For gay men looking for love or sex, there’s never been a better time to be single. Thanks to the latest smartphone apps, swiping and arranging hookups with gay men has never been easier. But it’s important to remember that, no matter how safe these apps are for gay dating and sex, you should always be vigilant about catfishing (people using stolen photos or other information online) and other security risks.
A number of different apps have cropped up to help gay people find sex or even just someone for a drink and a chat, and each one offers something slightly different. Grindr is probably the most famous of all these, and it’s used across the world in over 200 countries to match up gay men for a quick fling. The app works in a very similar way to Tinder, showing you men in a grid based on their proximity to you. You can filter by age, appearance and interests, but the core functionality remains the same: the closer the man is to you the more likely he is to show up in your feed.
Scruff is another gay hookup app which has risen to prominence since Grindr’s rise. The app is designed with so-called “scruffier” men in mind and, again, uses a geolocation-based grid view to show you guys near you. It’s more about arranging hookups and one-night stands than finding serious relationships, and you’ll often find that guys on the site aren’t interested in small talk.
Hornet is a newcomer to the scene but has quickly made a name for itself as the second most popular gay app. It offers some of the same functions as Grindr but goes beyond that by offering a range of features including Hornet Stories, a curated LGBT media feed.
BeNaughty is an app which caters to LGBTQ+ who are kinky and want casual sexual encounters. The user base is open-minded and non-judmental and the search functions make it easy to narrow down your selections by adjusting your preferences.
It’s also worth mentioning a couple of older, more established apps like Gay Friend Finder and Silver Singles. While they aren’t the most exciting or innovative of the bunch, they do offer a solid platform for finding older gay guys to date.
And finally there’s Twitter – the hashtag-based social network which is home to the quick-witted, celebrity-obsessed, somewhat-obnoxious gay community. The site can be a bit unwieldy and it’s easy to get lost among the thousands of thots who populate it, but there are some genuine connections to be made on the app. It might be a bit of a stretch to include it as a hookup app but it does have a fresh, wholesome flavour and there’s been plenty of evidence of gay Twitter hookups in the past.