Lex is Pivoting to “Community” Over “Dating.” Users Aren’t Happy – Them
As commenters have pointed out, that initial inspiration appears absent from the rebrand, even just from the examples provided on the app’s Instagram. Some of the sample posts include calls for “queer birders” and “art + coffee pals.” There’s even an example post about a “t4t tea party,” which, perhaps fittingly, distances the acronym from its explicitly sexual/romantic origin on Craigslist personals.
Since the relaunch, the app’s Instagram has been flooded with comments expressing dissatisfaction, with user @floral.butch writing, “Y’all could at least be honest about the goal of desexualizing your platform and turning it into queer ‘meetup’. There is no connection to the on our backs inspo at this point.”
Instagram user pdxbimbo added, “Why do we have to center respectability politics? Why continue the heteronormative ideas that community ISNT found within sexual spaces? why put a hierarchy on what is ‘better’ for the app – platonic relationships and sexual relationships and roommates and t4t parties all deserve the same credence.”
Users have also criticized Lex’s claim that the redesign is more accessible, with @a_zebra_did noting that, according to accessibility standards, the new color scheme isn’t high contrast enough for those with low vision or colorblindness. “Have you added image description/alt text features for the big new photos that are front and centre on people’s profiles?” the user wrote, adding that she ran the website and a screenshot of the app through a tool on the website A11y, which helps web designers test for accessible color contrast ratios. According to the user, both the website and the screenshot of the app came back with “fails.” When Them independently ran Lex’s website through WAVE, an accessibility checker, the results did come back with several contrast errors.
“Since we launched Lex, we have seen it organically evolve from a dating app to a space for a whole spectrum of queer connections,” a representative from Lex told Them over email when asked about redesign.
“We surveyed Lexers and found that the majority of them were wanting a platform to find queer friends and community in their area,” the statement added. “The rebrand represents this evolution.”
The representative also noted that those who are looking for dates and hookups should “continue horny posting on Lex.”
