Still, a number of companies that run dating apps do see a correlation between high volume use and a decrease in safe sex practices, and have taken efforts to address this.
Members who sign up for the gay dating app Hornet, for example, will receive a prompt every three months that asks users to update their HIV status. Scruff, another dating app for gay men, gives a certain number of free and geographically targeted banner advertisements—called Benevolads—to local non-profit organizations that work within the gay community, including some relevant to sexual health.
And of course the booming online dating industry has also addressed the issue in less direct—and profitable—ways with a slew of niche sites that cater to people who know their STD status. The paranoia of some online daters has also produced apps like Hula, which directs users to STD testing centers and allows them to upload results and privately share them with other users, a feature the company calls “unzipping.”