The app is still at an early stage of development. So we want to be upfront: this is the first version, it will continue to be improved, and you may encounter technical issues. The project was created by a small team andwithout external funding, so the top priority right now is to get feedback from users and understand which features should be developed first.
What the app can do
The app's home screen looks like a familiar media feed: it brings together the latest Doberman Media content, and users can switch between compact and full views of posts.
Doberman Media in your pocket
Offline reading, QueerTube, radio, and AI-powered article analysis—now in the Android app.
One of the major new features developed specifically for the app is offline mode. The latest articles are automatically saved to the device, so they can be read without an internet connection. Users can choose how long downloaded content is stored, from six to 72 hours.
Articles added to bookmarks remain available offline regardless of the cache retention period. This means you can save content you like and return to it later, even if you do not have internet access at the time.
You can discuss articles with AI
Special buttons for working with popular AI services have been added at the end of articles. You can send a link to an article to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Grok.
The idea behind Doberman Media is not simply to ask a neural network to summarize the text. Prompts designed for this purpose ask the AI to analyze the content, find additional context, and highlight other Doberman Media posts on the same topic.
This turns the article into a starting point for exploring the topic further, rather than just another standalone post in the feed.
The app features gay videos and gay radio
The app includes an equivalent of the QueerTube service, where you can watch videos, interviews, and original streams by our blogger friends, as well as videos specially selected for the app by the Doberman editorial team.
In addition, a radio section has been added where you can listen to live broadcasts from Germany's ON GAY and GAY FM stations.
The app will not work in Russia without a VPN
There is an important caveat for users in Russia. Doberman Media is blocked in the Russian Federation, so the app cannot connect properly to its servers without bypassing the block.
To use the app in Russia, you must enable a VPN on the mobile device itself. Once the VPN is connected, the device's internet traffic must be routed through it so that the app can access the Doberman Media servers.
If the app does not connect even when the VPN is enabled, we recommend trying a different VPN service. This is because some VPN services and their IP addresses may also be blocked or filtered, so one service may work while another does not.
This does not mean that the app is guaranteed to work with every VPN. Access depends on the restrictions in effect at the time and the VPN being used.
Users in Russia should also ensure that they comply with the requirements of Russian law. Doberman Media does not recommend any specific VPN services and cannot guarantee that they will work.
Roskomnadzor officially maintains registers of online resources to which telecommunications providers must restrict access, and current legislation provides for technical restrictions on access to resources included in the relevant registers.
This is only the beginning
The released version of the app is not final. The app was developed with limited resources, so early users are likely to encounter some issues. Some features will continue to change, while others will be added later. We will gradually fix bugs and add new features as the project evolves. Therefore, we suggest viewing the first version as a starting point rather than a finished product.
What about iPhone?
An iOS version of the app will also be developed. iPhone users will have to wait a little longer: the launch is expected this winter, possibly in early 2027.
Until then, iPhone and iPad owners can use the mobile version of the Doberman Media website. The website also supports PWA, so it can be installed on a device much like a standalone app and accessed from the home screen.
Speeding up the release of the iOS app is possible only through donations.
The app was created without grants or external funding
Doberman Media operates without external funding and is developed primarily through the work of volunteers and the team's own resources.
We are now asking our readers directly for support. Donations are needed not only to continue developing the Android app, but also to bring the iOS version to launch sooner.
For a small independent media outlet, a mobile app entails ongoing expenses for development, infrastructure, publishing, and support. In this case, readers' financial support translates directly into new features and the ability to continue developing the project.
If you find the app useful, the Doberman Media team invites you to support it with a donation. And if something in the first version doesn't work quite right, you can also let the developers know at [email protected]. Right now, user feedback is just as important to the project as funding.
The Doberman Media app for Android is now available on Google Play.
App security: what we collect and why
User security is especially important to Doberman Media. That is why we do not want to simply claim that our app is secure. We welcome independent testing and review of the app by security experts.
During development, we tried to follow a simple principle: the app should not collect more information about users than it genuinely needs to function.
Doberman Media does not ask users for personal data in order to use the app. The app does not request sensitive permissions such as access to location, contacts, camera, microphone, or device storage.
At the same time, like all modern mobile apps, it receives the technical information needed to operate and analyze the product's stability. In particular, this includes app usage analytics, the device model, and the Android version. This data is primarily needed to understand how the app is used, identify technical issues, and optimize its performance across different devices. For example, if a particular feature regularly starts malfunctioning on a specific Android version or smartphone model, technical information helps us detect and resolve the issue.
Because Doberman Media is an independent project, it is important to us not merely to make our own claims about the app's security, but to allow other experts to verify them. We welcome vulnerability testing of the app, analysis of its network behavior, and verification of the data it actually transmits. If information security experts discover an issue, we are ready to investigate and fix it. This approach is especially important for a small independent project: user trust cannot be built on appealing words alone.
That said, we will not promise absolute security or claim that any application is impossible to hack. There is no such thing.
Our goal is much more practical: to collect only the minimum information necessary, not use the application for unnecessary user profiling, handle network connections with care, and remain open to external review.
If you are an information security specialist and would like to test the Doberman Media application, we are open to collaboration. You can report any vulnerabilities or other security issues you discover to the project team via [email protected].
