Meet Your Mate Early Access Terms

Version: terms-2026-10-14 · Contact details updated 17 October 2026 (website and email now meetyourmate.co.za); no change to these terms · Effective: 14 October 2026

Meet Your Mate is a service of MeetYourGuide (Pty) Ltd (registration number 2026/426905/07), a private company registered in the Republic of South Africa, trading as Meet Your Mate. In these Terms, "Meet Your Mate", "we" and "us" mean MeetYourGuide (Pty) Ltd providing the Meet Your Mate service; "you" means you, the member. Our full company details are on our Legal / Supplier Information page.

Important safety notice

Meet Your Mate does not conduct criminal background checks or verify every statement a member makes. Meeting someone you first encountered online carries risks.

Meet in a public place, tell someone you trust where you are going, arrange your own transport, do not send money, and leave if you feel unsafe.

You remain responsible for deciding whether, when and how to meet another member.

1. What Meet Your Mate is

Meet people who fit. Meet Your Mate is a compatibility-first introduction service for relationships and friendships. Instead of a swipe feed, we introduce members we think may be a good fit, based on their personality, values, lifestyle, what they need from the people close to them and what they naturally bring to a connection.

You can join for:

  • Romantic introductions, to people who are also looking for a relationship;
  • Friendship introductions, to people who are also looking for new friends; or
  • both.

You choose, and you can change your choice at any time. Every introduction is clearly one or the other, a Romantic introduction or a Friendship introduction. Both people in an introduction have chosen that kind of introduction, and the other person only sees the kind of introduction you were given, never your other choices.

Compatibility is an estimate, not a promise. We use questionnaire answers and preferences to calculate compatibility estimates and rank eligible members. Some introductions are curated by our team and some are selected under our validation process. A compatibility score does not guarantee attraction, friendship, safety or a successful relationship, and no member is entitled to receive an introduction.

Our compatibility system is experimental and has not yet been scientifically validated. Our friendship matching is newer than our romantic matching. Compatibility scores are not shown to members during the Early Access validation beta.

Early Access is free. Features may change, pause or end while we test the service.

2. Early Access is a research beta

Early Access is also a research beta. We are testing whether our compatibility approach predicts better introductions and real-world outcomes. Taking part in the research is currently a condition of this limited Early Access programme.

Joining Early Access is voluntary. If you do not want to participate in the research, you should not join or upgrade into this Early Access programme.

You may withdraw your research consent later, as explained in the Privacy Notice. While research participation remains a condition of Early Access, withdrawing it means we will stop making new introductions for you.

This condition applies to this limited Early Access programme. It is not a statement about how any future version of Meet Your Mate will work.

3. Who can join

Meet Your Mate is only for people aged 18 or older. We currently rely on your declaration of your date of birth and do not routinely verify identity documents. If we reasonably suspect that an account belongs to someone under 18, we may suspend or remove it and may ask for reasonable proof of age.

You must also:

  • give true information about yourself and use your own recent photos;
  • have only one account;
  • not have been removed from Meet Your Mate before.

Romantic introductions are only for people who are single or otherwise available for a romantic relationship. During Early Access, we do not offer Romantic introductions to anyone who tells us they are married or currently in a relationship.

Friendship introductions are open to everyone who meets the conditions above, including people who are married or in a relationship.

4. How introductions work

  • We suggest introductions. Nobody can browse or search for you.
  • An introduction is only made between two people who have both chosen that kind of introduction.
  • We use both people's preferences and eligibility rules when making an introduction. Hard eligibility rules and applicable Romantic dealbreakers must be satisfied. Distance is normally kept within each person's selected range or approved travel-further range, although in a curated introduction our team may occasionally suggest someone outside that distance, or someone whose distance can't be calculated, where there appears to be a strong reason to do so. You are always free to decline an introduction.
  • We never introduce the same two people twice, whichever kind of introduction it was.
  • Before you both say yes, each of you sees a shorter version of the other's profile. If you both say Interested, you can see more and message each other in the app. You never need to share your phone number or email address to talk.
  • You can decline any introduction. If you choose to tell us why, that reason is private to the Meet Your Mate team.
  • An introduction that isn't answered within 7 days closes.
  • After an introduction becomes mutual, we may ask you privately whether you are planning to meet, whether you met, how it went, and how things stand 14 days later. Your answers are private and are never shown to the other member.
  • Either of you can close a conversation at any time. After that, neither of you can send new messages, and both of you keep read-only access to what was said.

5. Your behaviour

You agree not to:

  • harass, threaten, demean or pressure anyone;
  • send sexual content to anyone who hasn't clearly asked for it;
  • impersonate anyone, or misrepresent who you are, what you're looking for or your relationship status;
  • use someone else's photos or fake photos;
  • ask anyone for money;
  • promote anything, solicit business or use Meet Your Mate for commercial purposes;
  • share another member's profile, photos or messages outside the app without their permission;
  • try to get around blocks, our introduction process or our security.

Friendship introductions. Do not use a Friendship introduction as a way to seek or pressure someone for romance or sex. Friendship introductions are made on the understanding that both people are looking for friendship. If a friendship later changes mutually, that is between the people involved.

We may remove content, pause introductions, or suspend or close accounts that break these rules or put others at risk.

6. Blocking and reporting

You can block or report another member from your introduction or conversation. Reports are confidential: the other member is never told who reported them.

If you block someone, the introduction ends immediately. You keep read-only access to your existing conversation so that you can review it or report something later. The person you blocked loses access to that conversation. Neither of you can send further messages, and we will not introduce you to each other again.

If something serious happens, contact the police first (10111, or 112 from a mobile), then let us know.

7. Meeting in person

Please read the important safety notice at the top of these Terms. You are responsible for your own safety, whether you meet for a date or as friends.

8. Your content

You own what you add, such as your photos, bio, prompt answers and messages. You give us permission to store it, to show it to the members we introduce you to, and to use it as described in the Privacy Notice. You confirm that you have the right to share it. We review photos before anyone else can see them, and we may refuse or remove photos or text that break these Terms.

9. Referrals and Founding Credits

  • If someone joins through your invite link and completes their Meet Your Mate profile for at least one kind of introduction, you and they each earn one Founding Month. You can earn up to 12 Founding Months from referrals.
  • Original research-pilot participants receive 3 Founding Months.
  • Referring yourself, or using fake or duplicate accounts, does not count. Credits obtained that way are cancelled.
  • Please invite only people you know, and don't spam.

Founding Credits are a promotional benefit only. They are not money, have no cash or transfer value, and cannot be redeemed unless a paid Meet Your Mate plan launches.

If Premium launches, a valid Founding Month entitles the holder to one month of the standard Premium benefit designated for the Founding programme. Premium's launch, price and features are not guaranteed.

We may change the prospective programme where reasonably necessary, but we will not arbitrarily cancel valid credits that have already been earned.

10. Ending your membership

You can stop using Meet Your Mate, switch either kind of introduction off, and delete your account at any time from your Account page. We may suspend or close an account that breaks these Terms or puts others at risk. We may end Early Access, or the service, and will give reasonable notice where we can.

11. Liability

Meet Your Mate is an Early Access service and may contain faults or change while we test it.

We do not guarantee that another member is who they say they are, that an introduction will lead to a meeting, or that any meeting, friendship or relationship will be safe or successful.

To the extent permitted by law, MeetYourGuide (Pty) Ltd is not responsible for the independent conduct of members or for losses caused solely by another member's conduct.

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits any right or remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, including rights under the Consumer Protection Act or other applicable South African law.

12. Changes to these Terms

We may change these Terms as the service develops. If a change materially affects your rights or how the service uses your information, we will give reasonable notice in the app or by email and, where fresh consent is legally required, ask for it before the relevant processing continues.

13. Law and contact

These Terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa.

MeetYourGuide (Pty) Ltd, trading as Meet Your Mate
4 La Montagne Estate, Somerset West, Cape Town, 7130, South Africa
support@meetyourmate.co.za · +27 81 725 8817 · https://meetyourmate.co.za

Meet Your Mate