GROWLR: Gay Bears Near You Reviews

by Freline

I have been getting a lot of abusive behavior by old men who do not read my profile to see what it is that I am looking for and then get verbally abusive when I ask them politely to read it. I don’t owe them anything. On other occasions, they unlock their private pictures without even greeting me and without my solicitation, which I consider a form of harassment, as it violates my boundaries.

I’ve been reporting them within GROWLR , which doesn’t allow you to explain specifics, so I’ve been sending screenshots of the conversations to the administrators. Their solutions? Block them. That’s it.

No, that is not it. What’s the point of even reporting these users if this app is not going to take them to task for abusing me? I’m sick and tired of these users disrespecting me like this. Maybe others are okay with it but I am not and I am tired of the administrators offering no help. So I do not recommend it for this reason.

by NicK0ol

So this app use to be a great app, and I was even a premium member a few points in time. However, this app was sold to a bigger tech company in March 2019 for roughly 12 million. From then on, it went down hill from spam messages, constant ad pop ups that you can’t exit from because the X is placed off screen, or the ads don’t even load properly, either way you have to close GROWLR , reopen it and cross your fingers that you don’t get a pop up ad.
Now GROWLR doesn’t even load properly, and take forever for it to open. What’s worse, is you’ll get a notification that someone sent you a message, you go to open GROWLR , lets say it opened quickly... but the message isn’t there. You can close GROWLR and reopen it but that message still isn’t there. Don’t worry though, in an hour or two it’ll show up.

this app should have never sold it, and the company that bought it should step up and fix it. This problem has been going on for God knows how long, and there hasn’t been an update.

by Rootsdeepinthesky

Unfortunately GROWLR design is very poor. It isn’t intuitive or easy to use, but it is full of bugs. Expect crashes and freezes. Also, after the most recent crash, I found myself locked out of my account. The developer’s auto-recover system doesn’t work and no one has responded to my customer service request. The community is riddled with spammer bot accounts, and I suspect the developer sets up dummy accounts which will automatically unlock private photos in an effort to get you to subscribe so you can view them.
This is definitely not worth paying the subscription fee for a premium account (I canceled mine after three days and requested a refund but don’t expect that to happen as no one responds to any customer service request). And, I actually think it isn’t worth downloading at all. It’s just far too frustrating to deal with.

by LoveKota

All GROWLR is anymore is constant pop ups every time you reopen GROWLR . Usually up to 5 or 6 in a row that you have to close each to you open up GROWLR . Then after you close all of them you have to sit through an add and close that. Then another issue is the constant spam account that send you links. I’m not even done there because then you have to deal with what they call SHOUTS which are these mass messages that people can send out to everyone in their area. All that you have to get through just so you can see a very VERY small amount of people in your area because they want you to pay for A FEW more. It’s such a shame because this used to be one of my favorite apps to use. I’ve met some great people from it. But it’s not even close to what it used to be. And empty shell of an app. Hopefully someday someone that works on GROWLR will actually care about it enough to make it good again. Clearly no one cares about it who works on it now. I would never pay for anything about GROWLR. It’s horrible. I’d give GROWLR ZERO Stars if it would let me.

by No_Neck

Ever since they sold GROWLR it has gotten worse and worse. The latest version has so many connection problems. Things take way too long to load. Sometimes, messages don’t appear for hours or even days. Notifications on iPhone are incorrect - they are doubled - so if you receive a message it shows up in notifications as two messages...two messages show up as four messages, etc. They still insist on playing ads with audio at full blast - it’s a social app folks - people are often looking at it when they are at work or in a private or quiet place - not a great thing to have an ad blasting out of your phone.

As I’m writing this review I received a message that my account has been suspended. I wasn’t even doing anything in GROWLR . It was just open. Checked with a friend and his account also was suspended. Looks like someone doesn’t have a clue how to administrate GROWLR at the home base. There are just too many social apps there for this to continue. Wake up folks - you’re ruining GROWLR.

by Bear503

i spend a lot of time on GROWLR blocking people because of strange profiles “in my area” anyone can make an account and stalk you with a blank profile, you can block them, but eventually you get to a point where GROWLR wants you to spend 9.99 a month to make sure that random creeps can be blocked because you’ve reached a blocked limit. super gross how people can stalk you with GPS, and know how far you are away. if your value your personal safety and privacy, then this is not GROWLR , anyone can track you and figure out that your at a specific location shopping for groceries. this is a sick way for
you to be stalked and harassed, but if you give them 9.99 a month, it will go away.. basically this is app allows the stalkers to find you, while it might be fun to connect with people at first, expect that you can be followed, stalked, and harassed at a while other level you wouldn’t expect. “this app pro” is the only way to stop people from stalking you.

by Dbear81

I drive the country for work and use apps to occasionally meet locals, this one is NOT helpful. It frequently will not update your location, so no one can see your current location—I get a lot of messages a day after I leave someplace, and many times they tell me “but it says you’re 2 miles from me” when I’m about 600. You look to see who’s on-line and find a green dot on someone who was last active two days ago—it won’t update. You can log in and within five minutes, you’re getting robo-spam trying to re-direct you to a dating website or trying to sell “personal “ services, and it happens far too much. Too many pop-ups for irrelevant features and services upon opening GROWLR , far too many annoying messages from the admin about someone streaming or this many people looked at your profile or “we haven’t seen you in 18 hours, please log in to remain active “ and you can’t shut them down without losing messaging you really want to know about. Yes, GROWLR serves a niche community, but the problems over the years that don’t get fixed or that multiply are pushing me to the edge of deleting GROWLR out of uselessness and pure annoyance.

by Muse-ic

Used to be good but is now getting ruined by daily scammers — I feel obliged to report them every time the apps directions and then I’m going to block them it’s very time-consuming and annoying and I paid full subscription price for GROWLR — Why is it my job to scream scammers?? this app fix it or I’m outta here

And also could use a redesign/significant update — It should be easier for us to get rid of select read messages — Currently u have to go through all your history and select which ones to delete or GROWLR clogs up your phone’s memory — would be nice — there should also be a way to block msgs from faceless profiles (which should be banned in 2019 for Pete’s sake) — tired of having to block them — and how about the ability to add more photos than 5 a la Scruff or at least to select multiple photos at once — in the age of rapid change don’t make the mistake of resting on your laurels a la Bear 411 — we put the bread on your table — I suggest you listen or make it more intuitive should I be missing anything here...

UPDATE Mar 12, 2021: It’s almost impossible to message with the new update there is no message box —The only thing I can do is add the default responses like OK or thanks. IPHONE USER

by Thomasblue

I have contacted the support team regarding multiple issues regarding my paid membership account for over two months. No response from the support team. I recently reached out to the founder of this app and asked him if the support team could follow up with me. Neither sources seem to care. Been a paid member for almost 8 years I believe. Sent multiple shouts. Probably will save money the following years and work with other “gay owned apps” and hopefully get better customer service and support with them in case an issue may occur. I give GROWLR 2 stars and would give it none, but I still use it on occasion to keep in contact with people along the way of my travels. I wished there was another Bear app that was world wide as popular as this app. I keep using GROWLR only because it markets to a certain “demographic gay male build” that I happen to admire - thanks for nothing this app I think I could be done with your app.

by HappyPhysicist

GROWLR is clumsy, difficult and totally unintuitive to navigate. It feels like the person who wrote GROWLR really didn’t know how to program on a mobile device.

Summary: Not so bad I will delete it, but quite annoying to use.

The profile displays an often long list of jumbled adjectives. You should be able to see top/bottom/vers and other stats without scanning through a list of a dozen or more other things. In general, the entire profile display/editor is a mess and needs to be totally redesigned.

GROWLR uses “shout-outs” as a method of blasting a message or hookup ad to a bunch of guys at once. Yes, you can turn them off entirely, but then your only other option is to block individuals. This is apparently a sad attempt to stand out from other apps/sites. You don’t need it and it’s a lame alternative to posting ads or flipping an on/off “looking now” switch.

Biggest annoyance with the simplest fix: You can ONLY view it in iPad portrait mode, and ONLY in the default position (i.e., you can’t flip it upside down). I’m sure the developer will tsk tsk and ignore this criticism, but it’s a fundamentally EASY thing to fix!!!

Also, a minor point: There is too much exposure of profiles to guys in distant locations. Until I specifically put that I wasn’t interested in the text of my profile, 80-90% of the messages I was getting were from hundreds or even thousands of miles away. This is rare on Scruff.

by Cru0

I’ve been using this app for years now and I definitely noticed GROWLR start to tailspin months ago. I almost exclusively used GROWLR. I finally took the plunge and upgraded to Pro around Thanksgiving. I was charged, but didn’t receive any of the updates. No biggie - send a support request. It’s around a holiday, I don’t expect to hear back for a few days. Until a few days goes by and I send in another. And another a few days after. I finally have to research who the parent company is and messages them. Yup. No response. Two weeks after activating Pro (and not seeing any of the benefits), I get an email response - not from this app Support, but from the parent company. I follow their instructions; no response back. My subscription is set to renew in days and I’ve literally heard NOTHING ELSE from support. Don’t waste your money.

by CaptainEO86

GROWLR is good for bigger guys and those that can appreciate them, lately though there’s been a little more of everything here so honestly, if you’re looking for an alternative give GROWLR a shot. That said, the features are what you would expect for an app like this, a grid with people nearby, basic messaging, video calls, and now a great live platform. However, the messaging and photos sections of GROWLR need A LOT of work… first thing I’d like to see is photo watermarking. If you’re going to have an explicit save function, even in private media or in messaging, a watermark is very necessary. If someone decides to run with these pics, yeah I know bad on me for putting them out in the first place, but I’d like to know if that person was at least snagging them from here, and not just a spiteful ex or something. Also multiple profile pictures would be GREAT… I’m tired of having to add more photos to my private album just for someone to ask me to unlock, thinking they’re going to get a sneaky peek and then be rude when it’s just face. The messaging is very basic, which is fine, but an aesthetic overhaul there and throughout GROWLR would be appreciated. Especially a dark mode! I’m tired of going blind at night 😅

Aside from these complaints, this is probably one platform I actually feel accepted and comfortable on. People are generally respectful of boundaries, and it’s just a great place to chat and meet new people. 😁

by Ed In The BK

I like and applaud this app for giving bears a dedicated online space to meet and flirt. Unfortunately, GROWLR has significant flaws. The one that absolutely drives me nuts is its system for showing who's online and who's not. The green dot that is supposed to indicate that a person is online and actively using GROWLR seemingly applies to anyone who's logged on in the last 24 hours or more. So unless you open up each profile and scroll down to find when they were last active, you wind up sending lots of messages to guys who aren't logged in or actively checking messages. Some dudes must think I'm a crazed stalker with the number of times I view their profile just to see if they're online! And the new design is a vast improvement over the previous, but it's still pretty cumbersome and primitive. Not my favorite app unfortunately.

by Chillmoom15

So far I really like this app. I’ve finally found an a site where I feel comfortable. The only thing am having a hard time with is the updates some updates are better than other and as of recently the updates have gotten very buggy. Right now am having trouble with getting into GROWLR I’m having to close it completely and open it back up a few times in order to get it to work.
Now the reason I don’t give it a full 5 it’s because of the heavy ads I think knocking it down a few will make the experience so much better. I had to go pro because the ads are too much plus I enjoy the benefits. Now if you could add a setting for the shouts within GROWLR that would be lovely. Being redirected to a website browser it’s too much I would preferred it to be just be a button within the profile settings. That way I can easy activate it or deactivate as I see fit.

by NEPATenor313

I really do love GROWLR...when I can get onto it. Ever since the new update 2 weeks ago v11.7, I have not been able to get into GROWLR .
I was pretty understanding for about a week, but now that it’s been 2 weeks, I’m not too happy about paying for the premium membership of an app that doesn’t work. For 2 weeks with v11.7 GROWLR won’t even load, it just stays on the initial loading page forever. Really up their developers come up with a big fix soon, or I’m going to ask for this month’s subscription back and possibly cancel. Shame because the this app users make GROWLR much better than others.

by SFO CA Traveler

Are used to love GROWLR because the guys on here are a lot nicer than on the other apps. However in the last two months every day at least three or four scam bot Messages. It’s getting to be a real pain in the neck. I have emailed and reported to the developer and each time I’m told to just report as scammer/bot and they will investigate… However I do not believe they are investigating.

Oddly, I have noticed that When I initially open GROWLR , there are no messages. However immediately after opening GROWLR it will be one or two messages and they are always spam.

Given this recent problem as well as the fact that they do not save messages in history when you change your phone… I am question my self why I’m paying an annual fee....

by Bcstxboi

GROWLR is the greatest I’ve ever used, and the primary reason is because most of the profiles are people just like me instead of just a handful, and it’s NOT dominated by twinks and people looking for a fit and trim body. I’m a large guy. And I’m finding that most of the guys messaging me are looking for just that. I was practically ignored on every other social app I tried bc I didn’t look like a ken doll, and that takes a toll on your self esteem after a while. With this app, I had several people messaging and chatting with me within just a few hours after making a profile. I can’t believe the response. If you’re a guy with a few extra pounds (or you like them that way), and you’re sick and tired of the attitudes from the people looking for the perfect athletic body, I highly suggest you try GROWLR. I think you’ll be surprised.

by Artistinmississippi

I've contacted this app several times I continue to get the same response which other clients who pay for the premium account are getting also.

If you try to use your iPad to download your profile photo only the very bottom of your left ear lobe will appear. The scale is completely off and cannot be edited in the iPad. One must go use their iPhone in order to submit a photo that will show up in your profile. When I have contacted this app support I receive the same boilerplate response: "when Apple upgrades their software hopefully this problem will go away."

If you are using your iPad to access this app, it can only be used in the upright position as GROWLR will not rotate when the screen is used in a horizontal position. When I have contacted this app support I receive the same boilerplate response: "when Apple upgrades their software hopefully this problem will go away."

When using the iPad to access this app the messages will not sync and update to include messages received on the iPhone. When I have contacted this app support I receive the same boilerplate response: "when Apple upgrades their software hopefully this problem will go away."

I cannot wait for a savvy entrepreneur to come along use The growler format as an example and tweak it before charging people for using it.

by Suballbottom

Honestly this is the best app for my taste. I’m a cub/bear and love big guys/bears. So this is a perfect site to find them. BUT I think you could improve it. Please try to do what Scruff does. For instance, when are checking on someone global, you could list the guys according to its distance. The ones closer to me should come first and so on... Another great feature at scruff is the way we send Picts. Picts remain there already. They are stored. You just need to check them and they (many at the same time) go altogether to the guy I’m chatting with. Here I have to send one by one. Too much work.
In the end I use scruff all the time. Waaaaay more than this app. Because it’s just more practical to use it. I’m even a PRO member on scruff without paying a cent (probably bcs I use it a lot, they gave me that perk).
Honestly I’d rather use this app much more. Because guys here are just my type. Much more than those muscle guys. So please I beg you to improve the way to use the features here... so you can have many more customers.

by Justbstx

Whatever y’all did recently to “upgrade” your site is a total fail. Oh yeah, you have a little “message” icon when you click on a message. Uh, that’s redundant. But what is worse is I receive a ping that I have a message and I click thru and the message does not show up. I just received 5 messages from “Michael” and I click on the message and I get a blank image, just the yellow color that is the main this app brand color. And so then I have to turn my phone off and turn back on hoping the messages will be there. Well, sometimes they are and other times not. I’ll cancel my membership unless y’all correct the problems.

by Bulldog227

It’s the same people day in day out. It’s buggy; try doing a location search and typing the name wrong, and then try to fix it and type it again. You have to exit all the way out, change to global, change back again and then retype it. Then it’s a constant stream of messages from spam 4000 miles away. Why isn’t there a way to shut off and reject anything more than a certain distance? I don’t know what it would be like being a paid user, I certainly would never do it with the kind of experience I have had, but there’s just about no features in it that are usable. There is no way I can see to contact support- it’s just a loop of FAQs. I keep reporting the spam message but I keep getting more. I’m planning to drop it. It also doesn’t keep up with location changes. I can be 300 miles away it’s still showing meet people where I was four hours ago.

by Whackapole

Constantly having problems with deleting my profile photo. I try to follow their guidelines and have posted face and upper chest cropped, only to have it yanked. Posted a headshot... yanked posted a headless torso shot with a inch above pubic area, guess what? Yanked. Yet I see many other showing much more? Never had so many problems trying to get a photo posted. I guess I am supposed to not show any flesh below neck line? Or is it some mad jealous asshat reporting me to be a jerk? You know when you send announcement telling me my photo has been removed maybe you could explain why??? The guidelines make it sound like what I was posting was fine. For a gay sex hook site pretty lame. Anyways cancelled my pro account which is a waste of money and deleted my account. So don’t really care but it did aggravate me with the photo thing

by 

I have an iPhone XR and that puts a lot of the navigational stuff in GROWLR out of the reach of my thumb. iOS addresses that with reachability, but the designers of this app put buttons in the space where you swipe to activate reachability, so when the screen slides down, the context changes (usually to the Pro Membership signup screen) and the Back button you were reaching for goes away.

Also, there should be a more straightforward way to get to the unread messages screen from anywhere in GROWLR —depending on where you are in GROWLR , you might have to cycle through several screens to get to a message when it comes in—and that’s even more of a pain because of the violations of the reachability trigger space that I mentioned above.

The content is pretty good but the UI needs to be reworked in pretty major ways for this to be a good app.

by J Langham

Very user friendly and have met some great guys through GROWLR . Just a few items I'd love to see it into a future release and then it will get 5 stars:

1. Cross device synching. That also would mean having the ability to have the iPad and the iPhone apps share the same account.
2. Better "nearby" reporting upon refresh. If I change locations and then refresh, it should determine my new location.
3. The most aggravating thing about GROWLR that makes me want to throw the phone against the wall is when GROWLR fails to deliver a message, the message completely disappears. You should be able to resend a message that couldn't be delivered. Considering how unreliable the this app server is, this is a very sore point. Even Scruff gets this functionality right.

by Dblplus

I’ve been using this app for years with a paid subscription. Using iOS 12.4.1 on iPhone 6s. The last version of GROWLR is horrible. GROWLR freezes every single time I open it. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled (meaning you lose all messages and settings) and no help.

I’ve written directly to GROWLR support and received a canned response about how they’re “looking into it.” I’ve messaged them on Twitter to no avail. Gues they do not really care about their customers; especially ones that pay. I’ve also used their Shout service to send a broadcast message. I’m going to assume they also don’t want revenue from that feature either.

Too bad because it’s a popular app, but no support and a poorly performing app isn’t what I’m paying for.

by Bigmansmind

Let me start off with, this is one of my favorite apps. So much that I spent money to upgrade. But right now there are some problems that seem to be hard for me to ignore.

I can be right in the middle of typing a message to someone when all of a sudden the whole app just disappears. Like it crashes. I have to turn it back on and start all over again with what I was typing. And also I have to sometimes turn off GROWLR and turn it back on just to see my messages. I would get a notification, but but when I would go straight to it it wouldn’t be there. I hope that the developers see this so that they know what’s going on.

It’s a little frustrating, but it’s still one of my favorite apps.

by A Mac, Photoshop And A Beard

This is a great service and an alright app. I’m really tired of everyone losing messages when they get new phones, myself included. It needs the option of cloud backup built-in. I also really wish it was usable across multiple devices. Sometimes I’d love to take a break from my tiny screen and chat with the keyboard on my iPad, but the iPad app isn’t landscape friendly... and each device holds its own conversations, no sync. I would love to see an update that fixes these things. What exactly do I pay the premium rate for if not for continued development?