Manage Riding Buddies

A rider manages their buddy list and incoming buddy requests — accepting, declining, cancelling, or removing connections.

Who Can Do This

Any user with status: active (free or subscriber).

Steps

Accept or Decline a Request

  1. User opens their buddy requests screen.
  2. Pending incoming requests are listed (only active, non-expired requests are shown).
  3. User taps Accept or Decline on a request.

Cancel a Sent Request

  1. User opens their sent buddy requests screen.
  2. Pending outgoing requests that have not expired are listed.
  3. User taps Cancel to withdraw the request.

Remove a Buddy

  1. User opens their buddy list.
  2. User selects a buddy and taps Remove Buddy.
  3. The connection is removed immediately for the remover. The removed user's list updates on their next open or refresh.

Rules

  • Only active (non-expired) requests appear in the incoming or outgoing request lists. Expired requests (older than 30 days) are automatically removed and not shown to either party.
  • Only the original sender can cancel a pending request.
  • A user can only remove someone from their own buddy list. Removal is mutual — both users lose the connection.
  • A declined request counts toward the sender's 3-request lifetime cap for that recipient — the same as an expired request. See Add a Riding Buddy for the full cap rules.
  • The navigation screen is a locked screen. While a ride is active (STARTED), the user cannot navigate away from the map or access any other app features, including the buddy list. Only navigation-relevant controls are available. The user must explicitly end the ride to leave the navigation screen.
  • Removal itself has no effect on an in-progress ride — intercom and location sharing for existing participants continue normally for the duration of that ride.

What Happens Next

  • Accepted — both users are added to each other's buddy list. Buddy visibility on ride details becomes active immediately. The original sender receives a push notification that their request was accepted.
  • Declined — the request is removed. No notification is sent to the sender. One slot is consumed from the sender's 3-request cap toward the recipient.
  • Cancelled — the pending request is removed. The recipient no longer sees it — no notification is sent to the recipient.
  • Removed — the buddy connection is severed for both users. The remover's buddy list updates immediately. The removed user's list updates on their next open or refresh — they receive no notification. The removed user's request cap to the remover is set to 0 permanently — they can never send a new buddy request to the remover, regardless of any future ban or unban of either user. The remover can still send a new request to the removed user. See Add a Riding Buddy.

When a Buddy's Account Status Changes

  • Buddy is banned — the banned user appears as "Unavailable" in their buddies' lists. The buddy relationship is not deleted. Pending requests expire on their natural 30-day due date regardless of the ban — the expiry timer is not paused. If a banned user sent a request before being banned, the recipient can still accept it; the banned sender will appear as "Unavailable" in the recipient's buddy list until the ban is lifted. If the ban is lifted, the buddy relationship is fully restored — no notification is sent to either party when the banned user becomes available again.
  • Buddy is to-be-deleted — when a user's account is flagged for deletion, they are hidden from buddy lists (and all other lists and searches) immediately. Pending requests involving them — both sent and received — are also hidden from the other party's view during the grace period, but the underlying data is preserved. The 30-day expiry timer continues running during the grace period — it is not paused. If the user cancels deletion during the grace period, they become visible again and all non-expired pending requests are restored. At actual permanent deletion (after 7 days), buddy relationships and all pending requests are permanently removed.

Failure Cases

  • Expired request — requests older than 30 days are gone and cannot be acted upon by either party.
  • Request no longer exists — if a request was already cancelled or expired before the recipient acts on it, no action is possible.
  • Not your buddy — a user cannot remove someone who is not on their buddy list.
  • Active navigation session — the buddy list is not accessible while a ride is in progress. The navigation screen is locked; the user must end the ride to access any other part of the app.

Planned — not yet live: The entire Buddy feature, including request management and buddy list, has not been built yet.