Snifies Users Concerned About ‘Control’ of Gay Hookup App

Of all things gay hookup apps Brennan Zubrick uses, Smell thema dating app for men who like to meet smartly with their fellow men, is their favorite. Some of them very popular among members on the platform include edging, cum play, and The cost of BDSM. “I really like what I get and the community I can access,” he tells WIRED. But Zubrick, who is 40 years old and lives in Washington, DC, has a bad feeling that may soon change.

Tinder and Hinge Match Group’s parent company announced Monday a $100 million investment in Sniffies. The deal gives Match Group a majority minority stake and the option to become a sole shareholder later on. The announcement has caused a lot of panic among users who are speculating about the company’s progress and the stability of the app.

“The Snifies have been working in the market as a small boy, where they go to a certain group of gay people, and they are somewhere people who are not comfortable with Grindr – where there is no face picture, a lot of informal culture – go to connect with other like-minded people directly and intelligently,” Zubrick tells WIRED.

“This partnership is about supporting that, not redefining it,” Sniffies founder and CEO Blake Gallagher said wordsknowing that the money will help the platform to focus on three important areas that users want: “higher trust and security, the growth of the Internet, and the improvement of products.” According to the agreement, Match Group will provide guidance on the appropriate services, methods, and capabilities to help Sniffies build trust and security.

But users aren’t buying what Gallagher is selling. The Instagram page The announcement of the news was filled with negative reactions, as users expressed their displeasure with the deal. “Please don’t let this be an outcry,” said one. “Sold. Plain and simple. Where do we move to the other guys?” added Marc Sundstrom, a Philadelphia operator. “Partnering with Match feels so good and so straight forward. So concerned about the program being allowed to be the way it is to fund lawsuits,” wrote another. As of Tuesday afternoon, comments on the post had been closed.

While it remains to be seen how Gallagher will position Sniffies in the coming months, users are already saying that this is just the beginning of at the end about the app. “Straight people don’t need to know what Sniffies are and because of trouble,” one he wrote in the r/askgaybros subreddit. And despite the promises, some say a big agency like Match doesn’t fit Sniffies’ indie spirit. On LinkedIn, it is top review in the post Gallagher questions the real motive behind Match Group’s investment. “I want to see how the collaboration with Palantir affects the growth of Sniffies. We hope that this will not be a research project.”

Spencer Rascoff, who became CEO of Match Group in 2025, previously served on the board of Palantira technology security and data mining company that has been “the backbone of technology” of the Trump administration.

Sniffies maintains that it will continue to own and control how user data is stored, managed, and protected. According to the company, no changes are planned in its data processing as part of the financial system.

But the outrage underscores the importance of platforms like Sniffies and what it can mean for a group of people who already feel like they have few ways to find passion online.

“It’s a sign of his rapid rise, so there’s no shadow, but we saw what happened Grindr“says Brad Allen, a 34-year-old event planner and producer Club Quarantinewho joined Sniffies in 2023. “I ask them to look at this differently because it is very important for the people who are sailing here.”