Review Insights · App Store
Recon - Gay Fetish App
T101 Limited · 444 ratings · ★ 2.3
2.3
★★★★★
444 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 90 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"recon"
18 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deserves 0 stars. I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for …" - 630masc
2
"years"
17 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deserves 0 stars. I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for …" - 630masc
3
"been"
17 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "My safeword is “Rollback”. ROLLBACK. I’ve been on Recon since 2009. This version is painfully slow, I mean 10 seconds to load messages. Ads in Premium in my messages like Grindr. Pics so large I’m embarrassed to use this in public. And only 3 lines of profile text up…" - AJFitch87
4
"update"
15 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deserves 0 stars. I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for …" - 630masc
5
"subscription"
14 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deserves 0 stars. I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for …" - 630masc
6
"people"
13 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible update just killed the app. Im at a loss for words. This used to be a 5 star app. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a one of a kind app for kinky men. Clearly NO ONE likes the new update, yall just killed the app. WHY are favorites gone? People want to bookmark profiles, …" - Wasenxusjxd
7
"profiles"
12 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible update just killed the app. Im at a loss for words. This used to be a 5 star app. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a one of a kind app for kinky men. Clearly NO ONE likes the new update, yall just killed the app. WHY are favorites gone? People want to bookmark profiles, …" - Wasenxusjxd
8
"profile"
11 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "My safeword is “Rollback”. ROLLBACK. I’ve been on Recon since 2009. This version is painfully slow, I mean 10 seconds to load messages. Ads in Premium in my messages like Grindr. Pics so large I’m embarrassed to use this in public. And only 3 lines of profile text up…" - AJFitch87
9
"other"
11 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Deserves 0 stars. I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for …" - 630masc
10
"doesn"
11 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Stopped working after a day. loads, throws a connection error. Reinstall doesn’t fix" - triskuit
11
"grindr"
10 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "My safeword is “Rollback”. ROLLBACK. I’ve been on Recon since 2009. This version is painfully slow, I mean 10 seconds to load messages. Ads in Premium in my messages like Grindr. Pics so large I’m embarrassed to use this in public. And only 3 lines of profile text up…" - AJFitch87
12
"horrible"
10 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible redesign. I’ve used the recon website and the apps for well over a decade, this new update has completely ruined to site and the app, totally unusable with how I have used it for years. Please give an option to revert to the classic design or I’ll ha…" - Phlash65
📋 All 90 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Deserves 0 stars
I am so glad I did not renew for another year. Believe everyone that is complaining about the apps ridiculously new update. I still use recon but only through the website. It actually performs a lot better than the app does. Will I pay for a subscription again? Hell no, Ian’s I was a subscriber for 18 years.
Downgrade
The new app/website are laughably bad. And thanks for forgetting all my friends and connections. Oh wait, they can be imported so they have followers. No thanks. I’m not some 20 something social media addict with the attention span of a goldfish. I’ll be returning the favor by forgetting this once great app. Quite a mystery why you decided to flush it down the toilet along with I suspect many users. Alienating your user base is a remarkably dumb strategy. And now, ads masquerading as messages - that can’t be deleted. Pure garbage.
New update is trash
Don’t pay
My safeword is “Rollback”
ROLLBACK. I’ve been on Recon since 2009. This version is painfully slow, I mean 10 seconds to load messages. Ads in Premium in my messages like Grindr. Pics so large I’m embarrassed to use this in public. And only 3 lines of profile text up-front? No. I was the pilot program and I gave feedback on this. It was ignored.
Horrible redesign
I’ve used the recon website and the apps for well over a decade, this new update has completely ruined to site and the app, totally unusable with how I have used it for years. Please give an option to revert to the classic design or I’ll have to completely leave this site. I have already cancelled my subscription I’ve had for many years.
JFC
First time seeing the new updates, congrats on totally destroying your company. Was this a group think decision?
They killed recon
Messages take minutes to load and you can feel your phone get hot and watch your battery drop. They stripped away a lot of search features which made it unique and a standout to other platforms, but now it’s just another location based app, with terrible performance. Whoever spearheaded this should be fired.
Stopped working after a day
loads, throws a connection error. Reinstall doesn’t fix
Doesn’t work
The app won’t even connect. Throws errors and just says try again. I’ve followed their support suggestions of deleting and reselling a few times but continue to get the same error
Botched upgrade
To be filed under “example of fixing something that wasn’t broken “ That ruined the original raw site that was great for so many many years.
HUGE disappointment
Have been a member for over 20 years, yes, long before smart phones. This is the WORST ‘update’. It is riddled with connection issues, and the UI is not an improvement at all. It is yet another way to take away features to ‘encourage’ users to pay high prices.
Will no longer load
After update the App will no longer load. Deleted the app
And reinstalled and still won’t load.
And reinstalled and still won’t load.
Doesn’t work
With the new version of the app, it won’t even open now. The new version worked for a few days and now it’s just dead. Definitely canceling my subscription since I can’t open the app anymore.
Even if I could open the app, Recon handles iOS photos insanely poorly. Any other connection app, like Grindr or Scruff or Sniffies handle them so much better. Also, those apps will actually display the photos unlike Recon, which just hides them after you upload them.
Even if I could open the app, Recon handles iOS photos insanely poorly. Any other connection app, like Grindr or Scruff or Sniffies handle them so much better. Also, those apps will actually display the photos unlike Recon, which just hides them after you upload them.
Horrible update just killed the app
Im at a loss for words. This used to be a 5 star app. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a one of a kind app for kinky men. Clearly NO ONE likes the new update, yall just killed the app.
WHY are favorites gone? People want to bookmark profiles, grindr has favorites. Instead now we have to follow them and notify them?!? This isn’t instagram WTF.
The worst part is the removal of the tagline. WHY ISNT IT VISIBLE ANYMORE IN THE GRID? You used to be able to scroll and click on profiles because you read their tagline and it matched your interests. Now you only see their username and have to view their profile to read their tagline? But free users have a daily profile view limit… DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM!? THE DAILY VIEW LIMIT IS ALREADY SO LOW. BUT NOW WE HAVE TO CLICK PROFILES TO READ THEIR TAGLINE? YALL ARE GONNA KILL THE APP IF YOU DONT GO BACK. PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CANCELLING SUBSCRIPTIONS.
Also, the explore feature doesn’t even work, no profiles come up.
And where is the upcoming trip feature?!??! Like WTF.
Whatever. Theres also a bug that logs me out every time I close the app too. I have to re login every time. But honestly, I don’t have any reason to login anymore. Yall are gonna lose all your customers. Idiots.
WHY are favorites gone? People want to bookmark profiles, grindr has favorites. Instead now we have to follow them and notify them?!? This isn’t instagram WTF.
The worst part is the removal of the tagline. WHY ISNT IT VISIBLE ANYMORE IN THE GRID? You used to be able to scroll and click on profiles because you read their tagline and it matched your interests. Now you only see their username and have to view their profile to read their tagline? But free users have a daily profile view limit… DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM!? THE DAILY VIEW LIMIT IS ALREADY SO LOW. BUT NOW WE HAVE TO CLICK PROFILES TO READ THEIR TAGLINE? YALL ARE GONNA KILL THE APP IF YOU DONT GO BACK. PEOPLE ARE ALREADY CANCELLING SUBSCRIPTIONS.
Also, the explore feature doesn’t even work, no profiles come up.
And where is the upcoming trip feature?!??! Like WTF.
Whatever. Theres also a bug that logs me out every time I close the app too. I have to re login every time. But honestly, I don’t have any reason to login anymore. Yall are gonna lose all your customers. Idiots.
Can’t Sign In
I just paid for a subscription yet the app won’t let me get access the sign in screen. I’m greeted with a “That didn’t work message.” The app was working properly until I decided to subscribe. What’s going on? There’s nothing on my profile that would cause me to be banned (been the same for the past 3 - 4 years), so I’m not sure what the issue is. It sucks to pay just to lose access the same day.
Bad bad bad
The latest version of the app absolutely is trash. Horrible layout, not user friendly, and is a massive step backwards.
Disastrous update
The new website and app are horrendous. So far the feedback seems to be overwhelmingly negative. Whoever made the design and those who signed off it should be fired.
Terrible update
I have used Recon for years and have enjoyed it. I am even a paying member. However this new update is trash. And I will probably be canceling my paid membership shortly.
I don't care one way or the other about the new aesthetic appearance of the app. My gripe is the loss of features. You can't have favorites anymore, which was important because they allowed you mark someone's profile to come back later or something. Now you have to follow them and they get notified! That sucks. Also the loss of keyword search is ridiculous, that was an incredibly important feature. Can't believe you got rid of it. Also it keeps crashing, and I am not sure the messages I am sending are getting through. I have opened at least 2 chats that had new messages that I didn't see in the inbox.
I don't care one way or the other about the new aesthetic appearance of the app. My gripe is the loss of features. You can't have favorites anymore, which was important because they allowed you mark someone's profile to come back later or something. Now you have to follow them and they get notified! That sucks. Also the loss of keyword search is ridiculous, that was an incredibly important feature. Can't believe you got rid of it. Also it keeps crashing, and I am not sure the messages I am sending are getting through. I have opened at least 2 chats that had new messages that I didn't see in the inbox.
Version 3 is horrible
Prior to this version I would have given five stars. Best gay app there was. Now I would give zero stars if possible it is so bad. This app used to be great. They need to roll back to the old version. This new version is HORRIBLE. I’ve been using it for years and this is the worst I have ever seen. No longer get a scrollable list. Today only 2 people in it. Fire your developers who did this. Go back to the old version. This is major steps backwards.
Wow, this is bad. Like BAD BAD
Wow, okay after how many years they finally decide to change everything and wow, it's a heck of a lot worse. Worse than Grindr and that's saying something.
Greed made it useless
This app used to be better. Greed has ruined it. Free features are now behind a paywall making the app basically useless, unless you pay. Deleting account.
Terrible Update
I liked the functionality of Recon how it was before. The kink community isn’t huge in many communities so being able to easily filter people all over the world rather than the same few people within a 50 mile radius would be my preference. I can meet more people locally on Grindr and sniffies. I like recon to connect with like minded people all over the world, not just right next to me. This update makes that much harder to do. It’s technically still possible, but much more tedious. I’d rather look through a list of everyone not just nearby people. Please revert back to the old app! 😭
This is why we can’t have nice things
This app used to be a surprisingly resilient outlier in the landscape of dating apps (esp gay dating apps) becoming cesspools for ads and misery. That is gone. I will be mourning the loss of what once made this platform amazing….
Inbox is stuck
My inbox shows one message unread perpetually. I can’t remove the notification. Fix it Jesus.
Terrible new interface for 2026
Everything is behind a paywall now, even seeing who cruised you. The new 2026 “squares” interface is lame and copies what all the other apps do. Also been noticing so many profile pictures are AI generated. So the platform is definitely on a downward trend. Terrible App and service.
Redesign Destroyed It
Subscriber here. The app used to be simple and easy to use. It used to be intuitive. The new redesign seems practically designed to be difficult to use and counterintuitive. Change it back.
New version ten steps back
I’ve been on recon since it was a series of federated sites starting with “world.” That will be ending soon. The recent changes to emulate social media are poorly timed, as interest is waning in such styles of interaction. It was bad enough before, but the new interface is unusable.
Something once great is trash now
I was a long time member since the beginning and loved the site and this app. It did what it said and worked beautifully. Little by little things were restricted if you weren’t a paid member and i get that. They need to make a profit. I eventually became a paid member and enjoyed what was restricted. But now with this latest revamp it pure trash. Features were removed such as favorites which now became followers. The purpose of favorites was so you can go back to profiles you liked but not necessarily wanted to be friends with. Now that is gone and if you want it back you need to convert them to Followers and those profiles get notified that you follow them. This feels like they are trying to be something like facebook, twitter, and bluesky. We all know how much garbage is on those platforms. I cancelled my subscription back to basic free for now and hope the developers rethink the mistake they made by changing this once great app/site. If they make it great again then i might go back to paid subscription. Note to developers: you should ask your members what they want in the app, what experience they would like to have using your app, what they hate about your app. Take a survey or reach out to your customers. We are your lifeline to success. Don’t ignore us and think your decisions and ideas are all that matter. You still have time to make things right, make things great. But if you wait too long, you will lose all of your members and put the nail in your coffin. Please don’t disappoint us. I’m already in the process in looking for a better app to switch to.
New Format is terrible
New format is poorly laid out. Confusing, not easy to maneuver. Very user UNfriendly.
Please go back to previous format.
Please go back to previous format.
Major features ripped out of an existing app to produce slop
This app updated the week of 8 June has removed all the features they had in the app they've had out for well over 15 years. It's only useful if you wish to see members in your local area you cannot do keyword searches or location searches anymore. Definitely not worth membership cost.
It doesn't work
The new version doesn't work, they crushed whole app. Bring back old style
V3.0 is really not good
Why is there no feature to filter by interests/fetish?
New layout is horrible
The new app is a major downgrade in every single way. Such a disappointment.
Looks like **it now
I had to update it since it wasn’t working well anymore and the new update looks like absolute trash now. Way to take something that was working and make it stupid. I don’t think I plan to renew my subscription when my current one runs out. Very disappointing Recon.
New format sucks!
Bring back the old app style, and stop restricting what we see!
The site always deletes my account
If you take a break from using it, without doing anything, not deleting not putting it in a certain mode, nothing. The site deletes you. This has happened countless times and it’s been so frustrating. Ugh!
B
I HATE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”!!!!!!!!”!!!!!!!”!:’!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You know there are gay men who are blind, who might like to use this app
I have enabled VoiceOver the screen reader on my iPhone, so I can use apps, even though I can’t see the screen when I touch places on the screen it speaks them, but in this app when I try and access the menu to navigate around the app, it won’t let me open the menu. It prevents me from using the app the only way to access the menu is to turn off the screen reader and have a friend tap the menu to open it. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know why Apple even allows apps to be submitted and approved when a basic function like the navigation menu is inaccessible to people who use the screen reader that’s part of the operating system. It’s not Apple‘s fault the way this app was coded outside their environment, but they could prevent it from being approved in the App Store until the developer makes it accessible.
Terrible app
I love Recon, I’ve been a premium member for several years, but the app is poorly designed and is lacking a lot of basic features that are available on the website. I haven’t seen any improvements in the past years - so, I won’t renew my premium subscription, unless something changes soon
Searching Broken
Making searching profiles (except for searching usernames) a premium feature undermined the usefulness of an app like recon. Other apps do not charge for search
Tbh name- B e n 3 0 6 0 6 9
is 🧊🧊
This App Is Problematic
On my first day redownloading this app, I got called a N*gger, no introduction could’ve prepared me for that. And the support was nonexistent, no admin to see and feel the disgust and anger I felt when dealing with the filth the people on this app get away with day after day.
Pointless without subscription
The apps ui isn’t the greatest, you can only view a certain number of profiles per day, you can’t view any photos unless you have a subscription. Kind of ridiculous actually.
Discriminates
This app is a joke. I reported someone for telling me to kill myself and they did nothing about it. Yet someone reported me because they want me to pay to talk to them and I said I’m not their personal atm and I get banned for it.
A hookup app that doesn’t allow photos
First of all, my photos kept getting declined for either nudity or depictions of sexual acts even though I was fully clothed. There isn’t any kind of user support. No real users. Lots of advertising. Big waste of time. Stick with Grindr.
Waste of time too few users
Of course these people have no real quantity of users you’re allowed to view so few profiles per day and then the photos mess is insane they block the most reasonable photo making you need to view it only in their website cause the app version must be overly censored which isn’t true they go way further than Apple requires. Then omg the price of subscription it’s insane for how few users there are or even features too when will you dating apps learn that a smaller fee will absolutely get a boatload of subscribers and you will still profit so end the greed and do the benefits for the people to actually meet not this keep everyone apart but paying for these apps. Greedy!
too censored
there’s a reason why no one uses this app. they are way too strict on the photos they deem too risqué. that and the app has looked the same for over a decade now and is not user friendly at all.
Horrible people
Do not waste your time with this site. They should be reported for their actions. Suspending accounts for no reason, and not offering any reason for their actions. Always removed pictures I posted on my account. They want a PG rating for a fetish site.
Not safe.
You cannot block people on this app when you run out of profile views and thus if someone starts threatening your health welfare or safety you just have to sit there and listen to the threats. Absurd.
Disappointed but not surprised.
It seems that this app only works for European men. I constantly get messages and “cruises” from men in Berlin, London, Sweden and pretty much everywhere but on the continent that I live. I’ve made it clear in my profile what I’m looking for and the guys in this app do not care. I got scammed by these 2 dudes and it’s scary how bad at communicating grown men are. This is a BDSM app and if you cannot communicate then the potential of anything stops right there. Communication is essential in the world of BDSM because of safety issues. I messaged a guy I had been chatting with for awhile and told him that the communication between us was not good and that I felt like I was the one who was carrying the conversations. I was very nice (nicer than I should’ve been) when I told him I was no longer interested due to his inability to communicate, his response was, “ok bye”. I wish I hadn’t spent money on the membership for this app because I’ve had it since 2020 and I have not met a single person. No one is serious about making any kind of connections on this app.
+ 40 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
27%
Positive (4-5★)
7%
Neutral (3★)
66%
Negative (1-2★)