Facts
| What it is | A missed-connections app for gay men. |
|---|---|
| Launch | October 2026, United States |
| Platforms | iOS and Android |
| Price | Free to browse, with optional subscription |
| Age rating | 18+ |
| Company | Hank Software, LLC |
| Founded | 2026 |
| Headquarters | Brooklyn, NY |
| Founder | Stephen Wood |
| Press contact | hello@hank-app.com |
About Hank
Standard boilerplate — copy-paste ready:
50 Words:
Hank is a missed-connections app for gay men. You saw him on the train, at the bar, in line for coffee, and then you didn't. Post it. Let him find you. Free on iOS and Android, with an optional subscription. Launching in the United States, October 2026. hank-app.com
100 Words:
Hank is a missed-connections app for gay men. Missed connections are still being written every day; they're just being written into the void, with zero odds of the right guy seeing it. Current dating apps are organized around whoever's free tonight, not the guy you saw earlier in the coffee shop.
Hank works the other direction. Post the near-miss: where you were, when, and enough detail that he'd know it was him. Anyone nearby can read it. If he thinks it's him, he says so.
Free on iOS and Android, with an optional subscription. Launching in the United States, October 2026. hank-app.com
200 Words:
Hank is a missed-connections app for gay men… a place for the ones who almost said hello.
You post the near-miss: where you were, roughly when, and enough detail that he'd recognise himself. Anyone nearby can read it. If he thinks it's him, he says so, and the conversation starts from there. No swiping, no grid, no algorithm deciding who deserves your attention. Just the guy from the coffee shop, and a reasonable chance he's looking for you too.
Missed connections never stopped being a good idea. People still write them and still recognise themselves in them, they just do it in comment sections and group chats and city subreddits, none of which were built for it. Gay dating apps optimised for immediacy ( who's online, who's close, who's free tonight). Hank is for the other thing, the one that's harder to engineer and more fun when it lands.
Hank is built by a gay man, for gay men. Safety wasn't bolted on at the end, and neither was the business model: Hank makes money from small subscriptions, not from selling your data.
Hank launches in the United States in October 2026 on iOS and Android, free with an optional subscription. Founded by Stephen Wood, built by Hank Software, LLC in New York City. hank-app.com
Why Now?
Something changed in the last few years: people got off the apps and went outside. Run clubs, dinner parties, leagues, readings, the same four bars on a Thursday. Gay men have been leading this, not following it — queer public life in New York is having a Renaissance. Period.
That produced a problem nobody planned for. The more time you spend in rooms with people, the more often you almost meet someone. He was at the next table. He was ahead of you in the line. He was on the platform, and then the train came, and that was that. Going outside is a machine for generating near-misses, and we are all running it at full tilt.
The apps can't help you here, and it isn't a bug — they're built to answer a different question. Grindr tells you who is near you right now. Hinge tells you who a model thinks you'd like. Neither has a way to find the guy from Tuesday, tall, reading a beaten-up paperback, who got off at Lorimer. The one place that did handle it was a classifieds board that stopped taking personals in 2018, and in the years since, the missed connection has been homeless. It didn't die. People still write them... into comment sections, group chats, subreddits, their own stories at 1am; all places where the odds of the right guy seeing it round to zero.
Hank is the missing piece. Post the near-miss where he's actually likely to be looking: tied to a place, a rough time, and a neighbourhood full of men who were also out that night. It doesn't try to replace how you meet people. It assumes you're already doing that, and picks up the part your phone kept dropping.
Keep going outside, boys. Put your phone down when you get there. Dance. Hank will help you find him the next morning.
“Hank is the app I wish I’d had the last 15 years living in NYC. I always loved reading Missed Connections... dreaming I’d find myself in one, or that the one I wrote would land me the hunky dude I saw that day.”
“Guys are sick of the old apps, I think because it never goes anywhere. Hank helps you find that guy who’s already returned a flirty glance.”
“I’ve been in tech long enough to see the malicious side of the internet first-hand. I’ve had safety front of mind through the entire build. I want my community to trust the Hank app.”
ASSETS
What services do you offer?We offer a range of solutions designed to meet your needs—whether you're just getting started or scaling something bigger. Everything is tailored to help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
How do I get started?Getting started is simple. Reach out through our contact form or schedule a call—we’ll walk you through the next steps and answer any questions along the way.
What makes you different?We combine a thoughtful, human-centered approach with clear communication and reliable results. It’s not just what we do—it’s how we do it that sets us apart.