How does MeAndWho Club verify members?

Each one is enforced on our server, not just in the app.

An optional ID badge through DigiLocker is built but not switched on yet. You don’t need Aadhaar or any other ID to join. More about the optional ID badge.

Your number isn’t shown to anyone, including the people you’re introduced to.

We never store your phone number. Google’s Firebase Authentication sends and checks the code, and we keep only a user ID and the fact that your number was verified. Because the app accepts only Indian numbers for now, MeAndWho Club is for people with an Indian mobile number.

You also give your date of birth, and you need to be 18 or over. People you’re introduced to see your age, never your birthday. Read every step of joining, in order.

1. Agree to it on its own

   The check has its own consent, called “Live selfie check” and summed up in the app as “A face pattern that keeps accounts real.” You tick it separately from every other use of your data, after confirming you’re 18 or over.

2. Get ready

   • Find good light and hold the phone at eye level.
   • Follow the oval on screen; it may flash colours.
   • Take off sunglasses, a hat or a mask.

3. Follow the oval

   Keep your face in the oval on screen for about 20 seconds; the screen may flash colours as part of the check. It runs on Amazon Rekognition Face Liveness, in AWS Mumbai, which checks for a live person in front of the camera rather than a photo or a recording.

4. See the result straight away

   If it passes, the app says: “Thanks, you’re verified as a real person. We don’t keep the video.” If it doesn’t, good light and holding the phone at eye level usually help, and you can try again, up to a daily limit. If your face looks very like another member’s (twins, for example), the check is held for a person to look at, and the app tells you: “We’ll get back to you within 7 days.” You can also appeal from that screen.

We don’t keep the video or any selfie images.

If your face looks like another member’s, your check is held rather than refused, and nothing happens to their account. A person reviews it first, because lookalikes and twins exist, and can let you try again or suspend the new account. If you think we got it wrong, you can appeal in the app: a person decides and tells you why, and we aim to do that within 7 days.

Our community guidelines say the same thing in plain words: use your own photos, don’t pretend to be someone else, and don’t create more than one account.

Your introduction card must include a photo that matches.

• We re-save every photo, which removes hidden details stored in the file, such as where it was taken.
• Photos are kept in private storage and shown only through short-lived links: to you, to the people you’re introduced to and to the person who checks each introduction.
• Each photo can be up to 10 MB. A photo we can’t read is turned down.

It appears when a photo on the card matches the member’s live selfie check. Every card must include a photo like that, so everyone you’re introduced to carries the badge, and at least one photo you can see has been matched to their selfie. Other photos on the card may not show their face clearly, so the badge doesn’t vouch for every picture.

In the app’s Safety centre, under “What verification means” (“A real person, not a promise”), it says: “Every member has passed a phone check and a live selfie check that matches their photos. That shows they’re a real person; it doesn’t tell you how they’ll behave. Meet in public, and trust your instincts.”

What else an introduction card shows

When it is switched on, a member who chooses the check can add this badge to their card:

Age 18+ confirmed with a government ID

This is how it is built to work:

• You sign in to DigiLocker through Setu, a service that connects apps to DigiLocker. You’ll need the mobile number linked to your Aadhaar.
• We read only your date of birth and photo, and check three things: that you’re 18 or over, that the date of birth matches the one you gave us, and that the photo matches your live selfie.
• We never store your Aadhaar number or the document. We keep only the outcome, and the DigiLocker access is ended straight after we read it.
• If the ID shows someone is under 18, the account can’t be used for matchmaking.

The badge confirms age only, not anything about how someone behaves. Until it is switched on, ages come from the date of birth each member gives us, and anyone who may be under 18 can be reported in the app.

No check is perfect, so each one backs up the others.

• A real, present person: the live selfie check needs someone in front of the camera, not a photo of someone.
• One account per person: a second account with the same face is held for a person to review.
• No borrowed faces: every card has to include a photo that matches the selfie, so nobody can verify with their own face and then show only someone else’s pictures.
• Nothing to browse: there is no feed and no profile search, so a fake account can’t browse, message or collect photos from members. People see a card only when they are introduced.
• A person checks every introduction: during our pilot, nothing reaches you until someone on our team has reviewed the pair.
• Fast action on reports: report someone for “Pretending to be someone else” and their account is suspended at once, and we aim to review it within 12 hours. “Misleading profile” is a reason you can choose too.

What happens after you report someone

It isn’t the selfie check itself: many dating apps in India now ask for a video selfie too.

Here, verification is tied to those rules:

• It is required for every member before any introduction, and enforced on our server.
• It is joined to the photos people actually see: every card must include a photo that matches the selfie, and the badge says exactly that.
• We keep no selfie video and no selfie images, only a face pattern and the result.
• A possible duplicate account is checked by a person before anything happens.

See how MeAndWho Club compares with dating apps and matrimony sites and how our AI matchmaking works.

It doesn’t tell you how they’ll behave: a real person, not a promise.

So the usual care still applies: keep the chat in the app until you’re comfortable, meet somewhere public, and trust your instincts. We can’t promise a match, a date or a relationship.

Verification makes fake accounts harder to create, but a real person can still try to trick you, so never send money to someone you’ve met through a dating or matchmaking app, however the request is put.

How to report or block someone