Grindr is changing inside and out.
The company is currently in the midst of a major AI reboot. From engineers to designers, everyone is armed with a slew of new tools. Users can see it too, especially with the app’s new Edge subscription tier being tested at eye-popping prices ranging from $80 a week to hundreds of dollars a week.
Then there’s the advertising problem, which Grindr has long struggled with. How many ads are too many? And why are there so many mobile game ads that are annoyingly hard to exit?
I asked Chief Product Officer AJ Balance about this and more during a long conversation at the company’s West Hollywood headquarters. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Grinder is growing. Which departments are you strengthening?
balance: We are growing across the board. We’re building an engineering team and hiring several product managers and designers. We have hired a head of design and will be starting in a few weeks.
Will AI change who we need to hire?
balance: Each job has the opportunity to be more productive with it. In engineering, we want people who are coding with these tools or are excited about learning these tools. Aptitude and willingness to learn are probably the most important things.
Let’s say I’m a Grindr software engineer. What is my AI diet?
balance: I am using Claude code. That’s obviously a big deal. Under the hood, we use OpenAI, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Codex. Across the company, we use a variety of LLMs to create notes, presentations, and even spreadsheets. Sometimes I use Gemini and Grok. The design team uses Midjourney, Sora, and ComfyUI. The list is long, and some of these tools are used more than others. 70% of our code is actually checked in via AI, which is a huge milestone.
I’ve read all the essays about changes in software development, and some people complain in that area. AI fatigue. Is the job of a software engineer changing?
balance: Things have certainly changed in a good way. This often shifts people’s time allocation to reviewing code instead of writing code all the time. Previously, there were people writing the code and colleagues or people in more senior roles reviewing it. We are contributing to the improvement of everyone’s level.
AI is make everyone a manager. do you agree?
balance: That seems to be the trend. If you think of agents as people who perform tasks, you start coordinating agents to perform tasks.
Grindr’s big news is its AI subscription Edge and its test price. Why is it so expensive?
balance: We price all of our products based on the value they provide to our users. Edge makes it easier for people to make more and better connections. Grindr is a free product, and we care deeply about our free users. We have a freemium business model, meaning over 90% of our users are free. But some users want to pay for more value. With these AI products, it becomes like a set of superpowers.
Do you think Edge is a luxury product?
balance: Edge is definitely a premium product. It’s a premium value, a premium price point. We also have a user base that is willing to pay a premium price to get more value, so we want to serve them as well.
Grindr’s Edge subscription includes Discover, Profile Insights, and A-List. grinder
I just saw the clip radio andy We’re talking about how expensive it is. Were you surprised by the pushback on pricing?
balance: We do a lot of research beforehand, including focus groups and surveys. When you’re developing a product, you receive a lot of feedback along the way. We’re doing a live beta group and we did it on Edge. What we’ve heard publicly is pretty much in line with what our users are saying. I mean, for some people, it’s really worth it and they’re willing to pay for it. Not everyone wants or needs to pay for it. Some of these people may not find it very interesting, and that’s perfectly fine.
I just came from a place Tinder conferencewhere they announced they were bringing some stuff out from behind a paywall. people seem tired of having to do this pay so much. What do you think about subscription fatigue?
balance: We take the free user experience very seriously. We listen closely to our users about paywalls and ads. We said we would be making targeted rollbacks to these items to make the free experience great. That’s definitely something we’re thinking about. There was a meeting about it this week.
I received several emails about the amount of ads on Grindr. Thinking about ad density?
balance: we. We’re really proud of our advertising team, they’ve grown the business tremendously. We’ve heard from users that they could improve the amount of ads they load and the types of ads they see. In some cases, roll back some of the load. Often we are considering new formats. We are introducing reward advertising. The idea is that if you watch an ad, you’ll either go ad-free for a few minutes or get access to one of our premium features.
As a company, we take privacy very seriously. The needs of the user base mandate it. For many people here and abroad, being gay is extremely difficult. One reason why ads on apps aren’t very good is because they share very little data with advertisers. We are thinking of ways to improve it.
Sentiment surrounding dating apps has gotten really bad. Will Grindr be saved? swipe fatigue?
balance: It’s different because our users don’t swipe. The grid, open chat model is a subtle difference in the product, but it actually leads to a different user experience. The types of connections are different and more diverse. I don’t often hear from users that they are tired of swiping.
