Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community is calling for a new gay-specific dating and queer friendship app to land in Australia as Sydney WorldPride approaches
As WorldPride 2023 heads down under to Sydney this February, Australia’s LGBTQIA+ community are hoping that excitement and LGBTQIA+ cash injection also brings about a fresh new queer specific app to the Australian queer scene.
The hope is that a new queer app will arise to help queer people find LGBTQIA+ specific friends, as loneliness in the queer community hits an all-time high in Australia.
A recent report surrounding queer youth in Australian cities revealed that young queer Aussies find it hardest to make friends in the queer space, as a direct lack of queer specific online platforms, with a particular focus on friendships, as well as relationships.
There’s also hope that WorldPride will introduce some much-needed competition to the dry, and noticeably lacking LGBTQIA+ specific online dating app space.
Many are also looking to the app stores themselves, such as Google Play Store and the Apple App Store to see if there is an organisational hurdle, making it challenging for queer specific apps to launch, and asking why tech giants like Apple aren’t doing more to support LGBTQIA+ app development specifically.
With the queer-specific dating app scene scarce with few apps to choose from, Sydneysiders (and those around the globe are hoping a new app comes to the party, as the WorldPride party arrives.
24 year-old Trinity Coswold of Melbourne’s northern suburbs said, “Finding a queer dating app that specifically caters to me, as a gender nonconforming person is so difficult.
“There are apps like ‘Grinder’ for men and ‘HER’ for women but there’s no app for everyone within the queer community – I don’t want to feel different having to use different apps to my gay male friends, thus the introduction of an app that caters for us all would be a life changer for people like me.”
31 year-old Tony from Sydney’s Bondi Beach said, “It’s no secret that making friends as an adult is actually quite challenging, thus it’s no surprise that when layering LGBTQIA+ into the mix, it is a real struggle.
“The only real app is Grindr, which doesn’t have any real capacity to help make friends, which is a real shame for people like me who are in a relationship. Grindr is also incredibly stale, thus I think some healthy competition would be good for the entire LGBTQIA+ online space in general – we deserve more.
“Hopefully WorldPride brings about something new that actually enriches the lives of LGBTQIA+ people”
