What is new gay dating app Goose? The Grindr rival with ‘insane’ terms and conditions
The new gay dating app markets itself as a platform beyond hook-ups, fostering real connections – seems wholesome enough, right?
By Aaron Sugg
A new gay dating app has landed on app stores across the globe, rivalling Grindr as a platform that fosters real relationships over just sex.
Goose, founded by hunky actor Derek Chadwick, markets itself as a non-hook-up app that “blends dating, social life, and community into one living experience”.
According to its official Google Play app description, Goose allows gay men to “discover guys through shared places, interests, friends, and moments happening around you”.
“It’s lighter, more natural, and removes pressure from the start” – Goose claims it is a non-hook-up app for gay men
“No Matches. Just Waves. Goose replaces matching with a simple wave. If two people wave at each other, they’re connected. It’s lighter, more natural, and removes pressure from the start.”
Since advertising its platform on social media on 22 May through the official Goose Instagram page, the app has prompted questions from some gay men about the audience it is trying to target.
Its Instagram grid only features men with a particular body type – muscle bearing young adults with six-packs – sparking speculation over whether the app is intended to appeal to everyone.
Some users have described Goose’s terms and conditions as ‘exploitative’
Following its release on 25 June 2026, Goose reached number four in the App Store’s free Lifestyle chart just days after becoming available to download.
Despite this, the app has faced a number of data privacy concerns after sections of its terms and conditions were scrutinised online.
On its website, one section titled “The Member Content License and Waiver” states that, if users agree to the terms, they grant Goose broad rights to their “user name, image, voice, and likeness”, including disappearing photos shared on the app.
What will Goose do with your data?
It reads: “By submitting Member Content to the Services, you grant Goose a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, transferable, and sub-licensable license to host, store, use, display, reproduce, adapt, modify, and distribute your content strictly for the purpose of operating, developing, maintaining, and providing the Services to you and other members.
“For the avoidance of doubt, the rights, licenses and privileges described in this Member Agreement and granted to Goose will commence immediately upon submission of your Member Content and will continue thereafter perpetually and indefinitely with respect to the derivative works and data derived from your content (including to train our safety and anti-spam models, and develop safety guidelines), whereas the license to the original Member Content you published will end upon the termination of these Terms, subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy.”
Goose goes on to explain: “You further grant to Goose and any other third party a worldwide, fully transferable (including sub-licensable) and royalty-free license to use your user name, image, voice, and likeness (including virtual likeness) in connection with permitted uses of your Member Content.”
Questions raised over whether Goose is a hook-up free dating app
Goose: we’re for the boys 🥰
— alxndr (@alexaldente) June 27, 2026
Also Goose, quite literally, in their terms of service: we will actively exploit you and we own anything that you upload or send on our app in perpetuity 🥰
(Thank you @awejones for clocking) https://t.co/ScG2sxv3AL pic.twitter.com/3gQuFIPLGU
Once users agree to the terms, they “waive any and all rights of privacy, publicity, or any other rights of a similar nature in connection with your Member Content, or any part thereof”.
Many have described the wording as exploitative and questioned whether Goose is truly the hook-up-free app it claims to be, particularly given that it includes disappearing photos, a feature also associated with Grindr.
One online user went viral after calling out the “insane” privacy concerns as outlined in Goose’s terms and conditions, writing to X: “For everyone else using the app, this means Goose can do whatever they want with any photos/data you upload to the app. Yes that includes the disappearing ones.”