1. Why this page exists
A dating service has a crooked incentive. The longer you keep looking, the longer you keep paying. Follow that incentive and you build an app that keeps you busy instead of a service that gets you out.
We think that points the wrong way. Barry is here to get you to meet someone, and after that you do not need him. This page sets out what that actually means in what we built, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
2. What we steer by
We do not count how long you spend in the app, and we do not steer by it. The number that counts for us is how many people have actually met someone away from the app.
If you talk to Barry less as he gets to know you better, we read that as a good sign, not as a problem to fix.
3. What we did not build
This is not in the product, and that is a choice.
- No streaks to keep up, no badges, and no reward for opening the app.
- No endless stack of profiles to scroll or swipe through. Barry puts someone to you, or he says nothing.
- No countdown clock on a suggestion. We built one, looked at it and took it out again, because building tension is not the same as helping someone decide.
- No advertising. We do not sell your data.
4. What we did build
This is in the product, for the same reason.
- Barry sometimes sends a message of his own accord: about a suggestion, a match, your photo or your search, or to come back to something you talked about.
- You can turn off the notification for it.
- You get at most one new suggestion a day, and never more than two waiting for an answer at the same time. Once a suggestion is over, with a match or without, no new one follows for three days. There is also a ceiling on how many suggestions can reach you in a week, and that ceiling can only ever come down.
- You can pause the search at any time without closing your account. A pause does not move the end of your plan.
- Your plan never renews by itself. If no next plan is lined up, we ask once, about a week before the end, whether you want to carry on. If you say no or do not answer, we do not ask again. Once your plan has ended, you get one last email about it, and that is all.
- If you stop coming by, Barry tries a few more times and then stops.
5. Why a suggestion does have a deadline
A suggestion is about two people. On the other side of it, someone is waiting for an answer that may never come.
That is why a suggestion has a deadline. It is not there to rush you, it is there so the other person is not left hanging. You read it as one sentence, not as a clock running down.
6. Where our money comes from
Our money comes from your plan and from what you buy on top of it. Nobody pays us to keep you inside for longer.
One honest note on that. You can buy extra chat credit, and that is the one place where more time in the app earns us more. It is why the allowance of each plan month is a ceiling rather than an open tap: talking to Barry is bounded by what your plan gives you each month, and buying more is something you choose, not something the app pushes you towards.
7. Where the service stops
Healthy use also means knowing what this is not.
Barry is an AI chat and not a person. He can get things wrong. Matched by Barry is not a medical, psychological, crisis or emergency service, and Barry is not therapy and not a helpline.
We do not follow your conversation live and we cannot call for help on your behalf. What you write does go through an automatic check. It looks for signs involving minors. It does not read how you are doing, it makes no diagnosis, and it warns nobody. If you are in danger, call 112. If you are worried about yourself or about someone else, use the report button: a team member reads what you report.
We check nobody's identity documents and we run no background checks. Anyone you meet through us is a stranger.
8. What applies here
This page describes how we build. The agreement between you and us is in the Terms of use, and what happens to your data is in the Privacy statement. Where this page contradicts either of those texts, that other text applies.
Neutral BV, Haringrodestraat 54, 2018 Antwerp, Belgium. Company and VAT number BE 0833.158.140, Register of Legal Entities Antwerp, Antwerp division. Our website is matchedbybarry.com and our address is support@matchedbybarry.com.