Active Audience | 81% |
Quality Matches | 92% |
Popular Age | 23-25 |
Profiles | 1 500 000 |
Reply Rate | 87% |
Ease of Use | 6.6 |
Popularity | 9.2 |
Fraud | Very Rarely |
Rating |
9.6
|
Registration | Free |
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Scruff is a dating platform for the LGBTQ community. It targets individuals who want to hook up with other men. It’s managed to gather many members because it offers a wide range of services. This means that users can have anything from casual sex, chat, friendship to a serious relationship.
Scruff is a gay dating site that started around ten years ago. It was founded by two individuals: Eric Silverberg and Johnny Skandros. For an independent LGBTQ company that just appeared at the beginning of the last decade, Scruff has grown in leaps and bounds, bagging awards for performance and garnering a significant number of members. It currently boasts around 12 million users from different countries around the world.
The platform is open to gay individuals who want to hook up with other men. It’s slightly different from other gay dating sites as it hosts hairier and more masculine men profiles, hence its name — “Scruff.”
Another peculiarity is that it has far older people. They tend to be bigger and look scruffy, which adds a lot more masculinity to the user base, bringing in more people drawn by that quality.
Scruff doesn’t have any strong racial or ethnic affiliation, and that’s because its community isn’t as diverse as other similar platforms. It’s just for gay people who want to meet other (masculine) gay people, regardless of origins.
It has its share of controversies. There was a time it had its app thrown out of the Play Store because of nudity. This was a huge deal for a gay dating site that was focused on casual hookups and sex. Banning nudity made members feel there were no longer as free as they would have liked. Eventually, Scruff came to an excellent compromise: to ban half nude pictures that included underwear images, exposed butts, and those depicting the genitals being covered with the hands and other objects. Members still aren’t happy with this development, but it decidedly had to be done.
Scruff’s website acts as a pointer to its app, where most of its activity is done. However, the site itself is thought-out and interactive. It’s got more visuals and well-placed texts. The users are also prompted to download their application, which thankfully is available in the App Store and Google Play Store.
Some unique features of Scruff can potentially improve the overall experience of the app. They can come in handy for real-life situations as well. For example, Scruff Ventures allows a traveling user to check into the city and see nearby men who are online. It makes the journey more fun for the user, as they get to meet new friends.
Another unique tool is Scruff Events. Members can use it to plan LGBTQ events in preferred cities or areas and have friends on the app to attend. You can also join some exciting parties, with the ability to filter by location or popularity.
Scruff Match imitates the popular features of other dating apps. It allows you to swipe (the swipe-right-to-like and swipe-left-to-ignore actions) on suggested profiles. Those suggestions are based on the “open to” detail you must have provided while registering. So, if the user has selected “Open to dating,” then he gets pages that are also “Open to dating.”
It is in line with what obtains on Tinder, Grindr, etc. However, unlike those, the member can “pause” on a profile if they are unsure of rejecting or accepting them. They can set a timer (using a clock icon beside the profile) to have the page shown at another time.
For a newcomer, what matters more is the experience with the service, the processes along the way, and the requirements. First things first, you need to create a new account during the registration process. Then, Scruff will match you with guys who share similar interests. As mentioned earlier, you can join local events and meet new acquaintances from different locations.
When starting on Scruff, the sign-up process is thankfully simple. It begins when the user downloads the app. Upon successful download and installation, it requires that you grant it your device’s location access. The location will be paired with its longitude and latitude using Google Maps. However, the person can change his location only once in 24 hours.
Moving on to creating an account, you will need an active email, birthday, username, password, and profile photo. You can decide whether or not to add other information about yourself. However, the data you provide is used to categorize your page, which determines how frequently other members get to see you.
When uploading the profile photo, Scruff’s algorithm will prompt you to specify if you wish to use it as a “face pic.” In that case, you get to choose either “My face is clearly visible,” “Only my body is visible,” or “I’m not in the photo.”
The sign-up process is made more flexible because you don’t necessarily need an account to be able to use the basic features. You can even check through pages without an account.
Once the user has his profile up and running, it is placed in an appropriate community (based on the level of information provided during registration). There are a lot of communities: Guy Next Door, College, Bisexual, Twink, Chub, Chaser, and many more. The user is at liberty to choose more than one to be in, and the frequency of replies of other participants can be seen at no cost.
A partner account can be linked to a user’s profile, provided he has registered with Scruff. Just like the communities, you can also view the rate of responsiveness of other pages. On the app, profiles are arranged in the order of Online Users, Most Woof’d, and New Members.
Of course, nudity is forbidden for a profile picture but can be kept in a private album. The user is the only one privy to the private content but can share access to others by simply tapping on a lock icon present on the other person’s profile. Conversely, people can share their private folder with you.
The member is less likely to come across a fake or phony account as the verification and onboarding processes are comprehensive.
Scruff has its mobile application on the two major app platforms: Android and iOS. Users looking to use the service will install mobile counterparts, which contain all the features that the platform offers. The design is modern and has some elements that are appropriate for a mobile dating application. General navigation and usability are excellent, which makes it fit for people of various ages.
It gets updated frequently, based on the current needs of its user base. The user experience is very dynamic and pleasurable.
Some websites and apps offer similar services to Scruff, but it has held its own quite well. Since it is a more niche gay dating site (Scruff is specifically for users looking for more manly men), it is understandable that it might not be everybody’s kind of thing. More about Grindr vs Scruff comparing you can read from our site.
The most obvious Scruff’s alternative is Grindr. It offers pretty much the same kind of features but with a bit more flexibility in the selection of male profiles. Other alternatives include GayFriendFinder, GaysGoDating, and GaysTryst.
Scruff’s membership price includes a Scruff Pro one-month plan, which costs $14.99 a month. There is also the three-month plan, which goes for $13.33 per month. At last, there is a 12-month plan, which costs $10 per month. The membership subscription can be made using a credit card or with a mobile phone.
One of the high points of the platform is the fact that the majority of its basic features can be used for free. A complete Scruff profile can be created without committing to a paid membership. Messages can be sent and received with no restrictions, and the member can browse other profiles as well.
The visitor can also view the responsiveness of profiles and communities — the frequency at which a member is likely to reply.
As expected, a lot more features are available to the user once they move to the premium membership plan. Ads are removed from the application, which is consistent with what to expect from paid app versions.
Based on location, one has access to view up to 1,000 men that are close-by. It allows them to use other unique tools — Scruff Events and Scruff Venture — to meet guys in real life.
While nudity is mainly prohibited on Scruff, users can still keep private albums as part of the premium membership. They can be shared with people as many times as you want.
Message filters are also available, giving the user the ability to view more in-depth message histories in addition to seeing recent correspondence. Profiles are typically sorted in grids, but premium membership features include an advanced sorting by online presence, distance, and date. Anonymous browsing is also an included premium membership perk, as well as search using unlimited filters. People can avail of the “open to” function to have pages matched according to their requirements.
Scruff is considered safe for users. For any community, security is paramount, and it is evident that the platform is on top of it. One of the things it ensures is the privacy of information; it is never shared with a third party. It also a conducive environment for gay people who want to have fun without fear of prejudice.
Scruff is a gay dating site, and that’s because it provides a safe environment, with a rare instance of fake profiles. Its features set is comprehensive enough to engage the users for a long time, which is a good thing as it means most members are active and real.
The Scruff app has pop-up ads that can be pesky, but they can be eliminated with a paid subscription. The one thing the user would have to live with is the app crashes. As of now, there is no fix of that yet, and it happens fairly frequently.
The process of deleting a Scruff account starts by deleting the profile first. While using the app, swipe from the right to bring up the main menu. Clicking on the profile picture brings up the profile editor. You should be able to see the option to disable page (in addition to Delete Profile). This is as far as you can get to delete your Scruff account.
It is a pretty straightforward activity on the app. Unlimited messaging isn’t hidden behind a paywall, and anyone can send messages without restrictions. To do that, you can either start by using conventional conversation starters or send catchy texts like “Hello” or “Woof.”
People can also exchange GIFs, photos, and location details. If you are more interested in a profile, you can indicate that by ticking a corresponding box. If both users liked one another, Scruff would let them know, and they can meet one another in person.
The ability to view who likes you on Scruff isn’t subject to a paid subscription. If someone sends you a “Woof,” it shows he has an interest in you. To see that, you can tap on the Paw button at the top of the main page. You would be able to see who has viewed your page and sent you Woofs.
Scruff has made it possible to block other users very quickly. You just need to open up their profile, tap on the three dots at the top right area of the screen, and press either the “Block” or “Report” button. You can block as many as 150 profiles if you are a free member. On the other hand, premium subscribers get up to 4,000 blocks.
Scruff has changed the way it handles subscriptions, and there are different ways of canceling membership, depending on the type.
For newer subscriptions (i.e., subscriptions from September 2016), open the app and tap on the menu. Press “Manage Scruff Pro” and then “Manage subscription.” From there, you can choose “Deactivate.” You will have to confirm the action.
When confirmed, the subscription’s auto-renewal settings have been lifted off, but it will be active until its due date.
Legacy subscriptions (i.e., subscriptions from before September 2016) can be canceled by launching the app and opening the menu. Tap on “Manage Scruff Pro” and then “Manage subscription.” This would prompt you to press Google Play from a pop-up. Tap on “Subscriptions,” then “Scruff” from the list of Google Play subscriptions you have. Choose “cancel” and confirm the action.
Once the cancellation is successful, the auto-renewal settings will have been deactivated on the account, and you only have to wait until the pack runs through its due date afterward.