Latest news with #hookup
The Verge
2 days ago
- Business
- The Verge
Grindr's new Right Now feature brings a spicy live feed to the hookup app
Grindr has always excelled at helping its users find folks looking to spend some quality time together, but the hookup app is looking to speed up the ' looking? ' process even more with its latest feature. Today, Grindr announced that Right Now, its social media-like live feed feature, is rolling out to all of the platform's users following a pilot test in select markets. Unlike Grindr's traditional grid that shows you an array of other users' profiles based on how far away they are, Right Now functions a bit more like X / Twitter and displays a stream of recent posts that can include both text and photos. Right Now posts disappear from the live feed after an hour, and while they don't have to be used for hookup purposes, posters can hit a toggle specifying whether they're looking to host (read: have someone over for fun.) At launch, Grindr says users in certain locations 'will receive a number of free hour-long Right Now sessions per week (refreshed every Friday)' meaning that the feed will only be accessible in hour-long windows. Down the line, the company also plans to make more sessions available to purchase. In a press release about the new feature, Grindr's chief product officer, AJ Balance, explained that Right Now was designed to help people 'find exactly what they want, when they want it – without the guesswork.' 'We built this intention-based feature based on feedback from our community so they can connect with like-minded people without wasting time on mismatched expectations,' Balance said. 'The response to our initial March launch was so strong we accelerated the global rollout ahead of schedule because it's clear people want this… well, right now.' Grindr is not the first app of its kind to introduce functionality clearly inspired by social media platforms. Sniffies, a more cruising-focused Grindr competitor that doesn't require signing up for an account and allows users to post sexually explicit photos on their public profiles, has had a feature similar to Right Now for some time. But Right Now's widespread launch is the latest phase of Grindr's larger plan to roll out a series of new features — many of which are powered by generative artificial intelligence — meant to boost revenue and make users see the app as 'the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™.' Previously, Grindr introduced A-List, a tool that uses Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 3.7 model and Amazon Web Services' Bedrock to summarize chats with the intention of helping users rekindle 'meaningful past connections' and pursue 'high-potential matches.' Bloomberg reports the same platform is now underpinning Grindr's Wingman, a generative AI assistant that can draft chat responses for users who can't think of things to say for themselves, provide sex tips, and give suggestions about places that might make for good dates. Some of Grindr's AI features are free to try, but for continued access to them, the company requires users to sign up for its monthly subscription plans. All of the features are part of Grindr's effort to bring in more money and staunch the financial bleeding that came following its initial public offering in 2022. As Platformer reported last year, Grindr's stock price plummeted by 70 percent following its SPAC, and the company has been scrambling to establish new revenue streams amid employee unionization efforts and internal concerns that Grindr 'was losing its progressive culture.' At the Wall Street Journal 's Future of Everything conference this week, Grindr's CEO George Arison spoke about how AI has changed his own productivity, and his desire for the company to start thinking about how the technology can be more deeply integrated into its services. 'For all the new things that we build, I want them to be built as if we are an AI-native startup,' Arison said. 'If you're going to do marketing for this, great; start thinking with AI first and then go to people because that's how I think companies are going to be built moving forward and that's what we should be doing as a business as well.'
National Post
3 days ago
- Business
- National Post
You Up? Grindr's "Right Now" Goes Global
Article content More places, more people – Grindr's real-time hookup feature makes connecting faster than ever Article content Article content WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Grindr, the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™ with more than 14.6M average monthly active users, today announced the global launch of Right Now, their newest intent-based feature designed to instantly connect people looking for immediate encounters. Article content Right Now is a real-time feed—separate from the app's main grid that displays profiles—where Grindr users can post text and share photos displayed for one hour, letting other like-minded users know exactly what they're looking for. Article content Right Now is a real-time feed—separate from the app's main grid that displays profiles—where Grindr users can post text and share photos displayed for one hour, letting other like-minded users know exactly what they're looking for. Article content 'Right Now empowers our users to find exactly what they want, when they want it – without the guesswork,' said AJ Balance, Chief Product Officer at Grindr. 'We built this intention-based feature based on feedback from our community so they can connect with like-minded people without wasting time on mismatched expectations. The response to our initial March launch was so strong we accelerated the global rollout ahead of schedule because it's clear people want this… well, right now.' Article content Following successful pilots in Australia and Washington, D.C., and regional expansions in early 2025, Right Now is now available to all users globally on iOS and Android. Right Now can be accessed directly from a new entry button on the main grid, through the bottom navigation bar, or from the profile side drawer of the app, leading to a dedicated feed optimized for immediate engagement. Article content At launch, depending on their location, people will receive a number of free hour-long Right Now sessions per week (refreshed every Friday), with the option to purchase more sessions after using their complimentary ones. Article content About Grindr Inc. Article content With more than 14.6 million average monthly active users, Grindr (NYSE: GRND) has grown to become the Global Gayborhood in Your Pocket™, on a mission to make a world where the lives of our global community are free, equal, and just. Available in 190 countries and territories, Grindr is often the primary way for LGBTQ+ people to connect, express themselves, and discover the world around them. Since 2015, Grindr for Equality has advanced human rights, health, and safety for millions of LGBTQ+ people in partnership with organizations around the world. Grindr has offices in West Hollywood, the Bay Area, Chicago, and New York. The Grindr app is available on the App Store and Google Play. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
