Support

You sign up with an email address and a password, or with Continue with Google, and you pick an @handle. Surfping never asks for a phone number and does not read your contacts. To invite someone, share your link: surfping.app/u/yourhandle. They get a chat request and decide whether to accept.

Pair face to face: on the Trip screen tap “Pair a phone with its QR code” (or the QR icon on Radar), then one of you shows “My code” and the other taps “Scan a code”. Then make a crew with “New crew” on the Trip screen and start a trip.

When you start a trip you can set when you will be back, for example “back by 17:30”. The promise is held by your crew’s phones. If you have not checked in by then, their phones alert them, even without signal. Allow notifications for Surfping so it can reach you.

One tap asks every crew phone in reach to answer, and you see a headcount such as “8 of 9 are here”, with who answered, who was heard from lately and who is missing.

If you turn on Record my trail during a trip, Surfping notes where along the way you still had signal. The crew sees the nearest known spot, for example “420 m NE”, so you know which way to walk to get signal back.

Nearby needs an account that you set up once while online. On the trip, open Surfping on every phone and switch Nearby on with Radar. A notification shows while it runs. Keep Bluetooth and Wi-Fi switched on; they can stay on in Airplane Mode.

Both phones need Surfping with Nearby started, and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on. Allow Nearby devices and Location when Android asks. Stay within tens of metres, and remember trees, hills and walls reduce range. If it still fails, stop and start Nearby on both phones.

No. Nearby messages go phone to phone over an encrypted link, but they are not end-to-end encrypted like online chats, and @handles in Nearby are not verified yet. While Radar is on, anyone in range can see your name and @handle. In the “Everyone nearby” room, any Surfping phone in range can message you. Calls need internet and do not work over Nearby.

Between two phones, tens of metres depending on terrain. We do not promise a distance.

A Nearby message to someone who is out of range waits on your phone and is sent when that person comes into range. Nearby messages never go through our servers.

Hold the SOS button for 2 seconds. SOS needs internet. Surfping sends one message with your position to the people in your trip group. It does not go over Nearby and it does not alert phones nearby. It is not an emergency service: it never contacts rescue services, emergency numbers or us. Call your local emergency number whenever you can.

We cannot read it. Positions go to your crew encrypted with the crew key, over Nearby or inside your crew's encrypted group chat. An SOS is a message in that group chat. During a trip with signal, your latest roll call answer is kept in your crew's group on our server sealed with the crew key, which we do not have, so we cannot read it.

Only your crew, and only while a trip is on (Crew Pulse). It helps the crew notice when someone is about to go quiet.

In a chat tap ••• › Block, or block from a profile, a chat request or any crew or group member. Blocked people can't message you. Me › Safety center › Blocked people lists everyone you blocked.

Surfping is on Google Play for Android. It is free, with no ads and no subscription. You must be 16 or older.