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HeyTell for iPhone Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the Low, Medium, and High privacy settings?

Low: Anyone can find you as long as they look for you using the contact information you set for yourself.

High: Only people that you have invited, talked to directly, or otherwise friended can contact you.

Medium: You can talk to friends of friends (if a friend has Medium or Low privacy, and their friend also has Medium or Low privacy).

How do I delete HeyTell messages?

You can delete an entire conversation or specific messages within a conversation.

To delete an entire conversation: On the Recent Conversations page, swipe from left to right or right to left on the conversation. A red Delete button appears. Tap the Delete button.

To delete a specific message within a conversation: On the Recent Conversations page, select the arrow next to the conversation to open the Recent Messages list. Swipe from left to right or right to left on the conversation and tap the red Delete button when it appears.

Additionally, you can purchase the Message Cleaner feature in version 2.0 to automatically expire read messages when they reach a certain age and/or clean the entire inbox in one clean action.

I am not receiving messages - I have to reboot my phone or restart the app!

You're receiving your messages, you're just not notified immediately when they arrive because you did not enable Push Notifications at initial install. This is easy to resolve.

To enable Push Notifications:

1. Open the Settings app.

2. Select Notifications and ensure it's set to On.

3. In the list of apps below Notifications, select HeyTell.

4. Ensure that Badges and Alerts are set to On.

Note that in some cases, Push Notifications do not work even after performing these steps on jailbroken phones. Unfortunately, we cannot support jailbroken phones, but there are a number of resources available on the Web to help out in this situation.

I didn't enable Push Notifications when I installed HeyTell. How do I get notified when new messages arrive?

Open the Apple Settings app, select Notifications. Ensure Notifications is set to On, then, in the list of apps below Notifications, select HeyTell and ensure that Badges and Alerts are both set to On for HeyTell.

It's so quiet...or, it's too loud!

You can toggle between speaker and earpiece modes by clicking the Speaker button on the Recent Conversations or Maps pages. Speaker will play through the speaker (for walkie-talkie style conversations) and disabling the speaker will play through the earpiece (for less obtrusive conversations). If you are using earphones, sound will always go through the earphones.

I get a "Contact cannot be resolved" message when attempting to send a message to a friend

Make sure that you and your friend have at least one identical email address entry or phone number entry in each others' Address Books and privacy is set to Medium or Low. If using High, you or your friend can send invites to each other using email or SMS and do not need to have matching entries.

Note: It's not a good idea to post your phone number to a public forum. If you want to connect to friends and not share your personal phone number, use an email address (can be webmail, which allows you to verify your address) or use a unique passphrase or key in the email or phone number fields of your "You" contact. HeyTell only needs to find a match for a piece of contact information. Note that impersonating other users is grounds for account revocation.

Refer to the Voxilate Privacy Policy for more information about protecting your privacy and the Voxilate Terms of Service for terms and conditions for using HeyTell.

Hey, where'd my contacts go? (iPhone)

Sometimes, if you have a large number of contacts and are a little low on memory, the contacts list will fail to load. To fix this, restart HeyTell:

1. Tap Home once to exit any active app, then tap Home twice to reveal the multitasking menu.

2. Locate the HeyTell icon on the multitasking menu, and hold it down until a minus sign in a red circle appears.

3. Press the minus sign that corresponds with HeyTell.

4. Restart HeyTell.

I received an SMS invite from HeyTell

Congratulations! Someone wants to talk to you! However, we understand if you do not want to receive additional SMS messages. For HeyTell users running iOS 3.x or running iPods/iPads, HeyTell only allows each person to send only one SMS invitation to each of their contacts, so you should not receive another SMS from them. However, in iOS and other platforms, HeyTell users send SMS invites from their phones. In this case, contact your friend and ask them to stop sending you invitations.

Why do I get a "Too many messages" or "Inbox full" alert?

You get a message that indicates you have sent too many messages when you send a number of messages to a friend who has not yet responded to you. This is to prevent spam, but may trigger if you send a number of messages in quick succession. When your contact listens to your messages, you can continue to send.

Why can't I see my friend's location on the map?

You can only see your friend's location if they have the Maps page open when they send you a message.

How do I work the Map?

We only send location information to your contacts if you have consented to send it by answering Yes when opening Maps page for the first time AND if you send your message with the Map activated.

We do not send location information unless the Maps page is open (click the Target button on Recent Conversations). Note that if you disable location, your old coordinates may still appear on your contact's device, but no new location will be submitted.

How do I disable location after I enabled it?

The easiest way to ensure you never send your location is to only record messages from the Recent Conversations page and NOT the Maps page. However, if you have granted HeyTell access to your GPS functionality and later want to revoke it, on your mobile device, visit Settings > General > Reset and click Reset Location Warnings. The next time you use HeyTell and visit the Maps page, you will again be prompted to allow access to Location and can click Don't Allow (note that you can also disable Location Services globally for all applications by setting Settings > General > Location Services to the Off position). In iOS, you should be able to disable location on a per-application basis.

I only see my own location on the map!

To send their location, your contact MUST record their message while their Maps page is activated as well.

My or my friend's location is not correct, why?

Locations can be incorrect for many reasons and should not be trusted 100%. Here are a few reasons:

- HeyTell is sending the last known location: In cases where we cannot determine the current location, the last known location is used.

- Cell tower triangulation: If you are using a cellular network, the phone determines its location to the best of its ability, often by gauging proximity to cell towers. Triangulation is more successful in some areas than others.

- Use of wireless: If you are using a wireless connection, the device may determine your location by IP address - in some cases, this is remarkably accurate, down to your address. In others, you may find that it puts you miles away!

Are HeyTell messages free? Even Internationally?

HeyTell messages are data, not voice. If you do not have an unlimited data plan from your cellular network provider, you may be charged for data, no matter where the person you're talking to is located. HeyTell messages are about the size of an email message, but if you're paying for bandwidth, it's a good idea to keep an eye on it. Contact your carrier for more information about their billing practices and recommended methods for tracking your bandwidth usage.

My phone no longer vibrates after an upgrade

Default settings may have disabled vibration. To re-enable, open the Settings app, select Sounds, then set Vibrate to On.

Are HeyTell messages encrypted?

HeyTell messages are not encrypted on your mobile device—if someone else has physical access to your phone, they can access your HeyTell messages. However, all data you transmit with HeyTell (voice, data) is encrypted using SSL when it traverses the Internet.

I have a problem that's not listed here - what do I do?

Email us at support@heytell.com!

I have a feature request for HeyTell!

Great! Email us at support@heytell.com!