Help

Sign in with Apple or Google, then confirm your phone number with the code we text you. Next, add a few details: the first name you go by (a nickname is fine), your last name, your date of birth and your gender. BarMatch is for adults 21 and over, so you can't continue if you're under 21.

Those details lock once you continue. If one is wrong, write to us in Account → Contact Support.

Open Account → Manage Profile, or tap your profile photo in the top left of Explore, to change your photos, bio and other details. Your first name, last name and date of birth lock at sign-up; support can fix a typo or a real name change.

Every photo is checked before anyone sees it. Once you've verified your ID, your main photo has to be of you: we compare it with your ID selfie. Your other photos can be anything that follows our rules.

Friends see your full name. People you meet through the Match Game see your first name and last initial.

Open Account, scroll to the bottom and tap Delete account. We close your account right away and sign you out everywhere.

Changed your mind? Sign back in within 60 days to keep it. After that your photos, profile, matches, messages and friends are deleted.

We keep a limited record for disputes, claims and legal requests, held separately and seen only by authorized BarMatch staff: your name, date of birth, email and phone, your purchases, your check-ins, and your support tickets and reports. It's kept for 3 years after your account closes; purchase amounts are kept without your name for 7 years, for tax.

Anything under a law-enforcement preservation order or an active investigation is kept until that's resolved. The Privacy Policy has the details.

Account → Privacy & Push has a switch for each kind: matches, messages, friend requests, invites, event reminders and more.

If none arrive at all, check that notifications for BarMatch are on in your phone's Settings.

Tap a venue on Explore, or Check in on its page, when you're there. You need location on for BarMatch, you need to be at the venue, and the venue has to be open.

If it says you're too far away, give your phone a moment to find a better fix, or step outside: a weak signal can place you down the block. Turning on Wi-Fi helps your phone pin down where you are, even if you don't join a network, and the refresh button at the top right of Explore looks up your location again. You can't check in to the same venue again within 10 minutes, or to more than 10 venues in one night.

Your check-in ends when you check out, and now and then we ask if you're still there.

You choose in Account → Privacy & Push.

Public: your friends see your check-ins, and you appear in the Match Game for people checked in at your venue and nearby. You can also be Vibe Checked: someone you meet there can ask their friends for a read on you.

Friends only: only your accepted friends and venues see your check-ins, and you don't appear in the Match Game.

Venues only: no one, not even friends, sees your check-ins, and you don't appear in the Match Game.

To hide your check-ins from one friend, open them in Account → Manage Friends.

Deals are a venue's offers: happy hours, specials and perks. VERIFIED deals are posted by the venue itself. SPOTTED deals are ones we found on the venue's own website, so check with staff before you count on one.

To use a deal the venue posted, open it while you're there, tap Redeem and show the code to staff. Each deal works once a night, and some have conditions printed on the deal, like a first visit or being a regular.

Three ways: tap the bookmark on a venue's page; swipe a venue left in a list on Explore, Trending or a category; or open My Spots, tap Add venues and search by name or pick one nearby.

My Spots keeps the venues you've saved together and shows which have a deal on now.

To remove one, press and hold its icon in the row at the top of My Spots until an ✕ appears, then tap the ✕ and confirm. While they wiggle you can also drag them into the order you like; tap Done when you've finished.

Verifying shows you're 21 or older and that you're the person in your photos. It isn't a background check. It unlocks the Match Game, tickets and VIP. Check-ins, deals, events, friends and free RSVPs never need it.

It's a one-time $1.99 purchase of 3 chat refreshments, with the ID check included at no charge. The refreshments are added once your ID is verified, and trying again after a failed check costs nothing more. Verifying again later, after you withdraw biometric consent, is free and adds no more refreshments. It isn't part of BarMatch+.

Start from Account → Verify Your ID. You read and agree to the biometric consent first, then our ID partner, Persona, checks your ID and a selfie.

To check that your photos are of you, we compare them with a face template made from your ID selfie. Illinois law (BIPA) requires your written consent before that, and the consent screen explains what's collected, why and how long it's kept. The full BIPA notice is linked from it.

To withdraw, open Account → Privacy & Push and tap Withdraw biometric consent. Your face data is deleted right away. While it's off, the Match Game, a new main photo, tickets and VIP are paused; your photos stay, and check-ins, deals, events, friends and free RSVPs still work.

Paused means face matching is off, usually because you withdrew biometric consent, so we can't check new photos against your ID. Account shows Verification paused in orange.

To turn it back on, verify your ID again from Account. It's free (it adds no chat refreshments), and you can do it once every 30 days.

If Persona couldn't verify you, make sure your ID is valid and in date, and that both photos are sharp and well lit, then try again. You can start up to 3 checks a day.

On hold means your ID matches another verified BarMatch account: one person, one account. A person on our team reviews it, and you'll get a notification with the outcome.

Check in, then open the Match Game to see verified people checked in at your venue and at venues within about half a mile, filtered by your Match Preferences (who you'd like to meet and their age range). Like someone; if they like you back, it's a match.

You need a verified ID and your privacy set to Public. Likes start over each night.

On a grid photo, small circles show what you have in common. Crossed paths: you were both at the same venue at the same time, some night in the last six months. Same spots: you've both been to the same venue in the last six months, just not on the same night. Similar tastes: at least one of your vibes, drinks, bar games or music picks matches theirs. With BarMatch+, an eye marks someone who viewed your profile. Once you like someone, their photo shows Liked instead.

On a profile, the green seal means Verified: they confirmed who they are, and that they're 21 or older, with a government ID (it isn't a background check). Founder marks one of a city's first members, and Headliner someone who brought friends to BarMatch who joined and verified their ID. City Passport and Lookout ranks count the different venues they've checked into and the friends' Vibe Checks they've answered, and First Finds count venues where they were the first verified member to check in. Tap any badge on a profile to see what it means.

You can chat for 4 hours after you match. Either of you can add 2 hours with a chat refreshment, up to a maximum of 2 refreshments per match, between you. A match ends for good after 72 hours.

A refreshment adds 2 hours to a match's chat. Buy 1 for $0.99 or 3 for $1.99, paid through Apple or Google: open Account → Refreshments, or tap Get a Refreshment in a chat when its time runs out. They're sold once your ID is verified. Your first ID verification comes with 3.

BarMatch+ includes unlimited chat refreshments, but the limit still applies: a maximum of 2 refreshments can be used per match, whoever adds them.

Open their profile or your chat and use the menu to unmatch, block or report. Blocking hides you from each other across BarMatch, and they aren't told.

Reports go to a person on our team. A harassment report needs a few words about what happened.

Usually one of these: you're not checked in, your privacy is set to Friends only or Venues only, your ID isn't verified, or your verification is paused.

The Match Game can also be suspended for your account after a report. The notice shows how long, and everything else in BarMatch still works.

You can appeal a suspension once. A person on our team reviews your case and the evidence behind it, and replies in Account → Contact Support.

On the Friends tab, find people from your contacts, by search or under People You May Know, and send a request.

To invite someone who isn't on BarMatch, send a text from your own phone through the app. You can send up to 25 invites a day.

Your full name and profile, and, depending on your privacy setting, where you're checked in.

You choose, friend by friend. In Account → Manage Friends, or by tapping a friend on the Friends tab, you can hide your check-ins from them, block their invites and block their Vibe Checks, so they can't ask you to vibe-check someone. Set each friend however you like; they aren't told.

It's how you ask friends for their read on someone you've matched with or are thinking about. The friends you pick get a quick poll, and you see what they say.

Before you match, open their profile in the Match Game: if you have friends in common, tap those friends to send a Vibe Check to just them.

Turn Vibe Check notifications on or off in Account → Privacy & Push.

Open an event or VIP service on the Events tab, pick the night (and the ticket type or package, if there's a choice) and pay with your saved card.

The price you see includes the 10% BarMatch booking fee and any venue service charge. Sales tax, if any, is added at checkout before you pay, and checkout links the venue's refund policy. You need a verified ID and a card on file.

They're in Account → My Events & VIP Tickets, and on the Events tab under Tickets & Saved. Show the QR code at the door and staff scan it.

Each ticket works for its own night and entry time.

Yes. Open the ticket and send it to friends: each friend gets their own QR code, so you don't have to arrive together.

While a ticket is out with a friend you can't refund the purchase (take them all back first), and once anyone has been scanned in it can't be refunded.

Yes. Open the ticket and tap Add to Apple Wallet on an iPhone or Add to Google Wallet on Android. The pass updates if the ticket changes and shows when it's been refunded.

Open the ticket and tap Request refund. The venue decides under its own refund policy, which you can open from the link at checkout before you pay. If it approves, you get back the price, any service charge and tax; the BarMatch booking fee isn't returned on a venue refund.

BarMatch refunds you in full, its fee included, if our technology failed, you were charged an amount you weren't shown or charged twice, or we're legally required to, even if the venue declined. Write to us in Account → Contact Support.

A ticket that's been scanned in can't be refunded. The Pricing & Refunds page has the full policy.

If a venue cancels a night or the whole event, everyone holding a ticket for it is refunded in full, booking fee included, usually within a few minutes, and gets a notification and an email. Friends you shared tickets with are told too. Free RSVPs are canceled.

Usually one of these: your ID isn't verified, your verification is paused, purchases are restricted on your account, there's no card on file, the night has sold out or passed, or you've reached the venue's limit per person.

Open Account → Manage Wallet & Receipts and add a card. Your card is kept by our payment processor, Stripe; BarMatch sees only its brand and last four digits.

In Account → Manage Wallet & Receipts. Pick a date range if you like, then export your receipts as a PDF to save or share. A refunded purchase is marked on its receipt.

It's 10% of a ticket or VIP price, already included in the price you see. Drinks carry a $2 BarMatch Service Fee instead. A venue may add its own service charge to VIP, also included in the price shown.

$4.99 a month. It includes chat refreshments (extend any chat by 2 hours, up to a maximum of 2 refreshments per match) and shows you who viewed your profile.

It renews until you cancel, which you do in your Apple ID or Google account's subscriptions. A Match Game suspension doesn't cancel it or earn a refund.

Apple and Google take payment for ID verification, refreshments and BarMatch+, so refunds go through them: on an iPhone at reportaproblem.apple.com, on Android from your Google Play order history.

If you're in danger, call 911 first. Then, from the person's profile or your chat, choose Report and tell us what happened; you can block them at the same time. A person on our team reviews every report.

Purchases can be restricted on an account for a time after a problem with past purchases. The notice shows how long, and you can still RSVP to free events.

If you think it's a mistake, you can appeal once. A person on our team reviews it and replies in Account → Contact Support.

Check your connection, and that BarMatch has location access while you use it, with precise location on (iPhone: Settings → BarMatch → Location; Android: Settings → Apps → BarMatch → Permissions).

Turning on Wi-Fi helps your phone pin down where you are, even if you don't join a network. Then tap the refresh button at the top right of Explore to look up your location again, or close and reopen the app.

Check that notifications for BarMatch are on in your phone's Settings, and that the kinds you want are on in Account → Privacy & Push. A phone you've signed out of stops getting them.