Adding a friend
Friends happen through an invite link. Here's how to send one, accept one, and unstick one that won't open.
You add a friend by sharing an invite link. Open Divemates → Settings → Invite Friends, tap Share Invite Link, and send it however you'd send anything else: message, email, whatever your share sheet offers.
The Friends tab carries the same action. It's the share button in the header once you have friends, and the Invite Friends button in the empty state before that.
Whoever opens that link on their phone gets a sheet with your name and photo on it, and one tap connects you. There's no request to approve on your end.
Note: if the app sends you to your profile before it will make a link, add a name and it picks up where it left off. Your invite arrives with your name on it, so a nameless one means nothing to the diver receiving it.
What being friends gets you
You show up in each other's Friends lists, their dives appear in your Friends tab, and you can name each other as buddies on a dive. Either of you can undo it later, and we don't tell the other person when you do.
Accepting an invite
Tap the link on your phone. Divemates opens on a confirm sheet showing who sent it, and Confirm connects you. Not Now just closes it, quietly.
If you're signed out or still setting up, the invite waits for you and appears once you land in the app.
Don't have Divemates yet? The link opens a web page with the inviter's name and a button to install the app. Install it, then open the same link again, since the trip through the app store can't carry the invite along with it.
How long an invite link lasts
An invite link works for 48 hours, and it isn't single use: anyone who opens it in that window can connect with you. Send it to the divers you mean it for rather than posting it somewhere public.
Tap Share Invite Link again whenever you want a fresh one. It makes a new link and leaves your earlier ones working until they expire.
Note: if we tell you there are too many active links on your account, let your older ones expire and try again.
Finding a diver already on Divemates
There's no diver search for friending, and no way to add someone by name or email. A link is the only route in, whether they installed the app this morning or last year.
You can search for divers by name when you're adding a buddy to a dive, but that names them on that one dive and doesn't connect the two of you. See "Adding a buddy to a dive".
When a link won't open
What the dead ends mean:
- On a computer. The page loads and shows who invited you, but accepting happens in the app. Open the link on your phone.
- "This invite has expired." It's past 48 hours. Ask for a new one, it takes them one tap.
- "This is your invite link." You tapped your own. Send it to the other diver and they confirm on their end.
- "You're already friends." Nothing to do, you're connected.
- "This invite link isn't valid." We don't recognize that token. Check the whole link came through in one piece, and if it did, ask for a fresh one.
- "Couldn't load this invite." That one's connectivity. Get a signal and open the link again.
When someone accepts your invite, we send you a notification, so you don't have to sit refreshing the list.