The best dating apps of 2025 to cure ‘app fatigue’
Read our recent Grindr XTRA review.
Grindr is THE dating app for gay men. And even though queer men will have more options in 2025, Grindr remains the go-to app for millions of gay and bisexual men looking for men. If you’re tired of mainstream dating apps, Grindr is the perfect place to be yourself. It’s also a great option for those who want to experiment with their sexuality, as Grindr allows users to filter their search by sexual preferences, including bisexual men.
Keep in mind that Grindr is a very NSFW environment where many guys will hook up. You might get lucky and meet your soul mate on the app, but that’s usually not the reason people use Grindr. We should also note that modern Grindr is full of ads and many popular features are now paywalled. So you can consider upgrading to Grindr XTRA.
I chose Grindr because it’s the best gay dating app since 2009 for one simple reason: it’s almost instant. Instead of swiping, the app uses geolocation to show you a grid of nearby men, which is especially useful if you’re in a small town with a limited queer population. While the number of users can be overwhelming, it also means that there is a huge pool of men ready to chat. Most users just looking to hook up will tell you they’re not trying to chat – and that warning can come in the form of a dick pic.
That’s not to say it’s not for relationships — plenty of men meet their long-term person on Grindr — but on the surface, it’s a tool for quick, casual encounters. To make these instant encounters even faster, the app recently enhanced its “Right Now” feature with a live “Map View,” which shows immediately available users on a real-time map of their neighborhood. (Don’t worry, this is optional, and for security reasons, the map only shows an approximate location, not an exact address.) If you’re looking for something more serious, you can adjust your filter to look for “dates,” although this will reduce the number of potential matches.
The app has also added more tools for user control and security. In March, Grindr added a feature called “Hide Profile” to deal with the potential embarrassment of seeing an ex, your boss, a co-worker, or anyone else you’d rather not see your Grindr profile. It allows you to preemptively make your profile invisible to specific users you haven’t chatted with and hide them from your grid.
To bring a little more reality on the grid, Grindr released “Taken on Grindr”. If someone takes a photo using the Grindr camera in the app, they have the option to add a small watermark indicating that it was “Taken on Grindr” plus a timestamp (like “just now” or “3 days ago”). It’s not required, so don’t expect it everywhere, but seeing that little badge gives a little more confidence that the photo is recent and actually from the person.
