Partnerships

Image: Grindr

Grindr has launched its new cross-country bus tour “Grindr Rides America” in celebration of Pride month.

“From the Castro to Stonewall, we’ll be getting around—hop on, get off, and get your dicks on Route 66,” Grindr’s cheeky press release reads. “This is all in celebration of YOU as we toast to 15 years and counting.”

Grindr’s bus tour is also in celebration of its fifteenth anniversary, and the company will offer free HIV testing, PrEP resources, and a full-service photography studio to LGBTQ neighborhoods on its route. According to Mashable, a team from medical service Q Care Plus will be along for the ride to discuss HIV and STI prevention with attendees, as well as screening, treatment options, and how to access prep and doxy-PEP to encourage discussion and support without judgment.

Tinder is launching a new in-app tool to encourage UK voters to access information about the upcoming election.

According to Mobile Marketing Magazine, the initiative called “Give an X” offers an in-app “Swipe Card” that provides unbiased information about the election and candidates so that users can make informed decisions for the General Election taking place this summer.

When a user swipes right on the card, Tinder redirects them to a Voting 101 FAQ page in partnership with youth-led, non-partisan charity My Life My Say. The FAQ page offers information on where to vote, what to bring, and steps for those who have recently moved as well as information about the election.

Dating app Tinder has partnered with running coach app Runna to launch a special summer run club for singles.

According to Runner’s World magazine, the “Solemates” club was created in response to a growing need from Tinder app users for activity-based dating events. There is also a significant number of runners joining Tinder, and the term “running” is one of the top trending profile-tagged “interests” that people can choose from on the platform.

SoleMates events are taking place in June and July in London, and will be held on Wednesday nights for three consecutive weeks at different areas, including Clapham and Central London. The third location is to be determined.

Image: Grindr

Grindr has announced it has partnered with Equality in Movement in Georgia and MPOWER in Ireland to connect its users in these countries with at-home HIV testing kits.

According to the company’s blog post, Grindr says it wants to address the global HIV epidemic by making it easier for its users to have access to testing. While many countries have local testing centers, they can still be difficult to access, expensive, and many people still don’t want the stigma of going to a public place to get tested.

Users in Georgia and Ireland will have dedicated buttons on the app’s interface to order at-home self-test kits, any time of day. The app wanted the access to tests to be as simple as Covid tests have become for most folks. The company also wants to encourage more people to test for HIV by alleviating the stigma with in-person tests and allowing them to test in the privacy of their own home.

Match Group signed a partnership deal with OpenAI’s ChatGPT-4, which includes over 1,000 ChatGPT Enterprise licenses for company employees to help with their work-related tasks. Match Group noted that the press release announcing the move was written by ChatGPT.

While Match Group has been heavily focused on using AI to develop new features for its platform, this move incorporates it into the company’s internal workflow. Employees will use ChatGPT-4 to aid with coding, design, analysis, to build templates, and other tasks.

It will also help with marketing communications, although the press release is a bit over the top. As Tech Crunch notes, even though releases are designed to create buzz and excitement, Match’s latest announcement is heavy with love analogies and puns, which makes for a groan-inducing read.

Dating app Grindr has announced a strategic partnership with Ex-human to add an AI assistant to its platform.

According to Decrypt, Ex-human is a bit different from the familiar AI tools we’ve seen, which focus on answering fact-based questions. Instead, Ex-human is designed to engage in “emotionally resonant and meaningful conversations” according to Decrypt.

In fact, the AI model offers virtual companions like imaginary geishas and popular figures like Elon Musk. The companions are designed to show expressions and reactions to different prompts, so the user feels more engaged with the bot.