Let’s get start 🎉

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• What is FAM?
  
  FAM is a place for casual, drop-in audio chats. When you open the app you can see “rooms” full of people talking—all sorts of topics could be found on FAM, from recent stupid things to work experiences, and from world news to relationship issues. Find fun people here and get into conversation with them on FAM! 

 

• Who is FAM for?
  
  We are building FAM for everyone and working to open it up to the world as fast as possible. We just want to make sure that as we scale, it’s a great experience for everyone, so we’re adding new users through invitation To join, anyone can sign up on the waitlist (and reserve their username) or skip the waitlist by getting an invite from a current user.
   

 

All About Invites

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Getting invites

• How can I get access to invites?
  
  Thanks for your excitement about sharing FAM. We allocate invites automatically based on contribution to the community—so just keep hosting great conversations, joining the discussion, and inviting other great contributors, and invites will automatically appear in your account! When you have more invites available, you'll get an in-app notification.
   

• How will I know when I have invites available?
   

  • When you have invites available, you'll see an 'envelope' icon on your app home screen.

  • When invites are added to your account, you'll also get a notification in the app. Tap on the 'bell' icon from the app home screen to see your recent notifications.

• How many invites can I get?
  
  We generally give out 1-2 at a time, and add more as you continue to contribute!
   

 

Sending invites

• How do I send an invite?
   

  1. From the FAM app home screen, tap the envelope icon at the top.

  2. On the invite screen, type in the search bar or scroll down and select a contact.

     • Note: the person you want to invite must be saved in your contact book (country code, area code, and phone number), else they will not be displayed on the invite screen.

  3. Tap the "Invite" button for the person you want to invite. Reminder, once you tap "invite," your invite will be "spent" on that person (even if you hit "cancel" on the text message).

     • Note: if your contact has two phone numbers available, you'll see two separate numbers related to one contact in the invite list. However, if you have two separate contacts for the same person, be sure to check your phone contacts to select the correct number.

     • Keep in mind that we provide both iOS and Android Apps, so no need to worry about what kind of devices your friends have!

  4. A pop up will appear letting you edit and send a personalized note with the invite 🙂

 

• Who can I send an invite to?
  
  You can send an invite to anyone you think would be a good voice on FAM!
  
  Note that anyone you invite will have a 'nominated by' badge on their profile with your name on it, linked to your profile 🙂 We like to give people credit for inviting great people and help give context for who brought them to the 'party!'
   

 

Common invitee questions

• Can I skip the waitlist?
  
  We want to open FAM up to everyone asap, and actively get the product ready for this! In the meantime, we're following a process to be as fair as possible.
  
  We are growing primarily through invites right now, and anyone in FAM with an invite can send it directly to you.
  
  If you know someone who's already on FAM, we encourage you to ask them politely for an invite 🙂 This is the fastest way to get in, but you can also sign up to our waitlist by downloading the app (you'll also be able to reserve your username).
   

• Do I need a Taiwan phone number?
  
  No! Although it's easiest to use a Taiwan number, we are now available in the App store worldwide. Note: there are a few countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia for which we've had problems related to blocking of invite texts or verification codes by local regulations and telecom providers.
   

• I got an invite text. Now what?
   

  • Tap the link to download the FAM app! https://fam.house/download

    • If you have trouble with the link, you can also search the Apple App Store or Google Play for "FAM." 

  • Once you've downloaded the app, begin the onboarding steps.

  • When asked for your phone number, be sure to enter the same one your invite was sent to (this number was pre-approved, so entering another number will waitlist you)

 

Common invite issues

• I sent an invite, but they never got it, help!
  
  If you weren't able to complete sending the imessage, please note, once you tap "invite" on the invite screen, the contact is immediately pre-approved and the invite is "spent." Even if you don't send the imessage they will still be able to download the app and join.

 

• I sent the invite to the wrong phone number
  
  Oh no ☹️ Unfortunately it's tough to rescind invites once sent, so we ask that you please confirm the phone number is correct / current before sending to invitees.
   

• I can't get the verification code
  
  Verifications code expire a few minutes after they are requested, so be sure to enter them right away if you do receive them.
   

 

Vibes & conversations

• How do "Vibes" work?
  
  Conversations in FAM take place in Vibes. Here is a quick tour of your typical Vibe, starting from the top and moving down:
   

  • All Vibes: tap the button to go back to the main feed displaying all Vibes you can see!

  • Community Guidelines: tap the "document" icon to view the FAM Community Guidelines, which detail our principles, rules, reporting and investigation policies, and other useful info.

  • User profile: tap on the small profile photo in the top right to navigate to your profile.

  • Vibe title: if the Vibe has a title, you'll see it displayed at the top above the speakers. If a club is hosting the conversation, you'll also see the club name (nex to a little house icon).

  • Stage: the section of the Vibe where speakers are visible is sometimes called the “stage.”

  • Moderator badge: the green star next to a speaker's name means they're a Vibe moderator, or "mod."

  • “Followed by speakers”: this section shows you which listeners are followed by the speakers. If you’re a speaker, this helps you see which of your friends are in the Vibe, in case you want to call them up on stage. If you’re a listener, it shows you people who may be similar to the speakers, in case you want to follow them.

  • Others in the Vibe: users who are not yet followed by any of the speakers are shown here.

  • Raise hand: this button will be tappable when moderators are open to taking questions.

  • Ping (+): this allows you to invite other users (who follow you) into the Vibe!

  • Mute / unmute: when you're in the audience, you won't see this icon since you're always muted by default; when you become a speaker, you'll see it. Tap to mute / unmute yourself.

  • Leave quietly: tap the "leave quietly" or peace sign emoji to exit the Vibe. No one will be notified, so feel free to duck out anytime. :)

 

• What are the different Vibe types?
  
  We're experimenting with a range of Vibe types, from fully public to fully private. Here are the main ones:
   

  • Open Vibes. Anyone can join the Vibe. Open Vibes are popular for hosting public conversations, shows, or meeting lots of new people, and this is the default setting for all Vibes in FAM.

  • Social Vibes. It's nice to have an audience, but sometimes you might prefer to have more intimate conversations with just the people you know and trust. With Social mode, only the people you follow will be allowed in the Vibe. If you want to open the Vibe up to more people, you can add other people as moderators, and the people they follow will be allowed to join too. It's kind of like a real-world party.

  • Closed Vibes. With Closed (or private) Vibes, only people you specifically add to the Vibe can join. We hope that Closed Vibes will be helpful when you are looking to have more private conversations, or want to talk with a smaller group but haven't yet set up a club for it. When you start a Closed Vibe, you can always ping in more people or open it up to either a social or open Vibe, so it's also a good way to start a conversation!

  • Welcome Vibes. These are created for new users when they first sign up. If someone in your friend circle joins FAM, you may get a notification to join a welcome Vibe—a private Vibe where you and 2-3 other friends of the new user can help orient them to FAM. You can also open the Vibe to the public. If you see welcome Vibes in your feed, feel free to jump in and say hi!

 

• How can I start a Vibe?
  
  On the home screen, here's how you can start a Vibe:
   

  • Tap the black button on the home screen.

  • Select the type of Vibe you want to start — Open, Social (only visible to people you follow), or Closed.

  • Optionally, add a topic to give people a heads up on what you want to discuss!

  • If you're a member of clubs for which you can start Vibes, you'll see them in this view too.

 

You can also start club or one-on-one Vibes from the "sidebar" (which you get to by tapping the “Online” button, or swiping right-to-left on the home screen)

• At the bottom of the sidebar, you'll see friends that are online

• At the top of the sidebar, you'll see clubs that you're a member of and have users online

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From inside a Vibe, you can also invite another user to start a new Vibe together.

• Tap on anyone in the Vibe that follows you and select "start a new Vibe together."

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• Which Vibes can I join?

Any Vibe that you see on your home feed is available for you to join! Occasionally, you'll see Vibes that have a grey "lock" icon at the top right, which means the Vibe is closed to the public, but you're allowed to join (e.g., if you're a member of the club, or you were invited by a Vibe moderator).

 

My Account & Profile

• Can I change my username?
  We get a lot of requests from people who would like to change their username so we built the ability to do that in the app! To do this, just go to your profile and tap your existing username. 

 

• Can I change your display name?

FAM is a real name service, but occasionally people enter their names incorrectly on sign up. To help with this, we’ve added the ability to make a correction to your Full Name in the app. To do this, just go to your profile and tap your existing username. We will still enforce our real name policy but understand there may be errors, shortened names etc. that could be important to you!

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• How do I change my profile picture?

This one's simple 🙂 You can tap on your profile photo slot directly from your user profile page. You can then add any image that is on your phone camera roll!

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• How can I edit my bio?

On your user profile page, tap directly on the empty space just below your profile photo. People have asked about entering line breaks and formatting, which isn't possible in the app right now, but the workaround is to draft in your notes app, and paste it in!

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• Can I remove “the nominated by” badge on my profile?
  As a policy we generally do not remove the nominated by badge, as it’s been a positive aspect in the community til date. There are very rare situations in which we may consider doing this.