Safety comes first

Verification lowers risk. It doesn’t remove it. Here’s exactly how the checks work, and how to look after yourself when you meet people in person.

How verification actually works

Anyone can sign up and look around first. Before anyone can post or join a plan, see who’s going or chat, they confirm their identity with a government-issued ID and a live selfie check. Until then they only see plans that are open to everyone, with the general area, the time and the host’s first name, and no photos or lists of who’s going. That check is run for us by a specialist verification partner, Stripe. We don’t receive or keep copies of your ID document or the selfie taken during the check. We receive a pass/fail result, a reference number, the date of birth on your ID and the sex shown on it. We use the date of birth to check you’re an adult and to show other members only an age range. We compare the sex on your ID with the gender you chose for women-only and men-only plans; if they differ, a person on our team looks at it (how this works).

Your profile photo is separate: you choose it, we store it, and it’s shown to other members once it passes our checks.

Verification confirms someone is a real adult who is who they say they are. It is not a background check, and it can’t guarantee someone’s behaviour. Please read the rest of this page with that in mind.

Every safety feature, at a glance

The detail

• Trusted contacts. Add up to three people (Profile → Settings and safety → Trusted contacts). Each gets an invite code from you, downloads the free app and signs up with just an email: no ID check, no photo. What trusted contacts see.
• Safety check-in. Start one when you head out. After the plan should have finished we ask if you’re home safe. If you don’t answer within an hour, your trusted contacts get an alert in their app. If none of them opens it within 10 minutes (or none of them has the app), we text your emergency backup number, if you’ve added one. A text that can’t be sent is retried after 5, 10, 20 and 40 minutes, then hourly, for up to about a day; if the number is refused, or the text doesn’t arrive, we tell you in the app. When you tap “I’m home safe”, your contacts are told straight away. If a host cancels a plan that has already started, your check-in keeps running; if you leave a plan, your check-in for it ends.
• The backup number is a UK mobile. Safety texts can only go to UK mobile numbers (starting 07 or +44 7).
• Live location. If you choose, during a check-in, your trusted contacts see where you are on a map in their app, with a notification when you start and an update every hour. If you allow “Always” location it keeps going with your phone locked; otherwise it updates while the app is open. 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.
• Reliability. After a plan, the host can mark anyone who didn’t turn up; you can say “I was there” and it won’t count. Leaving less than 12 hours before a plan counts as a late cancel. Hosts see a simple record (“Turned up to 9 of 10 plans”) when they decide on requests. 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.
• A photo of yourself. Every member adds a profile photo before they join or host a plan. It’s checked automatically before anyone else sees it (we use Google Cloud Vision for this); photos with nudity, graphic content or no clear face are refused and not kept, and borderline ones are held back for a moderator.
• Hosts choose how people join. They approve each request, or turn on instant join for verified people who fit the plan. Either way, you can see who’s going before you go.
• Blocking. People you block can’t see your plans or your messages, and you can’t see theirs. A block applies to everyone in a plan: you won’t see or be able to join a plan that someone you blocked (or who blocked you) has joined.
• Ratings. After a plan, people rate each other. You only ever see an average, never who said what.
• Reports. Several independent reports about someone pause their account while our team reviews it. A person always makes the final decision.

Before you meet

• Choose plans in public places, especially the first time you meet a group.
• Tell a friend or family member where you’re going and roughly when you’ll be back.
• Use the in-app group chat to confirm details rather than moving to another app straight away.
• Arrange your own way there and back rather than relying on someone you just matched with.

While you’re there

• Trust your instincts. If something feels off, you don’t need a reason to leave.
• Keep your phone charged and know how to reach local emergency services wherever you are.
• If you feel unsafe in a bar or venue, many UK venues take part in Ask for Angela: ask staff for “Angela” and they’ll help you discreetly, for example by calling you a taxi. Not every venue takes part, so look for the posters.
• For anything remote or outdoors (hikes especially), tell someone your route and expected return time, separately from the app.

Reporting and blocking

Every profile and every plan has a report option. Reports are reviewed by our trust and safety team. What happens next is set out in our community guidelines. To tell us about something outside the app, email safety@goodcompanyapp.uk.

Extreme sports (Good Company X)

X plans are for experienced people in technical and extreme sports. Levels are self-declared, so talk experience and kit through in the chat before you go, and only take part with a recognised operator, centre or club, or a properly planned team. Check your insurance covers the sport, leave your route and timings with someone at home, and remember anyone can turn back at any point. Good Company doesn’t organise, supervise or insure X plans. More about Good Company X.

In an emergency

Your safety data

Your trusted contacts, your backup number, your check-ins and (if you use it) your live location are used only to run the safety check-in. Only your latest position is kept while you share, never a history, and it is deleted when you’re home safe or stop sharing; everything else is deleted when you delete your account. See Your data.