Frequently asked questions

Backchannel is a lightweight way to plan real life with your people. It helps you see what friends are up to offline, hop into their upcoming plans, and reconnect when your calendars line up. It isn't a social feed and isn't a group chat — it's the small layer that helps friendships keep happening.

Free for members, forever. Backchannel makes money from the business side (studios, cafes, coworking spaces that host community). Members never pay.

You choose which friends or friend circles can auto-join specific kinds of plans (say, your Sunday coffee walks). When you post one of those plans, pre-approved friends can join in one tap without asking. Auto-join is opt-in per plan and you can turn it off anytime.

Yes. You control what to share, who sees it, and who can auto-join. Friend circles are always private — friends never see which circle they're in. There is no public feed, no follower count, and no tracking of your location. Backchannel only shows what you choose to share.

Social feeds are optimized for watching. Backchannel is optimized for planning. There's no public post, no algorithm, no strangers. It's your small circle of friends and the specific windows your calendars share.

Group chats are a stream — a plan scrolls off the top and disappears. Backchannel treats a plan as a stateful thing: it has a time, a place, an RSVP list, and the ability for pre-approved friends to auto-join. See our full comparison for details.

No. Backchannel doesn't track your location in the background. You share only the plans and moments you choose to share, with the friends you choose to share them with.

Yes. Each plan has its own visibility. You can share with a single friend, a circle, or a group — and hide it from specific people without them knowing.

Backchannel is rolling out with a small pilot group of members and studios first. Join the early access list and we'll open the door as soon as your city or studio is in the pilot.

Friend circles are a private way to organize your people by how often you want to see them — Inner Circle, Close Friends, Keep in Touch. Nobody ever sees which circle they're in. See our full explainer for how to set yours up.

Ambassadors are volunteers who help bring Backchannel to their yoga studio, run club, coworking space, or neighborhood. It's an unpaid role, similar to a campus ambassador — a great way to build community-building experience, get early access, and shape the product. The first 30 ambassadors plus the first 10 businesses get free swag and founding-group perks.

Yoga studios, pilates studios, CrossFit boxes, cycling and boutique gyms use Backchannel as a quiet retention layer on top of their class schedule. Members opt in via a QR code at the front desk and start making real-life plans with the familiar faces from their classes — coffee after class, weekend hikes, birthday drinks.

Display a QR code at your front desk. That's it. We handle sign-ups, plan suggestions, gentle reminders, and community support. You get a simple dashboard showing engagement and hangouts formed.

No. Backchannel works entirely off the QR code. There's no booking integration, no member data upload, and no app for members to download. Members opt in themselves.

The first 10 studios get Backchannel free for one month. Display the QR code, see how your members respond, and decide at the end of the month whether to keep it. No commitment, no invoice if you walk away. You can also use it during the free month to organize your own studio events — workshops, socials, retreats.

Members quit when a class feels anonymous. They stay when they recognize people and have plans with them outside the studio. Backchannel makes those familiar faces visible and gives members a low-pressure way to make plans together — which shows up in your retention numbers over the following months.

No. Backchannel does not sell member data and does not use member data to train AI models. Our business model is transparent: businesses (not members) pay for community pilots.

Yes. You can join Backchannel through the early access list without being connected to a specific studio. Suggesting studios helps us know where to roll out next, but it isn't required.