Just as in the straight community, every type of relationship imaginable exists in the LGBT community. You can find gay people looking for marriage, polyamory, or a casual hookup. Finding what you need in an increasingly large and interconnected world can seem overwhelming at times. Still, it can also be easier than ever before, with the right tools at your disposal. Smartphone applications allow you to cut through the morass of distractions out there to find exactly what—or who—you’re looking for, whether that’s Mr. Right or Mr. Right Now. Success using gay hook up apps for safe and successful dating requires simply knowing which apps to utilize.
Not everyone in the gay community is interested in LTR (aka long-term relationship.) Many are just looking for some quick, reliable intimacy or hardcore sex. With that in mind, the following are among the safest and best gay hookup apps for 2020 for both the iPhone and Android phones.
Top hookuppy features that really matter
When picking the best gay dating app for a hookup, several features should be in your scope. Put safety first. That is, pay attention to whether the app tracks your location or whether this feature can be disabled. To spend your time for the best, the app should implement some profile/photo verification algorithm. By these means, you can be somewhat sure to date real hot homosexual men and do not feel unsafe. Finally, specific filters matter. Are you able to choose between a bear, twink, or chub? If not, is it the best app to pick?
Grindr: sextext application
- Audience - All men
- Cost - Free with ads or $12/month (ad-free Grindr Xtra)
- Key Features - GPS
- Platform - iPhone and Android
Grindr is one of the original and most popular male hookup apps and may still be among the best apps for gay hookups. The thing with Grindr is that its biggest benefit—namely, it’s size—may also be its biggest drawback. There are simply so many different types of people looking for various types of experiences with a wide range of men on Grindr that you may have greater odds of finding what you want there than anywhere else, but a harder time actually finding it.
You’ll find couples seeking a third, chemsex parties seeking a host, straight boys seeking some discreet experimentation, escorts seeking new clients, trans men seeking hookups with other cis and trans men, fetishists seeking to indulge with the similarly kink-inclined and an orgy of others, along with plain ole cis gay and bisexual men seeking some good old fashioned casual gay sex. Sexting is one of the best options in Grindr.
In addition to the largest user base, Grindr is also the most widely-used gay hook up app geographically, with over four million active daily users across 200 countries, allowing you to use the one app to meet guys for hookups no matter where you are at the time on the planet. The built-in GPS lets you know which other members are nearby at any moment and shows other users whenever you’re close, in this way, facilitating quick, spontaneous, and more reliable gay hookups.
SCRUFF: popular “rough” application
- Audience - Men who either possess or prefer men with a bit of “scruff”
- Cost - Free for basic features; $14.99/month (Scruff Pro) with advanced search features, message histories, user videos, and other benefits
- Features - Event listings for various popular cities, volunteer travel ambassadors, limited GPS, expanded profiles, enhanced search, transgender-friendly, chat
- Platform - iPhone and Android
If you like men who are little rough around the edges, then SCRUFF may be the best gay hookup app to pick. SCRUFF employs one of the best matching systems to learn your preferences in guys as you use the app, allowing it to continue providing increasingly suitable potential hookups the more you use it. That’s perhaps why over 10 million men around the world already rely on SCRUFF as their number one gay men’s hookup app. Profiles are expansive and include characteristics like the density of body hair and a range of relationship and sexual preferences. You can even select which communities you most identify with, such as chub, bear, otter, twink, daddy, boy-next-door. A convenient “Woof” feature allows you to indicate interest to another user without full-on messaging him.
First launching on the App Store in 2010, SCRUFF most recently added the SCRUFF Venture arm to help its members travel their area and the world more safely. Most gay hooking up apps restrict searches to the area where the user is located. Through Venture, however, SCRUFF members can search for possible gay hookups by location in any part of the world, even sharing their travel itineraries and trip plans, so as to prearrange safe hookups when in a new locale. Also helping SCRUFF to maintain user safety, the limited GPS functionality only shows a user’s location by city, not by proximity. SCRUFF also sends instant alerts to users entering countries where homosexuality is criminalized, including the specific laws and associated punishments.
Recon: all about BDSM
- Audience - Men into BDSM
- Cost -
- Features - Friend requests, video news feeds, hosted events and fundraisers
- Platform - iPhone and Android
Launching originally as a desktop website way back in 2001, the mere fact that Recon still exists at all today is a testament to its popularity, relevance, and staying power. The reason is simply: a niche market not adequately served anywhere else, namely men who participate in BDSM with other men. Therefore, if you’re into bondage, rubber, leather, domination, submission, or another form of sexual kink, Recon is the best gay hookup app to download and install to find other BDSM-loving men like you looking to hook up and play.
A judgment-free zone for male-identified BDSM fetishists of all stripes, Recon is a private network offering total discretion as you seek to play out your fantasies. Whether you’re the dominant or submissive partner in the BDSM relationship, Recon makes it easy to find a fitting complement every time, including the ability to label your sexual proclivities on a percentage scale of “Active” to “Passive” in your profile.
Romeo: serving many tribes
- Audience - Gay, bi and transgender men
- Cost - Free
- Features - Multiple photos with explicitness classifications, private location searches, club and guide profiles
- Platform - iPhone and Android
Starting in Germany in 2002, Romeo (aka PlanetRomeo) is now perhaps the best gay hookup app in all of Europe, though it also has a presence worldwide, with two million users globally. Romeo users are called Romeos, and each one creates a profile that can include multiple photos classified into any of several categories based on their degree of explicitness. Users seeking an extra level of safety and discretion can search anywhere by location while keeping their location private. On the flip side, users wishing to include social engagement with their sexual activities can create clubs and profiles, establishing themselves as the best guides to a local area.
Jack’d: black men choice and beyond
- Audience - All men, with a particular focus on black men and those interested in them
- Cost - Free for limited daily views, $4.99/mo (Jack’d Pro) with unlimited daily views, no ads, increased options and touch ID app security
- Features - Search by “scenes” like relationships, friends-only, muscles, and bears
- Platform - iPhone and Android
One of the best features of Jack’d is that it always offers you current prospects by automatically deleting any profile that remains inactive for more than three months. This ensures that you’ll only ever find men actively interested, available, and responsive on the app with you. Jack’d employs a Match Finder tool that helps narrow down all the possible hookups to the most likely and suitable for you, according to your unique tastes. You can also send users chat requests or pictures of yourself prior to hooking up to gauge or build interest.
Hornet: gay and bi, community-driven
- Audience - Gay and bisexual men
- Cost - Free with ads or $4.67-$10/month (ad-free use), depending on the length of the signup term
- Features - Live moderators, communities, groups, newsfeeds, profile hashtags, follow users and receive updates, local events
- Platform - iPhone and Android
With a user base of over 25 million men worldwide and more than four million daily active users, Hornet is one of the largest gay hooking up apps for gay and bisexual men. Launched in 2011, one of Hornet’s best features is live moderators on hand at all times to help ensure that activity on the app is always respectful, appropriate, and safe. In addition to helping men hook up with other men in their local area, Hornet also serves as gay and bi men dating site and social network, offering groups to join, customized newsfeeds filled with informative gay lifestyle articles and news stories to browse and communities in which to participate. The app allows users to add hashtags to their profiles to help indicate topics and activities of interest to them. And, with Hornet’s focus on conversation and community features, when you’re done with a hookup, you can return to the app for other social and business connections.
DaddyHunt: self-identify and try
- Audience - Older men and those who like them
- Cost - Free for basic access, with a paid Premium version that includes filtering searches by interests, body type, or geography.
- Features - Send a “Poke” or a variety of “Shout Outs”, FotoFeed
- Platform - iPhone and Android
When experience matters, DaddyHunt is the best gay hook up app to turn to. Whatever your sexual identification, whatever your body type, if you’re a silver fox or someone who likes them, DaddyHunt has over one million like-minded men to search from.
If you are seeking sheer browsing of profile photos, DaddyHunt is one of the best male hook up apps around. The DaddyHunt browser is formatted with only three tiles across, allowing for larger pictures without requiring you to click on one first to see it clearly. Also, the pictures on DaddyHunt are much more face-centered than on many other gay hooking up apps, giving the application a more friendly, human, and approachable tone. In addition to sending another user a “Poke” to express interest before trying to engage them more fully, you can also send a host of “Shout Outs” including “funny”, “handsome”, “great smile” and “dateable”, among others. Use the Instagram-like RSS FotoFeed to browse potential hookups more easily.
GROWLr: roar him
- Audience - Bears and those who like them
- Cost - Free for the basic account or $8 Pro membership featuring ad-free browsing, anonymous searching, and private videos
- Features - Chat, voice messages, private messages, photo sharing, local shout-outs, current bear bar, and bear run listings
- Platform - iPhone and Android
GROWLr is another male dating and hookup app for guys with a bit of experience and guys interested in them, but whereas DaddyHunt identifies experience by age, GROWLr focuses on more physical and sexual attributes. GROWLr is, perhaps, the best gay hookup app focused on the “bear” type of man, marked by a bigger, bulkier, and generally hairier frame and/or a more masculine, macho demeanor. If you fit or seek this type, join the over two million members and 200,000 actively daily users on the GROWLr app.
