How we decide who you see

Discovery is ordered, not random. This page says exactly what that order is built from. Nobody pays us to appear higher, and no advertiser influences it, because we do not sell placement in discovery at all.

Distance comes first

Cards are ordered by how close someone is, nearest at the top. That is the primary sort everywhere in the app, and nothing outranks it — not a plan, not a boost, not a strong match. The factors below decide the order within a distance band, where several people are equally close and something has to break the tie.

What breaks a tie, and what each is worth

Compatibility — 34%. How well what you are each looking for matches, in both directions. Deliberately reciprocal: someone who suits you but for whom you are a poor match does not rank highly.
Reliability — 18%. Whether this person turns up. Built from whether their past NOW sessions ended by them leaving rather than by going silent.
Proximity — 16%. Which distance band they are in. Bands, not coordinates — the system that orders you has no more precision than the screen shows you.
Verification — 12%. A verified profile ranks above an unverified one. Not a judgement of the person, a statement about how much is known.
Freshness — 10%. Recency of activity, tapering to nothing over thirty days, so the list is people who are actually here.
Being live on NOW — 10%. Someone available right now ranks above someone who is not.

Boost

A boost multiplies the tie-break total by 1.35 and nothing else. It is applied last, it is bounded, and it cannot move anyone into a nearer distance band — a boost cannot make someone closer than they are. Nor can it make them look reliable, verified, or live on NOW when they are not. It amplifies a real session; it does not fake one.

What is never in it

Anything you have paid, other than a boost, which is disclosed above.
Advertising. We sell none, in discovery or anywhere else.
Race, ethnicity, HIV status, or any health information. We do not collect them, so they cannot be weighed.
Your message content. It is encrypted and we cannot read it.

What you can change

What you are looking for, on your profile — this moves compatibility, the largest single factor.
The tabs. Ready orders by who is live now, Fresh by who is new, Saved and Link show only people you have already acted on. Those override the ordering above rather than tuning it.
Your city, in Nearby, which changes the pool entirely.
Blocking, which removes someone from it permanently.

What you are never shown

There is no score on any screen and no API that returns one. Closeness appears as a band (“1–2 mi”) and compatibility as a label (“Good Connection”). Below the lowest label a profile is not surfaced at all rather than shown at the bottom, because a ranked-last experience is worse than an absent one.