Introducing Friends: Your Tennis Network, Live and Ready to Play
Tennis needs at least one other person, and Friends keeps yours one tap away. Your personal network shown with what actually matters for getting a hit on: who is online, what their level is, and who is up for a game right now.
By Two brothers in Melbourne, co-founder of RallyHub.
Deuce is holding the door open, because everything else on RallyHub works better once you have a few people in here with you.
Tennis is not a sport you can play alone. You can practise alone, but the match, the hit, the comp, the bragging rights, all of it needs at least one other person. Friends is the part of RallyHub that keeps those people one tap away instead of buried in a phone contacts list you never scroll.
What it is
Friends is your personal tennis network. It is the list of players you have connected with, shown with the things that actually matter for getting a hit on: who is online right now, what their level is, and whether they have flagged themselves as up for a game. From that one screen you can message someone, organise a hit, or gift them XP, without hunting around the rest of the app.
It is deliberately not a follower count. There is no public number to chase and nobody can see your list but you. A friend on RallyHub is someone you would actually play with, not a stranger you collected.
How it works
- Two-way by design. A friendship only exists once both people agree. You send a request, they accept, and you are connected. Either side can remove it later, quietly.
- Live availability. Each friend shows an online dot and a last-seen, plus their availability if they have set it. You can see at a glance who could be on court this afternoon.
- Built for action. Every friend row carries the quick actions that matter: message, organise a hit, view their profile and stats, or gift them XP.
- It powers the rest of the app. Your Courtside feed, head-to-head records, and "go live when you are ready" all run off your friends list. Build it once and everything else fills in.
How to use it
- Open /friends to see your network, with online status and availability up top.
- Add people. Find players through the player directory or RallyMate, send a request, and you are connected the moment they accept.
- Tell them you are ready. Use Friends Ready Live to flag that you are up for a hit, and see every friend who is too.
- Do something with it. Message, organise a hit, or gift a friend XP straight from their row.
Why we built it
Most of us have a tennis network already. It is just scattered: a few numbers in your phone, a couple of names in a group chat, someone from the club whose surname you never caught. The problem is never "I do not know anyone to play with." It is "I cannot remember who is free and I cannot be bothered sending five messages to find out." Friends fixes that by putting the people and their availability in one place, so getting a hit on is a tap, not a project.
A couple of honest bits
- The Free plan caps your friends at three. That cap is only checked when you send or accept a new request, never on your existing friendships. If your plan lapses, nobody gets dropped.
- Availability is whatever you set. It is not GPS guessing or surveillance. A friend looks free because they told the app they are free.
If a couple of your regular hitting partners are not on RallyHub yet, that is what Refer a Friend is for: send them your link, and you both come out ahead.
Cheers, the RallyHub team
Quick context if you are new here: RallyHub is an Australian social tennis platform built by two brothers. Invite-only beta. More blog posts here.