How it works
Every mechanism, in detail
PodSwap is a reciprocal Instagram exchange with a matching engine behind it. These pages describe how each part actually works, with the real constants rather than adjectives.
How PodSwap decides who sees your Instagram post
LiveA weighted query ranks every waiting post. Follower bracket dominates, niche refines, and seeded queues sink.
- Exact bracket match
- +100,000
- Exact niche match
- +100
Live Rooms: why an exchange stays closed until enough creators arrive
LiveExchanges unlock on a headcount, and everyone present is granted free demand when they do.
- Grant formula
- floor(0.75 × (N−1))
- Minimum open time
- 60 minutes
Points: what an Instagram engagement costs on PodSwap
LiveEarn by engaging, spend to receive. One point buys five engagements, and every exchange keeps its own wallet.
- Free tier
- 7 actions = 1 point
- Point value
- 1 point = 5 engagements
The health score and how engagement disputes are resolved
LiveA 0–100 trust score decides whether your points land instantly or wait. It is keyed to the Instagram account, not the login.
- Starting score
- 100
- Instant tier
- 95+
Engagement disputes: reporting, proof and moderation
LiveA 24-hour clock, a right of reply, screenshot proof, and a human moderator with the final call.
- Response window
- 24 hours
- Upheld dispute
- -5 health
Engagement streaks, milestones and freezes
LiveA daily target that scales with your tier, milestone rewards that repeat every 100 days, and two freezes a week for the days life gets in the way.
- Daily target (Free)
- 7 engagements
- Milestone pattern
- repeats per 100 days
Growth Tracker: posting heatmaps and format performance
LiveA weekday-by-hour heatmap of your own engagement, plus a breakdown by content format and the tags that actually correlate with reach.
- Heatmap
- 7 × 24
- Formats compared
- 3
Referrals: earning points by bringing creators in
LivePoints for every creator who joins and actually participates, tracked per link and per source.
- Converts on
- participation
- Redeemable into
- any exchange
Reel Visibility Optimizer: captions and keywords for search
LiveRewrites a Reel caption for the keywords people actually search, without turning it into keyword soup.
- Works on
- Reel captions
- Hashtag ceiling
- 5
Profile Discovery Engine: making your bio findable
LiveRewrites your name field and bio around the terms people actually search, which is the part of a profile Instagram indexes.
- Optimises
- name + bio
- Searchable field
- name
The five exchanges
Each keeps its own point balance and its own Live Room threshold. Two leave a public trace and can be checked; three cannot, and are backed by the health score instead.
| Exchange | Room opens at | Verifiable | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Comments | 6 creators | Yes | Opens lowest. Intent is highest and the result is publicly visible on the post. |
| Shares | 8 creators | Self-reported | Sharing a post to a story leaves no third-party signal, so this one is self-reported. |
| Saves | 8 creators | Self-reported | A save is private to the saver. Self-reported, and backed by the health score instead. |
| Follows | 10 creators | Yes | Visible in follower lists, so it can be checked. Deduped permanently — you can only follow once. |
| Stories | 12 creators | Self-reported | Opens highest. Pairwise dedup means opening thin burns the pair, so the bar is set above the rest. |
Looking for the free tools rather than the mechanism? Browse the growth protocols, or read the glossary.