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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Justin Myers

Grindr is the daddy of today’s dating apps – it wasn’t just about simpler hookups

Grindr Tinder
Before they went mainstream, dating apps were beloved by the gay community.
Before they went mainstream, dating apps were beloved by the gay community. Photograph: Tero Vesalainen/Alamy

Disco. Brunch. Iced coffee. All beloved by the gay community way before they went mainstream. Similarly, no celebration of a decade of dating apps would be complete without acknowledging that the LGBTQ+ community ran to a different calendar there, too.

The daddy of our contributions to now-ubiquitous swipe culture is the infamous Grindr, launched in 2009 and originally designed to coordinate hookups between likeminded gentlemen tired of chatting on glitchy websites or over discounted cocktails in samey bars. Grindr’s runaway success wasn’t just down to cutting out various dating-world middlemen, it also fulfilled a genuine need for the LGBTQ+ community.

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