Getting started

What do I need to start?

An iPhone and either an Apple ID or a Google account. Tap Sign in with Apple or Continue with Google on the first screen; there is no password to make. Then pick a username — three to twenty characters, lower-case letters, numbers, dots and underscores. It becomes the address of your page, probablylate.app/you, and it cannot be changed afterwards, so choose with care.

How do I take a polaroid?

Open the camera, frame it, press the shutter. The print slides out of the slot and develops in the frame. Write a line on the chin, choose the roll it goes to, and it is on its way.

Focus and exposure

Tap anywhere in the viewfinder to focus there (and meter there). Drag the sun up or down to brighten or darken the shot — about two stops either way. Let go and the camera holds it for the picture.

Hold the shutter to send at once

A press takes the picture and gives you the chin to write on and a roll to pick. A long press arms the shutter so the print goes exactly as it is — no caption, no choosing — to the roll you last used. For when the moment is the moment.

Looks

A look is the film the camera is loaded with. Swipe across the viewfinder to change it. In the order you swipe through them:

• Sunny Day
• Polaroid — Plus
• Ultramax — Plus
• Portra
• Autumn
• B&W
• Ultramax Grain
• Bleach

Polaroid and Ultramax are part of Plus: you can see them on everyone else’s prints, but shooting with them needs Plus. The look you shoot with is baked into the print; it is not a filter you can take off later.

Camera colours

The camera body comes in eight colours, chosen under Settings → Camera Colours. Four are free and four come with Plus:

• PaperFree
• IvyFree
• TangerineFree
• PoolFree
• OxbloodPlus
• NightPlus
• ButterPlus
• LilacPlus

Using a photo you already took

Choose a photo from your album inside the camera and it goes through the same finder, so you can swipe for its look before it prints. Three a month are free; with Plus there is no limit. The counter is kept on your phone and resets each calendar month. The picker is Apple’s own and hands the app one photo — it never sees your library.

What is on a print?

The picture; your handwritten line underneath (up to 280 characters); and, if you record one, a voice note of up to two minutes. Friends on the roll can react with an emoji, leave a comment, and — if they have Seen by on — be shown as having looked.

Voice notes

Record one on a print you took, from the print. It plays from the print for everyone on the roll. Up to 120 seconds; the microphone is only used while you hold the record button.

Reactions

Six emoji sit under every print; tap one to react, tap it again to take it back. Hold one to change which six you have — that part is Plus. Reactions never send a notification.

Comments

Up to 500 characters each. The box stays above the keyboard. Hold a comment of your own to delete it; on a print you took you can delete anyone’s. The person who took the print gets a notification with the first line of your comment.

Saving and sharing

Save to Photos saves the polaroid itself, frame and caption and all, at full size (2400px on the long edge); the app asks to add to your library the first time and never reads it. Share makes a share card. From your profile, the share card grows out of the Dynamic Island with your page’s QR code on it, and the share sheet rides up under it.

Deleting a print

From the print itself. It disappears for everyone on the roll straight away and is cleared from the server after 30 days (see What we keep). The person who took a print can delete it, and so can the owner of the roll it is on.

What is a roll?

A roll is where prints land: a named album shared with the people on it. You start with My roll, which is yours alone, and you can make as many shared ones as you like — one per trip, one per house, one for the group chat. Every member of a shared roll sees every print on it; nobody else does. Names are up to 40 characters.

Who can add people to a roll?

Anyone on it, by picking friends directly or by sharing an invite link. Any member can set the roll’s cover. Only the owner can delete a roll; if the owner deletes their account, the roll passes to its longest-standing member rather than vanishing.

A print on more than one roll

When you send a print to several rolls it is copied to each, voice note included. Each copy is its own print with its own reactions and comments.

How do invite links work?

An invite is a link like probablylate.app/r/…. Whoever opens it sees the roll’s name, its cover, who is asking and how many people and moments are in it — and not a single print until they join. Links last seven days and are good for 25 joins; whoever made one can switch it off at any time. More in Rolls and friends.

What if I have no signal?

Take the picture anyway. Anything you send is saved on the phone and goes out when you are back, in order. The roll shows a small notice while it waits. Don’t sign out with prints still on their way — the app will warn you, because signing out throws them away.

What is Tap to Collect?

Probably Late started as a cap with an NFC chip in the brim. Hold the phone to the chip and it collects a stamp for your wall, each with its own story page. Stamps live on the phone only and are not part of your account; they stay through a sign-out and go with Delete Everything.