How does Souldaters matching work?

Souldaters matching has three parts: who you see, how they are ranked, and how a connection starts.

The goal of Souldaters matching is to help kindred souls find each other without hiding how it works. Rather than an opaque algorithm, it combines your own hard filters with a transparent score, then leaves the decision to you and the other person. Nothing happens unless both people are interested.

1. Who you see: your settings and filters

Your intent (dating, friends or both), who you are looking for, age range and distance decide the pool. Free dealbreaker filters narrow it further: only vegans; only vegans and vegetarians; non-smokers; sober or non-drinkers; no-makeup or minimal-makeup; people who exercise often; only with photos; only verified; only people sharing a tribe; want kids; don't want kids.

2. How people are ranked: soul-match compatibility

Each person gets a compatibility percentage based on:

• Shared tribes (such as vegan, sober, spiritual, hikers)
• Shared interests
• Diet
• Relationship goals
• Lifestyle: kids, smoking, drinking, exercise
• Distance

You see human-readable reasons, like "3 shared tribes" or "both non-drinkers", so the score is never a mystery.

3. How a connection starts: mutual match

1. You like someone (or wave, in friends mode). Likes are private.
2. If they like you back, you match and chat opens.
3. Either of you can message first. Matches do not expire.
4. Unmatch or block closes the chat permanently.

How to get better matches

• Complete your lifestyle fields; they power both filters and scores.
• Join three to eight tribes that truly describe you.
• Use only the dealbreakers you really mean.

More on how it works, why mutual matching is better and how to know if it's a good match.