Help

1. Getting started

How do I get the app?

Olaroo is free. It is in testing on iPhone and Android. To take part, email hello@olaroo.com and tell us which festival you are going to.

• iPhone (iOS 15.1 or newer): Olaroo comes through Apple's TestFlight app. We send you a link to join. Install TestFlight from the App Store, open the link on your iPhone, tap Accept and then Install.
• Android (Android 8.0 or newer): we send you a link. Open it on your phone and it downloads the newest test version as a file ending in .apk. Open the file. If Android says it cannot install apps from this source, tap Settings, turn on Allow from this source, go back and tap Install.

Small updates arrive by themselves. To check for one now, tap Check for updates at the top of the Me screen. When a new version needs installing, the app says New version ready.

How do I create an account?

Open Olaroo, tap Get started and choose a username and a password. Your username is 3 to 20 letters and numbers, with no spaces. Your password needs at least 8 characters. You do not need an email address.

Olaroo then helps you set things up, such as your photo, your festival, location and the friends you want to find. You can skip a step and come back to it from Me > Settings > Set up Olaroo.

How do I find my festival?

Open Explore, find your festival under Discover and tap Going. It then shows under My Festivals. If it is not there, tap Can't find yours? at the bottom of Discover to ask us to add it.

Why add an email address?

So you can reset your password if you forget it. Once it is linked, you can also sign in with it. Open Me > Settings > Account > Link email, type your address and tap Send magic link. Then open the link in that email on the same phone.

2. Signing in and passwords

How do I sign in?

Tap I already have an account and enter your username and password. If you have linked an email address, you can type it in the Username box instead.

I forgot my password

On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot password?

• Your account has an email address: type it and tap Send link. Open the email on your phone, choose a new password, then sign in with your username and the new password.
• Still signed in on a phone? You can also set a new password in Me > Settings > Account > Change password.
• Your account has no email address: we cannot send you a reset link, because there is nowhere to send it. Email hello@olaroo.com with your username. If you can still sign in on a phone, link an email address now, so you can reset it yourself next time.

How do I sign out?

Open Me > Settings > Account and tap Sign out.

3. Sharing your location

Only people you are connected with can ever see where you are. Even then, only the ones you choose can. Sharing starts off. You set it for each festival.

Who can see me?

Open Me > My location > Location sharing and pick one:

• Off: nobody can see you.
• Just me: records your Footprints. Nobody else sees anything.
• Crew: the people you have marked as crew at this festival. It shows your own word if you call your crew something else.
• Custom: the groups and people you pick.
• Everyone: all your connections. You can add a time limit.

Then choose the precision. Zone only shows the area you are in. Exact position shows your exact spot, to everyone you share with or to your crew only. When you share with Everyone, only your crew can see your exact spot.

People on your Never share with list never see your location, whatever else you choose.

Prefer plain words? Me > My location > I want to… gives you four choices: share where you are with your crew, let some people see you for a while, just keep your own Footprints or go completely dark.

What can they see?

• Where you are: the area you are in or your exact spot if you share it.
• How long ago your position was taken.
• Whether you are at camp or off site. At your camp they see At camp, not your exact spot.
• Your battery level, unless you turn off Show my battery level in Me > Settings > Profile.

They also get an alert when you arrive at a stage, when you arrive at or leave the festival and when you get back to or leave camp. You can switch off each kind: see Notifications below.

How do I hide for a while?

On the Map, tap + and choose Enter the shadows. Pick 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours or Until I step out. You vanish from everyone's map. Your own Footprints keep recording privately. Sharing comes back by itself when the time is up. Until I step out ends after 12 hours at the latest. To come back sooner, tap + and choose Step out of the shadows.

Enter the shadows is there only while you are sharing with someone. It works even when Managed for me is on.

How do I stop everything?

Open Me > My location > I want to… and choose Go completely dark. Nothing is shared or recorded until you turn it back on.

What is Managed for me?

Turn on Managed for me in Me > My location and Olaroo sets up every festival you save for you. While you are on site, your crew can see your exact spot and can refresh it with Find them. Your Footprints are kept, off site too. Nobody else sees you. While it is on, the other sharing settings are greyed out. Turning it off leaves each festival as it is until you change it.

Why does Olaroo want my location all the time?

So your crew can find you while your phone is in your pocket, your Footprints keep recording and your set reminders know where you are. It only runs while you are sharing your location or recording Footprints. It never runs outside a festival you have saved.

• iPhone: choose Always. With "While Using the App" you disappear from the map as soon as you lock your phone. To change it, open Settings > Olaroo > Location.
• Android: Olaroo works with "While using the app". Allow all the time is better: it lets Olaroo pick your location up again after Android has closed the app, for example when someone in your crew asks to find you. To change it, open Settings > Apps > Olaroo > Permissions > Location.

What are Footprints?

Footprints is your own record of where you went at a festival. Only you can see it. Open it from the Me screen, under What you've done. To delete a festival's Footprints, open them and choose Delete trail.

Off-site tracking (Me > My location) keeps your Footprints recording after you leave the site, until a day after the festival ends. It is on unless you turn it off. The privacy policy explains what is recorded and who sees it.

4. Your crew and connections

How do I add a friend?

Open the People tab and tap Connect. Then use one of these:

• Search: type part of their username and tap Add.
• QR code: show them My QR code or tap Scan to scan theirs. This works with no signal and goes through when you are back online.
• Share my code: sends a message with a link, so a friend can find you by your username.

They get a request. Once they accept, you are connected. Nobody can see anything of yours until then.

If you turn off Findable by username in Me > Settings > Privacy, people cannot find you by searching. Connect by QR code instead.

What is my crew?

Crew means the small group you trust most, chosen for each festival. The people in your crew at a festival can see your exact spot when you share it, get your SOS flare and can find you. Only you see the list. Nobody is told when you add or remove them.

How do I add someone to my crew?

On the People tab, open All connections and tap + Add beside the person. It changes to ✓ In crew for the festival you are looking at. Tap it again to take them out. Crew here lists your crew at that festival.

You can use another word than crew, such as Squad or Family: Me > Settings > What you call your crew.

What are groups?

On the People tab, Groups lets you sort people into groups, such as the van or the tent. Only you can see your groups. Use them to share your location with several people at once (Custom) or to start a group chat.

5. Finding each other and staying safe

• SOS flare. On the Map, tap the 🆘 button to tell your crew you need finding. They all get an alert and can follow your live position until you say you are OK. It does not contact the emergency services. In an emergency, call the local emergency number.
• Find them. If someone in your crew has Find me on, you can tap Find them at the festival to get a fresh spot from their phone there and then. They are told each time. Turn your own Find me on or off in Me > My location.
• Meet-up pin. On the Map, tap + and choose Drop a meet-up pin, then tap the place you mean. Your crew can then find the spot you agreed on.
• Journey check-in. If you have set a camp and Off-site tracking is on, Me > My location > Journey check-in alerts your crew when you leave the festival and have not reached camp after the time you pick.

6. Your schedule and set reminders

How do I plan my day?

Open the Schedule tab. What's On lists the sets. Tap Going on a set you will see. Tap the star instead to mark one Interested. Both are saved to My Plan, under Plans. Tap Line up for every act from A to Z, even before set times are out.

If two sets you are going to clash, Olaroo warns you. You can split your time between them. The second set's reminder then tells you when to leave the first, allowing for the walk.

When do reminders come?

Fifteen minutes before each set you are Going to. Olaroo sets them on your phone, so they arrive even with no signal. Sets you are only Interested in get no reminder. Tap Going again to take a set off your plan and its reminder goes too.

What is "starting soon"?

When you are at a stage, Olaroo tells you 15 minutes before the next sets there start, even ones you have not planned. To stop these, turn off Event alerts in Me > Settings > Notifications.

Can my crew see my plan?

People you're connected with can see which sets you're going to, and you are counted in "going" on the schedule and in Discover. To keep your picks private, turn off Share my plan in Me > Settings > Profile.

7. Notifications

Where do I see them?

Tap the bell on the Home screen to open Activity. Everything lands there, even when its push is switched off.

How do I choose what I hear?

Open Me > Settings > Notifications. Under What you hear, switch pushes on or off for the festival you have selected: Event alerts, Crew activity, Crew got home safely, Proximity alerts, Connections and Announcements.

Safety alerts are always sent: a flare, a "where are you?" ask and a low-battery warning.

How do I choose what my crew will hear about me?

On the same page, What your crew will hear about you has a switch for each: arriving at a stage, arriving at or leaving the festival, getting back to or leaving camp and low battery. Switch one off and nobody hears it, at every festival.

Android notification settings

On Android, Olaroo's notifications come in three kinds. You can set how each one behaves in your phone's settings, under Apps > Olaroo > Notifications:

• Safety alerts: flares, "where are you?" asks, got-home-safely and low-battery alerts. These are the loudest.
• Set reminders: a heads-up 15 minutes before an act you are going to.
• Crew and festival: your crew arriving and leaving, messages, chat mentions and line-up news.

If you do not see Crew and festival, install the newest version of Olaroo. The app says New version ready when there is one.

Safety alerts can break through Do Not Disturb only if you allow it. Open Me > Settings > Notifications > Reach you in Do Not Disturb and follow the steps.

To turn off every notification from Olaroo, use your phone's settings.

8. Messages and festival chat

How do I message someone?

Open a connection's profile and tap Message. To talk to several people, start a group chat from a group you own. Your conversations are in Chats, under Direct & groups.

Are my messages private?

Direct and group messages are encrypted on your phone before they are sent, so our database only holds scrambled text. Only the people in a conversation can open it in the app. We hold the key, so we could read them, although nothing we run does. Notifications show who a message is from, never what it says. Messages are deleted after 400 days.

What is festival chat?

Each festival you join has its own Announcements and Chat, in Chats under Festivals. Festival chat is not encrypted, so the festival's moderators and our team can remove posts and deal with abuse. Your posts show your name and photo. A few days after a festival ends, its chat locks and moves to Archived festivals, where you can still read it.

How do I report or block someone?

In festival chat, hold a post and tap Report. A moderator will review it. In a direct chat, tap the chat options at the top to mute notifications, block the person or report them.

9. Five a Day photos

What is Five a Day?

While a festival is on, you can add up to five photos a day to Your Five a Day on the Home screen. Take a photo or choose one, then add stickers, text, drawing, a caption and tags. A festival day runs from 6am to 6am, so a photo taken at 2am counts for the night before.

Who can see my photos?

Only you, until you choose who else can: your crew at that festival, all your connections or people you pick. People you tag can always see the photo. People who can see a photo can like it and comment on it, unless you turn that off.

Does a photo show where I was?

Before a photo leaves your phone, Olaroo takes its exact position and other hidden details out of the file. Your phone uses the position once, to name the stage or area the photo was taken in. It never names a campsite, a spot near the camping or your camp. To name no place at all, turn off Show where my photos were taken in Me > Settings > Privacy.

Can people tag me?

Your connections can tag you in their photos unless you turn off Connections can tag me in photos in Me > Settings > Privacy. You are told when someone tags you. You can remove the tag.

To report a photo, open it and choose Report. The person is not told who reported it.

No signal? A new photo waits on your phone and uploads by itself.

10. Battery

Olaroo uses your location all through the festival. That uses battery, so a battery pack helps.

• Location accuracy (Me > My location): Normal gives the best accuracy. Eco is a good balance for a full day. Saver lasts longest, with lower precision. Test is only for short tests and drains the battery fast. Off turns GPS off.
• When your battery runs low, Olaroo steps down to Eco and then to Saver by itself. When it is very low, location pauses. Your own setting comes back once the battery recovers. The Me screen says when this is happening.
• On iPhone, allow Motion & Fitness when asked. Olaroo uses it to notice when you are standing still, so it can ease off GPS.
• Your battery level shows to the people who can see you. Your crew will also get a heads-up when it runs low. To hide it and stop the heads-up, turn off Show my battery level in Me > Settings > Profile.

11. Reporting a problem

Something broken or confusing? Tell us from the app:

• Shake your phone, tap the 🐞 button above the tab bar or open Me > Settings > Report a problem.
• Say what happened and what you expected. The report includes a picture of the screen you were on, taken just before the form opened. You can choose not to send it. You can also add recent activity logs, which hold no messages or locations.
• No signal? The report waits on your phone and sends itself when you are back online.

To hide the 🐞 button, turn off Show the report button in Me > Settings. Shaking still works.

You can also email hello@olaroo.com. The privacy policy says what a report includes and how long we keep it.

12. Deleting your account

Open Me > Settings > Account > Delete account and type DELETE to confirm. This permanently deletes your account and the data we hold about you, including your profile, photos, connections, messages, plans, Footprints and step totals. It cannot be undone.

No longer have the app? Sign in at olaroo.com/delete-account and delete your account there.

Festivals and other content you made for others stay, without your name. The privacy policy has the details.

To delete only your Footprints for one festival, open them from the Me screen and choose Delete trail.

13. For organisers

Organisers build their festival in the Olaroo portal on a computer: the details, the site boundary, stages and areas, facilities, the line-up and the schedule. While the festival runs, the portal shows how busy each area is, without saying who anyone is.

• New to Olaroo? Create an account at olaroo.com/signup and tell us about your events. We review each application and email you once it has been reviewed.
• Already have an account or an invitation? Sign in at olaroo.com/login.
• Forgot your password? Use Forgot password? on the sign-in page.

For anything else, email hello@olaroo.com.