User’s Guide
Instant Social Groups in Space-Time
No “invites” required!
What do the Spime icons mean?
Tap on the “Active” button at the very bottom, to see Spimes near you, or distant Spimes you follow. Tap inside the Spime (below) to enter it.
- Avatar and Name of the Spime’s creator. You can hide your Avatar or Name from lists with the respective settings under “My Profile”.
- The Spime’s radius. In the example shown here, the Spime is “alive” within a circle of radius of 50m with the circle’s center being the creator’s location the moment the Spime was created. Anyone inside this circle while the Spime is active, can view and choose to enter it.
- Your estimated current distance from the center of the Spime. “Center” is the location of the Spime’s creator the moment the Spime was created.
- Remaining time before Spime’s expiry.
- Number of people following the Spime. The Spime’s owner sees the “My Spime” indicator. Everyone else sees a “Follow” button. Tap on it to Follow the Spime. Tap it again to Unfollow. In order to view the action inside a Spime from afar, you must follow it while you are still nearby. Once you move away, an active followed Spime will show-up when the “Distant” toggle at the top is tapped.
- Number of photos and video inside the Spime.
- Number of people currently inside the Spime.
- Spime’s thumbnail. If the Spime is “locked”, a lock icon is displayed here and the thumbnail is hidden. The speedometer icons indicates that the Spime is “Dynamic”, which means it moves along with its creator. If you stay close to the creator, you will still see the Spime in your Active, Nearby Spimes list.
Instant Photo, Video sharing
People inside a Spime see all photos and video entering the Spime instantly and automatically.
Secured Spimes
You can protect your Spimes against unauthorized access by adding security to a Spime.
Click on the Spime’s thumbnail in the top-left corner of the “Spime Details” screen to see the password and a QR code that others can scan to unlock it instantly. See below “Reveal code to users with access” and “Unlocking a Spime” for more information.
Reveal code to users with access
If you want to allow users who already have access share their access with others, turn on this feature. When it’s enabled, users who have access can display the Spime’s security QR code for others to scan, by clicking on its thumbnail in the Spime Details page. People who don’t have access yet can scan this QR code to gain entry.
If this feature is turned off, new users must either know the password or scan the QR code directly from the owner’s device to get access.
Unlocking a Spime
When a Spime is locked, it displays only its name and a lock icon. To unlock the Spime, click on the lock icon to access the unlock screen. You can unlock a Spime either by entering its Access Password or by scanning the QR Code from the Spime owner’s device.
If the Spime owner has enabled the “Reveal code to users with access” feature, the QR Code can also be displayed on the devices of other nearby users who already have access. The Spime’s owner and these users can display the QR Code by entering the protected Spime and tapping on its thumbnail at the top-left corner of the “Spime Details” screen. This allows others to scan the code and gain access.
Active Spimes
Spimes have a duration. For example, if a Spime’s duration is 1 hour, it will appear in the main “Active” screen when someone enters it within the hour. Once the hour has passed, the Spime is “Ended” and is automatically moved into the Archives, that’s if you are the Spime’s owner, or if you chose to follow it while it was active.
People can add photos to a nearby Spime ONLY IF the Spime is active.
Nearby Spimes
Nearby Spimes are the ones you can “see” based on your current location. For example, say Blake opened a Spime with a radius of 50 meters. This means anyone up to 50 meters away in all directions from his initial location can see his Spime. If you are within 50 meters from Blake’s initial location, the Spime is designated as “Nearby” to you.
Anyone inside a Nearby Spime can add photos to it and instantly see any photos posted by others inside the Spime.
Toggle the main “Nearby/Distant” switch at the top of the main “Active” Spimes screen to switch to “Nearby”.
Distant Spimes
When you move away from a Spime you are following, it becomes “distant” to you.
You can see “distant” Spimes ONLY IF you “Followed” them while you were inside the Spime.
You cannot add photos to a distant Spime, but you can see all photos inside the Spime, including new ones added by people who are still inside the Spime.
Toggle the main “Nearby/Distant” switch at the top of the main “Active” Spimes screen to switch to “Distant”.
Following a Spime
You can still view images inside a Spime from a distance, including new images added in real-time by people still inside the Spime.
For this to work, you must “follow” an active Spime while you are still inside it.
Enter a Spime from the “Active” screen, switch the toggle at the top to “Nearby”, then tap on “Follow” next to a Spime to follow it.
You can view your own Spimes from afar without having to follow them.
Spimes you follow are automatically moved into your Archives once they expire.
Downloading photos or video to your device
One of the great advantages of using Spime is that Spime photos and videos are stored on the Cloud, therefore not occupying space on your device. However, you can choose to download any photos or video from any Spime you can access. This is true for Active (Nearby or Distant) and Archived Spimes. Start by tapping on a Spime to see its details.
Download a single image:
Tap on an image to start the Image Viewer. You can then swipe left and right for more images. Tap the “down-arrow” at the bottom of the image to download the image to your device. A folder is automatically created on your device with the name of the Spime.
Download multiple images in a batch:
Tap on the “Select” icon. Then, tap on the images you wish to download and tap on the “down-arrow” icon to download the images to your device. A folder is automatically created on your device with the name of the Spime.
Automatically store photos and video you take onto your device:
You can also choose to automatically store on your device all photos and video you take yourself while inside any Spime. You can enable this feature in “My Profile”, by enabling switch “Save photos I take to my device”.
Adding a new Spime
Tap on “Active” at the bottom menu, then tap on the large “plus” orb at the top-left. Newly added Spimes are shown instantly in the “Nearby” toggle of the “Active” screen of other users.
Deleting a Spime
Tap on a Spime to open it. If you own the Spime (you are the one who has created it), a “delete” icon is displayed at the top-right. Tap on the icon to delete the Spime and all its content. This action cannot be undone.
Note: You cannot delete a Spime if anyone is following it and it contains photos. Also, you cannot delete a Spime if it contains photos by other users.
Adding photos to a Spime
Photos can only be added in “Active” nearby Spimes.
Tap on the main “Active” icon at the bottom and ensure the toggle at the top of the screen is on the “Nearby” position. The list now displays all Active, Nearby Spimes. Tap on a Spime to enter it. Tap on the large icon at the bottom to display the camera, which supports flash and front-camera view. Tap the zoom(-), zoom(+) icons to zoom in increments. Long-press the icons to reset or maximize the zoom level respectively.
Nearby users and those who follow the Spime from afar can view a Spime’s photos immediately, as they are added by users.
Deleting photos
(By “photos”, we mean “photos or video”.) Tap on a Spime from the “Active” or “Archives” Spime Lists to enter the Spime and display its photo grid. Tap on any photo or video from the grid to enter the Photo Viewer. Swipe left or right to browse through the photos. If you took the photo being displayed, a “delete” icon will appear at the bottom of the photo. Tap on the “delete” icon to delete the photo.
Enable Chat
Spime owners can enable or disable chat in their Active Spimes.
- Click on “Active” at the very bottom.
- Tap on any active Spime you own.
- Tap on the pencil icon (top-right) to edit the Spime’s settings.
- Toggle the “Enable Chat” switch to enable or disable the chat feature in the Spime. Tap “Update Spime”.
- Anyone inside the Spime will now see a “Chat” icon when they enter the Spime. Tap on the icon to switch to Chat.
- While inside the Chat room, tap on the Photo icon to switch back to Photo View.
- Long-press on one of your chats to delete it.
Filters
The headings on the Active screen are clickable and provide filtering.
Examples:
- “My Spimes”: Display only Spimes you have created.
- “With People”: Display only Spimes that have one or more people currently visiting them.
Filters can be combined. For example, tap on both “My Spimes” and “With Photos” to display only Spimes you have created which also currently contain photos. Counters change to reflect any active filters.
To switch to a simpler header that only shows the “My Spimes” filter, turn off the “Full header in Spime lists” option by going to “My Profile” through the icon at the bottom-right.
Active Counters
Counters including the number of people and photos inside a Spime are updated automatically in real-time. Counters change automatically to reflect any active filters.
Privacy Settings
You can hide your avatar and/or name from Spime lists and photos you take. Tap on “My Profile” at the bottom-right and enable/disable “Show my avatar in Spimes” and “Show my name in Spimes” accordingly.
Featured Spimes
“Featured” Spimes stick to the top of Spime lists and are displayed with a border. Turn on “Featured” while you create a Spime, or when you edit it later.
Dynamic Spimes
“Dynamic” Spimes “move” with you! Spime parameters are changed dynamically so that people moving alongside with you continue to stay inside the Spime. Ideal if you are on a moving platform (bus, train, ship, etc.). See details about Dynamic Spimes at this link.
Purchasing Tokens
You can use Tokens to increase the limits of your Spimes settings. For example, using tokens you can increase the duration of a Spime to 5 days, 10 days, etc. Visit “My Profile” on the bottom right, then tap on “Purchase Tokens”.
Premium Membership
Premium members enjoy additional benefits:
- No advertising
- Higher max. limits on Spime settings (radius, duration, number of participants).
- Require less Tokens for Premium features.
- Free tokens, awarded at the first login of a new subscription cycle.
Premium membership requires a monthly subscription, which can be cancelled at any time without any commitment.
Become a premium member at “My Profile”, then tap on “Membership”. See also Pricing Details.