Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter One is a dating app (and soon a website) for book lovers, by book lovers. It is for people in love with books and looking for someone to share them with.

In Chapter One, it’s free to create your profile, see other book lovers, send them likes, and match with them. However, chatting with your matches and sending introductions requires a paid subscription. Paid subscriptions are $4.99 per month. There are no "tiers," "boosts," or other add-ons—so we won’t be annoying you for more money.

We believe that if you're not the customer, you're the product. Chapter One has no games or gimmicks, no advertising, no "partner sites," and no bait-and-switch. We work for you.

Crucially, paid subscriptions help keep out the spam and bots, which have taken over so many other dating sites and apps.

We think $5 is worth it.

Yes to both. Coming soon!

No. The required setup includes your basic details, whom you want to meet, your discovery location, and a profile name and location label. You do not need to answer the other questions, and you can add or change anything later on your Protagonist tab. We strongly recommend adding one or more photos, and we may require one for security purposes.

You can close out of setup by clicking ×, then sign in again to resume your saved progress. Your profile is published when you reach You're Done at the end of setup.

Go to Protagonist → See my profile as others see it. This shows the version visible to other members, including any differences caused by content review.

Questions let you describe yourself and your reading life in words, book lists, and sometimes photos. Tiny Facts are shorter answers about your life and preferences. Go to Protagonist → Questions or Protagonist → Tiny Facts to answer them.

Yes! To change an answer, go to Protagonist → Questions → My answers → an answer, then edit and Save, or choose Remove this answer.

With two or more answers, you can change their order at Protagonist → Questions → My answers → Reorder.

Go to Protagonist → Favorites → the relevant section → Edit. If the section is empty, tap it to add favorites. Bookstores and libraries are grouped under Favorite Book Places.

Go to Protagonist → Photos → Photos of You → Add Photo. When you add a photo you can Crop and Rotate it before using it. To edit a photo after, go to Protagonist → Photos → Photos of You → a photo, then choose Edit Photo, or Add caption to write a caption for it (Edit caption to change one).

To choose your main photo, open a photo and choose Make Profile Photo. Photos of Your Books is a separate, optional gallery.

Content may be awaiting review or may not have passed a check. For an edited answer, other members may still see the previous approved version until the answer passes its review. Check the note at Protagonist → Questions → My answers, Protagonist → Tiny Facts, or Protagonist → Photos → the affected photo.

Go to Protagonist → Questions → Questions tab → a category → a question. Write your answer, then tap Click to find the books above. Check the suggested books, remove any that do not belong, and Save. Photo captions offer the same book-finding feature.

In the answer or caption editor, remove an incorrect book with its × button. You can clarify the title or author in your text and try finding books again. If the book is right but its cover is wrong, tap the cover to choose another, then Save.

Go to Protagonist → Questions → Questions tab → a category → a question that accepts lists. Choose A list if the format choice appears, then Add a book. Search for a title or tap the barcode button to scan ISBN barcodes. Return to your answer and Save the list.

Open the book's page → Add to a list → Add beside the list you want. This saves the addition and opens the answer for further editing. If there is no Add to a list button, first save a list answer in Protagonist → Questions. Added means the book is already there; Full means the list has reached its limit. You can get to a book’s page by tapping the book from a profile or from the Protagonist → Search Books → tapping the book.

Go to Protagonist → Search Books. You can also search for bookstores and libraries. Tap a result to open its page; looking something up does not add it to your profile.

Discover considers both people's age, gender, and location preferences. You need to meet each other's preferences. It also considers factors like shared books and interests. Appearing in Discover does not mean someone has Liked you.

Liking someone may allow you to send an introduction message, if the other person allows introductions. Write your message and tap Send, or choose Just the like instead. Sending introductions requires a paid subscription; without one, your Like is sent on its own and no message is offered.

Once your introduction is sent, you can’t send any more messages to that person before a match. View pending introductions at Chats → Introductions; the section appears only when there are introductions to show.

Yes. Go to Protagonist → Account → Allow introduction messages and tap the toggle to turn it off. This controls messages attached to new Likes; it does not turn off conversations with your matches.

Go to Protagonist → Basic Info, then choose Who are you looking for? or Age range and Save your changes. To update discovery location, go to Protagonist → Basic Info → Where are you? Choose Not right? Change it. Type your location into the search box and press Find or tap Use my location, then Save.

Your exact discovery location is not shown to other members. You can type a place instead of granting location permission. The place name on your public profile is separate: edit it at Protagonist → Profile Basics → Location, and be as general as you like.

If you see a globe icon and a Looking Farther label on someone’s profile, Chapter One has shown you someone outside your usual area. Any distance shown is approximate.

No. Swiping or using Prev and Next only moves between profiles. Discover loops through the available group, so you may see someone again. Choose No thanks explicitly to remove them from Discover.

There may be no available people who meet both sides' preferences, or you may have passed on everyone currently shown. You can review your preferences at Protagonist → Basic Info and check back as more people become available.

A Like expresses interest. When you both Like each other, you become a Match and can chat. If someone already likes you, their profile's button says Match; tapping it likes them back. While anyone can Like and Match, chatting requires a paid subscription.

Save privately keeps someone in Characters → Saved; it sends no notification and does not create a match. No thanks removes them from Discover but still lets them see your profile. Only one of Like, Save, or No thanks can be selected: saving someone you Like removes your Like and ends any match after confirmation.

Go to Characters. Liked you contains incoming likes, My Likes contains your outgoing likes, and Matches contains mutual likes. Characters will move from the Like lists to the Matches list when you match. You can also find No Thanks profiles and Blocked profiles under Others.

While the person's profile is available:

• Characters → My Likes or Matches → person → selected Like or Match button, then confirm removal.
• Characters → Saved → person → Saved to remove a Save.
• Characters → Others → No Thanks → person → No thanks to undo.

Removing your Like ends a match. Undoing a choice does not restore an earlier choice.

Go to Chats → the person, or Characters → Matches → the person → Chat with [name]. A match can appear in Chats before either of you has sent a message.

Go to Chats → conversation → book button. Choose Search or My Books, then tap a book to send it in the chat. My Books contains books you have already used on your Chapter One profile.

An old conversation can remain readable after a match ends, a block, or the other person's account becoming unavailable. Reading the transcript does not mean the match is still active. New messages require a current match and permission to chat.

Go to Chats → conversation → ⋯ → Archive to move it out of your main list. Nothing is deleted, and the other person is not notified. A new message brings it back. To restore it yourself, go to Chats → Archive → conversation → ⋯ → Unarchive.

If a notification appears saying Not sent — tap to retry, tap that notification to retry. An unsent message with text also offers Edit and Discard. Waiting to send means the app has not yet confirmed the send.

Tap the bell icon to read in-app notifications. Go to Protagonist → Account → Push Notifications to change all kinds of notification settings: which events notify you, such as matches, messages, likes, and other updates, and whether each one reaches you as a push notification, in the app, or in an email digest. You can also pause all notifications, or snooze them for a while, and turn them back on whenever you like. Account and security notices still appear in the app. If phone alerts are missing, check the permission notice on that page and use Open Settings if offered.

Go to Chats → conversation → ⋯ → Unmatch, or Characters → Matches → the person → Block / Report → Unmatch. This chooses No thanks and ends the match without notifying them. Your previous conversation remains readable for review and reporting.

Open their profile → Block / Report → Block, then confirm. Blocking hides your profile from them and stops messages in both directions. They receive no block notification. An existing conversation is retained for review and reporting.

Blocking a person prevents them from viewing your profile. They will not receive any notification that they were blocked. If you have already sent messages to each other, the person will be able to see a record of those messages, but not respond to them or see your name or profile from the Chats page. You won’t be able to send more messages, unless you unblock the person and rematch with them. Once you block a person, their profile will be listed under Characters → Others → Blocked.

Go to Characters → Others → Blocked → the person → Unblock, when available. Unblocking does not restore a previous Like or Match. If their profile shows only Unavailable member, the app does not offer an Unblock control there.

Open their profile → Block / Report → Report, or go to Chats → conversation → press and hold the message → Report message. Choose the reason, add details if useful, and Send. From Chats → conversation you can also tap ⋯ → Report. Also block them is on by default; you can turn it off at the bottom of the report form. They are not told that you reported them.

Not necessarily. It can appear for various reasons, such as a person blocking you, taking their profile down for a while, or leaving Chapter One.

Yes. Every member can chat with the official Chapter One account, which is always on the Chats tab. Use it to report a problem, ask a question, or make a suggestion. A real human will reply as soon as we are available. The conversation stays available when your profile is unpublished or your account is disabled.

Yes. Go to Protagonist → Account → Show last active status and turn it off. You can still see other people's activity status when they choose to share it.

Go to Protagonist → Account, then choose Unpublish Profile or Disable Account. Both hide you and make Discover, Characters, and Chats unavailable. You can still message Chapter One through Support messages on the Chats tab.

Both options will keep your data, so you can pick up where you left off whenever you’re ready. Return to Protagonist → Account and choose Publish Profile or Re-enable Account, respectively. If you did both, re-enable first, then publish.

Signing out does not unpublish your profile. Use Protagonist → Account → Sign Out to end your session. For permanent deletion, go to Protagonist → Account → Delete Account and complete the confirmation. Deletion cannot be undone.

Go to Sign In → Forgot? → enter your email → Send Reset Code. Enter the emailed code, enter and confirm your new password, and tap Reset Password. Then sign in again. If the email does not arrive, check your email address and look in your spam folder. You can also use your usual Apple or Google sign-in.

Chapter One is built by the people at LibraryThing, who have been making readers happy since 2005. It uses LibraryThing's book data, so the books, authors, bookstores, and libraries you see in the app come from LibraryThing. You do not need a LibraryThing account to use Chapter One.