Common questions about how huddle works — Live Map and Broadcast Alerts, huddle Care marketplace, verified providers, Pet Profiles, plans, and trust.
huddle is a pet safety, community, and care app that combines real-time local alerts, local pet community features, trusted pet care bookings, and organised pet records — all in one place.
Yes. Most of huddle's core safety and community features are free forever — including Live Map, 5km Broadcast Alerts, Social Forum, Discover, Groups, Chats, Pet Profiles, and access to huddle Care.
Paid plans (huddle+ and huddle*) add wider broadcast reach, more Stars, advanced filters, profile boosts, and Family Sharing. See Plans & Pricing for details. Pricing and availability can vary by market.
huddle is for pet owners, animal lovers, rescue volunteers, foster networks, shelters, and trusted local pet carers who want a more connected, safer way to support animals — for everyday pet life, for community support, and for urgent situations.
No. huddle supports many species — including dogs, cats, rabbits, birds, guinea pigs, hamsters, reptiles, fish, small mammals, farm animals, and other pets. Use the Live Map for stray, injured, or vulnerable animals of many kinds, and create Pet Profiles with species-specific notes, medications, and care reminders.
huddle is available in supported markets through the App Store and Google Play. The app was built in Hong Kong and launched there first, where verified-neighbour density and the huddle Care marketplace are strongest today. Other cities follow as the verified-member network grows. Some features roll out gradually by market and app version.
Use huddle immediately:
huddle gives you local map visibility, nearby alerts, and wider community response in one flow — instead of piecing together separate posts, messages, and map tools.
huddle Broadcast Alerts send urgent pet-related alerts to nearby users based on your selected reach. Alerts push as real-time notifications to nearby huddle members within that radius and stay live on the map for the listed duration:
Use Broadcast Alerts with the Live Map when speed, coverage, and exact location all matter.
Use the huddle Live Map to give the animal a precise location and alert nearby users faster than a general message with no location attached.
Four pin types — match the alert to the situation:
You own your pins. Edit them as the situation changes or remove them once resolved.
huddle Care is the trusted local pet care marketplace inside huddle. Find, compare, and book verified local providers — pet sitters, dog walkers, boarders, groomers, trainers, and more. Every Pet Carer is identity-verified, often community-present in the Social Forum or Groups, and rated by other pet owners. Discovery, messaging, booking, payment, and dispute handling all stay inside the platform.
huddle Care supports eight care session types:
Not all session types are available in every area — check local availability in huddle Care.
Open huddle Care to browse verified local pet sitters. Check each provider's identity badge, community presence, species experience, pricing, and availability before booking. Providers may already be familiar through the Social Forum, Groups, or Discover — making the decision easier than starting from a complete stranger.
Use huddle Care to compare local dog walkers with identity verification, provider profiles, real community presence, and a structured in-platform booking flow. Check identity verification, community activity, species experience, and availability before booking. See whether the provider is active in the Social Forum, Groups, or Discover. Book in-platform for structured payment, booking confirmation, and dispute handling.
Every Pet Carer completes huddle's identity verification before being listed in huddle Care:
For Licensed Medical Care, providers must also submit a professional credential with licence number, issuing body, and expiry date. huddle attempts to match this against external registries, certificate databases, professional organisations, and licensed directories. A Verified credential badge means a match was found; Self-declared means the provider submitted the details but a registry match could not be confirmed.
huddle charges a 10% platform fee on the agreed Care Scope, shown as a line item at checkout before you confirm payment. The same 10% is deducted from the agreed Care Scope before provider payout through Stripe Connect. The fee covers in-platform booking protection and structured Care Session support — not only payment processing.
huddle can hold the booking funds, review the case using platform evidence, and manage a structured dispute process for both sides. Neither side needs to receive or release funds while the case is under active review. Both pet owner and provider can submit details and evidence inside the platform. huddle reviews booking records, in-app messages, photos, Start PIN events, handoff evidence, and reviews when resolving disputes. Customers must report serious incidents within 48 hours.
Payment is processed in-platform, with funds held until the Care Session is started via Start PIN and completed. A Start PIN is a short code the pet owner shares with the Pet Carer at handoff to officially start the booking. Payment is processed through huddle's payment partners and settled after session completion. huddle does not store bank details in user profiles — payout accounts are managed through Stripe Connect.
The huddle Social Forum is a local pet community feed where users can post questions, share updates, discuss local situations, and get replies from nearby pet people. Ask about behaviour, feeding, training, health symptoms, local hazards, rescue contacts, and care providers. Threads are sorted by proximity not viral algorithm. Identity verification is required to become a Pet Carer or create a Group — keeping the trust layer where it matters most.
huddle Discover helps users find nearby pet owners, carers, and animal lovers for connection, playdates, rescue collaboration, and walking groups. Filter by species, role, or community interest. Discover is 16+ only — the matching surface inside Chats is age-gated.
Waves are casual, free hellos — use them freely to greet someone in Discover or the Social feed.
Stars are more intentional outreach, limited per plan to keep them meaningful: Free (allowance), huddle+ (4 / month), huddle* (10 / month). Stars surface as priority connections in the recipient's inbox. Both protect everyone from spam outreach.
Paid plans for users who want expanded broadcast reach, more profile visibility, higher usage limits, and access to additional tools beyond Free.
Pricing and availability can vary by market. See Plans & Pricing.
Choose the plan or add-on that matches the level of local reach your situation needs.
Family Sharing extends your huddle+ or huddle* plan benefits to one linked account — useful for two-person households. Shared features include expanded broadcast reach and discovery tools. Stars allocations and daily usage quotas remain individual to each account. Available as part of huddle+ and huddle*, or as a US$4.99/month add-on on Free.
The Verified Identity Badge marks profiles that have completed huddle's identity verification (phone OTP, camera liveness, ID/Passport verification, payment method confirmation). Look for the badge on provider profiles in huddle Care and on user profiles across the app. The badge reduces fake-account risk by confirming the verification was completed — it does not mean huddle endorses, insures, or guarantees any individual.
A huddle Pet Profile is an organised digital record for a pet — keeping species, breed, date of birth, weight, microchip ID, vaccinations, medications, vet visit history, care notes, and care history in one accessible place. Replace scattered paper records, chat threads, and separate notes with one organised profile per pet. Pet Profiles support many species and share consistent records with vets, family members, carers, or emergency contacts without re-entering information.
The huddle Knowledge Base has every question answered in detail — lost pets, hazards, all eight care session types, rescue use, exotic species, payment flow, identity verification, and more.
Email support@huddle.pet — we read every message.