Support

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does the DogViz App do?

The DogViz App aims to improve the experience and fun of dog ownership in London by helping to make sure your dog’s doggy buddies are in the same park as you so they can all play together. DogViz allows you to share information about you and your dog’s location (your phone’s location) in 3500 parks and open spaces in London. This information is shared only with ‘buddies’ that you recreated within the App. When you leave a park this location information is no longer shared. Also you receive an alert on your phone (a bark sound and notification message) whenever a buddy enters a park. You can turn off these notifications on a per buddy basis if you wish. You can build a profile for each of your dogs with its name, photo, breed, sex, age that is shared with buddies. Only your first name is ever shared with buddies. No information of any sort is shared with anyone else. You can also send pre-formatted messages to buddies to say when you are planning to visit a park, this takes just a couple of taps because it’s all pre-formatted with your information and most recent park visited.

2. What is a ‘buddy’ relationship in DogViz?

A ‘buddy’ relationship is a link between two dogs. It is not a link between two owners. Hence if a dog is out walking with a dog walker rather than its owner the buddy relationship is unaffected. Once the dog walker enters a park all the dog’s buddies received a bark (notification).

3. How do I establish new buddies?

To establish a new buddy relationship open DogViz and press the ‘Add Buddy’ button at the top of the screen. The owner/walker of the other dog does the same. You can then scan the QR code (or they scan yours) with the camera screen that appears. It doesn’t matter who scans who. The buddy relationships are then all formed immediately between all of your dogs (that are with you) and all of their dogs (that are with them). You can check that the new buddy relationships have formed by pressing the ‘Buddies’ tab at the bottom of the screen. Note that only dogs are are with their owners/walkers form buddies. You can choose if a dog is with you, or not, in the ‘My Dogs’ tab at the bottom of the screen.

4. Does the App know where my dog is, or only where my phone is.

Good question. The DogViz App knows only where your phone is. It is assumed that all of your dogs are nearby. However you can also say that individual dogs in your ‘My Dogs’ list are ‘with me’ or ‘not with me’. So if you leave one of your dogs at home, or if you are a dog walker and taking only some dogs with you, then use these settings accordingly.

5. Does the App have to be running to be able to report my park entry and location inside a park.

DogViz needs to be running in the foreground (so you can see the App on your phone), or in the background (for example, it’s minimised while you use another App). If you close the app completely then it will not report your location. If you reboot your phone and never launch DogViz then it will not be running and it will not report your location. So whenever you reboot your phone, run DogViz once and leave it minimised. That way it I’ll be constantly checking to see if you have walked into a park. Alternatively launch DogViz on your way to a park. As soon as you enter the park (within about a minute) all your dog’s buddies are notified.

6. How soon after I enter a park will my dog’s buddy’s owners/walkers be informed?

After two GPS location updates that show you inside a park the App will alert us that you have entered that park. We will then immediately send a bark/notification to the phones of all your dog’s buddy’s owners and walkers. So if you are walking when you enter a park this should happen within about 1 minute.

7. Can I delete buddies?

Yes. On the Buddies tab at the bottom of the screen, tap on the buddy you want to delete. The buddy’s page appears. At the bottom of the page is the ‘Delete Buddy’ button. Note that your dogs must be set as ‘with me’ on the ‘My Dogs’ tab for the buddy relationship to be deleted with one of your dogs. If one of your dogs is marked as ‘Not with me’ then deleting its buddy has no effect.

8. Can I stop getting notifications when a particular buddy enters a park?

Yes. On that buddy’s page change the switch ‘Get notification when this buddy enters / exits a park’ to ‘OFF’

9. Can I switch off the bark sound that my phone makes when a buddy enters a park for all buddies?

Yes. Tap the menu button at the top left of the screen (three horizontal lines). Tap ‘Settings’. Change ‘All sounds on / off’ to ‘OFF’.

10. Can I have more than one dog?

Yes. There is no limit on the number of dogs you can have.

11. How can I show that only some of my dogs are with me when I am out walking dogs?

On the ‘My Dogs’ tab all your dogs are listed. If you are going out walking with only some of your dogs you can set some of the dogs to ‘Not with me’. That way only buddies of dogs that are actually out with you get notified when you enter a park, and only the dogs that are with you are listed as being in a park when you enter one.

12. What is the ‘share dog’ button for?

If you have a dog walker who takes you dogs for a walk then you can share some or all of your dogs with that walker. That way if the waker takes your dog into a park then notifications / barks are send to all that dog’s buddies. To share a Dog do to your dog’s page (in ‘My Dogs’) and tab ‘Edit’. Then tap ‘Share Dog’. A QR code appears on your phone. On the Dog Walkers’s phone they should open the DogViz App and tap on ‘My Dogs’ and then ‘Add Dog’ and then ‘Link to existing dog already in DogViz’, a camera screen appears on their phone. The walker scans your QR code. You have now shared your dog with the walker. Your dog will now appear in the walker’s list of ‘My Dogs’. If the walker doesn’t have your dog with them they should set the dog to ‘Not with me’ in their ‘My Dogs’ list.

13. Does the App need access to my location ‘at all times’ to work properly?

Yes. If your phones prompts you to give permission for the DogViz App to use your location ‘All the Time’ then choose that option. That way even f the App is running in the background (minimised while you use other Apps) then it will know if you enter a park.

14. How can I avoid having to pay £3.00 at the end of the 1 month trial and continue to use the App?

Add buddies from 5 or more other DogViz users and you will not have to pay the one-off fee to keep using it after the 1 month trial.

15. Why is DogViz not available outside London, or in other big Cities/Towns?

DogViz is for urban dog owners / walkers who take their dogs for walks and runabouts in particular places. In the countryside you can take your dog anywhere, so DoGviz is less relevant. We hope to expand DogViz to other big cities and towns around the world.

You can contact us at:

EMAIL

hello@dogviz.com