It’s offical: Gay chatting sites are the most popular way for gay guys to find other gay or bisexual men for friendships, relationships, dates or no-strings attached fun. It seems that if you are a homosexual man and do not have a profile on at least one of the major gay dating apps or gay chatting communities on the Internet, you are missing out a lot of fun. The gay chatting revolution started out a couple of years ago, when the gay community discovered that gay chat rooms and online dating communities where a discreet and convenient way to find other guys outside of gay bars and gay clubs. One of the founders of a popular gay chatting site remarks: “I still remember the early days when gay chatting on the Internet was a new thing. You would register with a silly pseudonym, and usually the gay online community would only have one big gay chat room where everybody talked to everybody, and most of it were obviously kinky, sexual things and people were constantly trying to test the boundaries. I’m glad those days are over, to be honest.” The look and feel of the most popular gay chatting communities that we tested is indeed entirely different from the anarchy and awkwardness of the former gay chatting sites. On today’s gay dating apps and websites, you register, create your personal profile with a sexy profile picture, and you can directly message the members you are interested. This makes the chats more personal and private, and it’s arguably much easier to find someone for a date or a hookup if you know that not the entire gay chat room is watching your attempts to flirt with another member.

“It’s great to be able to have a one-on-one chat with another hot guy if you’re interested in hooking up. Usually it does not take me more than a couple of messages to figure out if we click. We exchange a few hot pics, talk about what we are into, and if we’re a match, we meet up for some hot action.”, explains one of the members. We wanted to find out how gay guys use gay chatting apps and online dating services, and this is what a survey at one of the most popular free gay chatting communities revealed:

1. Over 80% of all gay members say they’ve meet up with another guy for no-strings attached sex before.
2. About half of the members claim they’re not primarily looking for sex, but wouldn’t mind hooking up for some fun if the guy is attractive.
3. More than 90% believe that it’s possible to find a relationship on gay chatting apps and dating sites.
4. When asked how they met their most recent relationship partner, gay chatting services came on top, followed by gay bars, gay clubs, and finally, introductions through friends.
5. Gay guys are pretty open when it comes to sharing nudes: More than 80% admit to sharing dick pics with other members before they meet up in real life.

Honestly, we weren’t surprised to hear that 8 out of 10 gay guys have send nude pics or dick pics before. Browsing the member profiles of your average gay dating site resembles peeping into a gym changing room: Ripped, gym-fit hotties showing off their shirtless bodies next to headless muscluar torsos are the norm, and while an astonishing number of guys explicitly say in their profile that they are not only looking for fun, it seems that hookups are not entirely off the table and sex is still a part of the agenda. “Some of us are pretty bold and direct and don’t try to hide their naughty side, but most of us try to showcase our nicest side on our dating profile. But come on, if there’s this super hot, sexy guy chatting you up, and he says he’s looking for some action, who would say no?”, laughs Chris, a self-proclaimed gay dating app addict. Some people like him feel that hooking up is easier than developing a meaningful conversation, but that’s due to the impersonal nature of gay dating platforms. “Finding another attractive guy for a one-night-stand and no strings attached is easy, because you don’t have invest time to get to know that person. You’re both horny, you meet up and make out. And then you can still figure out if you’re interested in more afterwards.” On the other hand, some other members felt that browsing the profile text of other gay guys on dating sites makes it easier to find someone with similar expectations and interests. “I agree that there’s a lot of shallowness on most gay apps and gay online dating sites, and a lot of guys aren’t interested in something serious but just on for sex. But that’s fine with me. I can chat with guys I find attractive, and I feel that talking to them online gives me a chance to figure out who’s worth meeting up with on a proper date.”, says Sean, who met his last two boyfriends on an online dating site.