- Travel
- Trends
The app best known for facilitating hookups now wants to "bring the global gayborhood to your pocket."
Since it first launched 15 years ago, Grindr has largely served to facilitate hookups and casual connections, mostly for gay men, within a geographic radius. Last week, the app long synonymous with frills-free hookups announced its new travel feature, Roam, which comes with the lofty goal of “bringing the global gayborhood to your pocket.”
Currently only available in beta mode in select markets, Roam allows Grindr users to temporarily “teleport” their profiles to locations across the globe. The point, according to initial press announcements, is to enable connections among users ahead of a trip or a move, allowing GBTQ+ people to engage with locals in other regions about anything from restaurant recommendations to insider tips on neighborhoods, events, and cultural amenities. Notably absent from the Roam announcement is the inevitable fact that many users will surely use it as an expanded version of whatever they’re already using it for, but instead of no-strings sex “now,” it’s no-strings sex “next month.”
Considering the abundance of travel apps that already exist for every feasible niche, including GetYourGuide and Airbnb’s “experiences,” Grindr likely assumes that gay men would prefer to take travel tips from other gay men. Grindr, like other dating and hookup apps, has always been about fostering connectivity amongst a designated community—it’s just that that connectivity usually involves more nudity, less intel about the best coffee shops for Wi-Fi. So, the question stands: Will Grindr’s travel experiment work and will users abide by its wholesome design?
As a gay man and frequent traveler, Roam’s value prop sounds a lot like the ways I’ve tried to use Grindr in the past. Before I was remarried, I occasionally used Grindr while traveling for work to chat with locals and crowdsource recommendations for things to do from the confines of my hotel room. Occasionally, I’d get tips on the best gay bars or events, and sometimes even cultural insights into queer-owned businesses. Mostly, though, despite having a G-rated profile that (usually) stated I was just “looking for friends,” those efforts were met with photos of unsolicited nether regions. Considering how likely it is that the user base is still unrelentingly horny, I’m not sure if the addition of a designated travel function will change the end result for Roam users.
Of course, Grindr isn’t exclusively the horny sex app typified in heteronormative media. I even reconnected with my now-husband via Grindr, after initially meeting him at a happy hour months earlier. While going through a divorce, I was just looking for pleasant distraction and friendly conversation, and my chaste profile made that clear. Ultimately, Grindr greased a wheel that probably wouldn’t have greased itself otherwise. All to say that Grindr isn’t the relentless digital orgy so many straight people like to assume. It still begs the question how this will function in the travel space, and whether or not the intended audience will suddenly be able to keep their pants zipped whilst “researching” their upcoming trip.
At the same time, Grindr also is hardly a paragon of inclusivity, nor, for some, a healthy outlet. In spite of guidelines and rules enacted to combat racism on the platform, some users report a lack of enforcement from Grindr, and the app has faced serious accusations that it does not cater to people of color. According to some researchers, the app also can take a toll on its users’ mental health, triggering body dysmorphia among those who don’t meet the chiseled “meat market” standards, while some users compare its incessant pull to “gamifiied microp*rn.” So, for some, the idea of using Grindr—an app that can potentially be triggering for anyone who isn’t a cis gay white male with a six-pack—for trusted travel tips may seem iffy at best.
Of course, Roam is too early in its testing phase to know whether experiences of the main app will be mirrored in its travel edition. When it formally launches globally later this year, users will have the option to transport their profile to any city in the world for one hour at a time, allowing them to chat with locals and even start compiling lists of things to do, restaurants to visit, and attractions not to miss. If they want to proactively plan a sex party, there’s that too.
Grindr’s ambitions don’t end there, reportedly. The company says its future plans include providing a “Grindr seal of approval” for everything from restaurants to health clinics, resources for queer-friendly therapists, and new options for differentiating profiles, so that users can more effectively clarify if they’re just looking for platonic friends in Glasgow, a future husband in Indianapolis, or a dom in Rio de Janeiro. These are laudable goals, surely, but should be taken with a grain of salt, considering the app’s past—and for some, ongoing—flaws as a service that purports to cater to a global community, while largely servicing a select few. From racism to body-shaming, Grindr’s reputation is a hard one to shake, so it’ll take time for the app to prove itself a worthy, dependable, and welcoming alternative in the travel realm.
Especially in certain parts of the world, where hom*osexuality is still particularly taboo, gay travelers using a gay app as a resource has its merits. Although Grindr has seen its fair share of fumbles and foibles over the years, the company has made efforts toward greater inclusion and camaraderie, even if some of those efforts have come at a seemingly glacial pace. With Roam, Grindr may very well be mapping a blueprint for the “global gayborhood” of the future. That, or its users are simply in for more of the same.
Matt Kirouacis a travel writer working on a memoir about the epic ups and downs from life on the road as a gay couple—and the lessons learned along the way. Follow him on IG @mattkirouacofficial.
