Nobody knows the dancefloor better than Madonna. 

For decades, Madonna has defined the sound and spirit of the gay dancefloor - her music has brought us together. And her allyship has never been a moment, it’s been a constant. 

The Material Girl has always stood with us. Our Unapologetic Bitch, Ray of Light, and ultimate Bad Girl - she’s still leading from the front, setting the tone and shaping the culture.

Her new era is here. And she’s going to take us there…

Bringing her latest album, Confessions II to the very heart of the community. Serving fearless dance anthems, unfiltered exclusive content, and immaculate moments built just for us. On her terms. 

Are you ready?

Grindr is one of the few brand partners hand-selected by the OG Mother to officially partner on the release of Confessions II. Starting today, Madonna will be taking over the app and bringing our community into her world - just in time for Pride season.

Two Icons. One Moment.

Opening with “Thanks for coming,” THE ALBUM signals a return to the dancefloor as ritual - a space for release, control, and reinvention. Music meant to be felt together, in real time. 

Madonna knows exactly who moves culture forward - the gays. We don’t just lay back and listen, we decide what matters. We break artists, build scenes, breathe life into music, and turn songs into anthems. We always have.

And the Grindr Gayborhood is where that audience lives, connects, and shows up every day, globally.

That’s why she’s here.

The Grid Is Hosting… You Coming?

Confessions II isn’t just launching on Grindr. It’s happening inside it.

We’re talking:

• A limited-edition vinyl picture disc Madonna made just for us - and nowhere else. You’re welcome. 
• Exclusive in-app content you won’t see anywhere else
• Behind-the-scenes access into her world

Open the app. Check the grid. Come inside.

The dancefloor is open. Officially. 

Don’t go anywhere - we’re just getting started. Stay close - in the app and on Grindr’s socials. And to experience the artist takeover of the Grindr app, make sure to update to iOS version 26.6.1 and Android version 26.6.

There are few experiences more spiritually degrading than being ghosted by someone on an app.

Part of what makes it humiliating is how little raw material there is. This isn't your ex of five years moving out with the espresso machine. It's a person you exchanged seventeen messages with on a Tuesday somehow managing to ruin your Wednesday. You reread the "haha yeah." You scroll back looking for the moment things changed. Was the selfie too much? Was the joke weird? Did "lol" seem desperate? Did "haha" seem cold? Did the third question make you seem needy, or did not asking it make you seem emotionally unavailable?

He disappeared, and now your brain has to turn three lines of chat into a theory of what's wrong with you.

That's why ghosting feels so bad: it makes people confuse someone else's poor communication with information about their own value.

The silence usually isn't about you

The first mistake people make after being ghosted is treating silence like a meaningful statement. It usually isn't. It's just silence.

But silence is hard on the ego because it leaves the interpretation to you, and most people aren't generous interpreters when their feelings are hurt. So the mind gets to work. Maybe you were too eager. Maybe you were too aloof. Maybe he found someone hotter, funnier, less weird, more his type. Maybe there was one message that tipped the whole thing over and, if you study the thread closely enough, you can identify the exact sentence that made you suddenly unlovable.

Usually, no.

Most ghosting isn't a carefully considered judgment. It's a behavioral failure. Someone got distracted. Someone got anxious. Someone liked flirting and didn't like following through. Someone wanted the spark of attention without the minor adult task of managing another person's expectations. The silence lands on you, but that doesn't mean it started with you.

Early desire moves with mood

Part of what makes ghosting so common is that people give early interest more solidity than it deserves.

We like to think attraction is stable. Either he liked you or he didn't. Either he meant it or he didn't. But early desire is often flimsy, situational, and highly vulnerable to context. A guy can be interested at 11:43 p.m. and emotionally unavailable by 8:15 a.m. He can flirt because he's horny, bored, lonely, tipsy, procrastinating, or briefly in the mood to fuck you senseless for a good 35 minutes.

That doesn't always make the interaction fake. It just means it was happening inside a mood, which everybody knows can change very quickly. A lot of ghosting is really just what happens when a fleeting state collides with reality. Truly, that’s just it. 

Possibility isn't promise

And on Grindr, this makes the dynamic more intense because it's very good at creating possibility.

That’s the whole point. Grindr lets you find attention, chemistry, attraction, sex, friendship, and actual relationships with a speed and reach that would've been unimaginable not that long ago. For queer people especially, that access is pretty huge. It's changed how gay men meet, how we desire, how we find one another.

But possibility has a downside (and this is with every app, not just Grindr): people tend to emotionally promote it before it's earned the rank. A private exchange can feel intimate very quickly. Someone's in your phone, speaking directly to you, maybe saying things he'd never say in public. The energy is real but availability isn't always. A spark isn't consistency. A good exchange isn't a promise.

That's why ghosting can sting so much even when the interaction was brief. You're not just reacting to what happened. You're reacting to what briefly seemed available.

The upside is also the point

Still, it's worth saying plainly that this doesn't make Grindr fake or cheap.

The same conditions that make ghosting possible also make all kinds of good things possible. A lot of people have met boyfriends, hookups, friends, chosen family, and some of the best sex of their lives because the app made desire legible at the right time. Sometimes a conversation is just a conversation. Sometimes it becomes a date, a hookup, a relationship, or a person who matters.

That's why ghosting feels bad in the first place. The medium creates real openings. People aren't foolish for responding to them. They're just sometimes too quick to turn an opening into an answer.

Rude isn't the same as revealing

None of this means ghosting is fine. It's rude. It's lazy. It's often cowardly. A clean "not feeling it" is almost always kinder than leaving someone to perform forensic analysis on a three-line chat.

But rude isn't the same as revealing. Someone can handle an interaction badly without exposing some devastating truth about you. The thread ended. That's information. It's not an identity.

So yes, be annoyed. Complain to your friends. Roll your eyes when his profile reappears, offensively alive in public, as if he didn't just ignore you forty-eight hours ago. Feel the sting. What you don't need to do is turn his silence into a character assessment of yourself.

Ghosting does tell you something. Usually not that you're deficient. Usually just that someone lacked the maturity, clarity, or follow-through to say what he meant and mean what he said.

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There's a type of Android work that doesn't feel like engineering. A new feature ships. QA wants E2E coverage. You open the maestro/ folder, stare at an existing test for reference, copy the structure, swap out element IDs, run it, watch it fail because a timeout is too short, bump the timeout, run it again. Repeat until it passes. Submit the PR.

It's not hard. It's just slow and mechanical — exactly the kind of work AI should be eating.

The problem was: every time I tried to get Claude to generate a Maestro test, it would produce something that looked right but was wrong in subtle ways. Wrong selectors. Wrong timeout values. Missing post-login interruption handling.

So I stopped asking Claude to write Maestro tests directly. I built a skill that teaches it how to do it right.

The Setup

The skill — /create-maestro-test — works in two modes. You can describe what you want in plain English:

/create-maestro-test "Test navigating to inbox and opening the first conversation"

Or you can invoke it with no arguments and it walks you through a questionnaire: feature, action, test type (main flow vs. reusable subflow), user type, clean state, recording, build flavor.

Once it has what it needs, it doesn't just write YAML from scratch. It reads your existing tests first — 2 or 3 similar ones — learns your element IDs, your timeout patterns, your label conventions, and builds from those. The output ends up looking like it belongs in your codebase because it actually learned from your codebase.

Building a Test From Scratch, No Prior Knowledge Needed

One of the most powerful aspects of the skill is that you don't need to know anything about the existing test infrastructure to get started. The questionnaire handles all of it.

You answer: what feature, what action, which user type, clean state or not. The skill then does the heavy lifting — it loads the shared user credentials, reads the timeout constants, searches the codebase for similar existing tests, extracts the relevant element IDs from them, and assembles a complete test that already follows your project's conventions.

For a brand new screen with no prior tests to reference, it still works. It falls back to the Compose and XML naming conventions documented in its guides, marks any uncertain IDs with # TODO: Verify element ID, and gives you a scaffold that's already 80% right. The remaining 20% is confirming that the IDs actually exist in the app — something that takes minutes with Layout Inspector.

This is the part I underestimated when we started. The questionnaire isn't just a UX improvement. It's what makes the skill usable by anyone on the team, regardless of how much they know about Maestro or the existing test suite.

The Thing That Surprised Me Most

Before building this skill, I assumed the hard part would be getting Claude to write valid YAML. It wasn't.

The hard part was teaching it how to find the right UI components to test. Specifically, how to distinguish between XML elements and Compose components, and how to know which selector to use for each.

Maestro uses id: as the universal selector for both XML resource IDs and Compose test tags — but there's a critical distinction in how you tag Compose components. If a developer uses Modifier.testTag("ProfileCard"), Maestro will not find it. The element simply doesn't appear. We kept getting "Element not found" errors and couldn't figure out why — the Layout Inspector clearly showed the component.

The fix: developers need to use Modifier.testTagAsId("ProfileCard") instead. Once tagged with testTagAsId, it's reachable in Maestro via id: 'ProfileCard' — the same selector you'd use for an XML view. The naming convention is the only visual cue that tells you which you're dealing with:

• XML → snake_case (e.g., inbox_conversation_container)
• Compose → PascalCase (e.g., ProfileCard, SendMessageButton)

Once that distinction was clear and documented in the skill's guides, the component-finding problem was effectively solved. The skill now searches the codebase for testTagAsId usages when targeting Compose screens, and falls back to the Layout Inspector instructions when nothing is found. That's the kind of thing that takes an hour to debug the first time and two seconds to fix once you know — and now nobody on the team has to rediscover it.

The Auto-Fix Loop

Inspired by Max's unit test post: the feedback loop.

When a generated test fails, the skill doesn't just report the error. It categorizes it and applies a targeted fix:

• Timeout / Element Not Found → increase timeout to 50s, try alternative selector (check if XML id should be Compose testTagAsId or vice versa), add an extra wait before the failing step
• Element Not Tappable → add an extendedWaitUntil before the tap, try tapping by visible text as fallback, check for overlays blocking the element
• Selector Ambiguity → add index: 0 to select the first matching element, make the selector more specific

It retries up to three times, each attempt applying a different fix strategy. After each retry it notifies you what was changed and why. If all three attempts fail, it hands you the full Maestro output with a clear explanation of what category of failure you're dealing with.

Most first-run failures fall into one of those three buckets. The auto-fix resolves the majority of them without any manual intervention, and the ones it can't fix are at least clearly explained so you know exactly where to look.

The Flavor Bug

This one was a real failure moment. When the app wasn't installed and the skill triggered a full build, it was compiling the prod flavor — which points to the production backend. Running E2E tests against prod is not great.

The fix was obvious in retrospect: add a flavor question to the questionnaire and default to debug (dev backend, dev keys). But it only surfaced after someone actually ran the skill end-to-end and noticed the login was hitting real data.

The Gradle task for the default is now explicit:

./gradlew :application:assembleDebug

All three flavors are now documented with plain explanations so the choice is informed rather than accidental:

What It Feels Like to Use

Here's what the inbox test from this post's intro looks like now:

/create-maestro-test "Navigate to inbox and open a conversation"

The skill asks a few quick questions — test type, user, clean state, recording. It reads regression-users.js and test-data.js for credentials and timeouts. It finds the existing control-open-chat.yaml test, learns that the inbox tab is HomeTabInbox and conversations are inbox_conversation_container. It generates the test, shows it to you for confirmation, writes the files, starts an emulator if needed, asks about installation, and runs maestro test.

Total time from prompt to passing test: under 5 minutes, most of which is the emulator booting.

The Takeaway

Building this skill forced us to understand Maestro more deeply than we ever would have by just writing tests manually. The testTagAsId vs testTag distinction, the flavor issue, the auto-fix categories, the selector priority rules — none of these would have ended up documented if we hadn't had to teach them to an AI precisely enough to generate correct output.

That's the underrated benefit of this kind of work. You don't just get automation. You get clarity about what you actually know — and a permanent, shareable record of it.

The questionnaire-driven approach also changed how we think about test authorship. It's no longer a task that requires deep knowledge of the test infrastructure. Anyone who knows what they want to test can produce a valid, passing Maestro test in minutes. That's the real unlock — not the YAML generation, but the democratization of E2E test coverage across the team.

The skill is available in our internal plugin marketplace under android-maestro-testing.

O Grindr é um dos patrocinadores oficiais do Hopi Pride Festival 2026 — um dos eventos culturais LGBTQIA+ mais celebrados do Brasil, realizado no parque Hopi Hari. E desta vez, a gente não chega só com o app: a Grindr Village transforma a experiência digital em algo que você pode viver de verdade.

Da tela para a vida real

Logo após nossa ativação no Carnaval da Bahia e o lançamento da primeira edição brasileira do Unwrapped — que elegeu São Paulo como um dos principais destinos gays do mundo — o Grindr chega a São Paulo com uma novidade especial: a estreia ao vivo do Right Now na América Latina.

A Grindr Village é um espaço dedicado à socialização, entretenimento e conexão, localizado no coração das apresentações de artistas como Pedro Sampaio, Pabllo Vittar, Duda Beat e Linn da Quebrada. No centro dessa experiência, o Right Now Lounge — uma instalação interativa e digna de foto — convida todo mundo a explorar, interagir e estar no momento presente.

O que é o Right Now?

O Right Now é uma funcionalidade do Grindr que torna a intenção visível — ajudando as pessoas a se conectarem de forma mais rápida e com mais clareza. Sem jogo, sem adivinhação: você sabe quem quer se conectar agora.

"Right Now aborda um dos maiores pontos de fricção nos apps de relacionamento: a divergência de intenções. Ele elimina a incerteza e cria uma maneira mais direta e transparente de se conectar no momento. A tecnologia possibilita a descoberta, a descoberta possibilita a conexão e a conexão molda a cultura."

— Tristan Pineiro, Chief Marketing Officer do Grindr

No Hopi Pride, essa experiência vai além do app: haverá um mapa exclusivo do festival, interação ao vivo e visibilidade presencial — refletindo como as pessoas já se movimentam, se encontram e se conectam naturalmente durante o evento. A localização é sempre aproximada e a participação é completamente opcional, mantendo a privacidade e a autonomia de cada usuário.

Cuidado e prevenção também fazem parte

A presença do Grindr no Hopi Pride vai além da conexão. Em parceria com o Fundo Positivo — organização brasileira focada na prevenção do HIV e na saúde comunitária — o Grindr for Equality garante que informações sobre prevenção, incluindo a PrEP, estejam acessíveis durante o festival de forma simples, aberta e integrada à experiência.

"Para nós, é muito natural estar presente nos espaços onde a comunidade vive, celebra e se conecta. Quando você traz informações sobre prevenção — sobre PrEP, sobre cuidado — para esses momentos de forma simples e aberta, isso passa a fazer parte da experiência."

— Alexandre Putti, Embaixador Global de Prevenção a AIDS e integrante do Fundo Positivo

Essa colaboração se reflete em orientações dentro do aplicativo e conexões com recursos locais confiáveis — integrados de um jeito que combina com o tom e a energia da comunidade queer: acessível e natural.

INFORMAÇÕES DO EVENTO

O quê:  Grindr Village · Right Now Lounge

Quando:  Sábado, 25 de abril de 2026 · 18h

Onde:  Parque Hopi Hari · km 72, Rodovia dos Bandeirantes · Vinhedo, SP

Em um festival definido pelo movimento, pela música e pela conexão, o Grindr não está criando um novo comportamento — está tornando o que já existe mais visível. Te vemos lá.

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Calling all hedonists! Aries season brought the horny energy, but shift to Taurus season (dates: April 19 to May 20) means a change of pace. Ruled by Venus, the planet of love, connection, and pleasure, this slow-and-steady earth sign has stamina to spare.

As this season unfolds, expect your sex and dating life to feel like a slow burn — think f*cking languidly, exploring kinks that tap the five senses, or allowing a casual connection to gradually deepen into something more. For the first time in seven years, the disruptive outer planet Uranus will exit Taurus, which bodes well for stability this season. Mercury, the planet of thinking and communication, will join the fun in Taurus on May 3, empowering you to voice your sensual or romantic desires. In fact, three zodiac signs may have steamy new developments in their romantic life this season: Scorpio, Capricorn, and naturally, Taurus.

The catch? Taurus can get a little too comfy in its comfort zone. Over the next month, you might feel tempted to cancel hookups at the last minute, arbitrarily limit your options on Grindr, or avoid calling things off with a connection that’s clearly run its course. Sex- and dating-wise, you’ll get the most out of this season by keeping an open mind and taking charge of the situation when needed. Here’s what else you can expect, based on your sign.

Aries

Tempted to treat yourself, Aries? You’re right on time for Taurus season, which inevitably brings out your bougie side. That could mean splashing out on some fancy underwear or massage oil for the bedroom, or venturing outside with your Grindr hookup for a post-sex nosh (of the bottom-friendly variety, of course. You can never rule out a second round.) As the month progresses, aim to find a middle ground between indulging and overdoing it.

Taurus

Happy birthday, Taurus! It’s your turn in the cosmic spotlight, which is the perfect excuse to focus on what turns you on. Ask your partner for a massage to set the mood. Embrace your inner bull as you scroll and chat with people on Grindr. Better yet, switch up the Tags on your profile to reflect what you’re looking for. Are you into Edging? Musk? Pits? Making your desires and preferences known will attract the right people to you.

Gemini

You often live in your head, Gemini, but Taurus season is a much-needed reminder to get back into your body. Feeling anxious? Go for a walk with your headphones on, Addison Rae style. Struggling to fully relax during sex? Take the pressure off with solo play or something non-sexual, like Cuddling. Communication is one of your biggest strengths, so let your sexual partner(s) know what’s on your mind. The right connections won’t care if you need to take things slow.

Cancer

For you, Taurus season tends to be a time of year when friendship takes precedence over romance. With the temperatures warming up, you can easily move the fun outdoors. So round up your crew, and post up on the back patio of your go-to gay bar. Can’t be bothered to leave your house? A classic Taurus season dilemma. Invite everybody over for gay guy music video night — or make it clear from your Grindr Tags that you’re looking for Friends and would prefer to Host.

Leo

Top or not, you’re feeling one with your inner lion right now. Tap in by taking control of your sex and dating life. Hit up that hot bear from Grindr (or twink, or otter, or whatever tribe you’re into). Tell your FWB that you’re beginning to catch feelings. And if your responsibilities at the office demand more of your time and energy than you expected this month? It happens. Communicate that so you’re on the same page with your connections.

Virgo

You’re in for a pleasure cruise this season, Virgo, figuratively and maybe even literally. Opportunities to travel could definitely pop up this month. If so, put Grindr’s Roam feature to good use. And if not, you’ll broaden your horizons in other ways. Think connecting with new partners, or indulging in kinky sex that’s a departure from the norm for you. Don’t fall into the trap of overanalyzing what you want. Let your body’s response tell you whether something is a yes or no.

Libra

Forget instant gratification: Taurus season will have you craving intimacy, the kind that builds with time, trust, and yes, getting to know each other’s bodies. So if one-night stands sound utterly unappealing right now? Update your Grindr Tags to indicate that you’re looking for an LTR (or FWB at minimum). You don’t have to bare your heart and soul right away, but you should be honest about what you’re looking for as you forge new connections.

Scorpio

Your love life is in full bloom, Scorpio. Are you partnered? Expect to feel extra obsessed with your S.O. right down to their scent. Your physical connection could get a boost, too — Taurus’ slow, sensual vibe is on par with the passion and emotional depth you crave in relationships. And if you’re single or nonmonogamous? Take your dating life seriously. This could be a standout month for romance, but you won’t be able to sink into the pleasure fully unless you let your defenses down.

Sagittarius

The daily grind got you down, Sag? Add R&R to your to-do list. Yes, your work obligations or health needs might be top of mind, but that’s all the more reason to make time for yourself. Scheduling dates or hookups could be a pleasant counterbalance to any not-so-fun stuff on your agenda this month. A word to the wise: Don’t be shy about asking for a massage or popping an edible before sex. If it helps you relax and unwind, it’s fair game.

Capricorn

Great news, Capricorn: Your libido is thawing with the weather. Whether you’re seeking casual connections, FWB, or an LTR, you can expect more traction on the apps over the next month. The even-better news? Romance could blossom when you least expect it. So stay open, and don’t be shy about leading with your hedonistic side. Even if a passionate connection fizzles out, investing in your happiness and erotic fulfillment is never time wasted.

Aquarius

The comforts of home are more appealing for everyone during Taurus season, but that’s especially true for you, Aquarius. You’ve got two options: Fight it, or commit to being the self-proclaimed Host with the most. It can’t hurt to invest in your space, whether that looks like upgrading your bedding or splurging on a deluxe-sized container of lube. And if hookups have to take a backseat so you can take care of yourself or deal with family stuff? Totally valid. The apps will be there when you’re ready.

Pisces

It’s time to make your desires crystal clear, Pisces. Dirty talk, Edging, Frot… if it gets you going, it’s worth mentioning and potentially adding to your Tags on Grindr. More than that, prioritize checking in with any sexual partner(s) in your life this month. How are you feeling? Where do you see this connection going? Find a block of time when the two of you can catch up without interruption. Show up to the conversation with respect and openness, not stubbornness or judgment, and you’ll receive the same treatment in turn.

You're scrolling through Grindr on a Tuesday night when a pop-up appears — not an ad for underwear or a circuit party, but a photo with a button that links to free mental health support in your city.

This is one of more than 600 in-app campaigns that our social impact initiative, Grindr for Equality (G4E) ran this year thus far, in collaboration with 77 organizations, community nonprofits, and governmental agencies across 37 countries, in 25 languages, generating 20 million impressions.

G4E exists to bridge the gap between LGBTQ+ people and the services they need — a gap Grindr is uniquely positioned to help close. Millions of people open our app every day, many in places where walking into a clinic or asking about PrEP means navigating stigma, cost, or outright criminalization. If you can reach someone in a private, trusted moment with the right information, they'll act on it. 

This quarterly series is our way of sharing what the data from our 600 in-app campaigns taught us about the Global Gayborhood in 2026 so far.

The demand was already there

In the last three months, over 31,000 HIV self-testing kits were ordered through Grindr for Equality campaigns across more than ten countries — each one a private decision made on someone's phone. In Romania, our partners told us many people who clicked through hadn't known PrEP existed in their region, or had been searching for months to access it nearby.

The bottleneck for LGBTQ+ health has never been willingness. It's access and awareness, among other structural barriers.

Take DoxyPEP — a post-exposure antibiotic that reduces the risk of some sexually transmitted infections. From our own work, including a provider guide launched with Building Healthy Online Communities, we know many people don't know how to raise DoxyPEP with their doctors, and many doctors aren't yet ready to discuss it. When our partner Anova Health Institute in South Africa ran a targeted G4E campaign about DoxyPEP in March, confirmed care linkages jumped to 13 times previous months. The information didn't create new demand. It unlocked demand that was already there.

Health messaging works best when it stops sounding like health messaging

G4E's image-based pop-ups averaged 25–40% click-through rates this quarter, against an industry benchmark of 0.35–1%. But the range was wide: top campaigns hit 50% CTR, the bottom sat around 11%. The difference wasn't the service being offered. It was the creative.

Inspira Cambio in Mexico City framed a sexual health event around salud, placer y comunidad — health, pleasure, and community. 50% CTR, the highest of any Q1 campaign. Red Somos ran a mental health campaign at 47%. The Burnett Foundation Aotearoa in New Zealand: "Nailed Them? Cum get tested with us." 32–40% across multiple runs. Meanwhile, more text-heavy, information-dense formats—like test kit visuals, price-led messaging, or detailed posters—tended to see lower engagement, even when the underlying service was the same.

On Grindr, a campaign earns trust by speaking the community's language, literally and figuratively — acknowledging where it appears and treating LGBTQ+ people like adults who can handle humor, directness, and irreverence alongside important health information. The organizations that understood this built a sustained creative presence that compounds as the community recognizes the source.

The digital gayborhood is bigger than you think

When we broke down click-through rates by topic, non-HIV campaigns outperformed. Mental health: 30% CTR. A mental wellness check from Sustained Health Initiatives of the Philippines — who are developing a nationwide online mental health counseling service for LGBTQ+ people — performed comparably to HIV testing campaigns in the same market. Safety: 32%. Community advocacy: 28%.

The topics most people wouldn't associate with a dating app generated the strongest engagement on our platform. That's because Grindr has always been more than a hookup app — it's the digital gayborhood, where people find community, trade information, and discover what's happening in their city and their world. People show up for their whole lives here: their health, their rights, their mental wellbeing, their safety. G4E meets them where they already are.

Come build this with us

This quarter raised as many questions as it answered. Why do some organizations sustain 30%+ CTR across dozens of campaigns while others plateau? What does it take to reach LGBTQ+ communities in countries where our partner network is still thin? How do we measure impact beyond the click — and how do we share that learning with the organizations who need it most? We're taking those questions into the rest of the year, and we'll be back with what we find.

G4E recently redesigned our website at grindr.com/g4e — with an interactive map of our global partner network and a closer look at how in-app campaigning works. If your organization does health outreach, advocacy, or community work with GBTQ+ people — or if you know one that does — submit a proposal to become a campaign partner.

One in five LGBTQ+ people in the UK have lost someone to a drug-related death. Let that sit for a second.

Chemsex, or using drugs to facilitate or enhance sex, is part of our community's reality. Nearly a third of LGBTQ+ people have had sex while using drugs in the past year, and almost two-thirds say the issue is still heavily stigmatized. Meanwhile, most people outside the community have never even heard the term. There's a gap between what we're living and what we're willing to say out loud, and that gap is where shame grows.

That’s why we’re honored to announce Out in the Open, a new initiative from Grindr for Equality that gets into the conversations our community is already having—just not publicly enough. The first installment is made in partnership with You Are Loved, a UK-based peer-support non-profit doing critical work in LGBTQ+ suicide and drug misuse prevention.

What Out in the Open with You Are Loved is about

Out in the Open with You Are Loved isn't a PSA or a scare campaign. It brings together people with real experience and real expertise to speak honestly about the forces driving chemsex: loneliness, pressure to perform, cultural norms around sex and openness, and the need for connection that gets tangled up with substances when safe spaces are scarce.

The voices include Gareth Thomas, former Wales rugby captain and LGBTQ+ campaigner, who's blunt about the cost of silence, that when people feel ashamed to speak up, the cycle of harm continues. 

Paris Lees, author, broadcaster, and BAFTA nominee, reflects on shame, addiction, and recovery, challenging us to look at the psychology underneath risk-taking. 

Kaiden Ford, poet and performance artist, speaks from London's queer underground about how substance use maps onto identity, especially for trans and non-binary people seeking belonging.

They're joined by frontline voices from Switchboard, the LGBTQIA+ helpline with over 50 years of experience, Voda, a wellbeing app serving 50,000+ LGBTQ+ users, and Marc Svensson, founder of You Are Loved, who draws on his own lived experience in suicide prevention.

Why now?

Research conducted with Censuswide and through an in-app survey of 2,400 UK Grindr users makes the need clear. The biggest drivers of chemsex aren't hedonism or recklessness; they are cultural norms around sex and openness (29%), loneliness and lack of safe spaces (27%), and pressure within the gay community (27%). This is as much an isolation problem as it is a drug problem, one where loneliness and the search for connection often drive the substance use.

And 40% of LGBTQ+ respondents want better access to addiction treatment, recovery services, and more inclusive mental health care. People aren't asking to be saved. They're asking for support that actually understands them.

What Grindr is doing about it

We've updated resources in the Grindr app to connect UK users directly to You Are Loved and Switchboard, available through the Safety & Privacy Centre. The full series is available on Grindr Presents, plus YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Music, for the community and wider audience to engage with and help break the silence around chemsex, one conversation at a time. https://www.grindr.com/grindr-presents

This isn't about telling anyone how to live. It's about making sure that when someone's ready to talk, the conversation is already there.

If you're in the UK and want support, reach out to You Are Loved or contact Switchboard at 0800 0119 100.

This content is provided by Grindr for general educational and informational purposes only. It is not intended as, and should not be understood as, medical, legal, or professional advice. Grindr is not a healthcare provider and does not provide medical recommendations. Treatment and healthcare decisions should be made in consultation with qualified healthcare providers based on individual circumstances. Medical guidelines and research findings referenced in this content are subject to change as new evidence emerges.

Problem

This is exactly the issue we ran into with Claude. When running our iOS app from the terminal using xcodebuild, Claude couldn’t see its own print statements. Without access to logs, it become almost impossible for Claude to autonomously iterate and debug issues.

Why It Matters

For many developers, debugging starts with print statements. If you're anything like me, your code looks a lot like this:

This works because, historically, we ran our apps through Xcode and inspected logs in the console pane. However, our iOS team at Grindr is operating CLI first, meaning it’s rare for us to even open Xcode anymore. Which brings us to the core issue:

How can Claude debug or validate its work if it cannot see its own print statements?

Why Can't Claude see print statements?

The iOS simulator runs as a separate process. When we use the print statement it writes to that process' standard out. However, Claude also runs as a separate process. Basically, the app logs to Process A but Claude is in Process B. To solve this, we needed to log to a destination that both Claude and the running Simulator have access to. We explored a number of ideas, including a local Websocket server, Console.app, and logging to a local file.

Solution

Ultimately, we went with the last option --logging to a local file and streaming it with tail. Here is how we did it.

Deciding Where To Log

When we run the app on a simulator, the OS will give our app a folder that lives on our laptop. Therefore, we can use the FileManager API on iOS to write to a file, and we know this file will live somewhere in ~/Library/Developer/... on our mac (more on this below):

Figuring out where our app lives on the file system

Since the simulator filesystem is just a folder on our laptop, any process can access these files. The simulator will log to a specific file, and we just need to figure out two things:

1. What is the simulator ID?
2. What is the app container ID?
   Once we have these, we know our log file will be at the following path: ~/Library/Developer/CoreSimulator/Devices/<SIMULATOR-ID>/data/Containers/Data/Application/<APP-UUID>/Library/Caches/<my-log-file>

Getting the simulator ID

Getting the simulator ID should be pretty easy. A command such as xcrun simctl list devices | grep "(Booted)" should get you the right simulator if you have a simple setup.

Getting the App UDID

Apple will assign each app a UUID, which is a folder for the app to store its files. To get the UDID, you can run the following command xcrun simctl get_app_container <SIMULATOR-UDID> <BUNDLE-ID> data.  

Finally, how do we stream the file?

This is the simple part, now that you have the file path for your logs, you can just call tail -f <path-to-log-file> and this will print the new lines as they are appended.

Putting it all together

The TL;DR is that you can:

• Write some swift code using FileManager to write to hard-coded file
• Use xcrun simctl to discover your simulator id
• Use xcodebuild to run the app
• Use xcrun simctl get_app_container to figure out the app ID and file path the OS assigned to your app instance
• Stream that file with tail -f

At Grindr, we built lightweight wrappers around the xcodebuild, xcrun, and other xcode CLI commands.

Conclusion

Hopefully this helps you become more autonomous with Claude and other coding agents! Giving Claude access to its own print/log statements has allowed us to automate several other tasks such as telemetry, error logging, ...etc.

Please leave a comment if you solved this problem in another cool way! Happy coding 😀

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There was a ritual that preceded every PR submission.

Write the code. Run the tests. Review the diff one final time. Convince yourself it holds up. Submit. Then wait (sometimes for hours) only to receive a comment like "missed a null check" or "this breaks our MVI pattern" in return.

The feedback was never wrong. It was simply late. And every round-trip through review compounds the friction: context switching for the reviewer, rebasing, re-requesting, the entire cycle repeating.

Then we introduced the grindr-code-review skill.

What It Actually Is

Before pushing and opening a PR, you can trigger an AI-powered code review locally inside Claude Code (or Firebender). It reads your diff, loads the relevant architecture documentation, and returns structured feedback; covering the same categories a senior engineer would address in a thorough review.

This is not a linter. It is not a formatting checker. It understands our MVI patterns, our Kotest standards, Compose recomposition issues, and potential memory leaks. It cross-references our actual internal documentation when forming its analysis.

The feedback is structured exactly as a human review would be: critical issues, warnings, minor suggestions, and a section acknowledging what was done well.

The first notable moment was when it identified a missing LaunchedEffect key that would have produced a recomposition loop. That is precisely the kind of issue that is easy to overlook during self-review and non-trivial to spot in a diff. A reviewer would have caught it eventually; but now it surfaces before the PR is ever opened.

How to Use It

The skill responds to natural language; simply typing "review my changes", "code review", or "review this code" in the chat is sufficient for it to infer the intent. That is the primary invocation path for most engineers.

You can also invoke it explicitly with arguments when you need to target a specific scenario. There are four modes, each addressing a common point in the development workflow:

Default — review staged changes:

/grindr-code-review

This is the standard invocation. Stage your changes, run the skill, review the output.

WIP review — review unstaged changes:

/grindr-code-review --unstaged

Useful for mid-development sanity checks. No staging required.

Full PR prep — review the entire branch against master:

/grindr-code-review --branch feature/your-branch-name

Run this immediately before opening the PR. It evaluates the complete branch diff, not just the current working state.

Focused review — review specific files:

/grindr-code-review --files app/src/main/kotlin/ProfileViewModel.kt

When a particular file contains the complexity you want examined, this directs the review accordingly.

What It Checks

The review covers five categories:

Code Quality: Kotlin conventions, null safety, naming, and anything likely to introduce ambiguity for the next engineer reading the code.

Performance: Memory leaks, Compose recomposition triggers, and patterns that could silently degrade runtime behavior.

Architecture: MVI patterns and Clean Architecture layer boundaries. It recognizes that the domain layer has no business importing Android classes and will flag violations accordingly.

Testing: Kotest standards, BaseSpec usage (BaseSpec is our internal base class that wraps Kotest's BehaviorSpec — always extend it instead of BehaviorSpec directly), and Turbine for Flow testing. It identifies when tests use runBlocking in contexts where it is inappropriate.

Bugs: Logic errors, unhandled edge cases, and the class of issue that does not surface in tests but manifests in production.

What the Output Looks Like

The review opens with a summary table: files reviewed, issue counts broken down by severity, an overall assessment, an estimated remediation time, and a risk level. The format is intentional — it gives you the signal you need to decide whether to fix now or ship and follow up.

Below is representative output from a real review session.

🎯 Review: FeatureViewModel — ⚠️ Needs Changes

🚀 Quick Wins

Fix these first — each takes < 5 minutes:

1. FeatureUseCase.kt:12 — Unused import → Remove line
2. ItemListScreen.kt:15 — Wildcard import io.mockk.* → Replace with explicit imports
3. DataRepository.kt:89 — Magic number 300 → Extract to named constant TIMEOUT_MS

🚨 Critical Issues (Must Fix)

FeatureViewModel.kt:45 🚨

Issue: Using runBlocking in ViewModel
Impact: Blocks the UI thread on every call, causing ANRs and visible freezes

⚠️ Warnings (Should Fix)

✅ Positive Observations

• Proper MVI sealed interface hierarchy — state class is correctly marked @Stable
• Comprehensive test coverage with Given/When/Then structure throughout
• Correct use of launchInIo / launchInMain in all other ViewModels

Where Human Review Still Wins

This is a pre-review tool. It does not replace human code review.

It will not catch everything. It has no awareness of product context, the rationale behind a decision made six months ago, or the subtle implications of a change in a shared module that multiple teams depend on. That judgment belongs to your teammates.

What it does is front-load the mechanical feedback; the pattern violations, the clear issues, the comments that would otherwise read "per our standards, this should be X." Reducing that category of feedback allows the actual review conversation to concentrate on what genuinely requires human judgment: design decisions, tradeoffs, product implications, the things that only come from knowing the codebase and the people who depend on it.

The Takeaway

Run a code review before you open the PR. It takes under a minute and will surface issues you missed.

Your reviewers will still find things. That is the purpose of code review. But when the first round of feedback is "looks good, just these two items" rather than six threads of back-and-forth, everyone's time is more effectively spent.

The code does not get worse. The review simply gets faster.

‍

The day after Trans Day of Visibility, Ethel Cain posted a five-slide carousel to her main Instagram account that included two images with her genitals on full display. The photoset, dimly lit with shadows and sepia tones, fit perfectly into her well-established visual aesthetic. The “Strangers” singer kept little to the imagination for her 1.2 million followers, and the post quickly drew attention online – a lot of it.

Immediately, the timeline flooded with TikToks, tweets (I guess we’re supposed to call them posts now), and varied takes – many landing somewhere between shock and reverence, framing Ethel’s photos as radical, provocative or sensational. Negative reactions, colored in confusion and aversion, were just as prominent. Much of the backlash (especially among Gen Z users), implied that the post was a breach of consent, as if scrolling past a post that wasn’t on your Bingo card is the same thing as having your boundaries violated. Others conflated Community Guidelines with actual cultural norms, as if the platform’s rules make the final call on what art is allowed to look like.

The more I thought about the photos themselves—a defined color story, well composed and highly stylized—the more I began to realize that nothing about this photoshoot introduced anything that we haven’t ever seen before. Nudity, including genitalia, in art is nothing new. Was the only part that was shocking or radical the fact that the genitalia belonged to a trans person? Or was it the fact that she decided to post it without your permission?

The real story here is not the fact that Ethel Cain’s post included nudity. Trans bodies are so highly sensationalized to the point of becoming an “event” no matter how they show up in the world. The images themselves were not especially shocking or provocative; they exist inside an ages-old art form. After all, Ethel Cain is, well, an artist!

In more recent history, movements like #FreeTheNipple, along with pop-cultural resistance to puritan culture (like Madonna’s “Sex” book and Miley Cyrus’ “Wrecking Ball”), have fought for human bodies to exist in art and society freely. What was once read as provocation pushed our society forward. Sharing nude bodies publicly – online and IRL – is more culturally legible than it ever has been.

Instagram allowing exceptions to its own guidelines to include artistic depictions of nudity, even genitals on occasion, is evidence of this shift. Meta is merely catching up to the culture, and Ethel Cain is participating in one that we fought for. I see dick on main all the time: in tattoos, illustrations, editorials and more.

Negative reactions to Ethel’s photos – despite them not being crude, provocative in nature or aesthetically illegible – are indicative of a larger issue. There is a case to be made about regression despite the progress we’ve made as culture – like how lingering systems of oppression still define what is acceptable, who is allowed body autonomy, and what belongs in public versus private. That said, the immediate sensationalization and outrage over a trans woman participating in an already-established art form is proof that trans people still do not have the pleasure to simply exist, to make art, to be naked.

The playing field is different for us. It makes me wonder if it would have been easier for people to make sense of the photos if they sensationalized themselves – is that the only way people know how to understand trans people? Are our bodies so outlandish that they cannot be consumed in an artistic context?

And should the same liberation and neutrality that this post deserves still be afforded to it if it were sexual in nature? If it were provocative?

Cis bodies, online and in sex-positive spaces like clubs or raves, are routinely given a pass to be visible sexually. Thirst traps, explicit performances, environments where sex is not only normal but promoted— these are all things cis people participate in without it being framed as radical. As a premier party doll and the princess of Basement New York, I’m no stranger to seeing what sex liberation looks like for people around me. But I’ve witnessed unspoken exclusion when things start to get sexier. Like, when the sex starts to actually happen. Trans people are often invited into these spaces but not expected to fully participate; it still ruffles feathers or gets labeled radical when they do.

Framing a trans person’s sexuality as radical is an unnecessary burden. If cis people are allowed to express their sexuality in these ways, then trans people should be able to do the same. Trans people: post that dick on main. Hit the dark room and get your life. Pop your brand new pussy onstage if you feel like it.

Ethel Cain is not responsible for being radical. She gets to make art that we as a culture have already made space for, even if that space is often uneven or inconsistent. The visibility that comes with the fact that she is trans is unavoidable, but it’s only one lens through which to view her or consume her art.

One thing that I’ve come to realize is that visibility is not the destination – it is the struggle toward normalcy. We are fighting to be allowed to exist in every form. Trans people are not just your “yas queens,” radicals, scapegoats or whatever singular identity has been ascribed to us. We get to just be women, just be artists, just be people.

Even naked ones on Instagram.

Growing up, I always knew I wanted to be a hag.

This is a woman who spends much of her time with homosexual men. Some of the most important men in my life were gay guys: my childhood best friend, Michael Cuby, my favorite high school teacher, Dr. Talone, and Ryan Seacrest (like Britney Spears, I would later find this to be false). They taught me about the depths of friendship, long division, and Kelly Clarkson.

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Gay men were also my gateway drug to realizing I was a lesbian… gays and Roxanne from A Goofy Movie. My queerness was learned long before I knew any real-life dykes.

Much of my life has been dedicated to the army of gay men I love, sometimes that included lessons on Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi performance at the 2009 VMAs or getting a rather harsh critique on what to wear to my first gala (he was right, and my shoes were wrong). It also included a certain video of Tarzan and Mailo from Atlantis. I’ve given many hours–too many in fact–to late-night afters. I’m off-book on the Moulin Rouge Elephant Medley and most of the choreography in Chicago. I’ve gifted enemas (highly recommend Du). I’ve helped select nudes to post on Close Friends. I have pissed plenty in the trough at Animal. I’ve administered bumps of ketamine like I’m working a shift at The Pitt.

I’ve been the first girl guys have come out to, and sometimes the last girl a guy has kissed. I patiently taught The Idol’s “World Class Sinner” routine to an off-beat but incredibly committed group of gays on Fire Island. I’ve watched Eating Out (2004) against my better judgment and arguably against my will. I’ve been a shoulder to cry on for bad breakups and again for run-ins with those same exes. I’ve done coffee runs in the dead of winter and listened to voice memos over 11 minutes long. Why? Because I love being gay with my guys.

Hag had become my part-time job. Homosexual was my second language.

So by the time the mass hysteria of Heated Rivalry hit, I was already well-versed in the eroticism of barebacking. Straight women seemed to be catching up to what lesbians knew all along: gay sex is really hot. Personally, I first learned this while watching The Kids Are All Right (2010).

Boys on boys are nothing new, but the hypersexualization of the Heated Rivalry cast is hitting levels of fanatical fervor not seen since the days of Larry Stylinson. M/M romance, with a demographic largely made up of both straight and queer women, has gone mainstream. Fujoshi or “rotten girl”, which is a Japanese slang term that refers to female consumers of Boy Love media, has reached the masses, and the girls have gone wild. Fandom is one thing, but the objectification and obsession with the personal lives of the real actors is another. Fans have accused actor Francois Arnaud (40) of grooming his co-star Connor Storrie (26) after paparazzi photos surfaced of the duo together at the airport. Celebrity gossip site, DeuxMoi, outed Hudson Williams’ girlfriend, which resulted in both racial slurs and accusations of ‘queerbaiting’.

And though the widespread popularity of Heated Rivalry is a net positive indicator, especially in today’s political climate, it gives me pause. Gay men and more importantly queer culture are not something to exploit, something to try on or gawk at, rather than actively engage with in real life.

Allyship must be more than watching two boys kiss. And this commodification of #Hollanov tells me one thing: We’ve lost the art of being a good hag.

As Kamala Harris once said, there’s some education that needs to be done. Straight girls, please have some decorum. If you get invited to the gay club, act accordingly… or at least act normal! But I promise this isn’t another thinkpiece on the breakout show or worse, its stars. This is a masterclass from the head hag herself, me.

…Margaret Cho wasn’t available.

Like most Queer labels and language, Hag–short for Fag Hag–has uglier origins, dating back to the 1970s. The original definition of the word likened women who loved the company of gay men to spinsters, having much to do with their physical appearance or presumed loneliness. But long gone are the days when “hag’ was inflammatory or derogatory. The definition has morphed into something more celebratory or just something simpler: a girl who doesn’t play about her gay guys. A woman who keeps her friends close, and her gay friends closer.

Like most queer labels and language, it’s time to reclaim the word. It’s no longer just women on the fringes of society who have taken a liking to the comfort and occasional chaos of queer men. The identifier is no longer limited to straight girls, either. Hags can be lesbians too, and we often make the best ones. Despite some cultural differences and bedtimes, lesbians and gays love each other. Straight women would be nothing without their gay guys, and gay guys would be nothing without their dykes. In this particular exchange, there is a baseline of queer understanding and pure camaraderie.

As Lily Allen (likely regrettably) once said in her song, Fag Hag, “I could be your fag hag / And you could be my gay.” Maybe refrain from quoting those lyrics directly, but knowing the B-side of The Fear is a great first step in Hag culture.

I am well aware gay guys are not a monolith, at least not the cis white ones, and all rules below may not apply! But as someone who has served my country (i.e., most neighborhoods of Brooklyn and Los Angeles County) as a hag, I promise many of these lessons are tried and true.

How to be a good hag (from a big dyke):

1. Keep the house lights off. Honestly, adjust your overhead lighting when having anyone on the higher end of the Kinsey scale over your home. A standard alternative would be lamps; a sophisticated approach would be candlelight. For some, total darkness is also an option.
2. A good hag keeps her finger on the pulse. I almost always know who is being canceled and exactly why. Being a hag at the bare minimum keeps you well-read, even if the source material is occasionally Pop Crave.
3. It’s “boots, that’s my ego boost.”
4. A hag listens and does not judge. My friend Meg Zukin, heterosexual hag of San Francisco, said it best, “A hag is not afraid or repulsed or perturbed or disturbed by subcultures.” To put it plainly, there are positions I have never even heard of before my circle became largely gay guys. I listened. I learned. And in return for hearing out the hyper-specific sexual appetite of my closest gay friends, I’ve developed a larger vocabulary and a firmer grip on my own desire.
5. You don’t need to know what goes on in the men’s steam room at Equinox, but everything you think is probably right.
6. Gay guy music video night can look like anything: Alyssa Liu skating to Pink Pantheress, or my personal favorite, the rain dance scene from Step Up 2: The Streets. It does not need to be a music video for it to be life-changing. Always come prepared. We are all students in the space.
7. Understand that most queer parties sound like a riddle. Don’t ask questions, just say yes and! Spaghetti Strap at Signal. Faggots are Women. Papi Juice at Elsewhere. There are Rupi Kaur poems everywhere for those with eyes to see...
8. Consume more than Heated Rivalry. Go see Pillion! Rewatch Moonlight! Girl, read Baldwin or at least Out Magazine!
9. Hags must have a flair for drama. If you find yourself in an all-gay-guy group chat, just know Zara Larsson’s midnight sun shines brightly on you. The messiest place in America is the group chat of 3+ gay men.
10. Be prepared to have your own way home. Not all bodies are built for the afters. Mine shuts down around 3 AM. And there will be a witching hour when your gay guy group may want to fuck, and it will not be with you. A lesson I had to learn twice.
11. Hold your gay guys accountable. This is the most important rule. Progressive values don’t stop at the pride flag — and even the most well-meaning gay can have blind spots when it comes to inclusion, advocacy, and keeping his politics intersectional. Is his friend group all circuit gays with six packs? Let’s talk about it! And kind of quickly! Gay guys and the girls that love them all have to make sure the word “intersectional” doesn’t only show up in an Instagram post, but in actual daily practice. Not all gay guys are created equal. They have not all earned hag status! That said, a hag is here to help. A hag is here to keep us all honest when needed.

Hags are an integral part of the LGBTQIA+ community. I would go as far as motioning to add an ‘H’ in there, but that acronym is already too damn long. Gay guys, feel free to forward this to your favorite hag, your local hag, or even your aspiring hag. This functions both as a thank you note and a social contract we can all sign to link and build a better (read: gayer) world.

When done right, hags and gay guys can be the best kind of friends with benefits.

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Spring cleaning season has arrived. But why stop at clearing out your closet or deep-cleaning your apartment? Chances are, your Grindr profile could also use a refresh.

Believe it or not, astrology supports this. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, spring starts on the vernal equinox. This turning point in the year always coincides with the Sun moving into Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. That resets the cosmic calendar for the next 12 months, inviting us to hit the reset button in our lives, too. And Mars-ruled Aries is famously feral. Hence, spring-clean your dating app presence.

Not sure where to begin? Below, find suggestions for how to revamp your profile, based on your zodiac sign. 

Aries: Use Right Now

Patience might be a virtue, but it’s not your strong suit. You’re ruled by Mars, the planet of action and initiation. When you want something, you want it now. Crank up the heat this spring by turning on Right Now when you’re… well, turned on. Barring solo play, using this feature is the closest thing you can get to instant sexual gratification.

Taurus: Use Taps

You’re a textbook hedonist, Taurus. With sultry Venus as your ruling planet, sensual touch is your forte — but making the first move? Pushing yourself outside of your comfort zone? Not so much. As the weather warms up, play around with Taps. You’ll invite other people to pursue you with zero pressure to initiate or come up with the perfect opener.

Gemini: Punch up your bio

As the zodiac’s witty wordsmith, you know that language matters. When was the last time you updated your bio? Consider punching yours up for the spring. Whether you expand on your existing bio or keep it short and sweet, aim to capture your playful personality as well as your preferences.

Cancer: Update your preferences

For you, especially, desire waxes and wanes — not unlike the phases of the Moon, your ruling planet. Make your preferences clear by routinely updating them on Grindr. It’s perfectly valid for your wants and needs to fluctuate. Adjusting your profile to reflect that will help you get the most out of your time on the app.

Leo: Refresh your profile photos

Your sign practically invented the art of profile curation. Ruled by the Sun, you know where you shine and how to work your best angles for the camera. Spring clean your profile by updating your photo selection, perhaps with a newer pic that really captures your essence. Or a shot of you in that cute jockstrap that perfectly hugs your ass cheeks. Both are valid.

Virgo: Widen your Filters

Streamlining your Grid is second-nature for you, Virgo. You’re an analytical thinker, discerning what is and isn’t right for you with ease. But what if over-filtering for your preferences is holding you back? This spring, challenge yourself to toggle fewer Filters while scrolling. By broadening your parameters, you’ll open yourself up to a wider variety of connections.

Libra: Try audio or video messages

You’re not just flirty, Libra. Like any self-respecting air sign, you’re also a yapper. If all that typing back and forth isn’t cutting it anymore, shake up your Grindr chats with audio or video messaging. You can be as tame or as NSFW as you’re comfortable with — either way, you’ll have a chance to show off your sparkling personality and suss out whether or not new connections can match your energy.

Scorpio: Make (or update) a private album

You feel your feelings deeply, Scorpio, but when you’re exploring a new connection, you like to leave some things to the imagination. That air of mystery makes you arguably more alluring. Why fight it when you could lean in and make a new private album for your profile? That way, you can control who’s able to see and engage with specific photos. And if you’ve already curated a private album? Give it a refresh.‍

Sagittarius: Use Explore

Always thinking ahead to your next adventure? You can thank (/blame) your ruling planet, Jupiter, for your restless spirit. Celebrate the shift into spring by experimenting with Grindr’s Explore feature, which allows you to connect and chat with people across the globe. It’s the perfect way to indulge your wanderlust.

Capricorn: Polish your bio

Top, bottom, or vers, you prefer to be the one in charge. Channel that energy by polishing your bio for spring. It’s one of the first things people see when they click on your profile, meaning you can leverage it to influence how you’re perceived. Clever jokes are cute, but direct language that clearly conveys your preferences and no-nonsense attitude is hot.

Aquarius: Use Roam

You don’t like to be confined, Aquarius — but scoping things out from a comfortable distance? Now we’re talking. Instead of reworking your profile, play around with Roam. This feature allows you to temporarily change your location to a different city and chat with locals as if you were already there. You’ll enjoy sussing out the vibe and exploring new connections.

Pisces: Refine your Filters

In true water sign fashion, you take a “go with the flow” approach to dating. But sifting through your Grid with zero limits can get overwhelming fast. Refining your Filters is a quick and easy way to narrow down your options. It’s also a great opportunity for some springtime self-reflection. What are you in the mood for, anyway?