How can we help?

Nobody sees your profile until it passes our checks, and you can't see others until then. Most profiles are checked within minutes. If a reviewer needs to look, it can take longer. We'll send you a notification.

While you wait, you can add a tagline and bio, and turn on notifications.

• Add at least one photo. During the launch offer you can have up to 5; after it, up to 3 (you keep photos you already added).
• Each photo must be of you, recent, with your face clearly visible, and only you in it. No sunglasses that hide your eyes, no heavy filters.
• Read the full photo rules.

A short video selfie shows you are a real person and that your photos are you. It isn't shown to anyone, and Tong never receives the video.

Tips: use good light, keep your whole face visible, and hold the phone at eye level. If it doesn't work, you can try again up to 5 times a day. If you miss it twice, you can ask a person to look at it instead of trying again.

What's fine: hijab, caps and ordinary glasses. Your face (eyes, nose and mouth) must be visible in your photos and in the live camera check.

What can't be verified: a face covered by a niqab, a mask, or sunglasses that hide the eyes.

Why: Tong compares the face in every photo with your live camera check. That is how we know every profile is a real person and every photo is of them. A covered face can't be compared, so we can't verify it.

What this means: right now, someone who keeps their face covered in photos can't complete verification, so their profile can't be shown. We know this leaves some people out. If we find another way to verify that keeps everyone safe, we will update this page.

Tips for hijab: make sure your whole face is visible and well lit, facing the camera, with nothing over your eyes or mouth.

• You see people one at a time, nearest first. Swipe up for the next person, swipe left or right for their photos, and tap to open their profile. On a computer, use the arrow keys, Enter and Escape.
• Use the filters to choose gender, age range and where to look: nearby (up to 100 km), all of Bangladesh (people in Bangladesh, wherever you are) or anywhere in the world. The gender and age filters work both ways: you see someone only if you also fit their gender and age filters. Where to look is yours alone: people who look farther can see you too.
• You can choose who is shown your profile in Settings → Privacy → Who can find you.
• People who sent you a friend request may appear in Discover, marked, so you can accept from there.
• When you have seen everyone, Tong says so. Widen your filters, or look farther, to see more.
• People who haven't opened Tong for 30 days leave Discover until they come back.

• Tap Add friend on someone's card or profile. You can send it for one of their answers or photos, so they see what you liked. You can't add a message.
• Launch offer: for the first 30 days after Tong's public launch, there are no daily, weekly or monthly friend-request limits; only our anti-abuse limits apply.
• After the offer: 3 a day, up to 10 in any 7 days, and up to 30 in any 30 days. The button at the top of Discover shows how many you have left.
• A request you cancel still counts.
• The other person sees your request in their Friends tab. They can Confirm or Delete it. If they don't confirm, you keep seeing "Waiting" until the request ends after 30 days. Nobody is told about a decline, a cancellation or an expiry.
• If you send a request to someone who already sent you one, you become friends at once.

• A chat opens when a friend request is accepted. You can chat only with friends.
• You can send text and emoji, photos (up to 10 at a time), voice messages (up to 2 minutes), video messages and videos (up to 60 seconds), GIFs and stickers, and shared profiles. You can also suggest meeting for tea: a plan holds only a day, a time and a kind of place, never an address.
• Voice messages and videos are deleted 90 days after they are sent, for both of you. Save any you want to keep.
• You can reply, react, forward (to up to 5 chats), save, edit your own text within 15 minutes, and delete a message for you or for everyone.
• A message deleted for everyone shows "This message was deleted". Tong keeps a hidden copy for 7 days, only so it can be reported.
• Anything you send can be saved or forwarded by your friend. Only send what you are comfortable sharing.
• The online dot and "Seen" work only if you both turn them on (Settings → Privacy). There is no "last seen".
• GIF and sticker search is provided by KLIPY.
• Chat is not end-to-end encrypted. Nobody at Tong reads your chats; chat photos and videos are only matched against lists of known child sexual abuse material. A reviewer sees a message only if one of you reports it.

For meeting friends you made online:

1. Take your time. Chat on Tong first. You don’t have to share your phone number or social media until you’re ready.
2. Keep private things private. Don’t share your home address, workplace, bank or mobile banking details, NID, passwords or log-in codes. Tong will never ask for your code.
3. Never send money. Don’t pay, lend or invest for anyone you met online, whatever the story: an emergency, a gift, a job abroad or an investment. Report anyone who asks.
4. Meet in public, and tell someone. For a first meeting, choose a busy public place. Tell a friend or family member where you’re going and whom you’re meeting. Arrange your own transport and keep your phone charged.
5. Think before you send photos or videos. Anything you send can be saved or forwarded. If someone threatens to share your images: don’t pay, stop replying, keep the chat, report the message with “Threatening to share my images”, and block them.
6. Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, leave, block and report. You don’t owe anyone a reply.

In an emergency: if someone is in immediate danger, call 999 in Bangladesh, or the local emergency number where you are.

Violence against women and children: call 109 in Bangladesh, free, 24 hours.

A child who needs help: call 1098, the free Child Helpline in Bangladesh, 24 hours.

If you're going through a hard time: Kaan Pete Roi is an emotional-support helpline in Bangladesh: +880 9612-119911, every day from 3 pm to 3 am.

If someone shares, or threatens to share, intimate images of you: StopNCII.org is a free service that can help stop them spreading on big platforms. It makes a digital fingerprint of your photos on your own device; the photos never leave it. It is for images taken when you were 18 or over. For images taken when someone was under 18, NCMEC's Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org) can help.

If you live in Australia: you can also report serious online abuse, and intimate images shared without consent, to the eSafety Commissioner (esafety.gov.au).

The same tips are in the app: Settings → Safety centre.

• Block from someone's profile or chat. They can't see you or contact you on Tong, and they aren't told. Any request or friendship ends and the chat closes. Unblocking doesn't bring anything back.
• Report from someone's profile, a photo, or any message: tap ⋯, or press and hold the message. Choose all the reasons that fit, add details if you like, and keep "Also block" on if you want. Our team reviews every report within 24 hours, the most urgent first. The person is never told who reported them.
• After a block or a chat that ended: for 30 days you can still report them from Settings → Privacy → Blocked people, or Report someone from a past chat. Your last 20 messages with them go with the report.
• Read our Community guidelines.

• Suspended: the app shows "Your account is on hold", with the reason and the end date if there is one. You can still contact support, see blocked people, report someone, download your data, delete your account and log out. To appeal, email contact@tong.party within 30 days; an admin who wasn't involved replies within 7 days.
• Banned: the app says "This account can't be used. If you think this is a mistake, contact support." Email contact@tong.party to ask why, and to appeal within 30 days; an admin who wasn't involved replies within 7 days.
• Asked to verify again: do a new live camera check from the app.

• Download my data: Settings → Privacy → Download my data. One request a day; it's usually ready within 24 hours.
• Permissions and consents: Settings → Privacy → Permissions and consents. You can withdraw location or face-check consent there.
• Take a break from Discover: Settings → Discovery → Take a break, then Hide me from Discover. Choose how long, and, if you like, a status your friends see. Friends and chats continue.
• Delete your account: Settings → Delete account. See how to delete your account.
• Change your number, or link email, Google or Apple: Settings → Account.
• Lost your SIM? If you only sign in with your number, you need that SIM to sign in on a new phone. Ask your mobile operator for a replacement SIM with the same number, or sign in with email, Google or Apple if you linked one.
• Wrong date of birth? It can't be changed in the app. Email contact@tong.party.
• Read our Privacy notice.

Tong works in English and Bangla. Switch any time: the language button on Discover, Me or Settings → Language. What people write on their profiles and in chats shows as they wrote it.

• Terms of use
• Privacy notice
• Community guidelines
• Child safety standards
• Delete your account