Sniffies’ Users Worry About a ‘Straightification’ of the Gay Hookup App

Sniffies 用户担忧这款男同性恋约炮应用面临“异性恋化”

Of all the gay hookup apps Brennan Zubrick uses, Sniffies, a cruising app for men interested in discreet sex-positive casual encounters with other men, is by far his favorite. Some of the most popular kinks among members on the platform include edging, cum play, and BDSM. “I overwhelmingly prefer the experience I get and the community I can access,” he tells WIRED. But Zubrick, who is 40 and based in Washington, DC, has a bad feeling that could soon change.

在 Brennan Zubrick 使用的所有男同性恋约炮应用中，Sniffies 是他最喜欢的一款。这是一款专为寻求私密、性积极且随性邂逅的男性打造的“巡航”（cruising）应用。该平台上最受欢迎的性癖好包括边缘性行为（edging）、射精游戏（cum play）和 BDSM。他告诉《连线》（WIRED）杂志：“我非常喜欢这里的体验以及我能接触到的社群。”但现年 40 岁、居住在华盛顿特区的 Zubrick 有种不祥的预感，认为这一切可能很快就会改变。

Tinder and Hinge parent company Match Group announced on Monday an investment of $100 million into Sniffies. The deal gives Match Group a large minority share and the choice to become the sole owner later on. The announcement has set off an intense firestorm of reactions from users who are second-guessing the direction of the company and the longterm sustainability of the app.

Tinder 和 Hinge 的母公司 Match Group 周一宣布向 Sniffies 投资 1 亿美元。这笔交易使 Match Group 获得了大量的少数股权，并拥有在未来成为唯一所有者的选择权。这一消息引发了用户的强烈反弹，他们开始质疑公司的发展方向以及该应用能否长期存续。

“Sniffies has long held its market position as the little guy, catering to a specific section of the gay community, and is somewhere people who might not be comfortable with Grindr—where no face-pic, no-chat culture runs rampant—go to connect with other like-minded people in a more direct and discreet way,” Zubrick tells WIRED.

“Sniffies 长期以来一直保持着‘小众’的市场定位，服务于男同性恋社群中的特定群体。对于那些在 Grindr 上感到不适的人来说，这里是一个去处——Grindr 上充斥着‘无头像、不聊天’的文化——而 Sniffies 能让他们以更直接、更私密的方式与志同道合的人建立联系，”Zubrick 告诉《连线》。

“This partnership is about supporting that, not redefining it,” Sniffies founder and CEO Blake Gallagher said in a statement, noting that the investment will help the platform focus on three key areas users want: “stronger trust and safety, expansive network growth, and continued product improvements.” According to the agreement, Match Group will offer guidance on the right roles, procedures, and tech to help Sniffies build on its trust and safety efforts.

Sniffies 创始人兼首席执行官 Blake Gallagher 在一份声明中表示：“这次合作是为了支持这种定位，而不是重新定义它。”他指出，这笔投资将帮助平台专注于用户想要的三个关键领域：“更强的信任与安全保障、更广泛的网络增长，以及持续的产品改进。”根据协议，Match Group 将在角色分配、流程和技术方面提供指导，帮助 Sniffies 加强其信任与安全工作。

But users aren’t buying what Gallagher is selling. The Instagram post announcing the news was inundated with negative reactions, as users expressed worry over the strategic partnership. “Please don’t let this be the straightification of sniffies,” expressed one. “You sold out. Plain and simple. Where we moving to next boys?” added Marc Sundstrom, a user in Philadelphia. “Partnering with Match feels very gentrified and straight. Highly concerned about the app being allowed to be what it is in order to court investors,” wrote another. By Tuesday afternoon, comments on the post had been shut off.

但用户并不买账。宣布这一消息的 Instagram 帖子被负面评论淹没，用户纷纷表达了对这一战略合作伙伴关系的担忧。“请不要让 Sniffies 变得‘异性恋化’，”一位用户写道。“你们出卖了我们，简单直接。兄弟们，我们接下来去哪儿？”费城用户 Marc Sundstrom 补充道。“与 Match 合作感觉非常‘中产阶级化’且‘异性恋化’。非常担心该应用为了迎合投资者而失去本色，”另一位用户写道。到周二下午，该帖子的评论功能已被关闭。

Though it remains to be seen how Gallagher will position Sniffies in the months ahead, already users are saying this marks the beginning of the end for the app. “Straight people shouldn’t even know what Sniffies is for fuck sake,” one wrote in the r/askgaybros subreddit. And despite promises, some say a major corporation like Match is not ethically aligned with the indie spirit of Sniffies. On LinkedIn, the top comment under Gallagher’s post questioned the real intent behind Match Group’s investment. “Interested to see how ties to Palantir affect Sniffies’ growth. Hopefully this doesn’t become a surveillance application.”

尽管 Gallagher 未来几个月将如何定位 Sniffies 还有待观察，但用户们已经表示，这标志着该应用走向终结的开始。“该死，异性恋根本就不该知道 Sniffies 是什么，”一位用户在 Reddit 的 r/askgaybros 版块写道。尽管有各种承诺，但一些人认为，像 Match 这样的大公司在道德上与 Sniffies 的独立精神并不一致。在 LinkedIn 上，Gallagher 帖子下的置顶评论质疑了 Match Group 投资背后的真实意图：“很有兴趣看看与 Palantir 的联系将如何影响 Sniffies 的发展。希望它不会变成一个监控应用。”

Spencer Rascoff, who became CEO of Match Group in 2025, previously served on the board of Palantir, the defense tech and data mining company that has become a “technological backbone” of the Trump administration.

2025 年出任 Match Group 首席执行官的 Spencer Rascoff，此前曾担任 Palantir 的董事会成员。Palantir 是一家国防技术和数据挖掘公司，已成为特朗普政府的“技术支柱”。

Sniffies maintains that it will continue to own and control how its user data is stored, handled, and protected. According to the company, there are no changes planned to its data practices as part of the investment.

Sniffies 坚称，它将继续拥有并控制其用户数据的存储、处理和保护方式。据该公司称，作为此次投资的一部分，其数据处理方式没有任何改变计划。

But the outrage underscores the significance of platforms like Sniffies and what it would mean to a community of people who already feel like they have so few quality options for seeking desire online.

但这种愤怒凸显了像 Sniffies 这样的平台的重要性，以及对于那些本就觉得在线寻求欲望的高质量选择寥寥无几的群体来说，这意味着什么。

“It’s a mess and obviously to be expected. It’s definitely an indicator of its fast rise, so no shade, but we saw what happened with Grindr,” says Brad Allen, a 34-year-old event producer and the creator behind Club Quarantine, who joined Sniffies in 2023. “I really am pulling for them to somehow navigate this differently since it’s essential to the cruising community now. Hopefully the pop-up Candy Crush ads don’t light up too much in the bushes.”

“这简直是一团糟，但显然也是意料之中的。这绝对是它快速崛起的标志，我不是在贬低它，但我们都看到了 Grindr 的下场，”34 岁的活动制作人、Club Quarantine 的创始人 Brad Allen 说，他于 2023 年加入 Sniffies。“我真心希望他们能以不同的方式处理这件事，因为它现在对巡航社群来说至关重要。希望以后在灌木丛里（指线下约炮点）不会弹出《糖果传奇》的广告。”

As corporations seek to maximize profits, the customer experience almost always diminishes. In previous years, Grindr (“garbage”), Feeld (“normie hell”), and Tinder (“a humiliation ritual”) have all faced accusations of ad tech monetization, pay-gating, and generally diluting the original sentiment of their platforms by appealing to new demographics. “Its pricing is beyond cringe and borders into shameless capitalism territory. It’s unusable unless you’re a rich white gay, basically,” Allen says of Grindr.

随着企业寻求利润最大化，用户体验几乎总是会下降。过去几年里，Grindr（被评价为“垃圾”）、Feeld（“普通人的地狱”）和 Tinder（“一种羞辱仪式”）都面临过指责，包括广告技术变现、付费墙限制，以及通过迎合新的人群而稀释了平台最初的氛围。“它的定价简直令人尴尬，已经到了无耻资本主义的地步。基本上，除非你是富有的白人男同性恋，否则根本没法用，”Allen 在谈到 Grindr 时说。

Sniffies was meant to be different. What made the platform such a compelling value proposition when it launched in 2018 was its no-holds-barred approach to queer sexual liberation. You could simply open your web browser to get started—no profile, photos, or email address was required. As a map-based cruising platform—think Google Maps but with a bunch of dick pics and torso shots—it simplified when, where, and how fast men could discreetly hook up. (In 2025, NYPD officers used Sniffies to arrest dozens of people for alleged public lewdness at New York City’s Penn Station.)

Sniffies 本应是与众不同的。2018 年推出时，该平台之所以具有如此引人注目的价值主张，是因为它对酷儿性解放采取了毫无保留的态度。你只需打开网页浏览器即可开始使用——无需个人资料、照片或电子邮件地址。作为一个基于地图的巡航平台——想象一下带有大量生殖器照片和躯干照片的谷歌地图——它简化了男性私下约炮的时间、地点和速度。（2025 年，纽约警察局警官曾利用 Sniffies 在纽约市宾夕法尼亚车站逮捕了数十名涉嫌公共猥亵的人。）

Actor J. Kenneth Anthony considers himself an analog and digital cruiser and says the changes coming to the platform could spoil what makes Sniffies special. “This isn’t Tinder or any of those other apps that parade themselves as hubs for connection. This is a place where the slutty can hop on the app, not reveal themselves, and still make connections,” he says. “Now we have Match, who is going to have access to the way queer people have been moving for the last eight years. There’s demand for this new untapped audience. I just thought we as a community on Sniffies were more sacred than selling out to these people who never protect us. I really love this platform. I’m so heartbroken.”

演员 J. Kenneth Anthony 自认为是模拟和数字时代的巡航者，他表示平台即将到来的变化可能会破坏 Sniffies 的独特之处。“这不是 Tinder 或其他那些标榜自己为连接中心的应用程序。这是一个让放荡的人可以登录应用，无需暴露身份，依然能建立联系的地方，”他说。“现在有了 Match，他们将能够获取过去八年来酷儿群体的活动方式。这个未被开发的受众群体存在巨大的需求。我只是觉得，我们作为一个 Sniffies 社群，比出卖给这些从未保护过我们的人要神圣得多。我真的很爱这个平台。我太心碎了。”

Under Rascoff, Match has faced criticism for how its apps handle user data. Journalist Christophe Haubursin published an investigative report exposing Tinder’s faulty face-verification tech, which is now mandatory for anyone who wants to sign up.

在 Rascoff 的领导下，Match 因其应用处理用户数据的方式而面临批评。记者 Christophe Haubursin 发表了一篇调查报告，揭露了 Tinder 存在缺陷的人脸验证技术，而该技术现在是任何想要注册的人的必选项。