive. Today we are making donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute @mpjinstitute and Black Lives Matter @blklivesmatter, and urge you to do the same if you can (links in bio). We will continue to fight racism on Grindr, both through dialogue with our community and a zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform. As part of this commitment, and based on your feedback, we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release.⁣ ⁣ Tomorrow, we will announce our #PridePerseveres calendar, but in a different light. Yes, we can still come together in the spirit of Pride, but Pride this year has an added responsibility, a shifted tone, and a new priority that will be reflected in our programming—support and solidarity for queer people of color and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

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“We were planning to announce our #PridePerseveres initiative today, but in light of the ongoing violence and injustices against our POC family, that no longer feels appropriate,” begins the statement on Instagram. “How can we launch a month of celebration when so many of us are hurting?” “How can we celebrate Pride without acknowledging that we wouldn’t even HAVE a Pride month if it weren’t for the brave black, brown, trans, and queer folks whose uprising against the police at Stonewall gave birth to the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement?” Announcing the company stands “in solidarity with the #BlackLivesMatter movement and the hundreds of thousands of queer people of color who log in to our app every day,” the dating app says it will not be silent nor be inactive. “Today we are making donations to the Marsha P. Johnson Institute and Black Lives Matter, and urge you to do the same if you can.” “We will continue to fight racism on Grindr, both through dialogue with our community and zero-tolerance policy for racism and hate speech on our platform,” the statement continues. “As part of this commitment, and based on your feedback, we have decided to remove the ethnicity filter from our next release.” Grindr goes on to mention their previously announced #PridePerseveres calendar, a series of Pride events taking place each day of June, will go on but “in a different light.”

Noting that Pride this year “has an added responsibility, a shifted tone, and a new priority,” the programming for the series will be amended to show “support and solidarity for queer people of color and the #BlackLivesMatter movement.”
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Grindr Adds New Features For Increased User Safety

gay dating app Grindr

Popular gay dating app Grindr has announced new safety/security features to help protect users from identity theft and danger in locations where being gay is a crime. The new features include: • Being able to ‘unsend’ messages and photos from conversations with other users • ‘Expiring photos’ which will allow users to have their photos disappear from conversations • Screenshot blocking to protect content and photos of those in countries or locations unfriendly to LGBTQ people Grindr has also unveiled a “Holistic Security Guide.” The guide, released in six languages, provides advice for digital security, personal safety and emotional well-being while engaging others online. “We are so proud to introduce these new security features, along with the Holistic Security Guide, as we continue to promote safety and justice for our users around the globe,” said Jack Harrison-Quintana, the director of Grindr for Equality. “We are grateful for the feedback from users and the various organizations and activists around the world who have helped us to continue improving the quality of life for Grindr users.” The company says the new features are part of Grindr’s continuing efforts to encourage more awareness of personal safety after reports of crimes being committed against queer people using the app. The U.S. Justice Department announced today, for example, that two men in Dallas have pleaded guilty to using the dating app to lure unsuspecting gay men to a vacant apartment in order to rob them, force them at gunpoint to withdraw cash from ATMs, commit violent acts and other hate crimes.