Set up the Storyteller app for your team

The Storyteller app is how your team captures impact story updates in the field. From one settings page you decide what they see on each card, post messages to their home screen, tell them who to contact for help, choose what notifications say, decide how phones are protected and what updates can capture, decide whether they can share impact stories, and turn on a safety PIN for sensitive places.

Open the settings

Cards in the app

Pick up to four fields to show on each impact story card and each update card in the app. Put the most useful one first: cards show them in the order you choose.

• You can choose fields set to Team or Public. Fields set to admin-only are never offered, so they never reach a storyteller's phone.
• A storyteller only sees a field their role is allowed to see.
• The change reaches phones the next time the app refreshes its data, usually within a few minutes, or when the app is opened.
• Show reactions and comments lets storytellers see how many reactions and comments each update has, read its comments, and like and comment in the app; supporters' names are never shown in the app. It's on by default; turn it off to hide them. See Likes and comments in the app.

App messages

App messages are short cards on the app's home screen: a reminder about a site visit, a thank you after a busy week, a link to a training video. When there are several, storytellers swipe through them and can close each one.

• Show app messages turns every message off at once, for example while you rethink your messaging. Your messages are kept and come back when you turn it on again.
• To take one message down, open it and turn off Show this message, or select Archive to remove it for good.
• The list shows each message's status (Showing, Scheduled, Ended or Off), who it's for, and how many people closed it.

Help and support

Give storytellers someone to contact when they need help in the field. What you enter shows in the app under Menu > Help and support, where a storyteller can call, email or open your help link with one tap.

• Contact name: who they are contacting, for example "Field support desk".
• Phone: a number they can call. Pick the country, then type the number; it dials from anywhere, even when a storyteller is abroad.
• Email: an address they can write to.
• Help and training link: a page with your guides or training videos. It must start with https://.

All four are optional. The app shows the section once you add a phone, an email or a link; a name on its own isn't shown, because there's nothing to tap.

When you add or change a phone number or email, tick This is a work contact for the organization, not someone's personal number or email. before you save.

These fields aren't linked to anyone's account. If the person or team behind them changes, update or clear the fields here yourself: nothing clears them automatically. Phones pick up a change the next time the app refreshes.

Push notifications

Storytellers can get a notification on their phone when you post a message with Also send as a push notification turned on, when one of their updates is approved or needs changes, when you ask them for an update (including scheduled check-ins), and, if they choose, when supporters react to or comment on their updates.

A phone's lock screen can be seen by other people, so notifications name nothing unless you choose to:

Two switches change that:

• Show message titles in notifications shows your app message's title instead of "You have a new message." It never applies to update review or reaction and comment notifications, which always use the wording above. Update requests always use generic push wording, even when titles are shown for messages.
• Name your organization in notifications adds your organization's name to every notification.
• Show the sender's first name in message notifications (under Messages) changes "You have a new message." to "Sam sent you a message." (or "Sam sent a message in a group conversation."). The message itself and a group's name are never shown.

A push is sent once, when the message first shows: straight away, or on its start date. Editing the message later does not send it again.

Reaction and comment notifications are off until a storyteller turns on Likes and comments on my updates in the app, under Menu > Notifications. They cover only published updates that storyteller wrote, in the app or on the web, and only reactions and approved comments from other people: supporters and teammates alike. Their own likes and comments never count. A storyteller gets at most one every 6 hours, and never one for reactions or comments from before they turned it on.

Each storyteller turns notifications on or off for their own phone in the app, under Menu > Notifications. To stop the update review notifications for everyone, open Update Approved, Update Needs Changes or Update Not Approved under Notifications and turn off Push notification to the Storyteller app. The notification to reviewers, "Updates are waiting for your review.", is Waiting for Review. To stop reaction and comment notifications for everyone, do the same under Update Engagement, and for update requests under Update Requested and Update Request Reminder. Show app messages doesn't affect update requests.

Phone security

Storytellers often work where a phone can be lost or taken. These choices decide how the app protects what is on it.

• Lock after is how long the app can sit in the background before it asks for the PIN again: 1 minute, 5 minutes (the default), 15 minutes, 30 minutes or 1 hour. Opening the app always asks for the PIN.
• Offline limit treats a phone as lost when it hasn't connected to Givable for a while: 7, 14, 30, 60 or 90 days. The next time the app opens on that phone, it removes everything it holds there and asks the storyteller to sign in again. It's Off by default.
• Keep sent updates on the phone decides how long the phone keeps its own copy of an update, with its photos, after Givable has received it: 1 day, 7 days, 30 days, 90 days, or Until removed (the default). The impact stories, updates and pictures the app downloaded to show are cleared after the same time too; they download again the next time the phone is online. Updates that haven't been sent yet are never removed by this.
• Allow fingerprint or face unlock is on by default. Turn it off and storytellers unlock the app with their PIN only; phones that had fingerprint or face unlock turned on stop offering it, and the app's PIN and security page (Menu > Settings) says your organization turned it off.

Review in the app

Review in the app, under Phone security, lets people who can review Updates approve them, ask for changes or reject them in the Storyteller app, from To review in My work. It's on by default. Turn it off to keep work in review off phones: reviewers then decide on the web only, and they no longer get the "Updates are waiting for your review." notification.

It doesn't depend on Updates in the app: a reviewer can review in the app even when your team sees published Updates only. Updates and photos opened for review are never kept on the phone. See Review Updates.

Updates in the app

Everyone in your organization who can see an Impact Story in the app can see all of its Updates, including gated ones and Updates still in review. Gated only limits what supporters see, on the supporter portal and the public page. Storytellers work for your organization, so the app treats them as part of your team.

Updates in the app, under Phone security, decides which Updates phones can show:

• All updates shows every Update of every Impact Story the storyteller can see: published ones, gated ones, and Updates still in review or waiting to be published. This is the default.
• Published updates shows published Updates, gated ones included, and the storyteller's own Updates. Nobody else's work in review appears.
• Public updates only shows published public Updates and the storyteller's own Updates, as earlier versions of the app did.

Givable applies your choice every time a phone asks, so lowering it takes effect straight away: Updates it no longer allows leave the phone the next time it connects.

What storytellers see on each Update:

• Its status: Published, Pending review, Approved, Changes requested or Draft, and Gated on a gated Update. Gated is only a label: it tells the storyteller that supporters see this Update on the portal only.
• Its photos and videos, each marked Pending review until it's approved. Photos and videos that were denied never show.
• The reviewer's note, only to the person who sent the Update and to people whose role can view all Updates.
• Not accepted Updates only under their own filter, never in the main list. Archived Updates, and Updates whose person asked to have their consent removed, never show.

Each role's field access still applies, and fields visible to administrators only never reach a phone.

What the phone keeps. The app keeps the text of the Updates for the Impact Stories a storyteller can see, so it works offline. Photos are downloaded only when someone looks at them, plus small previews for the Impact Stories the storyteller works on most, and only on Wi-Fi unless they choose otherwise. Videos and recordings are never kept on the phone: they play while the storyteller listens or watches. A storyteller's own recording waits on their phone, encrypted, until it has been sent. Everything the app downloads is encrypted, is limited by Photo storage limit in each storyteller's Menu > Sync & data > Storage (250 MB unless they change it), and is removed under the same rules as the rest of the app's data: Keep sent updates on the phone, the offline limit, signing out, and the clear PIN.

These settings need a version of the Storyteller app that supports them. Older versions show published public Updates only.

Likes and comments in the app

Storytellers can like and comment on published Updates right in the app, and talk about the work with the rest of your team. Three things decide who can:

• Your organization's switches. Reactions on updates and Comments on updates, on the Engagement tab of Settings > Impact Stories, cover your team and supporters. Comments stay off until you turn them on.
• The app's own switch. Show reactions and comments, under Cards in the app, is on by default. Turn it off and the app shows no counts or comments, and nobody can like or comment from the app, whatever their role says. The web and the supporter portal aren't affected.
• Each person's role. In Settings > Team > Roles, Update reactions and Update comments decide who can see likes and comments, like, write, edit their own comments, and moderate. The standard Storyteller role can see both, like, write comments and edit its own. See Choose who can like and comment.

In the app, Like and Comment sit under each published Update. Updates still in review don't take likes or comments.

• Team comments stay with your team. A comment written in the app is seen only by your team until someone who can moderate comments selects Show to supporters. Editing a shown comment makes it team-only again, and the app says "Supporters stop seeing it until it is shared again."
• Supporters are always "A supporter" in the app. Their names never reach a phone. Teammates show by name, or as Former team member once they've left your organization.
• Moderators can moderate on the phone. People with Moderate on Update comments can Approve, Hide, Show to supporters and Hide from supporters from the app.
• Likes and comments work offline. A comment written without a connection shows Sending and goes when the phone connects. If it can't be sent, for example because comments were turned off in the meantime, it shows Not sent. Editing, deleting and moderating need a connection, and the app says Needs a connection until there is one.

History is in the three-dot menu at the top right of an Update. It shows who created and sent the Update, who approved it and when it was published. It needs a connection (offline, the app shows "Connect to see history"), and nothing from it is kept on the phone. See See an Update's history.

Likes, comments and History need a version of the Storyteller app that supports them. Until a storyteller's app does, they won't see Like, Comment or History.

Sign out a phone

If a storyteller's phone is lost, stolen or handed back, you can sign them out of the Storyteller app on that phone. The next time the phone connects, your organization's data is removed from it and the storyteller has to sign in again.

• The phone shows Signing out until it connects. When it does, the app removes your organization's data from it, including updates that haven't been sent yet, and anything hidden with a clear PIN. If the person also uses the app on that phone for another organization, that organization's data stays.
• Nothing is deleted in Givable, and the person keeps their account and their access. They sign in again on the phone if they still use it.
• Changing someone's role, changing a password, or signing out other sessions doesn't remove anything from a phone. Signing out the phone here does.
• You can't sign out your own phone from Settings > Team. Each person can sign out their own phones from their profile, under Security > Phones with the Storyteller app. Signing out your own phone removes everything the app keeps on it.

Capture

These choices decide what storytellers can add to an update.

• Location on updates sets how precise an update's location can be:

  • Exact records the phone's location as it is. This is the default.
  • Approximate (about 1 km) rounds the location, so a precise place such as someone's home is never recorded.
  • Don't collect means the app doesn't ask for a location, and Givable discards any location an older version of the app still sends. While this is chosen, location questions on your update forms aren't required, so they never hold up a storyteller's update.

  Givable applies your choice to every update it receives, even from an older version of the app, so a location is never more precise than you allow.

• Most photos per update is the most photos a storyteller can add to one update, from 1 to 30. The default is 10. Lowering it doesn't change updates that already have more photos; it only stops more being added to them.

• Allow video lets storytellers add videos to their updates. It's off by default. Videos always go to review before anyone sees them. Video needs a version of the Storyteller app that supports it: until a storyteller's app does, they won't see the option.

• Allow audio Updates lets storytellers record a voice recording in the app, or choose an audio file from their phone (m4a, mp3, aac or wav, up to 50 MB), and add it to an update. It's off by default. One recording per update from the app, up to 10 minutes when recorded in the app. Recordings always go to review before anyone outside your organization hears them, and an update whose only media is a recording needs a few words of text before it can be approved. Recordings need a version of the Storyteller app that supports them: until a storyteller's app does, they won't see the option.

• Check every photo for faces makes storytellers check each photo before an update can be sent. It's off by default. See Blur faces on the phone below.

• Consent signature decides whether the app asks for a signature after the person in the update hears or reads the consent statement:

  • Don't ask never offers a signature.
  • Ask, can be skipped offers it, and the storyteller can continue without one. This is the default.
  • Required means every update needs a signature or a photo of a signed paper form, and spoken consent isn't offered. Givable doesn't accept an update without one, even from an older version of the app.

  The person signs with a finger on the storyteller's phone, or the storyteller photographs a signed paper form (up to three pages). The storyteller confirms they watched the person sign. Updates taken before you change this setting follow the setting they were taken under, so no update waiting on a phone is lost. Signatures need a version of the Storyteller app that supports them.

• Send smaller photos on mobile data makes photos a storyteller sends over mobile data smaller, 1280 pixels on the long side, so they use less of the storyteller's data. It's off by default. See Uploads and mobile data below.

Blur faces on the phone

Photos from the field can show people who shouldn't be recognized, such as children or people in vulnerable situations. Storytellers can blur them on the phone, before the photo is sent, so the unblurred photo never reaches Givable, your reviewers, or anyone else.

On any photo in an update that hasn't been sent yet, a storyteller selects Blur. The phone outlines each face it finds, with a number, and shows a small picture of each face below the photo. The storyteller taps the faces to hide, on the photo or below it, and sees them blurred right away. Add an area covers anything else that could identify someone, such as a face the phone missed, a name tag, a school uniform, a house number or a document. Blur whole photo covers the entire picture. They can change what's hidden until the update is sent.

Finding faces happens on the phone only; the photo is never sent anywhere to find them. It can miss faces, so the app asks the storyteller to check the whole photo. On a phone that can't find faces, the storyteller uses Add an area or Blur whole photo instead.

The blur is built into the photo the app sends: it can't be undone from the photo, and the unblurred version is removed from the phone once the update is sent.

When Check every photo for faces is on:

• Every new photo opens in the blur tool straight after it's taken or picked. The storyteller either hides what needs hiding and selects Done, or selects Nothing to hide.
• An update can't be sent until every photo in it has been checked, including photos that were already in a draft when you turned this on.
• Videos aren't checked.

When it's off, storytellers can still blur any photo themselves; nothing requires it. Either way, photos from the Storyteller app still go to review as usual.

Map of Impact Stories

Map of Impact Stories, under Capture, lets storytellers see the Impact Stories they have access to on a map, so they can tell which ones are near each other, or near them. It's off by default.

When it's on, the app's home screen offers Map next to cards and list. Each Impact Story appears as one pin, at the place set on the Impact Story itself. Tapping a pin opens the Impact Story; a numbered circle groups stories close together, and tapping it zooms in or lists them. The map follows the storyteller's search and saved views, so it always shows the same stories as the list.

• Only Impact Stories the storyteller can already open appear, and only active ones with a place.
• Impact Stories marked Sensitive location are never shown on the map. Their place still shows on the Impact Story's own page, as it does today.
• A storyteller whose role can't see an Impact Story's place sees no pins.
• Places are rounded. With Location on updates set to Approximate, each pin is rounded to about 1 km and the map can't zoom in closer than that. With Exact, pins are rounded to about 11 m.
• Don't collect turns the map off, whatever this switch says. The switch is unavailable until you turn location back on.
• An Update's location is never used, only the Impact Story's own place.
• The map needs a connection. Offline, the app shows the list instead, and it never saves the map on the phone.

The map needs a version of the Storyteller app that supports it. Until a storyteller's app does, they won't see the option.

Proposing new Impact Stories

Let storytellers propose new Impact Stories, under Capture, lets storytellers start a new Impact Story from the app when they meet someone in the field. It's off by default.

Who can propose is set by the Propose Impact Stories from the app permission on Impact Stories, in Settings > Team > Roles. The standard Storyteller role and administrator roles have it. Remove it from a role to narrow who can propose. Turning the switch off stops new proposals right away, and proposals already sent stay for you to review.

In the app, New Impact Story appears at the top of the Create sheet. The storyteller:

1. Takes the person's consent first, exactly as for an Update, with a signature if your organization asks for one. This consent belongs to the Impact Story itself.
2. Adds a title, a summary, the Impact Story's fields your team fills in from the app, and its place. Sensitive location is off unless they turn it on.
3. Sees Impact Stories they already have access to that look similar, and can add an Update to one of those instead.
4. Sends it for approval, and can add the first Update straight away, reusing the same consent.

A storyteller can have up to 10 proposals waiting at a time. They follow each one under My proposals in the app's Menu.

While a proposal is waiting for review or sent back for changes, the person who proposed it can select Withdraw on it, with a connection. The Impact Story leaves review and is archived, together with their own updates on it that were still in review and those updates' photos. The proposal then shows Withdrawn. Your team can bring it back with Reopen: see Reopen a withdrawn proposal.

Review a proposal

Proposals show a Proposed badge on Impact Stories, and the Proposed filter lists only them. When an approval process covers the person who proposed it, the approvers of the step it's waiting at decide it and get the notification, whether or not they can moderate Impact Stories. Otherwise people with permission to moderate Impact Stories, who review Updates, get a notification when one arrives. Open the Impact Story to review it:

• Approve keeps it as a draft for you to finish. Approve and publish makes it live straight away; you also need permission to edit Impact Stories.
• Request changes sends it back with a note. The storyteller edits it in the app and sends it again.
• Reject needs a reason, which the storyteller sees. Tick It duplicates an existing Impact Story and pick that story to point them to it.
• Possible duplicates lists similar Impact Stories you can see. If you can see consent signatures, it also says when the same name appears in another consent, without showing the name.
• A proposal can't be published until it's approved. One published straight away because no process covered it shows Published without review.
• While a proposal waits in an approval process it's locked: only the person who proposed it and administrators can change it, and a change after someone has decided on it starts the approval again from the first step.
• If the storyteller won't be able to see the Impact Story once it's live, for example because of its visibility, you're told before you approve.

The Impact Story's Consent card shows the consent taken for it, the same way as an Update's. To remove that person's consent, select Remove this person's consent on the card: an open proposal is rejected, and a live Impact Story is unpublished.

My work

My work is the storyteller's own tab in the app: everything they've been asked to do, have started and have sent. At the top it shows three counts: the Updates they've sent, the Stories they've added updates to, and their open Requests. Tapping a count opens the matching tab.

Below that, four icon tabs split the work up, and each has its own list:

• To do: update requests and check-ins waiting for them (overdue first), updates your reviewers sent back, updates missing required answers, updates that need moving to a newer form, and updates that couldn't send.
• To review: for people who can review updates, the updates waiting for their decision. Its icon shows how many are waiting. See Review in the Storyteller app.
• Drafts: updates they started and haven't sent.
• Sent: updates on their way, in review, published or not approved.

Their bookmarks, their proposals and their own media are in the app's Menu, the last button at the bottom of the screen. It also holds their Profile, Notifications, Sync & data, Settings (language, and PIN and security), Help and support, About and Sign out.

Each tab's name and count sit on one line. On Sent, the funnel button shows one status at a time (with how many each has), and the arrows button orders the list by status or by impact story. On To do, the arrows button orders it by due date or by impact story. These choices aren't saved.

The search icon searches every tab at once, on the phone, with or without a connection: titles, impact stories, forms and update types, request notes and who asked. The filter narrows every tab to one impact story or one form or update type. Searches and filters aren't saved.

Tapping an update request opens the right form on the right impact story, with the request's note, due date and who asked shown at the top.

Bookmarks

A storyteller bookmarks an impact story from the story itself or from the Impact Stories list, so they can find the ones they work on without searching. Bookmarks belong to that person in your organization: they follow them to a new phone, and they survive signing out. Each person can bookmark up to 200 impact stories. An impact story that ends, is archived, or that the person can no longer see drops off their bookmarks by itself. They're under Menu > Bookmarks, each with Add update.

Sending in the background

The top of each main screen shows the notification bell and, while updates are sending, a small moving upload icon. It stays while the storyteller uses other screens of the app. Tapping it opens Sync. When something is waiting (for Wi-Fi or a connection), the icon stays still; when the phone is offline, it shows that too.

Sync is under Menu > Sync & data: select Everything is synced (or the number waiting) to open it. It shows what's sending now, what's waiting, and the Sync history of updates this phone finished sending in the last 30 days.

Deleting an update

A storyteller who sent an update by mistake, or started the wrong form, can take it back while it's still waiting for review or sent back for changes. They select Delete on the update (on the update itself, on its card, or on Sent in My work). It needs a connection: offline, Delete says Needs a connection.

Before anything happens, the app says what the delete does, in counts only:

• The update leaves review and is archived, not erased. Reviewers no longer see it.
• Its photos, videos and recordings used only on this update are archived with it. They stay in your organization's Media bin for a limited time (the app says how many days), then they're deleted permanently.
• Anything also used somewhere else stays there. The app says how many, never where.
• Your organization can restore it. The update and its media come back together until the media's time runs out; after that, the update comes back without them. See Restore a deleted update.

On Sent, the update then shows Deleted, with no Edit. An update your team archived shows Archived instead.

An update that was approved or not accepted can't be deleted from the app. If someone decided it while the storyteller was deciding to delete, the app says "This update was already reviewed." and refreshes.

Who can delete updates

Deleting is set by the Archive permission on Updates, in Settings > Team > Roles. The standard Storyteller role doesn't have it, and administrators do. A storyteller can only ever delete their own updates, and only while they're in review.

Moving photos to another update

When a storyteller adds photos to the wrong update, they can move them to the right one instead of taking them again. A move is never a copy: each photo, video or recording lives on one update, so it leaves the update it came from.

• From their own update that's still a draft, waiting for review, sent back for changes or not accepted.
• To another of their drafts, one of their updates waiting for review or sent back for changes, or a New update. It can be on another Impact Story; the app says "It's on another Impact Story."
• They select Move on a photo (or Select to choose several, up to 20 at a time) and pick where it goes.

Every move asks the storyteller to confirm, with a box they must tick: "The consent on that update covers the people in these photos." If the photos show someone else, they choose New update instead and take that person's consent there.

What happens next:

• Moved photos are reviewed again on the update they move to, even if a reviewer already approved them on the other one. The app says "They'll be reviewed again there." Moving items from an update that was not accepted shows its own, more careful confirmation first.
• Only your organization can move media off an approved update. On an approved update, Move isn't offered.
• Photos used somewhere else can't move. The app says "Used somewhere else, so it can't move."
• The update they move to keeps its limits: your photo limit, whether videos and recordings are allowed, and one recording per update ("That update already has a recording. Remove it first.").
• Removing consent follows the photos. If your team removes the person's consent on the update the photos came from, the photos moved from it are removed too, wherever they went.
• Connection: moves between drafts on the phone work offline. A move from an update already sent needs a connection, except a move into a New update, which sends with that update.
• The update's History says how many items moved in or out, and by whom, never which other update.

My media

My media is in the app's Menu. It shows only the storyteller's own photos, videos and recordings, grouped by the update each one is on, with that update's status: Draft, Sending, In review, Needs changes, Approved or Not accepted. It never shows your organization's Media Library or anyone else's media, and it leaves out anything deleted, archived, hidden by a reviewer or removed with a person's consent.

• Select a few items from one update, then choose Move to another update or Start a new update with these. Both follow the same rules as any move, including the consent box.
• Approved media stays visible but can only be moved by your organization. It says "Approved. Ask your organization to move it."
• When writing an update, My media sits beside the camera and the photo library, so a storyteller can add something they already captured. Items that can't go on that update are shown with the reason.
• Nothing is downloaded ahead. Drafts on the phone show at once. Media already sent loads when the storyteller scrolls to it, needs a connection to list ("Connect to see media you've sent."), and follows the same storage limit and removal rules as every other photo the app keeps.

Messages

Messages lets storytellers write to the people who work on your Impact Stories, and to each other if you allow it, from a Messages tab in the app. Staff read and reply on the web, in Messages. It's off until you turn it on.

• Let storytellers use Messages adds the Messages tab to the app for everyone with the permission. They can message staff who work on Impact Stories (administrators, and anyone whose role lets them see Impact Stories), never other colleagues.
• Storytellers can message each other is on by default. Turn it off to let storytellers message staff only.

What storytellers see:

• Messages lists their conversations, newest first, with Announcements (your app messages) pinned at the top. New message lists the people they can write to, by name.
• A storyteller starts one to one conversations. They can read and reply in a group conversation a staff member added them to, but can't start one.
• Messages are text only. Photos and files can't be sent in a conversation with a storyteller: photos of people belong in an update, where their consent is recorded. The app says so the first time Messages opens.
• Offline, the app says "You're offline. Messages will be sent when service is restored." A message written offline shows Waiting to send, then Sending and Sent, and goes out on its own when the phone reconnects, in the order it was written. If it waited more than a few minutes, the person reading it sees when it was written. A message that can't be delivered, for example because the other person can no longer receive messages, shows Couldn't send with Try again and Delete.
• Links open in the phone's browser after the storyteller confirms. The app never loads a preview of a link.
• In a one to one conversation, a message the other person has opened shows Read (on the web, two checks). Tap a message to see when it was sent and whether it was read. Messages can't be deleted once sent, on the phone or on the web.
• A small icon beside a message's time shows where it was sent from: a phone for the Storyteller app, a monitor for the web. Messages sent before this was recorded have no icon.
• Tagged records: staff can tag a record in a message on the web by typing @. Each person sees a tag only as far as their own access allows. If they can't open that record, the tag reads A record you can't open, with no name. In the app, a tagged impact story or update they can see opens in the app; any other record they can see shows its name and opens only on the web. Storytellers usually can't see supporters or gifts, so tag impact stories and updates in their conversations.
• Notifications: when a conversation has a new message, the phone notifies once, and again for a later message only if at least 10 minutes have passed. On Android they arrive on their own Messages channel, which the storyteller can adjust in the phone's settings (Menu > Notifications > Sound and vibration); a locked phone shows "Contents hidden". With the app open, a new message in the conversation on screen appears with no sound or banner; on the Messages list the phone gives a short tap; anywhere else in the app a banner shows the sender's first name and the start of the message (a tagged record reads "a tagged record", never its name). There's no reply from the notification: the storyteller opens the app to answer.
• Storytellers choose for themselves: Message notifications and Sound for new messages (a short sound or vibration while the app is open) in Menu > Notifications, and Mute in a conversation (for 1 hour, 8 hours, 1 day, or until turned back on). A muted conversation still shows its unread count. The phone's own Do Not Disturb applies as usual.
• Archive: to tidy the list, a storyteller swipes a conversation either way (or touches and holds it and chooses Archive), with Undo for a few seconds. Archiving hides it from their own list only: nobody else's list changes, nothing is deleted, and its unread messages stop counting on the tab. Archived (the box at the top of Messages) lists them, and each can be moved back. A new message brings a conversation back by itself. Archiving needs a connection. Staff do the same on the web: each conversation has an archive button, and Archived conversations shows the ones they archived.
• Typing: while someone is writing, the other person sees three moving dots (or "Sam is typing" when the phone reduces motion), in one to one conversations and groups of up to 10. Nothing about typing is saved.
• Report: anyone in a conversation can report a message someone else sent: touch and hold it in the app (on the web, the flag beside it), pick a reason, and add a note if they want. The reasons include Details about a person in an Impact Story, for a message that names someone from your stories. The person who sent it isn't told. Reporting needs a connection.
• Block: a storyteller can block another storyteller from the icon at the top of their one to one conversation. They can't message each other and don't see each other in New message; the other person isn't told, and their messages can't be sent. Staff can't be blocked, so a storyteller can always reach the people they work with; they can mute a conversation or report a message instead. In a group, a block doesn't stop anyone writing, but the person who blocked gets no notification or sound for the other's messages. Unblock is in the same place.

Reviewing reports

People who can review reports see a Reports button on the Messages page on the web, with the number of open reports. Administrators can, and you can give the Review reports of team messages permission to another role in Settings > Team > Roles (under Team messages), except a role for storytellers. Each new report also shows in their notification bell, without the message.

A report shows the reason, the note, who reported whom, and a saved copy of the reported message with up to ten messages before it, as they were when it was reported. That copy is all a reviewer sees: reviewing a report never opens the rest of the conversation, and each time a report is opened it's recorded. Nobody reviews a report about their own message; it isn't shown to them.

Close a report with one of:

• No action: nothing changes.
• Reviewed access: for when the answer was to change the person's role or access, which you do in Settings > Team.
• Remove message: everyone in the conversation sees Message removed instead, its files are deleted, and any other open report of the same message closes too.

A report's saved copy and note are deleted a year after the report is closed; the record that it was reported and how it was closed stays.

Keeping messages

By default messages are kept until they're removed. To keep them for less time, open the gear on the Messages page on the web (you need permission to change settings) and choose Keep messages for: 90 days, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years or 7 years. Every night, messages older than that are removed for everyone in your organization, staff and storytellers alike, and show as Message removed; phones remove their copies the next time they connect. A report's saved copy follows its own year, not this setting.

What the phone keeps: the most recent conversations and messages, so they can be read without a connection, and messages waiting to send. They're stored encrypted inside the app, and removed with everything else when the storyteller signs out, when the phone is signed out from Settings > Team, when the person loses access to your organization, and when the Offline limit clears the phone. Keep sent updates on the phone applies to messages the phone has downloaded too; messages still waiting to send are never removed by it. With a clear PIN, the Messages tab is there but empty, and nothing is sent.

Uploads and mobile data

Photos, videos and recordings can use a lot of mobile data, and many storytellers pay for every megabyte. So the Storyteller app sends them on Wi-Fi only, unless the storyteller chooses otherwise.

• Upload on Wi-Fi only is in each storyteller's Menu, under Sync & data. It covers photos, videos and recordings. It's on by default, and it belongs to that phone.
• Updates without photos, videos or recordings always send right away, on any connection.
• An update with photos, videos or recordings waits as a whole until the phone is on Wi-Fi, so it reaches Givable complete: your reviewers never see an update whose photos are still on their way. The app shows Waiting for Wi-Fi on the update, with its size.
• Send now using data is on every waiting update, and Send all using data on the Sync screen (Menu > Sync & data). The app shows how much data it will use before sending. It applies to that update only, until it has been sent; it doesn't change the setting.
• Sizes, progress and time left: while an update is sending, the app shows how much has been sent and about how long is left. The time is an estimate from the speed of the connection so far, so it can change.
• If Wi-Fi drops while an update is sending, the app stops before the next file and waits for Wi-Fi again, unless the storyteller chose to send that update using data.
• An update that has waited more than 3 days for Wi-Fi is pointed out on the Sync screen, so it isn't forgotten.

With Send smaller photos on mobile data on, a photo sent over mobile data goes as a smaller copy, 1280 pixels on the long side. On Wi-Fi photos go at full size. The smaller photo is the one Givable keeps; there is no later full-size version. Turn this off if you need every photo at full size. Videos and recordings can't be made smaller on the phone, so they are only sent over mobile data when the storyteller chooses to, after seeing the size.

These settings need a version of the Storyteller app that supports them. Older versions send photos and videos on any connection, at full size.

Reading and removing consent

Every update taken in the Storyteller app has a Consent card on its page, beside Author. It shows how consent was given (spoken, signed or by a guardian), who can see the update because of it, the exact statement the person agreed to with its language, who took the consent and when, and any signature.

• Anyone who can see the update sees these details. The signature itself, a photo of a signed form and the person's name are shown only to people with the See consent signatures permission on Impact Stories (administrators have it). Add it to the role of the people who review consent. Each time someone views a signature, Givable records it.
• A warning next to the statement means the wording wasn't recognized, or it's a translation that hasn't been reviewed yet. Check what the person agreed to before you publish the update.

To remove someone's consent, for example when they ask you to take their update down, open the update and select Remove this person's consent on the Consent card. Choose whether they withdrew consent or asked you to erase their data, then type the word shown to confirm. The update is unpublished and goes back to review, its photos are hidden, its location is removed, and the signature is deleted. The statement and the time consent was given are kept as a record. This can't be undone. You need permission to moderate impact stories to do this.

Sharing

Storytellers and supporters can share public impact stories and their updates with a Share button. The link opens the impact story's public page, so it works for anyone, with or without a Givable account.

• Allow sharing from the app, on this tab, shows Share in the Storyteller app. It's on by default. If your organization had Allow a clear PIN on when sharing was introduced, it starts off.
• Supporters can share, on the Engagement tab of Settings > Impact Stories, shows Share in the supporter portal and on the public impact story page. It's on by default.

What can be shared:

• Only impact stories that are public and active or ended. Impact stories visible only to assigned supporters, drafts and archived impact stories never have a Share button.
• Only updates that are approved and published. Shared gated updates stay locked: someone who hasn't unlocked the impact story sees the same locked card as on the page, without the update's title or content.
• A shared link never includes who shared it.

When a link is pasted into a messaging app or social network, its preview shows the impact story's title, summary and cover picture, even for a link to one update. An update's own title, text and photos never appear in a preview.

Turning sharing off removes the Share buttons. It doesn't make a public page private: anyone can still copy its address from their browser. To stop people seeing an impact story, change who can see it.

Clear PIN

A clear PIN is a second PIN a storyteller can use if they are ever forced to unlock the app, for example at a checkpoint. Your organization allows it; each storyteller decides whether to set one.

When Allow a clear PIN is on:

• Each storyteller can set a clear PIN in the app, under Menu > Settings > PIN and security, and choose what it does on their phone: hide their data, or remove it from that phone. The app explains both in a line each, next to the clear PIN itself.
• Nothing is ever deleted from your organization's records in Givable. Updates already sent stay safe; with remove, updates that phone had not sent yet are removed along with everything else on it.
• When the Offline limit is on, it overrides a hidden clear PIN: a phone that stays out of contact that long is treated as lost, and the hidden data is removed along with everything else on it.
• Signing out a phone from Settings > Team also removes anything hidden with a clear PIN, once the phone connects. See Sign out a phone.
• If anyone uses their clear PIN, your organization's administrators get an alert saying who, when, and which option they chose, so you can follow up. This alert can't be turned off.
• A clear PIN can't stop someone who knows the person's real password from signing in on another phone. The alert is what lets you act: you can remove the person's access to your organization from Settings > Team while you check in with them.
• The Help and support section shows in the app with a clear PIN too, exactly as it does normally, so a storyteller can still reach you.
• When you turn on Allow a clear PIN, consider turning off Allow sharing from the app: sharing a link through a messaging app can leave a trace of your organization on the phone.

Check-ins

Check-ins have their own tab beside this one: Settings > Impact Stories > Check-ins. There you keep check-in Templates, choose the Default, and decide whether to Start check-ins automatically (off by default). A check-in asks storytellers for an Update on their phones, so it uses the same notification wording as any update request. See Schedule check-ins for an Impact Story.

Troubleshooting

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