Gays celebrated Grindr’s 17th anniversary with the most unhinged screenshots

We've now all been scrolling Grindr for 17 years!

Mark Mark
Mar 28, 2026 - 20:00
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A gay man in a pink shirt holds up a smile and smiles wearing birthday glasses, next to superimposed images of a phone with Grindr on its screen and the orange logo.

Ahh, Grindr — young and sweet, and (officially) only 17.

This week, the orange demon app celebrated the 17th anniversary of its launch, meaning we’ve spent nearly two decades of our lives dealing with headless torso-inflicted chaos.

Oh, yes, and networking. Because that’s what we really download the app for.

How about we take this to the next level?

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Naturally, the gays’ most notorious hookup app honored the milestone the only way it knows how: by encouraging us to spend more time on it.

In a post, Grindr’s social media team challenged users on Gay Twitter X to share their “funniest Grindr screenshots” in hopes of scoring free Unlimited access.

Considering the add-on typically costs a whopping $44.99 per month, the incentive to leak your most unhinged conversations was high.

And boy, did the boys deliver!

The post received over 21 million views and more than 1,200 responses, ranging from the typical DL straight dude trying to cheat on his girlfriend, to the uninvited kink invitations, and one man who was maybe, almost, taken over by the devil?

“That time a couple tried to coerce me into demonic possession,” mentioned an X user, alongside a message from a suitor asking to “worship Satan” with him “in a ritual.” (You can’t see us right now, but we’re clutching our pearls.)

Of course, there were some oft-recycled and memed screenshots that made the rounds, like the man who sent a picture of himself after searching “normal guy selfies” on Google, and the friendly-faced “9/11 Suckvivor.”

Showing that Grindr is truly an everything app, a few users offered screenshots that erred on the sentimental side.

One poster shared that he once received a message from a high school classmate 15 years after graduation. What was the purpose of said message, you ask?

To figure out “the name for enfrijoladas.”

Maybe we were wrong about the networking thing, after all.

And if there were any doubt as to whether Grindr is an anomaly, a few users chimed in with equally hilarious screenshots from other dating/hookup apps.

We get it. Some of you have been banned for years. The FOMO is real!

While only a select number of gays were awarded with Unlimited access on Grindr’s big day, it felt like a celebration for the entire LGBTQ+ community.

At a time when the app is more expensive than ever, experimenting with AI, and has turned into a punchline for Gavin Newsom’s office, these screenshots seem to unify us.

No matter what happens to that lil’ orange icon in our phones, there’s no denying how essential, revolutionary, and fun it’s been to use over the past 17 years.

Happy scrolling!

Below, check out more of the most unhinged Grindr messages in celebration of the app’s 17th birthday.

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