Our favourite online dating app has switched things up again. However, instead of launching a new feature or adjusting its premise (hello, Bumble), the creators of Feeld have published a print magazine.

The chances are, you’ve heard of Feeld, but for the uninitiated: Feeld used to be a niche dating app for the queer, kinky and non-monogamous but since 2022, Feeld’s userbase has grown 30% each year. Now, you’ll find plenty of vanilla daters – something that kinky users aren’t too delighted about.

To many, publishing a print magazine will seem outdated. Yet Feeld’s debut mag provides an ink and paper time capsule of the very woke attitudes of gender and sexuality permeating many conversations today. “It’s the latest expression of Feeld’s voice in the cultural conversation around relationships, sexuality and desire,” explains Maria Dimitrova, co-editor of AFM and Director of Content at Feeld.

The decision to make a magazine was also born from the discovery that almost 40% of Feeld’s users have Reading listed as an Interest. Ostensibly, we’re urged to read “A Fucking Magazine” (or “A Feeld Magazine” for those who prefer a more demure title – though there’s nothing demure about AFM).

On 16 October, the magazine was launched. Eight days later, and £18 down, it landed on my doorstep. AFM promises to “celebrate the diversity of contributors who are exploring their creativity and curiosity beyond digital spaces.”

Does it deliver – and is a magazine made by the creators of “a dating app for the curious” worth it?

A feast for the eyes

Flipping through the magazine, Feeld has created a stunning scrapbook. Within the 200 pages, text, pull quotes and images lay collaged, displaying bodies of different colours and sizes.

Instantly, I was reminded of giggly afternoons as an 11-year-old, flicking through my dad’s FHM with my best friend. But AFM is leagues away from FHM.

The pages within AFM are packed with articles, poems, illustrations and photo stories, presumably like FHM (though we were too young and interested in the boobies to appreciate the journalism). Unlike FHM, Feeld’s magazine features contributions from diverse voices where interviews of big names (like the writer Susanna Moore, filmmaker Bruce LaBruce, screenwriter James Ivory, cultural critic Daphne Merkin, and many more) sit beside input from Feeld’s typical users.

In this delicious print publication, you won’t find a hidden agenda to drive sign-ups to the app and there’s a 50/50 split of voices from Feeld and non-Feeld members. AFM is also devoid of the clickbait content we’re accustomed to in magazines, so if you’re seeking insight into “Top 10 Tips to Bag a Match” or “How to Plan the Perfect First Date”, you’ll be sorely disappointed. (Stick to blogs like this one to get that kind of content.)

Instead, AFM explores the realms of desire, sexuality and, in this issue, happiness. You’ll find reassuringly predictable themes like:

• A comic about a night on the app, playfully teasing us with the acronyms on Feeld
• Interviews exploring gender and sexual identities
• A look at users’ pre-date rituals

You’ll also find rich, literary content, such as:

• Interviews about film, loyalty and commitment
• Abortion rights and celibacy – mentioned and examined
• Poetry and fictional short stories about almost relationships, pleasure, love, and food as happiness
• Essays exploring the anatomy of a “creep” and the “erotics of unhappiness”
• Author of In The Cut, Susanna Moore talks to Allison P. Davis about why and how she writes about sex

If you want to contribute to the death of print (or don’t want to invest in a physical magazine), you’re in luck. The content will gradually be published on Feeld’s webpage, “Magazine”. Some of the content is currently freely accessible in full, such as the fictional short story Celia, Celia by Madeline Dunnigan, CEO Ana Kirova’s thoughts on pleasure as a pursuit, and Merritt Tierce’s essay No Abortion Show which is utterly heartwrenching but not in the way you’d expect.

All of this to say: this isn’t a glossy to flick through and then recycle. Display it on your coffee table, hide it in your bookshelves when the in-laws come over and enjoy reading this fucking magazine again and again.

Featured image: My well-thumbed copy of Feeld’s A Fucking Magazine