Best dating apps for the LGBTQ community in 2023 and beyond
For starters, dating is exhausting. You meet new people, might click with them, and if you’re not interested enough, you move to the next person. But these differences become even more pronounced regarding the LGBTQ community. On top of the confusion of guessing the other person’s sexual orientation and courageously striking up a conversation with a total stranger, there is an apparent lack of dating apps for the community. Your dating pool is already significantly smaller, and you have fewer options to meet your special someone.
For that very reason, it is imperative that there are enough LGBTQ dating apps available on App Store and Play Store to encourage and support love and finally stop the swipe-right-and-left cycle for this lifetime. If you have an excellent LGBTQ dating app idea and are looking to turn it into reality with the help of a leading mobile app development company, we have amassed a list of the best LGBTQ apps available to the growing community.
Let’s take a look!
#1: Grindr
This popular dating app is also a social networking solution for the gay community as a whole. This highly intuitive, safe, and the secure app allows users to locate other gay men nearby, chat with them, and fix dates if they wish to meet. Its geo-social feature makes it easy for users to connect with the LGBTQ community and forge lifelong relationships or friendships with each other. This Tinder alternative provides users with the exact distance from nearby app downloaders, offers a link to their nearby social profiles, and integrates with an option to list their HIV status. The Grindr app provides a plethora of resources on STDs and spreads social awareness of same-sex diseases.
Its key features include:
- Meet people based on its geolocation feature
- Block/unblock users at their convenience
- Chat with people easily and send them multiple photos at a time
#2: HER
HER is a unique dating app for queer women, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming people. This top-rated app has over five million users, all swear by its excellent connections. HER allows you to create a bio in the app in a detailed way by answering a range of questions, including your pronouns. It also provides a space where you can expand your sex/gender and a community section where you can chat with people having similar interests and hobbies. If you wish to pay for the premium version, you can enable additional features like seeing who’s online, incognito mode to browse profiles without knowing, and so on.
Its key features include:
- Connect with more queer women with its community feature
- Know about the queer events in the neighborhood
- Easy sign-ups and certified accounts
- Change your relationship mode settings
#3: Scruff
Scruff is a dating app for gay, bi, trans, and queer men of the LGBTQ community. With over 15 million followers, this app focuses more on meaningful connections than hookups. Its global feature allows you to talk to queer men in distant locations, which makes it possible for you to travel to different cities. Plus, this dating app gives you insight into the nearby queer events so you can connect in person with your dates. If you wish to go for its premium services, you’ll gain access to services like limitless search, filters, and arranging your grid of prospective matches.
Its key features include:
Unlock expressive profile features by adding stories and multiple photos
Learn about the best LGBTQ parties, festivals, and events nearby or globally
In-app user videos and message histories
#4: Lex
This dating app is like a fresh wave for people tired of swiping left and right. Lex is dedicated to non-binary, transgender, lesbian, bisexual, and queer people and prefers short personals to photos. You can browse photos of users, reach out to them, and filter posts by keywords. Unlike other dating apps for the LGBTQ community, you can use Lex for any relationship- business partners, dating, friends, etc. this app is more about community development and does not tolerate hate.
Its key features include:
- Text first, selfies later format
- Link your Instagram account to your dating profile
- It’s completely free, unlike others that offer premium services
#5: Hinge
This dating app differentiates itself from the others in the market by employing personality-disclosing questions to help matches get to know each other better. The ultimate goal of this dating app is to get users on a nice date and permanently delete the app. During the pandemic, Hinge also unlocked a video chat feature to allow virtual dates. You can choose its paid services if you wish to use more features. However, the best part about this app is that you’re less likely to run into straight people pretending to be queer than on Tinder.
#6: GROWLr
This app is one of the top apps for the LGBTQ community, with over 10 million gay men worldwide. This LGBT dating app allows users to send and receive private instant messages, live video calls, share photos, and so on. The best part is that only males over 18 years can share nude photos.
Its key features include:
- Create your profits with photos and videos
- Direct messaging with interested people
- Filter your preferences amongst the millions of users
- List your events, add notes, and so on
#7: Hornet
With over 35 million users, Hornet is one of the most popular LGBTQ+ dating apps available for gay, lesbian, non-binary, and queer people. Hornet is a dating app and a social networking platform where users can create posts, join groups, and discover events. Like other social networking apps, you can like and comment go other people’s posts or send them a direct message. In efforts to enforce community development, Hornet and its affordable subscription will help you unlock additional features like read receipts and the ability to see more users at once.
Its key features include:
- Discover interested people via hashtags
- Follow friends, stay connected with the other community members, view their posts, like and comment on them
- Join a worldwide network of influencers for community sessions