Phone verification
Available nowEvery account signs in with a mobile number verified by a one-time code. Your number is used for sign-in and account messages only. It is never shown on your profile and never shared with another member.
Safety at GarbaMate
Good Garba nights begin with good choices.
GarbaMate helps adults find people to dance with and make plans together. This page explains exactly what our tools do, where they stop, and the habits that keep a night comfortable from the first message to the ride home.
GarbaMate is not an emergency service. For adults 18 and over.
What is built
Safety features, and how each one works
We mark each feature honestly: available now, partly available while controls are being finished, or designed this way on purpose.
Photo review
Partly availableWhen you add a profile photo it is stored privately and reviewed before your profile can appear in discovery. Review checks the photo against our community standards. It is a photo review, not an identity, age or background check, and it does not replace your own judgement.
Request approval
Available nowA connection request is an invitation, not an introduction. The recipient decides. Until they accept, no chat exists in either direction, and acceptance is the only thing that opens one.
Blocking members
Partly availableA block removes the connection in both directions across discovery, requests, plans, venue check-ins and chat on our servers. The in-app block control is being completed before public registration; the practical guidance below still applies until then.
Reporting members
Partly availableA report records the member you reported and your reason for our safety team. In-app reporting and a formal review workflow are being completed before public registration, and we will publish how reports are handled once that workflow is live.
Event planning
Available nowMark “I’m going” to a Garba night to add it to your plans and see who else is going. Nothing about your plans is shared until you mark yourself as going, and you can remove a plan at any time.
Location permissions
Available nowLocation is optional. You can place yourself with your city or with device location, and you can decline the browser prompt. Venue check-in is separate, voluntary and expires.
Circle host approval
Available nowEvery Circle has a host. Asking to join sends a request to the host; only after the host accepts do you appear in the Circle and join its chat.
Contact sharing
By designThere is no contact exchange on GarbaMate. We do not reveal phone numbers or WhatsApp handles, and there is no paid contact unlock. Chat stays in the app, and you decide if and when to share anything else yourself.
Phone numbers are private — by design
Your number is required to create your account, and that is all it is used for. GarbaMate has no approved-contact or WhatsApp-unlock workflow: nothing you or anyone else pays can reveal a member’s number. If a consent-based contact share is ever built, it will require the other person’s explicit permission first, and payment will never override it.
Location
Location and meeting safety
GarbaMate uses location to place you in the right city and to support a voluntary venue check-in. It does not stream your location or show a public map.
Your city, once
During onboarding you can share device location once or choose your city yourself. That places you in the right city for events and discovery. If you share device coordinates they are stored with your profile and are not displayed on your member profile.
Voluntary venue check-in
The “I’m Here” check-in records that you are at a venue — never where you are standing. It expires at the earlier of one hour or the end of the event, and only members you have an accepted plan with can see it. You can stop sharing at any time.
No live tracking
GarbaMate does not follow you in the background, does not share a live location feed with other members, and does not publish a public people map.
Choose the meeting point
Agree on a public, obvious place — the main entrance, a ticket counter or a food stall — and keep the plan in the app until you are comfortable.
Three stages
A safer Garba night, start to finish
These steps work whether you found the person on GarbaMate or not.
Before the event
Set the night up so there are no surprises.
- Pick a venue you know or can picture, and check the event details with the organiser.
- Agree on what you are both there for — a dance partner, a Circle, or a group plan.
- Arrange a public meeting point such as the main entrance.
- Tell a trusted contact who you are meeting, where and when.
At the venue
Stay where the crowd, light and staff are.
- Meet near a visible entrance or a staffed area.
- Stay with your Circle or your group rather than separating early.
- Keep your phone, bag and drink with you.
- Respect the other person’s boundaries — a dance is not an invitation for anything else.
After the event
End the night on your own terms.
- Choose your own transport, especially the first time you meet someone.
- Stop any venue check-in that is still active.
- If you are not feeling it, end the connection or stop replying — no explanation needed.
- Report or block through the in-app controls once they ship; until then, use the guidance below.
Community standards
House rules for the circle
These rules apply to everyone. Breaking them can end access to GarbaMate.
Be respectful
Treat everyone at the ground the way you would want a guest treated in your own circle.
No harassment or threats
Abuse, intimidation, stalking and threats end access to GarbaMate.
No impersonation
Use your own name and your own photos. Do not pretend to be someone else, including a host, organiser or venue.
No inappropriate messages
No unwanted sexual content, no repeated messaging after a no, and no pressure to meet.
No unsolicited private details
Do not share another person’s number, photos or whereabouts without their permission.
No scams or unauthorised sales
No ticket resale, promotion, donation requests or any other attempt to make money through GarbaMate.
Respect consent and boundaries
A dance, a chat and a plan are each their own yes. A no — spoken or implied — ends the request.
Follow the venue's rules
The organiser’s rules and staff instructions apply at every event.
Report and block
If something goes wrong
If you are in immediate danger, leave, move towards the crowd or venue staff, and call emergency services. Do not wait to use an app.
- Step away from the situation and go where there are people.
- Save what you need: screenshots of messages, the member’s display name, and the time and place.
- Use the in-app report and block controls once they appear in your app — they are being completed before public registration.
- Until then, our servers still enforce any block that exists, and support contact details will be published on the Privacy page before public registration.
We will not claim that a report has been received when there is no in-app way to receive it. That is why this page says plainly that reporting controls are still being completed.
Emergency assistance
If you need help right now
If you are in immediate danger, call emergency services directly. GarbaMate cannot send help and is not a substitute for emergency response.
112National Emergency ResponsePolice, fire and ambulance in an immediate emergency.Call 112181Women HelplineSupport for women in distress, run by state services.Call 181
Official information: 112.gov.in and Women Helpline scheme (Ministry of Women & Child Development)
Meet on your terms
Dance freely. Keep your judgement close.
GarbaMate makes introductions easier. The choices about who you meet, where and when stay yours.