Planet Romeo

The Planet Romeo app (also previously called Gay Romeo) is most popular in northern Europe, especially among German-speakers. It was *the* app to use in Berlin (and Germany) and therefore, I had a lot of chances to use it.

Unfortunately, the app feels slightly outdated and even though they’ve got a corresponding website which you can also use—that’s even more outdated and difficult to use! In a lot of Europe, the app can be useful for getting travel tips or arranging dates and/or meetups, but there are a lot of language barriers as well.

Honestly, it’s a local gay app I’d recommend using when you live (or travel) in its most popular regions. They do publish an annual list of LGBTQ-friendly places around the world each year because they do collect (and share) a lot of data, but that’s kind of the end of its usefulness.

Recon

One of the largest and most successful of the kink apps, truthfully, I found it confusing and difficult to use, so never actually managed to even finish completing a profile. Still, those that use it regularly, swear by it.

And with the Recon app regularly promoting parties and events around the world, they’ve only helped to cement their standing at the forefront of the kinky side to gay dating & hookups.

Hinge

I only recently tried out Hinge and actually kind of enjoyed it. Of the newer gay apps, it’s one of the ones that seems to be better at inciting conversations. There are conversation starters throughout and it just generally seems to be a more communicative community of users.

While I never managed to make a date through using the Hinge app, I did get a few Instagram followers! That’s a win for me.

OkCupid

I’ve used OkCupid off-and-on for nearly a decade. It was always one of my favorite dating apps because I just loved the interface and the fact it can be used on both a desktop and through the mobile app.

Their most distinguishing feature are all the questions & answers you can submit to compare yourself to potential matches. The % compatibility rating is a surprisingly useful indicator of how you might get along with a match. I probably rely on it too much, but I do love snooping on other people’s answers. Plus: answering the questions are fun.

As for an actual review of the OkCupid app, in the past year, I had less than a handful of dates through the app. I also found a lot of the gay men using OkCupid were more often looking for sex rather than relationships—which I found surprising since so much of the dating app’s interface is built around more meaningful conversation topics.

Hornet

This is one of the gay apps that’s been around for a while but seems stuck in a rut. I don’t think its gained much traction in the LGBTQ community outside of a few of its more popular regions in Asia and South America. Personally, I’ve never so much as managed to even have a conversation with another user on Hornet.

Sniffes (web app)

One of the newest gay apps to come out is the Sniffies website app. It’s not available as an iOS or Google download, but instead is easily available via your website browser. This is arguably the sexiest dating app and it’s quick to the point, too. Even the Sniffes marketing is sexy af!

The app is location-based and because it’s not in any app store, it’s allowed to go balls-to-the-wall with its features. Meaning that NSFW, explicit photos are allowed as profile photos. Unlike Grindr and other location-based gay apps, Sniffies overlays profile photos directly on a map so you can see the exact street corners of potential conquests. I’m a fan!

Atraf