Safety
Trading with strangers, made boring
Meeting someone to swap a camera lens is the part people worry about, and rightly. Most of the app's design work went into this page's subject.
Verified before you can talk
Browsing is open to anyone. Messaging and making offers are not — both require a verified phone number. Until you verify, the chat composer is replaced by a locked bar, which is a deliberately visible piece of friction.
Both sides close the trade
A trade moves to completed only when both people confirm the meet-up happened. One-sided confirmations don't count, which removes the most obvious way to farm a reputation.
Ratings are tied to real trades
You can only rate someone you actually completed a trade with. There are no unsolicited reviews, and no way to rate a person you've never met.
Meet-ups live on the trade
Place, date and time are structured fields on the trade itself, not a sentence someone typed at 1am. Both people see the same plan, and either can propose a change.
Reporting is one tap, everywhere
Listings, threads and profiles all carry a report action. Reports go to a person, not a queue that auto-closes.
Blocking is immediate and total
Blocking someone removes their listings from your deck, ends the thread, and withdraws any live offers between you.
Before you go
Six rules for a meet-up
None of these are clever. All of them are the difference between a trade and a story you tell later.
- Meet somewhere public, busy, and indoors where you can. Cafés and mall entrances beat car parks.
- Go in daylight if it's your first trade with someone.
- Tell someone where you're going. Sharing the meet-up details out of the app is fine and encouraged.
- Inspect the item fully before you hand yours over. Power it on, check the serial, open the case.
- If anything feels off, leave. You never owe anyone a completed trade, and pulling out costs you nothing.
- Never take the conversation off Brtr to arrange payment of any kind. There is no payment in Brtr — anyone asking for one is running a scam.
Four things that are always a scam
If a conversation turns into any of these, stop, block, and report. You will not be the first person to have reported them.
"I'll send it, you send yours"
Brtr trades happen in person. Anyone proposing a mail-based swap is setting up to receive your item and vanish.
"Let's just settle the difference in cash"
There is no money in Brtr and no way for us to see, hold or refund a cash transfer. Once you add cash, you're on your own.
"Message me on [other app]"
Moving off Brtr early means no trade record, no offer history, and nothing for us to act on if it goes wrong.
"Confirm the trade first and I'll bring it tomorrow"
Confirming is the last step, not a favour. Never mark a trade complete before you're holding the item.
Something went wrong in a trade?
Report it in the app if you can — it arrives with the trade attached, which makes it far faster to act on. If you can't get to the app, or it's urgent, email the safety team directly.
Placeholder: if Brtr operates a 24/7 line, an in-app emergency flow, or a local law-enforcement liaison, describe it here — this is the section reviewers and app stores look for.