Questions, answered

A permanent group run by a verified member: a running club, a book group, a Sunday walk. Join one and you get its plans, which are for members only, and its chat. How clubs work.

Yes, once you’ve passed the ID check. You choose who it’s for, whether anyone can join or you approve each person, and up to 200 members. You can hand it to another member later.

Yes. Mute it from the club’s page and you won’t be told about its new plans or messages. You stay a member.

The same 4–6 verified people, once a week for four weeks, somewhere different near you each time. Sign up for a weekly slot, answer three quick questions, and we match groups every Sunday at 6pm. How it works.

Yes. Choose a friend you’ve made on Good Company as your plus-one. If they say yes before Sunday, you’re put in the same group.

Tap “Can’t make this week”. You stay in the group and its chat, and if you were hosting that week, someone else takes over.

Plans for verified members aged 50 or over: unhurried walks, long lunches, gallery days, clubs and days out. It’s part of the same app, with the same ID checks, and plans made for you can be shown first. Read more.

No. Others see an age range, never your date of birth, and nobody is told how you answered the “show these first” question.

Plans for experienced people in technical and extreme sports: technical mountaineering, technical diving, skydiving and more. You say which sports you do and your level in each, and only see X plans you could join. Read more.

No. Levels are self-declared and shown as that, with an optional note such as a licence or certification. Hosts see each person’s level and note before saying yes, and everyone should talk experience through in the plan’s chat. Good Company doesn’t organise, supervise or insure X plans.

Plans for students: study groups with people on your course, society meets, sport and nights out, for verified university students. It’s part of the same app, with the same ID checks. Read more.

A current university email address (for example ending .ac.uk) to confirm you’re a student, on top of the government-ID and selfie check every member does. Alumni addresses can’t be used, and student status lasts about 13 months before we ask you to confirm your university email again.

Nights out are capped at 12 people, every member is ID-verified, hosts can approve each request, and you can start a safety check-in and share your live location with your trusted contacts. Nothing removes risk entirely: see Safety.

Yes. Good Company is for friendship and doing things together, not dating. Most plans are groups doing an activity, and some turn into lasting friendships.

City by city. Sign-ups open soon. Once they do, add your city and we’ll email you when it’s live near you. We won’t announce dates we can’t keep.

We’re opening first in Manchester, Birmingham and London. Verification and matching only work well with enough people close by, so we start with a few cities and add more of the UK as we grow. Outside those cities you can still download the app, look around and be someone’s trusted contact, and the ID check and posting plans open when we launch near you. Once sign-ups open, join the waitlist (or tap “Tell me when you open here” in the app) and you’ll hear from us the day it’s live where you are.

Yes. When you post a plan you choose who can join: everyone, women only, or men only. You can only choose women-only if you’re a woman, or men-only if you’re a man. We ask for your gender when you sign up, and it isn’t shown to other members. Women-only and men-only plans are only shown to, and joinable by, the members they are for. After your ID check we compare your answer with the sex shown on your ID; if they differ, a person on our team looks at it and may update the gender used for single-sex plans to match your ID. If that happens, we tell you. More detail.

Yes. Hosts can edit the title, details, meeting spot, time, number of spots, age range and instant-join setting until the plan starts. People who’ve joined are told if the time or place changes. You can’t change who a plan is for (for example from everyone to women-only), so cancel and post a new one for that. Spots can’t go below the number of people already in.

It’s your profile card: your photo, first name, city, interests (as stamps), your three fun answers from sign-up, your rating and how often you turn up. Make it yours from Profile → Edit on your passport: pick its colour, and choose whether your personality type shows on it. When you ask to join a plan, the host sees your passport before they say yes. Once you’re in a plan together, you can tap anyone in it to see theirs, and you can open your friends’ passports too.

A host can switch on a personality check when they post a plan. To ask to join, you take a quick, fun quiz: six “this or that” questions, about 30 seconds. The host sees your type (like “The Explorer”) and your answers with your request, then decides. Plans with the check are always approved by the host. It’s a light way to get a feel for each other, not a test, and your answers are cleared from the request once the host decides.

Yes. When you post, switch on Repeat this plan and choose weekly, every two weeks or monthly, up to twelve dates and up to six months ahead. Each date has its own spots and group chat. Later you can edit or cancel just one date, or this and all later dates.

You must be 18 or over. Hosts can set an age range on a plan, and you’re matched with people in a similar range.

Yes. Sign up with your email and browse plans that are open to everyone straight away (the area and time, not who’s going). The ID check comes when you want to join or host a plan, and takes about two minutes. 50+, student, women-only and men-only plans show once you’re verified, because they depend on what your ID confirms.

A government ID and a live selfie check, run by our verification partner, once, before you can post or join. We receive the result, a reference number, the date of birth on your ID and the sex shown on it — not copies of your ID or the selfie.

No. The photos of your ID and your ID-check selfie stay with our verification partner, Stripe, and we don’t receive them. If you delete your account, we ask Stripe to delete the ID-check data it holds for us.

No. It confirms you’re a real adult who is who you say you are. It can’t predict behaviour, so please follow the safety tips.

Leave any plan whenever you like, no reason needed. Leaving ends your safety check-in for that plan, so let your trusted contacts know you’re on your way home. Block in one tap, and report so our team can review. See the community guidelines.

Add up to three trusted contacts in your profile (they use the free app; no ID check). Before you head out, start a check-in. Afterwards we ask if you’re home safe; if you don’t answer, your contacts are alerted in their app, and if none of them opens it within 10 minutes we text your emergency backup number (optional, a UK mobile). Check-ins aren’t watched by our staff and aren’t an emergency service: in an emergency, call 999 (if you can’t speak, press 55 when prompted).

Only if you switch it on, during a check-in. They get a notification in their app, then an update every hour, and can open a live map whenever they like. It ends when you tap “I’m home safe”, stop sharing, or a few hours after the plan, and the last position is then deleted. How live location works.

No. They download the free app, sign up with an email and enter your invite code. They don’t need an ID check or a photo, and they don’t have to use Good Company for anything else (though they’re welcome to). For trusted contacts.

The host can mark you as a no-show after the plan; if you were there, tap “I was there” and it won’t count. Leaving a plan less than 12 hours before it starts counts as a late cancel. Hosts see a simple record, like “Turned up to 9 of 10 plans”, when they decide on requests. It covers the last 12 months, and new members show as “New to plans”. If you’ve missed three or more plans in the last 12 months, hosts confirm your place before you’re in, even on instant-join plans; this lifts as those plans pass 12 months.

Join the waiting list from the plan. When a spot opens, the first person in line moves up automatically: straight in on instant-join plans, or as a request to the host. You’re told straight away, and you can leave the list at any time.

Yes. After your first plan, the app offers to switch on Face ID, Touch ID, fingerprint or face unlock, whichever your phone has. You can also do it any time in Profile → Settings and safety. The app then asks for it when you open it and after a minute away, so your chats and plans stay private if someone picks up your phone. Your phone does the check: we never see your face or fingerprint. If it doesn’t recognise you, use your phone’s passcode or your password. Live location for your trusted contacts keeps working while the app is locked.

Yes. For 30 days after a plan, you can add anyone who was in it as a friend. They get a request; once they add you back you’re friends, you hear when they post plans, and hosts can invite their friends. Ignored requests just disappear, and nobody is told. Remove a friend, or block someone, at any time.

Yes, by type, in Profile → Settings and safety → Notifications: new plans nearby, chat messages, reminders, and friends. Safety notifications (“Are you home safe?” and trusted-contact alerts) always stay on.

Each plan says: free, pay your own way (for example your own food and drinks), or a small cost paid to the venue, like entry to a class. Hosts never charge members.

Yes, before you join or host a plan. Everyone adds a photo of themselves. It’s checked automatically before anyone else sees it: photos with nudity, graphic content or no clear face are refused, and borderline ones are reviewed by a moderator.

The host sees your verified profile and accepts or declines — or has switched on instant join. Once you’re in, you land in the plan’s group chat.

It still goes ahead with whoever said yes, unless the host cancels.

The day before a plan, everyone going is asked to confirm. Tap “I’m coming” and the host sees you’ve confirmed. Tap “Can’t make it” and your spot goes to the next person on the waiting list; a day ahead, that doesn’t count as a late cancel. If the host changes the time or place, everyone is asked again.

If the host has switched on +1s, yes: each person going can bring one friend. Tap “Bring a friend (+1)” on the plan and send them the link. Your friend needs to be a verified member who fits the plan (age range, women-only and so on), and takes one of the spots.

Say what you’d go to: tap “Ask for one” on Home, or “Say what I’d go to” when nothing’s on. People nearby see what and when, never who asked, and can tap “Me too”. At three people you’re all told so one of you can post it, and when someone does, everyone who wanted it hears.

When you join your first plan, you can let the host know it’s your first, so they say hello in the chat and look out for you. The plan page also has a short “what to expect” guide. Everyone going has passed the same ID check as you.

Walks, hikes and outdoor sport show a forecast for the plan’s place and time from two days before. If heavy rain, storms, strong wind, snow or heat are forecast, the host is told and can move the plan; everyone going hears if they do. Forecasts are a guide, so check before you set off.

Yes. Leave the plan from its page, or withdraw your request if the host hasn’t answered yet. Please tell the group in the chat first, and do it early if you can. Leaving ends your safety check-in for that plan.

Yes, once you’re friends (you both added each other after a plan). You can send messages and photos. Photos are checked automatically before anyone sees them. Turn off messages from friends any time in Settings → Privacy.

Signed-in members can see your profile photo once it has passed our checks. Members of a plan you join also see your first name, verified badge, rating average, bio and interests. Other members see an age range, never your date of birth or exact location.

We use it to find plans near you and to notify people near a plan. Other members aren’t shown your own location. Details on Your data.

Yes, both, inside the app (Profile → Settings and safety → Your data). Deletion is immediate. You can also email privacy@goodcompanyapp.uk.

No. We don’t sell personal data, show ads targeted at you, or use tracking cookies. Some events and features are supported by sponsors or partners: they’re always clearly labelled, and sponsors never get your data.

Yes. Free for members. No subscriptions, no paywalls, no card details. Joining and posting plans, the group chat and every safety feature will always be free. We earn from sponsors, corporate partnerships and venue partners, never from selling your data. Any cost shown on a plan, like a class or entry, is paid to the venue, not to us.