Introducing Courtside: A Tennis Feed That Is Friends Only and Has No Algorithm

Everyone has quietly given up on at least one feed. The one that used to be your friends and is now strangers arguing, ads, and a stranger's hot take ranked above your actual mate's news. We did not want that for tennis. So Courtside, the social feed inside RallyHub, has one rule that decides everything else: it is friends only, and it is in order.

What it is

Courtside is a chronological feed of what the people you actually play with are doing on court. Every post is tied to real tennis. There is no follower count, no quote-dunks, no public arguments, and no algorithm deciding what you see. It is your circle, newest first, and that is the whole product.

The feed fills itself. Most of what shows up is generated by you and your friends just playing:

Match results land automatically when you record a match, score and all.
Live matches appear when a scheduled hit starts, and the score updates in real time as the players key it in.
Hit invites ("looking to hit" at this court, this time) that friends can join with one tap.
Win streaks at three, five, and ten matches.
Card pulls when you open a pack and hit something rare.
Tournament wins, community polls, and Spotted posts (tagging a friend you ran into at a venue, with their okay first).
Your own posts: a quick 280-character note, or a photo from the court.
And two little rituals: a Daily Court Report each evening (the longest match, the busiest court, tomorrow's weather at your club) and a Weekly Recap on Sundays.

How you react without it turning into a comment war

This is the part we thought hardest about. Courtside has reactions, but no in-feed comment threads. Here is why: friends should chat like friends, not perform for an audience. So:

Reactions are emoji, visible to everyone, and tuned per post type. Long-press one to attach a 30-character whisper, a tiny private note that rides along with your reaction.
Reply opens a private one-on-one chat with the poster, with the post attached as context. The banter happens in the DM, not on a public wall.
Slap a card lets you fling one of your Snap Cards onto a friend's post. The art lands tilted on the card, and the right card on the right post unlocks combos (slap a winner card on a win and it reads ENDORSED). It is cheap, loud, and made to be flung.

Knowing what is happening right now

A feed should feel alive, so a few things at the top of Courtside tell you what is going on this minute, not last Tuesday:

A Court Cam reel of nearby venues with activity right now, tap one to scope the feed to that court.
A Nearby Tonight count of live and recent matches close to you.
A friends on Courtside now strip showing mates who have been on in the last few minutes.
And a new posts pill that drops in when fresh posts land while you are scrolling, so you never miss the good stuff.

Why we built it

Two reasons. First, the best part of social tennis is the people, and that was the part no app actually showed you. You could record a match, but you could not see that three of your mates also played this week, or that someone is looking for a fourth tonight. Courtside surfaces all of that without you asking.

Second, we are tired of feeds that mistake outrage for engagement. We did not want a place where the loudest post wins. Chronological and friends-only is less "sticky" by design, and we are completely fine with that. You should open Courtside, see what your circle is up to, maybe join a hit, and get on with your day.

The privacy choices

Because it is friends-only, the boundaries matter. Match posts can be hidden when you record them. Only friends can react or reply. Spotted needs the other person to confirm before it appears. Block someone and they vanish from both directions. Nothing here is public to the open internet.

Where to find it

Courtside is in the main nav. Open it at /courtside, or read the full rundown on the about page. Add a few friends, record a match, and watch it fill up. That is the whole trick: it is only as good as your circle, so the move is to get your hitting partners on board.