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Hookup Apps Adding PrEP As New Filter Option

"It will allow users to meet others who are on PrEP and start a conversation about it."

PrEP—or pre-exposure prophylaxis—has exploded in popularity among men who sleep with men from something viewed with ambivalence to something prominently mentioned on guy's dating-app profiles.

And the apps' creators are taking notice.

Jason Marchant, co-founder and chief product officer of Scruff, revealed the app's next update will allow users to filter their searches by safer-sex practices, including condoms and PrEP.

"Once it's filled out, it will appear prominently on your Scruff profile," Marchant told the Advocate.

The news comes at a time when apps like Scruff and Grindr have come under attack for spreading HIV and other STIs. A billboard paid for by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation equated "having" Grindr with having chlamydia or gonorrhea.

And while Scruff is the first to plug PrEP into its app, Grindr has partnered with Gilead (the company behind Truvada) on studies and education awareness,

And Mister, another app, says it is adding hashtag functionality that will allow users to search for profiles with #prep.

"It will allow users to meet others who are on PrEP and start a conversation about it," says Mister CEO Carl Sandler. "Increasingly these apps are more social communities and places where guys can educate each other."

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