Installing OffWatch

What is TestFlight?

An app made by Apple, free from the App Store. Developers use it to give people early versions of an app before it goes on sale. OffWatch is delivered through it for now, so TestFlight is where your copy of the app comes from.

You only need it during the beta.

Start here: the invitation from Apple

Apple sends you an invitation email, separately from anything we send. It’s addressed to the same email you gave us. Everything below starts from that email, so it’s worth finding it first — check your junk folder if it isn’t in your inbox.

If you don’t have TestFlight yet

This is the part that catches most people out, because installing TestFlight leaves you in the App Store rather than in OffWatch, and nothing on screen tells you what to do next. Step 3 is the answer: go back to the email.

1. Open the App Store and search for TestFlight. It’s made by Apple and it’s free.
2. Install it. You don’t need to open it or set anything up.
3. Go back to Apple’s invitation email and open it again.
4. Follow the invitation. It will now open in TestFlight.
5. Tap Accept, then Install to get OffWatch.

If you already have TestFlight

Open Apple’s invitation email and follow it. It opens straight into TestFlight, where you can accept the invitation and install OffWatch.

It’s asking me for a code

You don’t need a code from us. Your invitation is tied to your email address instead, so there’s nothing for you to type in and nothing to ask us for.

TestFlight can be used with redeem codes for other kinds of testing, which is why you may see one mentioned. It isn’t how your OffWatch invitation works. If you’ve landed on a screen asking for a code, go back to Apple’s invitation email and open the link in it again — that route needs no code at all.

Once OffWatch is installed

Open the app and create your account. From there you’ll be guided through:

1. Confirming your email address — we send a link, you tap the button on the page it opens.
2. Verifying your identity — a short photo ID check. It’s handled by our verification provider; we never see or store your documents.
3. Filling in your profile — your date of birth, gender, nationality, at least one activity and a Conversation Starter. These are required rather than optional: OffWatch matches crew on what they actually do, and an empty profile has nothing to go on.
4. You’re in. That’s the beta.

OffWatch only shows you other verified people, which is why the ID check is part of joining rather than an optional extra.

What you get during the beta

Everything. The whole app is open to you — nearby discovery, full profiles, messaging, arrival alerts, the lot. Nothing is held back and there is nothing to buy.

You may still come across a subscription screen showing a price; that comes from the App Store rather than from us. Any purchase made in a TestFlight build uses Apple’s test environment, so your payment method isn’t charged. Trying it is genuinely useful to us, but you never need to in order to use anything.

Something isn’t working

Tell us and we’ll sort it out — including if you never received the invitation, or it says it has expired.
support@off-watch.com

It helps to say which step you reached and what you saw. More ways to reach us are on the support page.