Business · Wired
Sniffies’ Users Worry About a ‘Straightification’ of the Gay Hookup App
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Of all the gay hookup apps Brennan Zubrick uses, Sniffies, a cruising app for men interested in discreet sex-positive casual encounters with other men, is by far his favorite.
Key facts
- It’s definitely an indicator of its fast rise, so no shade, but they saw what happened with Grindr,” says Brad Allen, a 34-year-old event producer and the creator behind Club Quarantine, who joined
- Tinder and Hinge parent company Match Group announced on Monday an investment of $100 million into Sniffies
- But Zubrick, who is 40 and based in Washington, DC, has a bad feeling that could soon change
- Spencer Rascoff, who became CEO of Match Group in 2025, previously served on the board of Palantir, the defense tech and data mining company that has become a “ technological backbone ” of the Trump
Summary
Tinder and Hinge parent company Match Group announced on Monday an investment of $100 million into Sniffies. “Sniffies has long held its market position as the little guy, catering to a specific section of the gay community, and is somewhere people who might not be comfortable with Grindr—where no face-pic, no-chat culture runs rampant—go to connect with other like-minded people in a more direct and discreet way,” Zubrick tells WIRED. “This partnership is about supporting that, not redefining it,” Sniffies founder and CEO Blake Gallagher said noting that the investment will help the platform focus on three key areas users want: “stronger trust and safety, expansive network growth, and continued product improvements.
But users aren’t buying what Gallagher is selling. The Instagram post announcing the news was inundated with negative reactions, as users expressed worry over the strategic partnership.