As a queer person, you may be looking for ways to connect with others who share your interests. Gay chat apps are a great way to do that.
For many, these online spaces serve as a lifeline, especially in times of uncertainty. In some cases, they have been a crucial source of safety from blackmail or physical threats.
Scruff
Scruff is a social networking and dating app that was created for gay, bisexual, and transgender men. It is available for free to download but you can also subscribe to a paid membership if you want to access features such as advanced search filters and unlimited messaging.
It also offers a community of more than 10 million gay, bisexual, and transgender guys around the world. Its top features include expressive profiles, powerful chat, album sharing, and more.
The app is easy to use and offers several shortcuts that make it simple to navigate. You can upload a photo of yourself and fill in any other information you want.
LINE
Line is a popular chat application that provides free voice and video calls as well as message boards. It also lets users share media files on a group.
It offers free trial minutes to first-time callers and offers a number of features like custom matching filters, instant phone lines connections, unlimited private voicemails, and profile visibility settings.
It’s a great way to get in touch with a gay guy in your area. This chat line has an active community and has a high success rate for real-life meetups.
WeChat, a Chinese messaging, social media and mobile payment app, is one of the most popular in the world. It’s a great way to stay connected with friends and family, but it can also be used for business and payment.
WeChat offers text messaging, hold-to-talk voice messaging, broadcast (one-to-many) messaging, video conferencing, video games, photograph and video sharing and location sharing. It’s available in more than 20 languages.
It’s a great tool for businesses and makes communication easy and secure. However, it’s also subject to strict censorship in China and requires Tencent to hand over user data to the government when required by law.
Taimi
Taimi is a lgbt gay chat app that offers a safe space to share your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Its features include messaging and chatting, live streams, and video calls.
It also has a variety of filters that you can use to make sure the people you’re matched with are compatible with your interests. You can choose to be matched with people who have similar ages, interests, and lifestyles.
Unlike other dating apps, Taimi is open to all gender identities and sexual orientations. It’s also considered safer than Grindr and offers a more inclusive community overall.
Surge
Surge is Fitbit’s flagship activity tracker and it’s certainly not for the faint of heart. It’s packed with some serious fitness features, from a big screen to swipable navigation.
It also has one of the best calorie calculators we’ve seen, a nifty augmented reality emoji for tracking heart rate and a smartwatch sized screen to help it keep track of everything. We’re also impressed by the fact that it can handle a full day of wear, thanks to its onboard batteries. The most important part is that it does it all without requiring you to lug around a bag of AAs.
Jack’d
Jack’d is a gay dating and chat app that promises to connect you with “the most diverse community of gay, bi, trans, queer, and curious guys around the globe.”
The app has more than 5 million users worldwide. It allows men to find friendships, dates, long-term relationships and one-time intimate encounters with other guys.
However, a recent privacy breach exposed the private images of many Jack’d users to the Internet. The images were uploaded to an AWS S3 bucket accessible over an unsecured Web connection.
OkCupid
OkCupid’s ad-free app and extensive match system make it a popular choice for many. It’s also one of the few dating sites that doesn’t separate its member areas by country.
The site offers a number of innovative features, including an intersectional approach to gender and orientation options. And, most recently, it rolled out an update to its search feature that allows people to specify their pronouns.
Marcus Lofthouse, the company’s chief product officer, says that inclusivity is key to his company’s success. To foster that culture, he and his team work with nonprofits and hire queer focus groups to get feedback from all backgrounds.