January 13, 2010 | Sex Life

Grindr makes gay hook-ups easy

Meet our newest best friend, Grindr. Yes, it's an iPhone app, and an amazing one at that.

Consider Grindr a GPS system for finding other gay men. Click on your Grindr icon and the app will automatically list other horny guys in the area (complete with photo and details) and where they are in relation to you.

The app's creators explained its many uses: "New in town? Tap into Grindr to check out who’s on the scene. .... Hanging at home? Make Grindr your go-to place and see who’s looking to meet up tonight. No matter where you find yourself, Grindr is the go-to app for socializing in seconds with the guys around you."

Now, for the record, the app was designed for meeting other nice gay men for a cup of tea or a movie. Because Apple has very strict rules concerning nudity or sexual content in the apps they approve, Grindr is not promoted as a tool for cruising or quickies.

"[Apple does] not allow any nudity or profanity — so we have censors who work 24/7 to review each profile," says Joel Simkhai, Grindr founder and CEO.

And Grindr makes sure users understand this with its own rules: "Your photo should not contain any frontal or rear nudity, nor should it be excessively revealing, sexual, or obscene. Consider what you would upload as a reasonable public photo to other social networking sites and apply those rules to Grindr."

Sites like squirt.org and dudesnude.com will likely never have an iPhone presence because these rules are too limiting.

"[The people at] Apple are a bunch of control freaks," complained Phil Anderson, owner of dudesnude.com. "They try to keep all the control with themselves while trying to portray a clean, family-friendly image."

Still, we all know what it's really used for - wink, wink - so what the Apple people pretend they don't know, won't hurt anyone.

The basic version of Grindr is free, so if you have an iPhone you should check it out. Of course, there is a handy dandy 'block user' option so you can get rid of the annoying, unattractive or strange types you are certain to encounter. Check out Guys I Blocked On Grindr for a list of potential to-be-avoided profiles.

Grindr [official website]

Will prudish app guidelines sink the iPhone? [xtra.ca]

Grindr makes all your on the go hook up dreams come true [popnography]

Gay Dating Makes Its Way To The iPhone [Tech Crunch]