GROWLR: Gay Bears Near You

I can’t NEVER get my messages when someone sends them I have to wait an hour before I can get them ‼️And I really love this app, but I have been disappointed

Great app, sadly a few ruin it for the many. More troublesome than it’s worth. Great bonds can be made with men across time zones. Unfortunately as with much of the internet, the trolls sour the experience.

This app is buggy and is stuck in 2008. What a horrible app.

App is so glitchy very frustrating and it freezes up all the time.

App is clunky and outdated , doesn’t appear profiles are current not worth it

I get notification that I have new messages but when I try to open Messenger, it will not work and it does not show me any thing new. I have let growller know about this, but nothing has happened and no one has contacted me.

It seems cool and friendly the first few weeks but then stops showing messages and doing other pernicious moves to get you to “upgrade” and pay.

The app constantly locks up
I get notifications that I have messages but each time I have to completely shut down my phone and restart it to get messages

Can’t talk to guy in the same city that I am in off of WiFi

I always get a lot of notifications that are repeats and I can’t read new messages until sometimes many hours later. Happened a lot. Not reliable and no more PRO subscription for subpar apps.

Scam scam scam fake profiles, you get warned by the owner to stop calling out fakes

This app loses messages and you have to restart your phone to retrieve a message…

I use this app at home, and two separate work areas. I get the alert that I should update my profile picture for more engagement. However, the grid never changes on my iPhone. People will show active green dots 2 hrs later and still be on my grid 2 days later. I can't invest in an app monetarily. Fix your app. If you say works better on android say. However, I've put off this noticeable flaw for almost 3 years when I moved to a new area and got a new job. Limited grid and when people log off they are still on your grie for hours up to days. And yes before I wrote this I have 1 profile that has 2 days. Why pay to see more profiles of non-active people when I'm looking to chat now.

Straight people own this app and they sell your private information

This app is so intensive it kills my battery and runs so hot and it uses background so runs hot even when it’s not open

Notifications shows but not my messages

You never going to have good relationships with anyone you keep kicking out people for no good reason. There are people leaving this site for you u4 bear because of your lack of respect and compassion

I paid for 1 subscription and you charge me 2 more. I cancel my card

Well, isn’t this special? 15 years later in this tired old application is still trudging on.
It’s not any easier or updated than it was 10 years ago, there appears to be as many bots and fake accounts as there are actual people. Good for entertainment, but unreliable for anything else.

9.99 for this? All I get are bot accounts, this app hasn’t truly been updated in years except for the logo, and there’s barely anyone on here even in metro areas. This is probably the worse gay app to download by far. It used to be amazing but they stopped caring. Run far away and download anything else.

The guys I meet on here or great, but the ban policy is out of control. I get banned for wearing gym shorts. I stopped my paid membership because I refuse to pay for an app I don’t have full use of.

Just downloaded the app for the first time and it will not let me create an account. Guess I’ll just delete it and find another.

I was reported for abuse by a Freak who was constantly harassing me! I blocked him. The childish freak reported me! If Growlr would have done a bit of research they could’ve just reviewed the message stream and seen that I had done nothing wrong!!

Hasn’t been updated in decades, admins are weird, nothing works, messages get deleted

Sound is horrible

Heres what Growlr sent me for sending their STANDARD (Growl) to another user. “We regret to inform you that your account has recently been reported as abusive or in violation of our Terms of Service Agreement. Any further violations will result in the permanent suspension of your account.” Growlr gave me ZERO explanation or clue of the ALLEGED violation. Just a random “flag” by another user which Growlr validated as FACT, disregarding that the “abuse” was unfounded, and simply the subjective opinion of the other user. WHY would you violate your own terms of service by allowing users to send a standard Growlr greeting, that another user may interpret as “overly suggestive” or abusive? That is INCREDIBLY stupid. If its that much of a problem to (growl) at someone who takes OFFENSE to your growls, then remove them altogether. Reports of “abuse” should not be SUBJECTIVE to wether or not another user is “offended” by a growl. The terms of service should be explicit and EXEMPT growls from being flagged or reported as “abusive”. Users should agree to this in the terms of service. For example: “I will not report growls as abusive, and understand they are simply icebreakers and lighthearted gestures to flirt and express admiration ”. If not, It is disingenuous and inconsistent with your own terms of service, to the principle's you proclaim to have, regarding respecting other users on the platform. It shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. If you thought Ai was the end all solution to process these alleged reports, it FAILED, and the person who agreed to using Ai to flag and validate all the reports should be FIRED. Ai shouldn't be used to validate subjective opinions as offenses, when you still need a HUMAN to qualify them.

So I’ve recently gotten a new phone and tried to get a link to reset my password but i haven’t received anything as of yesterday late afternoon. I don’t k ow what’s up with the emailing support haven’t heard anything either.

Literally your sight is flooded with body pics and pics in underwear or I’ve seen them in singlets and riskier pics and yet you reject my chest pic? Like 3 separate ones and there’s no pubic showing nothing scandalous nothing risky

Not consistent on profile pics

It’s hard to navigate through the app

I’ve had Growlr for years and do pay for the subscription but over the last few months I have been locked out of my account multiple time. I try to contact the support team and may get a response after multiple requests. I know they are bombard with issues but to let it go by for a week before responding is not okay. I really like this app but I am about done with it and may just cancel and close my account. As I lost all chats from a previous lock out.

Randomly deactivated my account

Pics don’t materialize, app freezes and shares unexpected error message. Messages lock up. For a paid app I expect more. I’ll not renew.

At one point in time this was a great app. It has since become rampant with spam accounts, ridiculously outdated UI, and bad support. Another example of profit of caring what the consumer wants.

What happened to GROWLR? Fake profiles have infiltrated the app and now they’re reporting actual paying members. I’ve been a paying member since its birth and now GROWLR has become an incredibly unsafe space where bots and data miners just want to take you into another chat platform and when you clap back, they report you and GROWLR sends YOU a message telling you that you’ve been reported for “abuse” and that any further infractions will cause your account to be canceled. If that’s the case, you’ll never see me again. There are far better apps out there that care about their customers. GROWLR has become a joke.

Only allows 150 blocks and then charges if you want more!

Terrible app

There’s always an issue with this app, it’s either can’t log in cuz of an error or for some reason when i open the app it stays in the title on the screen and it simply won’t open…

For about a week, since last V update to 16.46.0, just a spinning wheel and nothing else.

The app hasn’t been able to load for like 5 days now.

Just tried to load and never actually does

This app has been hit or miss for a while but now it wont even load. I have a relatively new iPhone and excellent cell and wifi service. I assume it is an issue with the app but cannot find any information on any outages.

For the past four years, all I get on the site is scam artist to were in a country or place that they don’t portrayed that they’re from the get go.
There’s too many bots on the site, scamming guys. Really needs to stop.

Updated Jan 14, 2026 Since a week ago when the latest update (16.46) arrived, the app doesn’t load. It just displays a “spinning wheel of death” on a white page. Not good.
I’ve never seen an available updated app just go “kaput” before. But I’ve been unable to do anything on it ever since. No messaging. No live videos. It just doesn’t work at all. And it leaves no clues about anything I might try to do to fix it from my end.
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(my previous 4-Star review) I use it. And it works, mostly.
But it has significant annoying aspects.
It doesn’t have any easy way to backup messages.
The text size and window for typing messages is tiny.
Search is inconvenient if not impossible if you don’t have a location to limit your search area.
Ads I understand: banners, and pages before reaching some features. Ads I don’t understand and which screw up the operation of the app: Pop ups offering free stuff that wreck, prevent you from doing whatever you’re doing.

Hey Growlr, you have profiles with half naked or at times fully naked men as their main photo, but I get a violation for having the word “chub” and “feet” in my profile name?

The number of fake/bot/AI generated accounts is scary. Don’t hold high expectations for serious dating here.

I don’t know why, but there are like thousands more bots and fake profiles than ever before. Nine out of 10 messages I get are from fake profiles or box. I can’t do it anymore..

If guys are naturally shirtless every day of their life... they don't get arrested in public. How is being a natural man in natural nature shirtless considered a reason to be banned. How annoying to have to always be fully clothed on app that is man made for men... unlike Grindr that is man made for trans men and men so it's impossible to connect on there. Seriously... I can understand background info... get these mod bots out of the lives and put real moderators. His app will fail quicker than periscope of here is no changes!!!

GROWLr is a toxic environment, those who run this app don’t do anything to ensure the safety of its users, it does not verify IP addresses or phone numbers, I was constantly stalked and harassed by other users and instead of doing anything about it it removed my profile. They promote accounts that are actively promoting hate speech, racism and pedofilia.

This is the most unreliable dating app because there’s no screening. Anyone can post anything here including totally fake profiles. Good luck.