Grindr's mission is to safely connect the LQBTQ+ community online, and our messaging feature is the primary way we accomplish that. This article is all about chatting with other profiles. Here's what you'll find here:
- Chatting 101
- Viewing & chatting
- Online status
- Quick Reply
- Sending a chat via Profile Quickbar
- Chat reactions
- Group chats
- Gaymoji & Giphy
- Deleting chats
- Chat muting
- Pin your chats
- Saved phrases
- Sharing your location
- Related articles
Chatting 101
When logging in to your profile, there is a bar at the bottom of your screen showing 4 icons:
- Favorites ⭐
- Grindr Home Page
- Message Inbox
- Grindr XTRA subscription portal
A red dot on your inbox icon means you’ve got an unread message. A green dot on a profile (within your inbox or your grid) means that person is online.
Viewing & chatting
To view your messages, go to the inbox icon on your Grindr homepage. From there, you can scroll down through all of your conversations. Tap on a message, and you'll be brought to that conversation. You have 7 options of the types of messages you can send:
- Text
- Photo
- Video Message & Calling
- Voice Note
- Gaymoji / GIF
- Location
- Saved Phrases (for premium users only)
When you have sent a message you will see a "delivered” status assigned beneath your message. The person does not have to be online for delivery confirmation.
Online status
As soon as you open Grindr, a green dot will appear on your profile, indicating that you’re currently online (unless you have Incognito enabled). Once you’ve closed the app, that green dot will remain for up to 10 minutes. After that, your profile will show a rough approximation of how many minutes it’s been since you were online.
Your profile will continue to show in the Grid for up to 1 hour after you’ve gone offline.
Note: On Grindr Web, that green dot will disappear immediately upon logging off.
Quick Reply
On iOS, you can reply to chats directly from notifications via Quick Reply. From your unlocked screen, just swipe down on a push notification to send a reply. From your locked screen, tap and hold a push notification, type out your reply, and send!
Keep in mind, sending a chat via Quick Reply will update your location and online status - just like when you open the app. If you tap and hold a push notification, without sending a reply, your location and online status won’t be updated.
If you have a PIN enabled, you’ll need to disable it to use Quick Reply. Once you do so, Quick Reply will be automatically enabled the next time you launch the app.
Sending a chat via Profile Quickbar
You can use the Profile Quickbar to send a chat directly from a profile that you discover in the Nearby Cascade.
You’ll just need to tap on a profile to bring up the Quickbar keyboard to send a chat.
You can view your full chat history with a user by tapping on the chat icon on their profile, or by selecting “Go to Chat” from the Quickbar view.
NOTE: Profiles you find in the Explore Cascade will not contain the Quickbar.
Chat reactions
A chat reaction is a way to express a "like" in something someone had said or sent to you. It's just one more way we've created to make interactions more fun and engaging. To interact using Chat Reactions, here's what you do:
- Double-tap on the message you "like" and a flame icon (🔥) will appear on the upper-right corner of the message.
- You can also like your own messages.
- If you & the person you're chatting with like the same message, two flame icons (🔥🔥) will appear on the message.
Please keep in mind that if the person you are chatting with has their Grindr notifications enabled, they will be notified when you have liked a message and vice versa. You cannot turn off chat reaction notifications specifically, however, you will not get notified if you turn ALL Grindr notifications off.
Note: Liking your own messages will NOT notify the recipient of the message.
Group chat
Group Chats are unavailable as our chat system undergoes maintenance. The ability to create new Group Chats has been suspended, and existing Group Chats will soon be removed from your inbox. We recommend sending a direct message to keep in touch with anyone from your past Group Chats, and saving your Group Chat messages by downloading your Grindr data.
Gaymoji & Giphy
Gaymoji is a collection of LGBTQ-themed stickers used to personalize chats in-app. It’s a fun way to say something in a universal language. It was designed and released by us….just for you ❤
Grindr uses Giphy’s catalog of GIFs that you are able to send to anyone you’re chatting with. There’s a GIF for every occasion.
To send a GIF or a Gaymoji:
- Select the smiley icon at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose between GIF or Gaymoji. The search bar at the top allows you to easily search for any GIFs/Gaymoji you're looking for.
- Select Send once you've selected a GIF or Gaymoji.
Deleting chats
Though it is possible to delete messages, doing so only deletes the message from your chat history, not the other person's. Removing a sent message is currently only available for Grindr Unlimited subscribers.
How to delete chat threads:
- iOS
- Swipe left on the chat thread you'd like to delete.
- Select Delete.
- Android
- Long-press on the conversation you would like to delete.
- A message will appear at the top with a trashcan icon.
- Tap the icon and confirm.
How to delete sent messages:
- Long press on the message you sent.
- Select Delete Message.
- Select Delete for Me.
Chat muting
You can mute selected chats as you please.
If you mute someone you will no longer receive their notifications, but muted chats won’t disappear. You will still be able to receive the muted person's messages, but you will not receive a push notification about it. It will be only accessible through your profile’s inbox.
- You can only mute others through your inbox. The person who got muted will not be notified.
- Muted people will not receive video chat notifications.
Muting chats:
To mute a chat, you will need to long-press on the chat you want to mute in the inbox section:
- You will be able to multi-select various chats and mute them all at once.
- When selecting multiple chats that contain muted and unmuted people, the buttons on the top will go with the first selected (muted or unmuted).
- To unmute a chat/group chat you will need to long-press the muted chat(s) again and the mute button will show up for you to unmute it.
Pin your chats
The Pin chat feature allows you to pin specific chats to the top of your chats list.
With pinned chats, you never have to worry about scrolling through the long list of conversations to text that one specific person.
iOS
To pin a chat:
- Look for the chat you wish to pin and slide right.
- Tap the Pin option that appears right next to the conversation.
Unpin a chat:
- Slide a pinned chat to the right.
- Tap Unpin.
Android
- Look for the chat you wish to pin.
- Press and hold one or more conversations until you see the orange bar at the top of the screen.
- Tap the pin icon to pin your chats.
- Hit Okay.
Pinned chats will always stay at the top so you can quickly find them.
Unpin a chat
- Look for the chat you wish to unpin.
- Press and hold one or more conversations until you see the orange bar at the top of the screen.
- Tap the pin icon to unpin your chats.
Saved phrases
Premium members can save any phrases that were either sent by them or the ones they have received in their chats. Adding phrases to your profile will save you time from having to type them whenever you'd like to use them.
To add a saved phrase.
- Select the speech bubble icon at the bottom right of the screen.
- Select Add new.
- Type the phrase you want to save.
- Select Done.
To delete a saved phrase on iOS:
- Select the speech bubble icon at the bottom right of the screen.
- Select Edit.
- Tap the phrase you'd like to delete.
- Tap Delete.
To delete a saved phrase on Android:
- Select the speech bubble icon at the bottom right of the screen.
- Press and hold the phrase you wish to delete.
- Tap Delete.
- Confirm you want to delete the phrase.
Not seeing the saved phrases option? Ensure you are on the latest version of the app (Android/IOS).
Sharing your location
Using GPS, you are able to share your location with anyone you choose to on Grindr. To share your location:
- Select the GPS arrowhead icon.
- Your location will pop up (you must be connected to wifi/data for this to work)
- If your location is correct, select Send Location.
Related articles
Disappearing profiles and messages