Grindr and other popular, primarily gay, dating apps are looking into ways to add the ability for people who test positive for STIs to notify their partners through the app.
STIs are currently spreading at record-high rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In 2016, more than two million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis were reported in the United States.
The new app feature aims to combat the spread of STIs by giving users a way to tell their previous sexual partners that they have tested positive, according to Mashable.
Grindr and other gay dating apps are looking into adding the ability for people who test positive for STIs to notify their partners, according to Mashable
However, it is unclear whether this feature will actually make it into the official app.
Dr Heidi Bauer, the chief of STD control at the California Department of Health, and Dan Wohlfeiler, director of the health consortium Building Healthy Online Communities (BHOC), said that STI notification messages are under consideration by several different apps.
Grindr is playing its cards close to its chest at the moment, and will not confirm that the feature is in development.
‘Grindr works very closely with Building Healthy Online Communities on several initiatives including STD related notifications,’ said Jack Harrison-Quintana, the director of Grindr for Equality.
Dr Bauer and Wohlfeiler believe the most likely and immediate feature would be to connect the function to existing anonymous notification services.
They hypothesize that Grindr will either develop the feature in-app, or through a third-party option that would have a separate messaging app.
Other apps have already developed a similar system.
Adam4Adam uses the messaging platform inSpot to anonymously inform partners that they may have been exposed to an STI.
In-app notifications could have a system that lets users anonymously message former partners, telling them to get tested. Or, the process could be automated, and Grindr would send a stock notification message advising the alerted person or people get tested.
‘The app could take the responsibility, with the consent of the user, to send out a notification to a particular individual,’ Bauer said.
‘The app could send a notification to say: “It’s really important that you get tested for STDs, and here’s a link to a zip code-based search engine to find the closest STD clinic near you.”‘
Grindr came under fire in April after Buzzfeed revealed that the app was sharing HIV status and location data with third parties.
The company launched a feature last spring allowing its 3.6 million users to share their status, and last test date, saying it was a bid to destigmatize the disease.
Those details were being shared with two app-optimization services, Apptimize and Localytics, along with identifiable information such as phone ID, email and GPS coordinates.
It means millions of peoples’ highly-sensitive information is far more vulnerable, and at risk of being hacked from any one of the three firms.
Grindr pledged to stop that practice, but has neither shared plans for nor released STD partner notification.
Grindr is made for all people who identify as bi or homosexual, but is primarily geared towards men. It is available in every country in the world, including every country with laws that criminalize homosexuality.
The app has fashioned itself as a front runner in the fight to destigmatize HIV diagnosis, prevention, testing and treatment with a number of features allowing users to find testing sites and be open about their status.