Ad policy

For members: how ads work

• Sponsored posts are always labeled Sponsored. Ads from businesses connected to Heyborly or its founder (such as ottomind.dev) are also labeled Founder-affiliated.
• Free accounts see at most 12 a day: never at the top of the feed, never back to back, and never in chats or My feed. Plus members see none.
• By default ads are matched to your approximate area. If you turn on Personalized picks in Settings, your intents and quiz results also help pick ads that fit you.
• Advertisers never learn who you are or receive any data about you. They only see totals. Chats, reveals and friendships are never used for ads.
• Tap Why this ad? to see why you're seeing it, hide it, or report it. Hiding two ads from the same advertiser hides that advertiser.

Allowed categories

Fitness and sports; food and coffee (no alcohol); events, arts and culture; travel and hospitality; apps and software; education and careers; retail and fashion; wellness without medical claims; nonprofits and community groups; local services; gaming and entertainment.

Prohibited

• Dating, hookup, escort or companionship services, and sexual or suggestive content of any kind.
• Alcohol, tobacco, vaping, cannabis, recreational or prescription drugs, and drug paraphernalia.
• Gambling, lotteries and sweepstakes requiring purchase; cryptocurrency, forex, trading signals and get-rich-quick schemes; payday or predatory loans; multi-level marketing.
• Weapons, ammunition and explosives.
• Political, electoral or social-issue advocacy ads.
• Weight-loss products, before-and-after images, and medical, health or HIV-related claims or services.
• Conversion therapy, or anything that demeans or exploits LGBTQ+ people. Pride and LGBTQ+-friendly messaging is welcome.
• Ads that single out a person's sexual orientation, health or other sensitive traits (“Are you gay and single?”).
• Misleading claims, fake urgency, clickbait, impersonation, counterfeit goods, and landing pages that don't match the ad or that collect sensitive data.

Creative standards

• Headline up to 50 characters, description up to 160, one clear button and an https link to a page you control.
• Images must be relevant, not text-heavy, not sexual or revealing, and you must have the rights to them. We remove location metadata from uploads.
• Prices, offers and terms must be accurate and available on the landing page. Endorsements must be genuine and disclosed.

Targeting rules

Advertisers may target by area (city and radius), by what members are looking for (Friends, Gym partner, Activity buddy, Gaming, Travel, Networking, New in town) and by an audience “vibe” based on friendship traits like planner or spontaneous. Interest and vibe targeting only reaches members who opted into personalized picks. Targeting by age, health, sexual behavior, HIV status, ethnicity, religion or other sensitive characteristics is not available. Housing, employment and credit ads must not exclude anyone and may only be targeted by area.

Review and enforcement

Review is automated. Two independent AI models (TypeSafe Jev and OpenAI's Decisions model, through Vercel AI Gateway) each check the ad copy, a description of the image, and the landing page it links to against this policy. An ad is approved only when both confidently agree it complies; policy uncertainty is rejected with a reason so you can edit and resubmit. If a reviewer or the landing page is unavailable, the ad stays off and retries. Ads must link to your verified website or a recognized booking, ticketing or app-store page.

Advertiser accounts are approved automatically after website ownership is verified (a meta tag or DNS record) and a card payment clears. If members report an ad (two reports, or one report of adult content or a scam), it is paused and re-reviewed automatically, and either restored or removed. Approved ads are also periodically rechecked; delivery stops if their review expires.

You can appeal any rejection once; appeals are decided by a person, not by automation, and you'll see the outcome and reason in your dashboard. We may also remove ads or suspend advertisers for policy violations at any time.

Questions

Contact our contact form.