This one evening Last February, over drinks and the ambient bar lighting in Brooklyn, Eric Green and his friends were exchanging stories about their recent interactions when someone mentioned using the app Sniffs have public sex. A 30-year-old tattoo artist working in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Green identifies as a bottom, is a frequent user of dating apps and has an active sex life – only he had never heard of Sniffies.
It didn't last long after that night out. Green was overcome with “complete and utter horniness” at home and decided to sign up himself. When he opened the app, he was reminded of Google Maps, but instead of restaurants and shopping recommendations, he was inundated with nude photos and suggestions for the nearest pump-and-dump. “I expected it to be like Grindr and Jack'd, but after trying it out I realized it was super accessible,” says Green, referring to two other popular queer hookup platforms. “More accessible than any other app.”
Access is Sniffies' main selling point. A map-based cruising platform for men of all sexual identifications (gay, bi, DL, and genuinely curious – yes, you read that right), Sniffies has become something of an adults-only Disneyland for queer men interested in sex-positive, no-strings-attached encounters. “We really focus on connections in the moment,” says Eli Martin, the company's chief marketing officer and creative director. “On other apps it's not always clear what people's intentions are – some people want to find a boyfriend, others just want to look around – but on Sniffies we try to make it clear that people are fulfilling their sexual desires and fetishes.”
Sniffies is not your typical dating app, or any dating app at all, really. Instead of the typical song and dance on Tinder or Bumble, where conversations descend into endless banter that often never culminates in an IRL meeting, Sniffies lets you anonymously browse a map of guys looking for sex with other guys. Together with web apps BKDR (short for back door), Motto, and Double list (think of a more streamlined Craigslist personals), it has revived an appeal in cruise culture that had been taboo for so long, even among certain gay circles, for fear of acceptance or health concerns.
“Destigmatizing casual sex has been our biggest obstacle overall,” says Martin. “It's ingrained in us to be monogamous, but we should have this sexual freedom. Cruising doesn't have to be seedy or something that only happens in back alleys.” Fortunately, he says, that is changing. “In recent years we've been able to enjoy it more without too much judgment, but on the first day it was still difficult because I thought: how can we make an app that [not only cool] but constantly pushing people to participate?”
Launched in 2018, Sniffies was the brainchild of former Seattle architect Blake Gallagher. A problem solver by nature, Gallagher was fascinated by the way urban environments influence sexual interactions. Wanting to better enhance natural human connection in public spaces, he decided to implement a mapping function and geolocation technology as the basis for Sniffies, using what author Jack Parlett calls: “the democratic potential of cruising.” Gallagher first tested his idea in Seattle and, with the help of his brother Grant, a programmer, slowly built Sniffies into what it is today: a “cruising app for the curious” with an increasingly global reach.