Using smartphone apps to find sexual partners: A review of the literature

In recent years, online dating has become increasingly popular and widespread worldwide, changing the way people approach potential new sexual or romantic partners. The current paper aims to offer an overview of recent research on mobile dating apps as a way to find sexual partners, focusing in particular on geosocial-networking mobile applications. The sociodemographic profile of app users as it emerges from studies will be outlined, as well as app-use patterns, the variables involved in creating a profile for dating apps, and the outcomes of app use in terms of sexual encounters. The average app user profile is that of a white man having sex with men (MSM), between 25 and 35 years of age, with high education and income, who has a large number of sexual encounters and often engages in risky behavior (e.g., unprotected anal intercourse, drug or alcohol use during sex). Studies in the field suffer from several limitations, including a lack of research data on the psychological characteristics of app users, as well as the paucity of studies on the positive sexual and relational outcomes of app use; finally, few studies explored app use in the LGBTQIA population as a whole, in addition to heterosexuals.