Frequently Asked Questions

Buddiz helps you find sports partners near you, host or join sessions, and see the same faces again week after week. The app is available on iOS, Android and the web.

Yes. The app is free, with no subscription. The only exception: an association or a company (a club set up as an association, for example) can ask for a contribution for their session (court hire, coaching). The price is then shown before you sign up.

Buddiz is on the App Store (iPhone, iPad) and on Google Play (Android). You can also use it in your browser, without installing anything.

You need an account, and it's free. Without one, you can only open a link someone sent you, with some details hidden. To join, message or host, create your account.

Open the “Me” tab and tap the gear at the top right. That's where you set your notifications, alerts, language, appearance, security and privacy. You'll also find help and the guided tour there.

Sign up with your email, or continue with Google or Apple (Apple on iPhone and the web). Pick your sport, then a few screens follow: your first name and details, where you do sport, a photo that shows your face, your profile in your sport and your skills, then your notifications. Right after your photo, you can certify your profile. Along the way, you can also join a club if there's one near you, and follow buddiz nearby.

In the “Me” tab, tap the pencil next to your first name (or your photo) to change your photo or edit your details. For your level and preferences in a sport, tap the pencil of “My sports”, then “Edit” next to the sport.

In Settings > Help, “Delete my account” is at the very bottom. Your profile disappears from the app right away, and you're logged out of all your devices. If you log back in with the same account later, it is reactivated. To have your data permanently erased, write to us from “Contact support” on the same screen.

Each sport has its own scale: 10 levels in padel (from Initiation to Elite), 4 in tennis (Beginner to Competition) and in running (Beginner to Expert), 3 in 5-a-side (Casual to Competitive). Hiking and cycling have no level to set. Your level helps you find partners who suit you. To change it, tap the pencil of “My sports” in the “Me” tab, then “Edit” next to the sport.

Go to Settings > Security > “Identity verification”. With a profile photo that shows your face, you record a short video that is compared with your photo. You get the “Profile certified” mention and access to the sessions reserved for certified profiles. If you change your photo, you'll need to certify again.

Tap the “+” (at the bottom of the screen on your phone, in the side bar on a computer), then choose to host it yourself. Pick the place, date, time, how people join and, depending on the sport, the expected level. You also choose who sees it: “Public” (everyone sees it and can sign up), “Private” (only the people you invite), or “Club” if you host it on behalf of your club (everyone sees it, but only its members see the details and sign up).

Open it from Discover, as a list or on the map, and tap “Join this session”. If the organiser approves each request, the button becomes “Request to join”: with no answer within 48h, or once it starts, your request is declined automatically. If it's full, choose “Join the waitlist”.

The organiser picks one when creating it: “Automatic” (people join directly), “Manual” (they approve each request) or “Certified” (people join directly, with a certified profile).

Open the session, tap the “You're in” button and confirm the cancellation. Tell people as early as possible: the organiser is notified, and your spot goes automatically to the first person on the waitlist. Changed your mind? You can sign up again as long as there's room and sign-ups are open.

It stays online, even if it's not full: people can join until it starts, or until the sign-up deadline if you set one. Nothing is cancelled automatically: you decide whether to keep it or cancel it. Tip: share the link to fill it faster.

Every session has its own chat. You can ask a question before signing up, then sort out the details with the group: car sharing, gear, meeting point.

Open it and tap the share button: create an image for your story, copy a message with the link, or show the QR code.

It may be reserved for a club's members (join the club first), for certified profiles or for women. Its sign-up deadline may have passed, or its club may first ask for an emergency contact in your profile. The organiser may also approve each request: yours then waits for their answer. Finally, if your reliability is low, you have to request to join and the number of your ongoing sign-ups is limited.

Its organiser keeps it for women: it only shows up for women, and only they can join it. To see it, set in your profile that you're a woman. To join it, you also need a profile photo in which you can be recognised, and sometimes a certified profile: that's the default when the organiser is certified herself. If you're a woman, the option is offered when you create your own session.

The price is shown on the session. You pay for your spot online, and it's confirmed on payment. If you cancel before the refund deadline (at the latest when it starts), you're refunded automatically, minus service fees. Only associations and companies, with a SIREN number, can host a paid session.

Any member can host session to do sport together: it's free, and people join it in the app. An event has its own registration (a competition, a tournament, a challenge): its organiser pays to showcase it in Discover for several weeks, with its page, its chat and linked training. Organising an event? Everything is explained at buddiz.app/organisateurs.

Open the “Clubs” tab: your clubs are at the top, then the ones meeting up this week, then all the clubs nearby. On a club's page, “Join this club” signs you up right away if membership is open. Otherwise, the button says “Invite only”: you need an invitation. Once you're a member, you'll find its sessions, its chat and its announcements. No club around you yet? Tap “Create a club”, at the very bottom of the same tab.

As soon as you're a member, you get a notification when your club schedules a new session. You can mute these notifications club by club. You'll also find its sessions on the club's page.

No one is notified automatically, but your club is visible to everyone as soon as it's created, in the “Clubs” tab. To bring in your first members, open its page and tap “Share the club”. After that, every session you host on behalf of the club notifies its members, except those who muted these notifications.

On the home screen, “Buddiz to follow” suggests people who get moving near you: people you've already crossed paths with, people at your level in your sport, people free at the same times as you, or simply people active in your area.

On their profile, tap “Follow”. You're notified when this person hosts or joins one. If their profile is private, your request waits for their approval.

In padel, 5-a-side and tennis, open the game once it's over: a step lets you rate each player's behaviour, from 1 to 5 stars.

In padel, tennis and 5-a-side, your average shows on your Buddiz card, which other members can open from your profile. The details of the ratings aren't shown to them.

Start a search: say when you're free, and buddiz nearby who play your sport are notified. As soon as someone is up for it, the session is set up for the two of you: all that's left is to confirm it.

Tap the “+”, pick your sport, then “Plan a slot”. Except in padel and 5-a-side, “Right now” also lets you go straight away, if someone comes along.

Hosting means setting the place, time and spots right away. A search starts from when you're free: there's nothing to organise, the session is born when someone is up for it. In running, hiking and cycling, you can also publish your search so others can join it: tick the option when you start it.

By default, any member can message you. To message someone who doesn't know them yet, a member must have certified their profile. “Connections only” keeps new messages to people you follow, people you've already met on Buddiz and members of your clubs. “Disabled” closes any new conversation, even with people you follow. A conversation that's already open stays accessible. If you block someone, or they block you, you can no longer message each other, even in an existing conversation.

In Settings > Privacy, “Direct messages” section, or with the gear at the top of Messages. Three options: “Everyone” (default), “Connections only” or “Disabled”.

The WhatsApp button shows in the list of people signed up to each session and at the top of a conversation, only if you've added your number in “Personal info”. By default, it's shown to no one (“Never”). If you choose to show it after taking part together, members signed up to the same session as you can see it. With “Visible to all”, any logged-in member can see it.

Set it in Settings > Privacy, “Filter by gender” section, or with the gear in Messages. By choosing “Women” or “Men”, only members who have set that gender can message you first, and you only appear in their suggestions. A member who hasn't set a gender can't get through. People you chose to follow, conversations already open and the Buddiz team always get through, unless your messages are set to “Disabled”. The setting is offered to everyone, and blocking and reporting stay available.

On their profile, open the options menu (the three dots), then “Block”. You no longer see each other's profiles or sessions, and neither of you can write, even in a conversation that's already open. The history stays readable, so you can report it.

On their profile, open the options menu (the three dots), then “Report”. You can also report someone from a conversation, with the button at the top, and a photo in a club's gallery with “Report”.

To message a member who doesn't know you yet, your profile must be certified: one selfie, one minute. That's what keeps fake accounts out of your inbox. Without it, you can already message people who follow you, and the organizer of any session you've joined. A conversation that's already open stays accessible.

Yes, a single one for you, whatever the sport. It shows on profiles in padel, 5-a-side and tennis; in running, hiking and cycling, only your counters appear. It drops when an absence is upheld against you, or when you withdraw less than 48h before in padel, 5-a-side or tennis, and recent events count more than older ones. After your first 5 times taking part, below 75% the number of your ongoing sign-ups is limited, and below 60% the organiser approves each of your requests, in every sport.

You count as present as soon as you've signed up and haven't withdrawn: your silence means present. Only two things change that: you declare yourself that you weren't there, or, in padel, 5-a-side and tennis, the organiser reports your absence and it stands.

Your withdrawal is recorded with its notice: more than 48h before, between 12 and 48h, or under 12h. The organiser is notified. In padel, 5-a-side and tennis, withdrawing less than 48h before weighs on your reliability. Telling people early frees your spot for someone else.

No. Everything goes ahead even if someone is missing: there's nothing to establish.

There, one absence costs the others their game. For the 7 days that follow, the organiser can report a player as absent. You then get a notification: you can tell them why (optional) and, if you were there, dispute it within 48h. Without a dispute, the absence stands. If you dispute it, the other players say whether they saw you: at least one of them has to confirm the absence, with more votes against you than for you. On a tie, or if nobody answers, it's cleared. An absence that stands lowers your reliability.

They report it, but if you dispute it, the other players decide: their report counts as a single vote. They can also withdraw it until it's decided.

Within the 7 days that follow, open the session and tap “I wasn't there”. It no longer counts in your stats, without touching your reliability, and it's removed from the cards you share with the other participants: if it was your only session together, the card disappears on both sides. You can undo your declaration in the same place.

It's the share of the last 26 weeks (about 6 months) in which you did at least one activity with Buddiz, all sports combined. To see it, tap your own photo (in a list of people signed up, for example), then the “Consistency” tab.

It's your number of weeks in a row with at least one activity with Buddiz. The current week doesn't break it until it's over, and once a month, a missed week is forgiven automatically. You'll see it next to your name, in the “Me” tab.

By taking part in the same session. With 12 people or fewer, everyone leaves with the others' cards; beyond that, the session levels up the cards you already have. Your collection opens in the “Me” tab, “My Buddiz cards” section.

Yes: flip the card and tap the option to remove it. It's discreet: the other person isn't told and keeps yours. The card comes back if you head out together again. If you actually weren't there, say so on the session instead, with “I wasn't there”.

On the finished session, tap “Add a memory”. The photo shows on the session, for anyone who can open it: if it's public, not just the group.

The main ones: someone joins or leaves your session, your request is accepted, a reminder before it starts, a message in a chat or in private, and the activity of buddiz you follow. Alerts for new sessions near you are yours to turn on. You set all this in Settings > Notifications, except accepted requests, which are always sent.

At the end of your first sign-up, the app offers to turn them on. You can change your mind anytime in Settings > Notifications.

Check in your phone's settings (or your browser's) that Buddiz is allowed to send you notifications. Then open Settings > Notifications in the app: if they're blocked, the screen tells you; otherwise, check that the type you want is turned on.

Turn on “New sessions alerts” in Settings > Notifications, then choose your days and your time slot in Settings > Alerts. You get at most one notification a day when a new session near you matches.

Members around the place who turned on alerts for that sport, if it fits their days, time slot and level (one notification a day at most), people who follow you, and your club's members when you host it on behalf of the club. A private one only notifies the people you invite, and a “Club” one only the club's members. To get it seen, host it a few days ahead and share its link.

Members who follow its organiser are notified as soon as it's published. Depending on the package the organiser chose, a notification also goes out about 3 weeks before the date to members who turned on alerts for its sports nearby. And when someone hosts a training session linked to an event, members interested in that event are notified.

In Discover, scroll down to the row of venues: the ones within your radius show up there. You can also search for them with the magnifying glass, or tap “Map” to see them on the map.

Tap a venue in Discover, or on the map then “View details”: you'll find its upcoming sessions, the members who go there and its practical info (address, opening hours, contacts).

Add it yourself: when you host a new session, while choosing the venue, tap “Add a venue” and enter at least its name and address. You can pick it right away, then our team checks your suggestion.