# Backfill

https://www.datingapi.io/glossary/backfill

**Backfill means showing an app's own members first, then filling gaps with real members from a shared network when the local pool runs thin.**

Backfill is a way to fix liquidity without merging two apps. Members see people from their own app first. Only when there are too few fresh people nearby does the app add members from a shared network, usually within the same filters for distance, age and preferences.

Good backfill is controlled by the operator: when it starts, which countries or age bands it applies to, whether only ID-verified members are shown, and whether the app's own members are shown back to the network.

Members who join through one brand normally keep paying that brand. The network only changes who they can see.