Resonance matches you with a few people at a time. You get more matches by doing the things that build friendships. Here is every rule.
Your list of matches is small on purpose. A hundred matches is a list to get through; three is an afternoon. Starting small means each person on the list gets your attention.
Every rule below asks one question: does this move you closer to a friendship? Examples are answering someone properly, reading what they wrote back, and meeting them for coffee. We give extra matches for the things that build friendships.
So nothing here rewards logging in, showing up every day, or saying more than you mean. There are no streaks and no progress bars. We decided against them on purpose, and we won't add them.
Joining the network earns you two matches. You can earn more.
Filling in every section of your profile earns a third, once. It doesn't need to be long, just complete, so the people you meet can see who you are. We check that each section is filled in for real, not how much you wrote. You don't need a complete profile to join. You can fill in the gaps later.
Recording a video answer for your profile and making it public earns one more on top of that, once. Taking the video down later doesn't take the match back, and recording a second video doesn't earn a second match. The match is for recording once, not for keeping the video up.
When you join your class on Resonance, you’re placed in a study pod with about three classmates you’re likely to click with. Your pod gets its own chat for notes and files, help finding a time to meet, and reminders before exams. Your pod is in addition to your matches, and you can leave it in one tap.
You earn the rest one person at a time. Each step below counts once with each person, so a step you reached with Sam still counts with Alex.
Most steps go through Fast Friends, which you can start from each other's cards. You both get three questions and each answer any two, whenever you like. Your answers stay hidden until you've both finished. Then you both see everything at once.
Finish two short games with the same person and you each get a match. This counts once with each person. More games don't earn more, and your scores don't matter.
You can play games with anyone you're connected to, but this step counts only with someone we matched you with.
A round counts for you when you've both finished it and you've read what they wrote. After two rounds count, you earn two more matches.
A real conversation also earns this step: ten messages each way, over any length of time. Whichever you reach first counts. You earn this step once, not twice.
You can message anyone you're connected to, but this counts only with someone we matched you with.
You don't wait for the other person. If you answered and read their answers, you get your matches even if they haven't read yours yet. They get theirs when they do. No one loses out because the other person is slow.
One match for both rounds together, not one for each. You get it when your fourth round counts.
This is on top of whatever that round already earned, not instead of it. If you two started on video, you get it with your first step instead of later.
Audio-only counts the same as video everywhere. A round uses only a format you've both said you're comfortable with. If one of you would rather type, the round is text, and you still move up just as fast. Neither of you is told who chose text. Video never earns less than text; it just earns this one extra step.
This step isn't built yet. We list it so the full ladder is clear.
Upload a selfie with your match in the app.
Each of you earns two matches when your own selfie is checked. You don't wait for the other person to upload theirs.
The most you can earn through one person is nine matches. If a step would take you past nine, it doesn't count at all; we don't award part of a step. You can earn seven of the nine today. The other two are for the live-video step, which isn't built yet. (If a step changes, the top changes by the same amount, so no other step is worth less.)
Some time after you could have met, we ask each of you one question, once: did you two meet? You each answer separately, and neither of you sees the other's answer. That way no one answers just to be polite. This answer tells us more than anything else about whether Resonance works.
If you're about to meet someone from Resonance for the first time, read our short advice page: meeting someone in person. It takes a minute to read.
Separately, once you and a match have finished two rounds of Fast Friends, or you've said you met up, we ask whether you want to move them to your Connections or keep them in your matches. Either answer is fine, and you can change your mind later. If you keep them in your matches, their card shows an option to move them anytime. Moving someone doesn't earn anything. It only changes your own page. They never see it, and it doesn't change how Resonance treats either of you.
If you say hello and get no reply in about a week, we replace that match with a new one.
Three things to know. It's a replacement, not a bonus: you end up with the number of matches you would have had, not more. The person who didn't reply stays in your matches; nothing is hidden or removed. And you get one replacement at a time, so you won't pile up extra matches during a slow couple of weeks.
We never look at why someone didn't reply. Someone who decided not to and someone who forgot look the same to us, and both get the same outcome. That's on purpose: people can leave a hello unanswered without anyone being told.
No one is notified about any of this. We don't send you a note saying someone didn't reply.
When someone you invited takes the survey and joins, you get one match. That happens for your first three. After that, inviting people still helps: each new person makes the network better, and their friends can become other people's matches. It just stops earning you matches.
It doesn't chain, either. You earn from the people you invite, but no one earns from the people they invite. There's no reason to invite people you don't want here.
Sometimes you've earned a match but there's no good one available. Maybe few people near you have joined, it's a slow week, or you're earning matches faster than people are joining. When that happens, we tell you a match is coming: you have a match coming. No strong matches here yet. More will appear as people join.
We never pad your matches with weak ones. We'd rather tell you a match is coming. Nothing you've earned expires while you wait.
After your second round with someone, and again after your fourth, we ask you two short questions about how it's going with them: whether the two of you seem compatible, and whether you feel like you're learning something meaningful about who they are. Both of you get asked, separately. We ask the same two questions after you and someone have played four games together. We keep track of when each answer was given, because an answer after four games means something different from an answer after four rounds.
These are research questions. They help us learn what makes two people click. Answer both to keep going with that person, with another round or a message. Your Two of You report doesn't depend on them: it's available once you've both said hello and both said yes to it, whether or not you answer these.
Why twice? Asking twice shows us how things change over time. Only you can give us that.
Your answers are used only for research. The other person never sees them, and they never show up in anything either of you sees. Your answers don't change what you see or what you earn: a one counts the same as a five.
Everything in a Fast Friends exchange belongs to the two of you, permanently: answers, clips and the chat next to them. Only you two can see it, and that can't be changed later. Exchange videos are stored separately from anything public. They're never reviewed, shown anywhere else, added to your profile, shown to another member, used to train anything, or used for matching. Over time, an exchange becomes a record of how a friendship started, so nothing in it expires.
There's one exception, and only you control it for your own videos: after you record a video answer, we ask you once, next to that video, whether you want to make it your profile video. It's your choice, we ask only once, and your partner's clips aren't affected.
You can have anything you made removed. There's no button for that in Fast Friends yet, so for now email support@resonance.info and tell us what to remove. We remove it for both of you. Deleting your account removes all of it. The details are in the Privacy Policy.
You can play short games with your matches. They're an easy way to get to know someone you just matched with. There's no timer, and getting answers wrong is part of the fun.
Playing games with someone earns you one more match. Finish two games with the same person and you get a match, once with that person. It's the smallest step on the ladder above, because two short games are a smaller thing than answering each other honestly twice. More games don't earn more. There's no reward per game, for playing a lot, or for replaying a game. Two people who play forty games earn the same as two people who play two. Beyond that one match, you earn more through Fast Friends and meeting up, as this page describes.
This counts only with someone we matched you with. You can always play games with anyone you're connected to, but a match means meeting someone new, so playing with friends you invited doesn't earn one.
After four games together, we ask you both two questions. The same two we ask after your second and fourth rounds of Fast Friends — whether the two of you seem compatible, and whether you feel like you're learning something meaningful about who they are. Answer them to start your next game with that person. Nothing else depends on them. You can still read every game you've played, message them, and ask why they answered the way they did. You each answer separately, and neither of you waits for the other.
Game results stay in the game. You two see your scores while you play, and they're never used for anything else: not for matching, not on a profile, and not in anything either of you sees later. You earn matches for finishing games together, not for winning.
No streaks. No rewards for message volume. No progress meters, and no number anywhere telling you how many matches you've earned or how close you are to another. The one place a count of messages appears at all is the rung above — a real back-and-forth with one person, ten each way — and it pays once, in place of a first round of Fast Friends rather than on top of one. The rules are on this page. There's no scoreboard, because a scoreboard turns people into points.
Does something here not match what you see? Email support@resonance.info. This page should describe exactly how Resonance works, and if it doesn't, we want to know.