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Make your private event public in one click

April 4, 2026 · Buddies · 2 min read

You're a few guys in a private event chat heading out for the night. The energy is good. Someone says "we should bring more people in — it'll be even better". As the host, you can do exactly that with one tap: open the event up so Buddies in the area can see it and join in.

This is how Buddies grows. An existing group opening up and inviting friends-of-friends — that's our engine.

How to use it

If you're hosting a private event, you'll find Make event public in the menu on your event page. Tap — confirm — done. The event is now open to every Buddy within the visibility radius you chose, and shows up in their feed.

The conversion is one-way. An event that's been made public can't be set back to private. That's deliberate — someone who found and joined a public event shouldn't suddenly get kicked out because the host changed their mind.

What happens to the chat

When you open the event up, the chat gets cleared and starts over. That's a deliberate call. A private chat may contain inside jokes, group references or things that weren't meant for strangers. It resets when the event becomes public, so everyone — old participants and new ones — starts on the same line.

Worth talking about with your group first. Are you all on the same page about opening it up? Is there anything in the chat someone wants to screenshot or save? Talk it through — then go.

Why it matters

This is one way you meet new people as an adult — through existing groups opening up and inviting more in. Another way is to show up at public events where you don't know anyone yet. Both work, and both happen in Buddies every day.

If you already have a group, public events let you bring friends-of-friends — and a few new faces — into something you'd be doing anyway. If you don't have a group yet, it's a low bar to step into something already in motion. Every Buddy is there for the same reason: we're grown men in similar situations, open to meeting more.

Your group's three interested people plus two Buddies from the next neighbourhood = an active event on Wednesday. You got your night with a bit of extra energy in the mix. Two people who hadn't met you and your group before get to come along to something good. Next time they do something, maybe they'll bring their own friends. That's how ripples spread.

Share the event link on Instagram, Facebook or in your local group once it's public. The friends-of-friends effect gets stronger the more visible it is.

Good to know

• The conversion is one-way — you can't make a public event private again
• The chat clears when you convert. Give your group a heads up first if anyone wants to save something from it
• The event shows up for Buddies within the visibility radius you set — not the whole country, unless you specifically chose that
• Any invitation links you sent earlier still work, regardless of what you do with the visibility radius