Safety

You’re in control of the light

Flare only introduces people who are in the same room, at an event someone is hosting. Here’s how to meet safely, how to say no, and what the light can and can’t reveal.

Last updated November 3, 2026

Meeting safely

  • Stay in the venue. Flare is made for meeting where you already are. You never need to leave the event to find your match.
  • Meet in the open. The light leads you to a person, not a place. Say hello somewhere visible, and move on whenever you like.
  • Tell a friend. If you came with someone, let them know who you’re talking to.
  • Share at your own pace. Flare never shares your name, number or socials. You decide what to tell anyone, and when.
  • Find the host. Every Flare event has a host who sees reports. Venue staff can help too.
  • In an emergency, contact venue security or local emergency services first.

Clear, block and report

While you’re lit, Clear sits right under the button, and Block or report is beside it. They all work at any moment, and the other person is never told why.

Clear

Ends both lights straight away. They see a soft “Not this time”, with no reason given. Their rest timer is refunded, and you rest for about two minutes. You won’t be matched again at this event.

Block

Everything Clear does, and the two of you are never matched again, at any event. Blocks are stored as a one-way hash of two pseudonymous device IDs, so they can’t be read back as names.

Report

Everything a block does, plus a report to the event’s host and to Flare. Choose a category: Harassment, Made me feel unsafe, Under 18, Fake or spam, or Something else. Anyone with two or more open reports at an event is paused from matching until the host acts, and the host can remove them.

Couldn’t find them

If you can’t find your match, tap Block or report, then Couldn’t find them. Both lights end and both rest timers are refunded. If nobody confirms meeting within 10 minutes, the match ends on its own.

The light never shares your location

The light shows how close you are. It never shows where.

  • Closeness is worked out between your two phones, over Bluetooth and, where available, Ultra Wideband. The distance never leaves the pair.
  • Flare’s server never receives your position or your distance from anyone, and Flare doesn’t use GPS.
  • Anything the two phones exchange is encrypted with a key only those two phones share. Our server passes it along without reading it.
  • The light shows closeness only, never a direction or a map. After you clear, block or report, it stops for both of you at once.
  • When the event ends or you leave, the match ends. There’s no way to find someone afterward.

Age and child safety

Flare is for adults only. You confirm you’re 18 or older, the app uses Apple’s Declared Age Range where available, and hosts can require it for their event. Many venues also check ID at the door. If you think someone is under 18, report them with Under 18. We remove any device we learn belongs to a minor.

We have no tolerance for the sexual abuse or exploitation of children. Flare has no photos, messages or public profiles, which limits what it can be used for, but if you know of a child in danger, contact local emergency services, and tell us at safety@downloadflare.app. We report apparent child sexual exploitation to the appropriate authorities.

What happens to a report

A report reaches the event’s host straight away. They can remove the person from the event. It also comes to us, and we review reports and messages to safety@downloadflare.app within 24 hours. We can block a device from all events. Neither the host nor the reported person ever learns who sent a report.

For hosts

  • Keep your event screen handy during the event. Open reports appear under Safety reports.
  • Choose Remove participant when a report needs action, or Dismiss report when it doesn’t. You see the category and time, never the reporter.
  • Pause matching stops new matches at any time. It ends active introductions, and guests need to rejoin when matching resumes.
  • Show the rotating join code only inside the venue, so that only people who are there can join.
  • Don’t describe Flare as screening or verifying guests. It doesn’t.

Tell us

Something we should know about? Email safety@downloadflare.app, with the event name and roughly when it happened. Please don’t send screenshots of other people.