Help and support

Write to mister-business-enterprises@agentmail.to. We usually answer within two working days; reports of content that breaks the rules are reviewed within 24 hours.

Common questions

Who can see my ping? Everyone signed in to Pingsterz, for up to 60 minutes (two hours with Pingsterz+): your username at the place you pinged from, with your photo and caption if you added them. People you blocked, and people who blocked you, do not see it. After that it is gone.

What is Pingsterz+, and how do I cancel it? An optional subscription: pings that last two hours, Friends nearby up to about 15 km, your own ping colour and a Plus badge. Cancel it in Settings → Pingsterz+ → Manage subscription, or in your Apple Account settings under Subscriptions, at least 24 hours before the period ends. You keep it until the end of the period you paid for. Refunds go through Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

I bought Pingsterz+ but don't have it. Open Settings → Pingsterz+ and tap Restore Purchases. Pingsterz+ belongs to the Pingsterz account you bought it on: if you signed in to another account, sign in to that one. If a parent has to approve the purchase, it starts once they do.

Does deleting my account cancel Pingsterz+? No. Apple bills the subscription, and goes on doing so until you cancel it in your Apple Account settings, under Subscriptions.

What happens when I tap a circle on the map? A circle stands for the people who pinged there, and the number says how many. On a map that is zoomed out, one circle gathers a whole area: tapping it moves the map closer, and tapping again moves it closer still, until the circles are single places. Tapping a place lists the pings there. A friend shows as their own marker, and tapping it opens that friend's ping.

Why can't others see my ping with a photo yet? A photo is checked automatically before anyone else sees it. Until the check is done, others do not see that ping at all, and the map tells you Your ping is being checked. The check is done by TypeSafe, an AI service, which receives the photo and its caption; the app asks for your permission before your first photo. The Privacy Policy says what is sent and what is not.

My ping has been "being checked" for a long time. The check is asked for the moment you ping, and again every two minutes while a photo waits. If the service that does the check cannot be reached at all, your ping waits: no photo is turned down because of an outage, and nobody else sees the ping in the meantime. It is checked as soon as the service answers again. If that takes longer than the ping's 60 minutes, the ping ends without anyone else having seen it. You do not have to wait: remove the ping and ping again without a photo.

What does "Your ping was not approved" mean? Nobody else can see that ping. Either the automatic check did not approve its photo, because it found something that breaks the rules or because it could not check the picture, or several people reported the ping. Open your ping, choose Remove my ping, and ping again.

Why is there no photo option? Photos are offered only while the automatic check is working. When our servers cannot reach the service that does the check, the app leaves the photo option out and you can ping without a photo. The option comes back by itself.

Why did my photo not upload? The app says The photo did not upload. Try again. when our storage does not take the photo. Two rules of ours can be the reason. Your account can hold 20 photos on our servers at a time; photos of pings that have ended are cleared away within about 20 minutes, so wait a little and try again. And for 14 days after a photo was reported, no other photo is stored under its file name; the app gives every photo a new name, so you will not meet this one in the app. A picture of more than 1 MB is refused as too large; the app shrinks photos before it sends them.

How do I stop my photos being sent to TypeSafe? A photo and its caption are sent only when you add a photo to a ping, and only after you allowed it. Pinging without a photo sends nothing to TypeSafe. To take the permission back, turn off Allow photo checks in Settings; the app then asks again before you next add a photo.

How do I take a ping down? On the map, tap the note about your ping (it says Your ping is live while everyone can see it), open the menu on your ping and choose Remove my ping. The note shows your newest ping. To remove an older one, remove the newest first and the note moves on to the next, or zoom in to where you pinged and tap that place.

What goes at once: the ping, with its place and caption, and its photo. It leaves other people's maps and lists the next time they refresh, within about half a minute.

What stays, where only we can see it: when and where you pinged, for two to three hours, which is why removing a ping does not give you back one of your 10 an hour. And if someone reported the ping: the report, with the ping's caption and your username, for up to 12 months, and its photo for 14 days. The Privacy Policy has the details.

What happens to my photos? When a ping ends, our servers stop showing its photo to others. If you remove the ping yourself, the file is deleted at once. When a ping runs out after 60 minutes, the file is deleted within about 20 minutes. One exception: a photo that someone reported. You cannot delete it. Within about 20 minutes of the ping's end it is moved to storage that only we can read, so that we can review the report, and it is deleted 14 days after that, even if you delete your account. We keep at most 20 such photos of one person.

Why can't I ping? Pingsterz places a ping only where you are, so it needs your location while you use the app, and the location has to be precise. In your phone's Settings, open the page for Pingsterz and then Location: allow "While Using the App" and turn on "Precise Location". Indoors, step near a window. You can ping up to 10 times an hour, and removing a ping does not give one back. A ping from a place you could not have reached since your last one is refused; wait a little and try again.

Someone posted something that should not be here. Open the ping, tap the menu and choose Report. It is hidden from you at once and we review it within 24 hours. The report keeps the ping's caption, its author's username and, for 14 days, its photo, so that we can still look at them when the ping is gone. The person is not told who reported them. To report a person rather than one ping, for a username that breaks the rules for example, open their profile and choose Report there. Reporting a person does not hide them; to stop seeing someone entirely, choose Block. You can file up to 20 reports an hour.

I reported a ping and the app said "That is no longer available." The ping ended, or was removed or hidden, while you were choosing a reason. The app takes it off your list and no report is filed: only a ping you can still see can be reported. If the trouble is the person and not that one ping, report the person from their profile. You find it under Find friends by typing the start of their username.

How do Friends nearby alerts work? Turn on Friends nearby in Settings → Alerts. You then get an alert when someone you follow pings within about 5 km of you, at most once an hour for the same person. For that the app sends your rough area, to about 1 km, each time you open it; it is kept 12 hours and used for nothing else. Tap the alert to see the ping on the map. It is off until you turn it on, and on each phone separately.

I turned on Friends nearby but get no alerts. Check that notifications for Pingsterz are on in your iPhone's Settings → Notifications. Alerts use the area from the last time you opened the app, so open it now and then, especially after travelling. Nobody you follow may have pinged near you yet; and someone you blocked, or who blocked you, never alerts you.

How do I share a ping? Tap a ping on the map, then ••• → Share. The link opens the ping's page on our website, which anyone can open, also without the app: it shows the username, caption, photo and the area to about 1 km, never the exact place, and says that the ping has ended once it has. Where Pingsterz is installed, the link opens the ping in the app. A ping that is still being checked, or was not approved, cannot be shared.

Can I stop others sharing my ping? Anyone who can see a live ping can share it, as they could take a screenshot of it. A shared page shows no more than the map does, and less of the place. It stops showing your ping when the ping ends or when you remove it. Someone you blocked does not see your pings, so cannot share them; a link they got from someone else only opens the page.

How do I unblock someone? Settings → Blocked people.

How do I delete my account? Settings → Delete account. If you have not chosen a username yet, the same button is on the screen that asks for one. Your sign-in, your username, your pings and photos, and the lists of people you follow and block are removed right away. This cannot be undone. Three things are kept: reports that other people filed about you, with your username and the caption of the reported ping, for up to 12 months; a photo of yours that was reported, for 14 days; and reports that you filed, without your name.

If you signed in with Apple, deleting your account also asks Apple to end Sign in with Apple for Pingsterz, and the app tells you afterwards whether it could ask. If Pingsterz is still listed a few minutes later, remove it yourself: on your iPhone open Settings, tap your name, then Sign in with Apple, and remove Pingsterz there. Apple describes the steps at support.apple.com/102571.

I did not get my sign-in code. Check your spam folder, wait a minute and ask for a new code. Codes expire.