Member guide
How MyHabibi works today, with nothing it merely hopes to do one day. We're in an invite-only beta, so buttons may move. If something here doesn't match your app, tell us at hello@myhabibi.net.
Getting started
The beta is on iPhone, through TestFlight, by invitation. To get in line, join the waitlist on our home page. MyHabibi is for people aged 18 and over.
Signing in. Use Apple, or your email and a 6-digit code. No passwords. Google is there too, but it's still in limited testing, so if it turns you away, use one of the others.
Setting up. It takes five short steps:
- About you: first name, date of birth, gender, who you're interested in, and what you're here for. Others see your age, never the date.
- Photos: at least one, up to six. The first is your main one.
- Interests: up to five. Optional, though "enjoys things" is a hard sell.
- Location: you can skip this at sign-up, but Discover and People need it to show you anyone. Others see a rounded distance, never where you are.
- Get verified: optional, and you can do it later. See ID verification.
Finding your way round. The icons along the bottom are, in order: Discover, People, Chats, Out (events and perks near you) and Me (your profile, photos and Settings).
Demo members. During the beta you may come across demo members: sample profiles with stock photos that we use for testing. They aren't real people.
Changing your profile. Go to Me → Edit profile for your name, about me, prompt, job, city, interests, likes and dislikes, modes and Traditional. Photos are further down the Me screen. Your date of birth, gender and who you're interested in can't be changed in the app.
Discover
One person at a time, and no commitment until you say so.
- Swipe sideways to browse. It records nothing and nobody is told. Anyone you skip comes round again.
- Tap the photo to open their full profile.
- Use the logo slider to decide. Drag the heart right to like or left to pass, or tap either end.
- Super like is the gold button to the right of the slider. They'll see a badge on your tile under Liked you.
- Undo is the button to the left of the slider. It brings back your last pass, and only if a pass was the last thing you did. A like can't be undone from here (see Liked by me).
If you both like each other, it's a match and a chat opens up. If not, you'll see a short note and we'll let you know if they like you back.
Likes per day. Free members currently get 50 likes in any 24 hours, and super likes count towards that. Love shouldn't have a quota; servers sadly do. Gold checkout isn't open yet, though beta testers may have a code, which goes in on the plans screen.
Modes, including Friends
The chips at the top of Discover switch between modes. Choose which ones you appear in under Edit profile → I'm here for, and which chips show under Filters → Looking for. A like is recorded in the mode you're in when you send it.
- Friends: friendship, open to any gender. You only see, and are only seen by, other people who also picked Friends. A match made here is labelled as a friendship, and offers Plan a meet-up rather than Plan a date.
- Marriage: follows your gender and who you're interested in.
- Spicy: also follows gender and interest, and only shows verified members, so you need to be verified to appear there. Not every country has this mode.
The app may ask you once whether to keep Friends, in case it was ticked for you when you joined. If you take Friends off your profile, your existing friend matches stay. Waiting likes between people who only had Friends in common stop counting, and come back if you pick Friends again.
The Traditional filter shows only people who turned on Traditional in their profile: looking for something serious, with family and faith in mind. It's their own description of themselves, and nobody checks it.
People and Likes
People is a grid of members near you, in whichever modes you've chosen. A Friends label marks anyone who's only showing up through Friends.
- All: everyone in your filters.
- Online: active in the last 15 minutes.
- New: joined in the last 7 days.
- Likes: split into two lists.
Liked you shows who has liked you, so you can open their profile and like them back. It's open to everyone during the beta, and that may change when Gold launches. If they've blurred their photos, you'll see a lock until you match.
Liked by me shows who you're waiting on. Open a profile and press Take back like to withdraw it, as long as you haven't matched yet.
People you passed is under Filters. Open someone and like them if you've changed your mind. We won't tell.
Filters
Tap the filters button at the top of Discover. You can set age, distance (10 to 300 km), which modes you're looking for, Traditional and Verified only. Press Show me people to save. Your filters apply to People as well.
What I like and What I dislike
Interests are what you do. This is how you like it. Find both lists in Me → Edit profile.
- Each list holds up to 30 items, of up to 60 characters each.
- Every item starts Private. Tap the label to make it Public, and it appears on your profile.
- Contact details and social handles can't go public. Our check catches most of them, not all, so please report any you spot.
- Keep it everyday: nothing about health, religion or politics.
Who sees private items? No other member. Discover doesn't use them today, but they may be used to improve matching later. If a copy of an account's data is exported, for example when you ask for yours, private items are included.
Chat and voice notes
Once you match, you can chat. Touch and hold a message for its menu: copy your text, unsend your own message, or report theirs. The menu at the top of a chat has Mute chat, which stops push notifications from that chat, along with the safety options.
Plan a date appears in dating chats, and Plan a meet-up in Friends chats. Meet in public, tell a friend where you'll be, and get there on your own.
Voice notes:
- They open up once you've both sent a text in that chat. If you unsend your only text, they close again until you send another.
- Tap the microphone to record, up to 60 seconds. Recording stops at the limit and waits for you to send or delete it.
- There's a limit on how many you can send in an hour and in a day. If you reach it, the app asks you to take a break. Voice notes can also be switched off in some countries.
- The other person's push notification says "Sent a voice note".
Unsending: the message or note disappears from the chat for both of you, but we keep it, so it can still be reviewed if the conversation is reported. We keep it until one of you deletes your account, and if it was reported, its text can stay with an open report even then. Someone may also have read or heard it first, and we can't stop anyone recording a voice note or taking a screenshot.
When a chat ends through an unmatch, block or ban, voice notes stop playing straight away.
Privacy
These switches are in Settings → Privacy and are free for everyone.
Blur my photos until we match. Your photos don't load for anyone you haven't matched with, and they see a lock instead. If you unmatch, your photos lock again. It covers photos only: your name, age, city, job, about me, prompt, interests and public likes and dislikes still show. Whether it starts on depends on your country, so check the switch. Our safety team can still see your photos.
Family-safe app icon & notifications. The icon becomes plain grey, and push notifications lose names and message text. Two limits: the name under the icon stays MyHabibi, and iPhone shows a short alert when the icon changes. It's discreet, not invisible, and it doesn't change anything inside the app.
Private photos. Photos are kept in private storage and shown through links that expire, normally within an hour. The app only gives a link to someone who's allowed to see the photo right now. A link issued just before a block can keep working until it expires, and nothing can stop a match taking a screenshot.
What others see. A rounded distance (never your location) and, unless you turn on Hide when I was last active in Settings, when you were last active. There's no way yet to hide from people in your contacts.
Notifications. Settings has one switch for matches and messages, and one for Tips and reminders.
The full detail is in our privacy policy.
Safety: report, block, unmatch
All three are in the menu on someone's profile, or at the top of your chat with them.
- Report: pick a reason, add a note if you like, and send. Also block them is on unless you turn it off. To report one message, touch and hold it. If a chat ends while you have it open, you can still report from it. Report before you block or unmatch, because afterwards you won't be able to find them.
- Block: neither of you can see the other any more, and any chat between you ends. You can undo it in Settings → Blocked members. They won't be told, an old match and chat stay closed, and old likes are cleared. You may see each other in Discover again.
- Unmatch: ends the chat for both of you. Either of you can do it.
What happens to a report. Our safety team reviews it. They see what you sent, and the person isn't told who reported them. If you've matched with them, the team can read that conversation, including unsent messages and voice notes, and each read is logged. They can't read chats that haven't been reported. We can't promise a response time, and the app doesn't tell you the outcome.
If you're in danger, call your local emergency services first. A report isn't an emergency line.
After a date, the check-in has a Something made me feel unsafe option, which also goes to the safety team.
ID verification
Optional. Go to Me → Get verified.
- Take a selfie.
- Photograph the front of your ID (Emirates ID, passport or driving licence).
- Press Send for review. You can keep using the app while you wait.
A person on our safety team checks that both match your profile. We aim to decide within 24 hours, but that's a target and not a guarantee. If we approve, you get the badge. If we can't, you'll see the reason and can try again.
Your images. Only the safety team can open them, and each opening is logged. We delete both as soon as we decide. If a request isn't decided in 30 days, we close it and delete both, and you'd need to send them again. You'll see a notification in the app when that happens.
What the badge means. Someone on our team matched that person's selfie and ID to their profile at that time. It isn't a government check or a promise about how someone behaves, so take the usual care. Our team can remove a badge, and you'd then need to verify again.
Deleting your account
Go to Me → Settings → Account → Delete account, then confirm with Delete for good. It happens straight away and can't be undone.
- Removed: your profile, photos, ID images still waiting for review, likes, matches and messages. Your chats disappear for the other person too, including their side and all voice notes.
- Kept: reports other people made about you, and a message that was reported, without a link to your account. If you've been banned, a scrambled form of your sign-in details stays on a ban list, which stops you signing up again. Our privacy policy covers other records.
- Reports you filed are deleted with your account today. If you've reported someone and that matters to you, write to us before you delete.
Prefer to just take a break? Sign out instead, but note that your profile stays visible while your account is open.
You can also ask for a copy of your data at hello@myhabibi.net.
Coming next: Anywhere and nationality
Anywhere. A new choice on the distance filter. People nearby can see each other wherever they signed up. Beyond your distance limit, you only see someone if you both chose Anywhere. Past 300 km, cards show their country instead of a distance. People in Saudi Arabia never appear in Spicy, and verified-only rules there still apply. Likes and matches stay visible however far away they are.
Your country. It's set from your phone's region when you sign up, not from GPS. You can correct it in Edit profile, though that doesn't change which country's settings apply to your account.
Nationality. Optional. Add up to two in Edit profile. It's hidden until you turn on Show on my profile. While hidden, others can't read it and you won't show up in anyone's nationality filter.
Filtering by nationality. In Filters, pick countries or Same as mine, which appears once you've added your own. It only finds people who chose to share theirs.
Still stuck?
Write to hello@myhabibi.net.