Goose drew gay men fast, but exclusion complaints persist

Goose arrived promising an “anti-algorithm” alternative to hookup-heavy gay dating apps, and that pitch clearly resonated. But users who spoke to WIRED say the reality is more mixed: the app can feel more relationship-oriented than rivals while still making casual sex easy, and it has already run into complaints about moderation, verification, and inclusivity.

Erick Hall, a New York City–based OnlyFans creator with more than 800,000 followers on X, joined because Goose seemed less focused on hookups. He uploaded several fully clothed selfies, though one showed him lifting his shirt to reveal his abs. He says he did not mention adult work on his profile, but when he returned he found his account flagged as inappropriate and was told to upload new photos and review the rules.

“Honestly, I was excited about an app to make gay friends but disappointed I got banned for no good reason. I’m deleting it.”

The app’s guidelines state that nudity, pornography, sexually suggestive vulgar content, and commercial sexual services are not allowed. That stricter line has not stopped Goose from feeling, to some users, a lot like other apps. It is effectively an invite-only club, similar to Raya: people can join with an invite code or apply, and WIRED reports its own approval took less than two hours.

Its features will be familiar to anyone who has used dating or social apps:

• waves and up to seven direct messages per day
• a live map showing nearby users, reminiscent of Sniffies
• neighborhood check-ins, similar to Facebook
• disappearing chats, echoing Snapchat
• screenshot protection, much like Raya
• profiles with photos that cycle like Instagram Stories

That mix has led some users to question Goose’s friendship-first branding. Hunter Lawrence, a 31-year-old hairstylist in Austin, Texas, said he joined because he was tired of transactional app culture. Soon after, one match replied to his “How are you?” with a sexually explicit answer. Still, Lawrence said most of his conversations since Goose launched last month have stayed relatively PG, and he sees the app as trying to become an all-purpose social platform.

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Moderation, fake profiles, and diversity concerns

Other criticism goes beyond mixed messaging. Some prospective members allege inconsistent review decisions, including one who said photos showing makeup were rejected. Goose also does not allow pronouns in bios, though WIRED says it found several femme accounts on the service.

Raffy Regulus, a 35-year-old community health liaison in New York City who identifies as nonbinary, told WIRED the app felt notably lacking in racial diversity, especially in the Bronx. After filtering the map to a 10-mile radius, they said Black and Latinx users were scarce and deleted the app after one week.

Goose cofounder Derek Chadwick told WIRED the company does not make decisions based on users' identity, gender expression, or presentation, and said the app was built without exclusionary features such as ethnicity filters.

The company would not disclose total user numbers, but said members have started more than 250,000 conversations since launch.

Verification has also come under scrutiny. An X user known as @whatsthattwunk told WIRED that shirtless photos of him, including one taken in a gym locker room in underwear, appeared on a Goose profile for “Robert,” described as a 33-year-old attorney in Nashville. The real person is a 27-year-old tech worker in San Francisco.

Goose requires users to take an in-app selfie for authentication, but Chadwick declined to detail the system, saying that would help bad actors learn how to bypass it. He said the moderation team is “aggressively managing” fake profile creation.

Terms of service backlash

Goose also faced backlash over its original terms of service. On June 27, concerns spread online that the app claimed sweeping rights over user images and other content, including the ability to create derivative works and exploit that material in perpetuity. After criticism, Goose updated its TOS on June 30 to “explicitly limit [its] scope” over user rights.

The company still uses member content to train safety and anti-spam models, as well as to develop safety guidelines.

That has not stopped some users from sticking with it. Lawrence told WIRED he values Goose as a break from what he sees elsewhere in gay dating apps: “just sex 24/7.” For now, Goose’s appeal seems to rest on that tension — marketed as a more genuine space, but still wrestling with the same trust, identity, and moderation problems that define the category.