The right panel of your profile page is where you set your:
- Discoverability:Â Can people find you? Are you open to new Phrends? đ
- Availability: Are you available for phone calls? Video calls? đ
- Forwarding via SMS/text: Want messages sent to your phone? đ˛
Flip those switches to get contacted when and how you want!
Discoverability is just a fancy word for who can see your profile.
- Public profiles can be found when browsing and Phrends will see your profile if you match their searches.
- Private (or Pending) profiles will not show up in search results.
- New Phrends allows new Phrends to contact you. Switch to âNot Acceptingâ if you donât want new Phrends. New Phrends will not be able to contact you, but your current Phrends can still reach out through their Phrends List!
Where you show up is a bit more complex, depending on which filters and sort orders people use:
- Filters let Phrends filter their browsing by Age, Availability, Relationship Speed, Ethnicity, and Languages.
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Sort Order lets Phrends sort their matches by:
- Birds of a Feather: Similar profiles đŚ
- Opposites Attract: Dissimilar profiles đ§˛
- Phrendly Formula: A secret mix! đ¤Ť
Availability controls whether phrends can contact you via phone or video.
- Phone Adjust the toggle to âAvailableâ or âUnavailableâ depending on your phone call status.
- Video Adjust the toggle to âAvailableâ or âUnavailableâ depending on your video call status.
- Don't allow video or phone calls until we've exchanged messages. We know getting a random phone or video request can be a bit of a shock! Check this box to limit calls to existing phrends only.
- Do Not Disturb Donât want a buzzing phone vibrating the nightstand in the middle of the night? No problem! Set a Do Not Disturb schedule so you'll only be notified when you want.
- Show status as online or offline to let phrends know when you're ready (or not!) to chat.
Forwarding allows you to stay in the loop and never miss a message when you're not on Phrendly.
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The right pane of your Profile page controls your:
Discoverability (Can you be found on the site? Are you accepting new phrends?)
Availability
Forwarding via SMS/text messaging.
Discoverability
The top part controls your Discoverability. This is a fancy word for who can see your profile when browsing the site or mobile app. If youâre Public, you can be found; if youâre Private or Pending, you canât--itâs that simple.
Where you show up when someone is browsing is less simple, as it depends on the filters theyâve set (things like age, ethnicity, etc), and the sort order theyâve chosen (Birds of a Feather, Opposites Attract, or Phrendly Formula, which emphasize similar profiles, dissimilar profiles, and a secret-sauce mix, respectively). Most importantly, all browse results are weighted by your responsiveness, so be sure to respond to each phrend quickly and engage them in meaningful conversations. Thatâll give you the best chance to end up high in the browse list.
Public or Private
We have a simple rule on Phrendly: Private means private! If you set your profile to Private, no one can initiate a new conversation with you, not even your bestest, oldest phrend. Going private is a great option if you need to fill up on berries and honey and hibernate in a cave for the winter.
But what if you want to allow existing Phrends to contact you, and just donât want to be bothered with new ones? You may already have as many phrends as you can handle! Thatâs what the switch âAccepting new phrendsâ controls. Keep your profile public, but set this to âNoâ, and youâll be taken out of search and browse results, but existing phrends will be able to contact you via their Phrends List. Sing with me: âMake NO new phrends, but keep the old onesâŚâ Normally, of course, youâll want to keep this set to âYesâ.
Use the Availability section to control whether phrends can contact you via phone or video.
Phone is simple. . .unless you want to include multiple phone numbers. To do that, use the  âAdd anotherâŚâ option of the phone dropdown. With more than one number, use the âManageâŚâ option of the dropdown to control which number you want to use for phone calls and text messages--it doesnât have to be the same one for both methods.
Video is pretty straight-forward; yes or no.
We get that it can be a bit jarring to receive a phone or video request from someone you know nothing about. You can avoid this by checking the box next to âDonât allow video or phone messages until weâve exchanged messagesâ. Voila! Now, a phrend will have to receive at least one message from you before being allowed to contact you âliveâ.
Do Not Disturb
Not a fan of a buzzing phone in the middle of the night? Neither are we. With DND enabled, your profile will not appear in browse search results and you will not be notified if you get new messages.
SMS/Text Messaging When Not Online
Once you leave the Phrendly site, itâs hard to know how many adoring phrends want to chat with you. Thatâs why itâs important to verify that your phone can receive text messages from us. Once you do that, when youâre not on the site, youâll be notified of new messages via SMS (carrier charges may apply). What's more, we do this without ever revealing your actual phone number. All messages go through special Phrendly-only 512 area code phone numbers.
You'll know a message is from a phrend because your trusty digital assistant Phrendbot will introduce them, complete with a contact card. You can create a new contact from this card so that you easily identify your phrend by name and not by phone number.
To take advantage of this super handy feature, make sure SMS Forwarding is ON and that you close any Phrendly browser windows or tabs.
Although you can't send images when texting with your phrends just yet (that's coming soon!), you can send them in Phrendly chat. Phrends who are using text will then get a link to the image that is accessible on their phones.
Made it this far? Youâre now an expert in Discoverability & Availability. Rejoice!