• Added #hashtag processing for intro messages in chats. For example, new member writes "#intro Hello! I'm tech entrepreneur. We make audio environment for business. Nice to meet." Mate Bot will then greet them and register to reel, if needed.
  If person is not in Mate Bot, their card will be automatically created.
  Profile name -> Telegram name; profile intro -> intro text from message.
  Also, that member will be registered to reel, so other people could see him regardless of him activated Mate Bot already or not.

Version 1.6 (09.29.22)

• Added "Invite to call" button.
  After people had a match they can activate "Invite to call" proposal from card. One person invites, another gets a message from Mate Bot and responds. Then they can agree on time and format.
• Fixed "Feature user" wordings and work.

Thank you for reading! Fun fact: the word "reel" has been used 21 times + ones on pictures.
Try Mate Bot here: https://t.me/WaveMateBot

Mission

Motivation

What do people want in general? Obviously, there is no common answer. It wouldn't be a mistake to say that people don't mind their life to be interesting, funny, wealthy, peaceful, exciting, lovely, safe and many other. And every person looks to fulfill these needs to various extent.

Fortunately it happens that to reach all these one have to rely on other people. Sometimes relevant personal interactions helps us to reach our goals and sometimes people themselves are theones who make our life happier.

But where comes interaction between people to fulfill each other's needs, there questions of mutual trust occur:
"Should I work with her?"
"Is he worthy my time?"
"Do we have something in common?"

Hence reliance is not possible without a trust. Let's take a look at research data to find out if people trust each other by default.

Trust is the world problem

If all people want good things and can reach them together - does it mean that they trust each other? Well, not necessarily.

The World Values Survey [1] reports that trust level - share of respondents who agreed with a statement "most people can be trusted" - varies from 4% to 70% in some countries with the median value ~40%. These results show that people are far from trusting each other by default.

Way to increase trust

Despite on moderate trust levels, people still rely on some members of society around. This leads to a question: "How people manage to build at least enough trust to interact?"

Let's take a look at a review from Our World in Data [2]. Country with a general trust level of 30% (2009) was taken as a reference. Then other, more specific than general, trust measures were performed.
First, shares of "trust to tell the truth" by adults vary for the people of different professions. For example, in doctors trust 93% of respondents, scientists - 84%, policemen - 76%.
Second, Wellcome Global Monitor (2020) research shows results of "neighborhood trust" review. It says that 87% of people trust their neighbors "some" or "a lot".

Why does trust is so higher in these cases in compare to general?
First of all, information about another person gives one objective reasons to trust this person on a range of topics at least.
Second, neighbors are somewhat familiar (they live on the same territory) and "others" are not.

So, the answer to "How to increase a trust level between people?" can sound like "Help people within same environment to know more about each other".

Mission

Mate mission is to increase the trust in people of global society by increasing it between members in communities.
Mate is created to make groups of people closer and unleash the potential of interpersonal ties.
Mate strives toward making the first contact as smooth as possible and present the convenient interface for people connections.

User need

People gather offline and online

Community is defined by the place where members gather and interact at. Environment benefits discussion, contacts, establishing of comfort and familiarity feeling.

When people gather offline, there is a physical ability to interact with others - come and talk. Yet host of offline meetings still often facilitate interaction between guests. For example, party owner introduces friends to each other. Or conference organizer makes list of participants, provides badges, creates networking zones etc.

Web communities are often represented by social media groups. Due to scalability of groups such communities can consist of hundred to tens of thousands members. What options these people have to interact?

In search of a robust way to meet new people in online community

Today there are several options for members to meet new people within an online community. Each option has its own setbacks. They are listed below with a subsequent explanation.
Option 1: Write and read posts/messages to group.
Option 2: Take part in online/offline gatherings.
Option 3: Scan the profiles of other members and contact some.

Options setbacks
Options 1 and 2 cover only small part of people (~10%) due to the bystander effect. It occurs when there is an activity available for the group and people are able to opt in/out. Effect is that person is more likely to take part in activity, respond, help if there are fewer people addressed with him.
Bystander effect can be observed in workplace professional behavior [3] or at question-answer forums [4, 5]. Taking this in regard, conversations and gatherings help in link forming among core audience only (active people who participate on regularly) - leaving periphery members behind.
Option 3 rests on an assumption that there are people so inclined to know more about other members of community that they would scan profiles manually. Depending on platform scanning of profiles requires a work to be put into that and number of actions may vary.
Setbacks of manual profile scanning are:
— Scanning is a one-sided activity. It provides no feedback from the person seen.
— Approaching a particular member after that isn't much different from a cold message since there is no prior interaction occurred.

So, the Mate's product goal here is to address setbacks of community interaction options: a) find a way to involve periphery members and establish connections between them an the core b) make seeing new people online more entertaining and rewarding.

Solution

Mate's core product — matchmaking reel builder for groups of people. It is built to address the need of community members in smooth connections and increase interpersonal trust.

Reel in Mate — interface type that shows profiles one by one to user with an ability to react. Such interface in combination with swiping action is widely used in matchmaking apps.

Mate allows a person to create a matching reel and invite particular people there. This feature sets Mate not as a competitor of communities where people talk and meet but a complement that empowers interactions between members.

In principle, Mate has following product flow: community leader (including group admins, event organizers, influencers) creates a matchmaking reel and invites audience. Members join the reel and interact with each other by "like-skip" reactions. Ones who have mutual interest can contact each other on the platform or come back in future.

As soon as a lot of communities exist on particular platform and depend on it's features, matchmaking reel builder functionality should be implemented as "close" to platform as possible in terms of user onboarding actions. That's why Mate leans towards bots and social media integration solutions.

User experience challenges

Based on the described product flow there are two strategic aspects that have to be always considered.

1. Invitation of participants to the reel.
There is a task to guide audience to the created matchmaking reel. Either way, it is something that community leaders or members should do.
Mate product can either encourage reel creator and members to invite people by creating incentives or provide the creator with tools to set up new users flow to the reel. Based on community's platform and scenario these options may be presented in different proportions.

2. End-of-reel activity.
Matchmaking reel can be attributed to community (long-term) or event (short-term). Community reel should be active for an indefinite time as long as new people come and go. But the rate of reel browsing is more than new members inflow. Hence, there will be a moment when a person has seen everyone and no members left to meet on the reel. In this case additional "end-of-reel" activities should be provided to help user strengthen present connections and stay involved.

Implementation of these principles is crucial for the matchmaking reel builder desirability among community leaders and organizers. Building the Mate down to up our team believes that sustainable product leads to satisfaction of users leads to mission fulfillment - increase the trust between different people worldwide.

Sources

[1] https://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV7.jsp
[2] https://ourworldindata.org/trust
[3] https://journals.aom.org/doi/10.5465/amj.2017.0245
[4] https://researchgate.net/publication/318125704
[5] https://researchgate.net/publication/261963133

Subscription-per-reel model

Mate uses subscription-per-reel created model. Reel creator is charged for the reel operation according to the chosen pricing plan. They are presented on screen below.

If number of reel members reaches the limit for the current plan, new people cannot join the reel and are shown an explanation message instead. When reel is approaching members limit, reel creator is notified and suggested to switch plan.

Pausing subscription

If regular payment according to chosen plan is terminated, reel page becomes not accessible for it's members: they wouldn't access neither seen cards nor new people on reel.
Data is saved. When the reel creator decides to renew subscription, all connections and profiles are the same as they were before pause.

Community-powered monetization

Mate is looking forward to provide reel creators with the ability to earn money from a reel themselves. It can be done via community badges which reel members can gift to each other based on their connection outcomes. These are shown on personal card. Badges may include such titles as “Helper”, “Industry expert”, “Reliable partner” or just “Glad we met”.

Reel creator can use default badges or create their own. This is where the opportunities bloom.

• Reel creator sets up the price of badges to be purchased as a gift from one member of the reel to another.
• Every transaction revenue is split 50%/50% between the reel creator and Mate company. Reel creator share ends up at the reel creator account. These money can be used to pay for reel subscription and other features, up to withdrawal (TBD).

Mate thinks that such model would encourage reel creators to develop their group while members activity could spotlight special characters inside a community.

Outro

Would these pricing plans be suitable for you as a reel creator? Would community badges encourage your members? Please, share your questions and feedback in the comments or personally in Telegram @samf416.

Inviting people

The first basic option is to send a direct invitation to your group.
Mate Bot has an inline mode to compose such message with a special layout.
The difference is that

• message is labeled "via @WaveMateBot"
• message has a neat button with the bot link

You can see an example on the screen below:

To use inline mode just open any chat and start typing "@WaveMateBot" with some text. You will see the inline options to choose from over the text field.
Three options for your choice:

1) Member template. Default invitation from the view of a community member who tried Mate Bot.
2) Admin template. Default invitation from the view of an admin/owner, who added Mate Bot to group.

While templates are simple to use, they may not fit to every group. That's why there is a custom invitation option.

3) Custom invitation. In the inline mode type your message after "@WaveMateBot" and choose Send this message.
Important: custom message cannot be longer than 256 symbols.

Feature member

Second way to attract people is to feature a member.
This is a healthy and entertaining option for your community. Mate Bot can send the intro of one of reel members to the group with a greeting description. It is sort of a spotlight for your community members: others see what person is here and can say "Hi!".

You can go through featuring steps from Reel admin panel of your reel. Sequence is following: bot randomly chooses the person, you approve, bot sends proposal message to this member. Then, if member gives consent to be featured, you get the confirmation from bot. Finally, you tap "Send featuring message" and bot sends featured member's name + intro to group.

Here is how featured member message looks like:

Conclusion

These were the options to attract members of your group to the Mate Bot reel.

Direct invitation to group works better when you address new members or unfamiliar audience.

Featured member is a positive activity which the Mate Bot can bring to your group. Use it to encourage the community to open up and connect with each other.

And remember - different people perceive new things with different speed and attitude. It's alright if only few members joined the reel after your first invitation. Give others time, be positively persistent and connected community will grow!

Where's all this data being stored?

Data is stored on MongoDB Atlas Сloud. Region: AWS Frankfurt (eu-central-1)
Backend is written in Go and hosted on Heroku.

What data is being collected exactly?

Bot collects:
- Name (the one user sets in bot, not Telegram one)
- Intro (the one user sets)
-Telegram user ID - to uniquely differentiate users of Mate Bot

Non-collecting operations.
Some user data is requested from Telegram "at the moment" and not stored explicitly:

- Group membership status.
When user joins a reel of a Telegram group -> we check if user is in that group.
- Telegram username.
Bot shows Telegram username if there is a match -> username is requested from Telegram by ID at the moment of display.

When bot is added to a group it collects Telegram group ID, group name and description to create a reel. Bot should be present in group to check if user is a member when a new person joins a reel.
To point this out: list of "Telegram group - members" is not stored. We don't know if user is in some group unless we ask it from Telegram

Who has access to this data?

Two people have an access to data above: Mate founder and backend-developer of Mate team.

As long as Mate products improve, our data collection and handling mechanisms will be changing and this document updated. Please, follow @mateblog and reach out in case of any questions!

Contents

1. Intro: value of Mate Bot
2. Join a group reel as a member
3. Create a reel for a Telegram community

Intro: value of Mate Bot

As an intro, let's think about matchmaking activity. Yes, one from these apps with profile cards, likes and a lot of different people to swipe. You can find friends, relations or at least socialize a bit by choosing through different people.

We at Mate thought: what if people were able to smoothly create that sort of matchmaking activity for themselves? What if one could make a custom matchmaking process for a particular group?

Professional community, class of students, hobby club, industry event - there are a lot of groups with tens to tens of thousands members who barely know each other. And they don't mind to make new friends and contacts.
It would be beneficial to setup that "matchmaking activity" in the groups for members to smoothly connect based on mutual interest.

In other words, let any group has it's own matchmaking reel!

This is the idea behind the Mate. In the Mate Bot you can
- Create matchmaking reel for your group to make community more connected.
- Join matchmaking reel of some group to meet new people.

Alright, you've registered in the Mate Bot. Let's see what you can do.

Join a group's reel

You can join a matching reel of one or your Telegram groups.

Reel entry tab looks like this. You see available reels to join:

Remember that since you can see reels for your groups only, there might be no reels available. But no worries! You can always join Friends of Mate group and check out our reel of Mate early adopters💚

Seeing people on a group reel

On the reel you can look through intros of other people, one after another:

There are two reactions available.

"Wave" - means you are interested in a person. Use it to show the person that you don't mind to connect or just stay in touch.

"Next" - if you are not ready to connect with a person, just move on to the next one.
It is fine, you can change the reaction later on a members page.

Check the reel from time to time, it might have new people to see!

Open reel members page

Once you've seen some people at the reel, their intros are available for you at the members list. There you can check match status and see profiles once again.

Match status to the left of a name indicates if both people have a mutual interest. When there is a match (👋👋 on the screen), you are shown a Telegram contact. "?" sign signals that person waved to you but you haven't seen them yet. Good opportunity to respond right away.

"/show" command opens person's profile to read and react.

Mate strives to become a multiple-times benefit for you. So, when you feel you could use some help, don't hesitate to revisit members list for warm connections.

Create a reel

The most rewarding, you can create your own reel!

Add the bot to your group to create a reel. There may be additional steps for different types of groups. Check a "Create reel" tab in the bot for comments.

Reel creator capabilities

We provide reel creators with means to monitor the reel activity and interact with group members. Creator capabilities are available on the reel's page "Admin panel" tab.

There you can see Reel stats on how many people from the community have connected in the Mate Bot. Data is overall, no interpersonal actions disclosed.

Also there is an ability to create Custom tags. Use tags to help right people find each other quicker. Now you can define roles and turn your reel into matching platform! For example "startup - investor", "landlord - tenant", "hiring - looking for job".

To bring more people to your reel and enlighten community there are options to invite people and feature member. Make sure to check them out.

Conclusion

Thank you! It was the brief review of the Mate Bot features. Remember that the Mate bot for Telegram is just a one part of Mate project. We always think about various ways to make people matching smooth, exciting and beneficial. Use the Mate Bot and stay in touch!

Create a profile and add Mate Bot to your group.

First of all, register in Mate Bot by entering name.
Then add Mate Bot to your Telegram group as you would do with ordinary user: open group description -> choose "Add members" -> enter Mate Bot name -> choose it and press "Add".

Alright, a new reel in the bot must be created. You should receive confirmation message from the Mate Bot. Check the direct messages with the bot:

👍If you received the confirmation message - it's all set! You've been added to your reel automatically.

👇If you haven't received the message from bot, it means reel was not created (yet). It happens when you are an anonymous admin of the group.

Common group members (and bot too) cannot see group's anonymous admins. So, the Mate Bot probably hasn't found you among members to assign you a reel creator status.

You should create a reel with bot command. To do it:

- Make the bot an admin too. You can see the sequence for smartphone at screens below:

In desktop version of Telegram you can just right-click the bot name in the list of group members and choose "Promote to admin"

3. Great, now the bot recognizes you as a member. Time to create your reel with a command!

Go to the group text input field -> past text "@WaveMateBot /create_reel" in the text field -> take a moment, see inline query result -> choose "Create a reel" option proposed:

Here "@WaveMateBot" is a call to inline mode of the bot and "/create_reel" - inline query for manual reel creation command.

That's it, congratulations! You've successfully created a Mate reel for your group and joined it. Now it's time to invite other members and know more about them with the Mate Bot!