A former Grindr employee is speaking out, saying one corporate shift marked the start of what some users call the app’s decline. According to Vox, complaints have grown in recent years, with users describing the platform as more expensive and less usable. The criticism comes as Grindr trials a new premium tier called EDGE — an artificial intelligence-powered subscription priced between $349.99 and $499.99 per month, with some plans reaching $500.
The tier is being tested in the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and will sit above, not replace, Grindr Unlimited. A former marketing staffer who left the company in 2023 said the downturn began in 2022 when Grindr went public, and this shift led the app’s focus to move from its users to its investors.
The staffer said, “Grindr really changed the game in a lot of ways; it was a different type of cruising…It was, at the time, so cool and inventive, but now, it’s taken on a Silicon Valley shape.” Grindr’s chief product officer, AJ Balance, pushed back, saying: “Some of the principles we have in building our products is giving users choice… and control over what products they want to use…If users don’t want to engage with these products, they don’t have to go there.”
