Frequently asked
questions.

Echovian is an app that lets you leave a short story at any physical location. When someone else visits that place and opens the app, they can read what you wrote, wheather it's a mysterious story about that place, or someone found their love, isn't this exciting.

Public stories (Drops) are visible to anyone who opens the app near that location. Private Memories are visible only to you, ever. You can also post anonymously so your name is not attached to a public story.

No. You can browse stories anywhere through the explore feed. But to comment from a location - which carries more weight in the health system - you need to be physically there. Some content, like private drops sent to you by a connection, can only be unlocked at the exact location.

Yes. The core experience is entirely free - you can create unlimited public stories, read anything on the map, receive awards, make connections, and keep private text memories. Premium unlocks photos, audio, collections, and more awards.

iOS and Android. There is no web app for creating or reading stories - Echovian is intentionally a mobile product because it is built around physical presence.

A Drop is a public story attached to a specific location. You write a title and a body, and it appears on the map for anyone nearby to find. Drops have a health system - they decay over time and need engagement from visitors to survive.

It depends on engagement. A Drop starts at 100 health and loses 5 points per hour in urban zones (3/hr in mixed, 1/hr in remote) once someone finds it. Reactions give +10, physical comments +40. A Drop with no engagement after its first reader will be gone within 20 hours. One that resonates with visitors can survive indefinitely - and eventually earn permanence.

When you first create a Drop, it enters a dormant state and decay does not start yet. The dormant window gives the story time to be found - 30 days in urban zones, 90 in mixed, 180 in remote. If nobody finds it during that window, it is quietly removed. Once someone reads it, the health clock starts.

Stories that maintain consistently high health and receive enough physical comments - from people who were genuinely at the location - earn permanent status. Permanent stories stop decaying and remain on the map as long as Echovian exists. Permanence cannot be purchased. It is earned.

A comment written from within 100 metres of a story's exact location. The system knows the difference. Physical comments add +40 health (vs +20 for distant comments) and carry double the weight in the permanence calculation. They cannot be faked.

You can see the unique reader count and engagement numbers on your own stories. You cannot see who specifically read it - readers are anonymous to authors.

A private Memory is a note you write at a specific location that only you can ever see. It does not appear on any map for other users, it never decays, and it never expires. Think of it as a geo-tagged journal entry.

A Drop is public and written for strangers. A Memory is private and written for yourself. Drops survive through engagement. Memories survive forever regardless of engagement. Drops appear on the public map. Memories appear only in your own archive.

No. You can read any of your memories from anywhere. Proximity is not required for your own private content.

With a Premium subscription, yes - up to 3 photos and one audio recording of up to 3 minutes per Memory. Free accounts support text-only Memories.

Premium users can organise Memories into named collections - a trip, a period of your life, a relationship.

Awards are given by readers to stories that moved them. There are six types - Ember, Bloom, Spectre, Crown, Echo, and Relic - each with a distinct meaning. Awards leave a permanent visual effect on the story card.

You must be physically at the story's location to give an award. Awards cannot be sent remotely. This ensures that awards represent genuine presence and genuine feeling - not a click from across the city.

Free accounts can give 1 award per month total across all types. Premium accounts can give 5 awards per month. Awards are consumed when given - not when the recipient claims the effect.

When you receive an award, the visual effect does not appear on your story immediately. You need to visit the story's location and be within 100 metres to activate it. This mirrors the same physical logic as giving an award.

No. Award effects are permanent on a story regardless of whether the story later fades from the map. If a story is deleted by health decay, the award record still exists in the author's award history.

One award per giver per story. You cannot give two awards to the same story. But multiple different people can each give an award to the same story - a story can accumulate several different award types from different visitors.

A private drop is a message you leave at a physical location for a specific connection. The recipient is notified, but they cannot read the message until they physically arrive within 100 metres of where you left it. It is not a message in the conventional sense - it is something hidden at a place.

The drop waits indefinitely. It is not deleted if unclaimed. The sender can see that it has not been read.

The map shows all public stories within the visible viewport. Pan and zoom freely - the stories shown update with what is in view. There are no distance restrictions on browsing. Pin colours indicate tier and permanence.

Standard pins are regular stories. Pins with a faint outer ring are high-engagement stories. Pins with a gold ring are exceptional stories that have reached the top tiers of engagement. Pins with a sage treatment are permanent.

You can pan the map anywhere and see what stories exist there. The map is a discovery surface - distance from your current position does not limit what you can browse.

$4.99 per month or $39.99 per year. The annual plan saves approximately 33%.

No sorry, we don't have trials yet.

Nothing is deleted. Your photos, audio recordings, and collections are preserved and remain accessible. You just cannot add new premium content until you re-subscribe.

Yes. Monthly plans end at the next billing date. Annual plans end at the annual renewal date.

No. Your current position is never visible to other users. The only location-related information on your profile is the locations of your public stories - which you chose to share.

We never sell your data. Echovian has no advertisers and no data brokering.

No. Echovian products are entirely ad-free. The business model is premium subscriptions.

Yes. Deleting your account removes your stories, memories, connections, and all associated data. Stories you posted are removed from the map. Awards you received are removed. The process is permanent and cannot be undone.

When you post anonymously, your username and identity are not attached to the story - not to you, and not stored in connection with that story for other users to see. The post is recorded against your account internally for moderation purposes, but it is never publicly linkable to your identity.