Grindr says users can now tap AI for better matches

Grindr Inc. has unveiled new features for its premium subscribers, hoping to leverage artificial intelligence to help users get better matches.

The West Hollywood-based LGBTQ+ dating platform said Monday that its premium plan now allows access to new AI features and deeper personalization.

The company has dubbed its AI gAI, which is pronounced “gay eye.” It says it will become an “intelligence layer across the entire app.”

“The point isn’t ‘AI’ for its own sake. It’s fewer dead ends, less noise, and more real connections,” the company wrote in the annual product road map it released on Monday.

The company is also investing further in AI-powered safety tools and in behind-the-scenes operations, Chief Executive George Arison told Bloomberg. AI already writes about 70% of the app’s code, he added.

“Grindr is becoming an AI native or an AI-first company,” he said. “It‘s taking a legacy 15-plus-year-old company and converting it into an AI company as if it were built in the last two years.”

The new premium tier, which is currently available as part of a beta test in Australia, New Zealand, select U.S. cities and Canada, is aimed at frequent users who want to spend less time scrolling. It focuses on helping users discover potential matches, gauge whether those potential matches are likely to respond and help users keep track of past conversations with previous matches.

This year, its competitors have unveiled AI-powered features meant to win over new users, especially Gen Z.

Bumble last week announced “Bee,” an AI-powered dating assistant. Tinder introduced a handful of new tools, including a real-time video speed dating experience, an “Events” feature and a redesigned “Music Mode” that connects users by shared musical taste.

Another new tool coming to Grindr is Health Center, offering education around sexual health, heart and metabolic health, weight management and hair loss solutions.

It will also feature wellness products, including medications available through Grindr’s Woodwork program. Health Center will be available to all users.

Grindr, which has been scrutinized for its past handling of sensitive information, including users’ HIV status, has tried to soothe worries about privacy concerns as it goes all-in on AI.

A February post on Grindr’s company blog highlighting new features said that users “remain in control at all times” and that AI-powered features could be turned off. Sensitive health data are “categorically excluded” from AI use, according to the company.

Separately, the company will use deep AI to power a Smart Inbox tool that prioritizes conversations most likely to lead somewhere.

The firm is exploring how to apply lessons from a previous chatbot test to a new feature called enhanced search, which allows users to surface profiles that better match their preferences. These features would be part of a separate paid tier for users down the line.

Grindr was a pioneering geolocative dating app for queer men when tech entrepreneur Joel Simkhai launched it in 2009 in Los Angeles. The popular hookup app later moved its headquarters to West Hollywood and was bought in 2016 by the Chinese gaming company Kunlun Group Limited.

Grindr’s Chinese owners had hopes of taking the company public, but the U.S. government in 2019 forced it to sell it over fears that Beijing could use sensitive data harvested through the app against U.S. citizens. In 2020, San Vicente Acquisitions bought the company for $608 million.

Samantha Kelly of Bloomberg contributed to this report.