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How to use cruush

Written by Julien Lenaz, lead developer of cruush.

Creating your account

Open cruush.app and tap Sign up. Enter your email, your date of birth and a password of at least 8 characters, then confirm the password. You have to be 18 or older, and you have to agree to the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy. There is also an optional checkbox for product updates by email.

Tap Create Account. cruush sends you an email, so open it and verify your address, then sign in. If the email does not show up, use Resend verification email on the sign-in screen.

Setting up your profile

The first time you sign in, cruush walks you through a few steps. Tap Next rite to move on.

  1. Display Name is required and needs at least 2 characters. A profile photo is optional. Your face is optional too, and the photo can show you or your gear.
  2. Gender Identity and Sexuality are required, and you can choose from 1 to 3 of each. Pronouns are optional, up to 3. If you check I am trans, the T4T crowd becomes available.
  3. Crowds are optional. You can pick up to 3 from Dyke, Gay and T4T, or none. A crowd is a shared social space, like a gay or dyke bar, and it is not an identity label.
  4. Vibes are optional, up to 3.
  5. Two-factor authentication is optional. Tap Skip 2FA for now to set it up later in Settings.
  6. A step shows your invite link, with Share to contacts and Copy link.
  7. Last, you read and accept the Code of Conduct, then tap Enter cruush.

Finding your way around

Five buttons run along the bottom of the app: Map, Confessional, cruush, Messages and Profile. The cruush button opens the Cruushes screen.

Along the top of the map you will find cruush+, Carousel, Ghost Mode Settings, DL Mode settings, Settings and Notifications. Carousel opens as a full page.

The map

The map is the main screen. Each person is a heart-shaped pin with their photo in it, and pins close together group into a number bubble that you can tap to zoom in.

Tap a pin briefly to open that person's profile. On a touch screen, press and hold to make the pin and its details bigger. On a desktop, hover over a pin to see its details.

Map Controls is the button on the right. It holds Seeking, Visibility, Spots, a Pulse button, Center your location, and the zoom buttons.

Seeking and Visibility

These two sound alike, but they do opposite things. Seeking filters who you see. Visibility chooses who sees you.

In Seeking you can search names and tags, show cruushes at the top of the map, and filter by things like distance, age range, gender identity, presentation, crowds, body type, sexuality and what people are looking for.

In Visibility you can hide yourself from people who match a filter, such as people farther than a distance you pick, or people outside an age range. Crowd Mode limits who can see you to the crowds you choose. A Purgatory members switch hides you from members who are outside the service area. Accounts without cruush+ can use up to 3 hidden filters.

Your profile

Open the Profile tab and tap Edit Profile. The tabs are Photos, Badges, Basics, Intimacy and Health, and you tap Save when you are done.

Sending a cruush

A cruush tells someone you are interested. Open their profile and tap cruush. If you change your mind, tap unsend, or uncruush if it was mutual. The message button next to it opens a chat.

When they send one back, you are a mutual cruush. The Cruushes screen has tabs for incoming, sent, mutual and views, so you can see who has cruushed you and who has looked at your profile.

Messages

Messages has tabs for All, Unread, Groups and Covens. Tap New message to start a chat with someone, create a group message, or create a Coven.

Confessional

Confessional shows posts from people near you. Write in the box that says Share something with nearby people and tap Post. A Show distance on Confessional post switch controls whether your distance is shown.

Confessional settings and filter

Open Confessional settings to choose how recent the posts you see are, from 1 hour up to 30 days. You can also hide your Confessional posts from Purgatory members, and choose who can open your map location from your posts: cruushes, the same crowd, public or nobody.

Confessional Filter lets you search tags, and show only posts from Mile High Club members or hide them. It has the same two choices for Purgatory members.

Spots and the Pink Book

Open Map Controls and tap Spots to see places around you. You can show or hide them on the map, filter them, and add a Spot of your own, which goes to a reviewer before anyone sees it.

On a Spot page you can rate the place, add details, and check in. Checking in lets you read the Pink Book, which is the board of posts for that Spot, and write your own.

Covens

Covens are groups with their own chat. Open Messages and choose the Covens tab. My Covens lists the ones you have joined, and Browse Covens lets you look around. Use the search field at the top of Messages to filter the list.

On a Coven page, tap Request to join, or Join Coven if it lets anyone in.

To start one, tap New message and choose Create Coven. Give it a name, add a short description if you like, and choose whether people need your approval to join. That switch is on by default. Creating a Coven posts a notice in Confessional.

Pulse

A Pulse is a way to say you are around. Open Map Controls and tap the Pulse button. You write a Signal first, then choose a radius of 1, 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 or 50 miles.

Your heart beats on the map for 30 minutes, and your Signal also posts to Confessional. Your pin does not move. Alerts go to your cruushes only, at most one every 4 hours. Accounts without cruush+ get one Pulse every 24 hours. Pulses do not work outside the service area.

Privacy settings

Outside the service area

cruush works in and around New York City, within about 100 miles of the city. If your phone's location is outside that area, you are a Purgatory member. This is based on where your phone is, not where you say you are.

Staying safe

To block someone, open their profile and tap the block button. It takes effect right away, in both directions. You can undo it later from Settings, under Blocked users.

To report someone, tap the flag and choose a reason from the list. Reasons include Location spoofing, which is faking where you are. You can report a profile, a photo, a message, a conversation, a Confessional post, a Spot or a Pink Book post. A person reads every report.

Settings

Getting help

Write to hello@cruush.app with questions. To report a bug or something broken, write to reports@cruush.app, or use the bug button in the app and say what you tapped and what happened.

Appendix: sections

Appendix: names in the app

Appendix: limits at a glance

Appendix: words the app uses

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