Participating in Challenges

Overview

OuterSpatial challenges are activities created by organization partners. A challenge can ask you to visit places, scan QR codes, answer questions, upload photos, or complete other tasks.

Some challenges are public in a community. Others may be shared by a link or QR code. You need to be signed in before joining or submitting challenge responses.

Find a Challenge

You can find challenges from several places:

• The Open & Upcoming Challenges section on your community home screen.
• Search or the Challenges list.
• A challenge section on a place or organization when a place is connected to a challenge.
• An invite link or QR code shared by an organization.
• The Challenges area in your profile after you have joined.

Open a challenge to see the host organization, description, dates, requirements, rules, tasks, locations, photos, prizes, and related social activity when those sections are available.

Review Challenge Timing

Challenge timing controls which actions are available:

• Open challenges can be joined and completed.
• Upcoming challenges can show Add to Calendar until they start.
• Expired challenges no longer accept new submissions.
• Open-Ended challenges do not show a fixed end date.

If a challenge has expired or has not started yet, OuterSpatial explains that submissions are not currently accepted.

Join a Challenge

Open the challenge and join it, signing in if prompted. The join screen can show requirements such as notifications, location access, required task counts, custom rules, or email sharing with the organization. Some challenges also require a complete profile or age assurance before you can continue.

iOS

Tap Participate, then review and accept the challenge rules.

Android

Tap Join Challenge, review the host, requirements, terms, and any custom rules, then tap I Agree.

Complete Tasks

Open the Tasks tab to review all available tasks. You can filter between to-do and completed tasks and pull to refresh. Some tasks can be locked until another task is complete.

Common task types include:

• Check-In: Go to the required place and tap Check In.
• QR Code: Scan the QR code provided by the organization.
• Survey: Complete the required survey.
• Photo: Submit a photo for the requested place or category.

The challenge screen shows which tasks still need work and which are complete. Some challenges require every task; others require a minimum number of tasks.

Submit Photos

Photo challenges can use locations, categories, or both.

1. Open the Photos, Locations, or Categories tab depending on the challenge.
2. Tap Submit Photo.
3. Choose the required location or category when prompted.
4. Add or change the photo.
5. Answer any required questions.
6. Submit the photo.

Some categories have submission limits. If you reach the maximum number of submissions for a category, OuterSpatial shows Limit Reached.

View Progress and Results

Use the challenge tabs to move between details, tasks, photos, locations, submissions, social activity, and badges when those sections are available.

When you complete enough required work, the challenge can show a completed state and any earned badge. After a social challenge expires, you can tap View Results when it is available to review leaderboard or result information. Some organizations may follow up separately about rewards or prize fulfillment.

Challenge Location Alerts

Some location-based challenges can remind you when you are near task places. These reminders use background location access and are covered, along with how to turn them off, in Location Access and Privacy.

Offline and Pending Responses

If you already joined a challenge, many challenge responses can be saved while you are offline and synced later. If a response is saved while your connection is limited, it can appear as a pending response; open the challenge options menu and choose the pending response action to submit it when you are back online.

You still need an internet connection to join a challenge for the first time and to load new challenge details that are not already on your device. Keep OuterSpatial installed and stay signed in so pending responses can sync.

Leave a Challenge

Open the challenge options menu and choose to leave the challenge when you no longer want to participate. Leaving a challenge deletes your existing responses for that challenge and cannot be undone.

Troubleshooting

If you cannot join or submit a challenge response:

1. Check your internet connection.
2. Make sure you are signed in.
3. Confirm the challenge is open and accepting submissions.
4. Confirm the task requirements, such as location, QR code, photo, survey, profile, age assurance, or email sharing.
5. Turn on location access for check-ins and challenge location alerts.
6. Update OuterSpatial from the App Store or Google Play.

If a private challenge does not appear, open its invite link again. If you are still stuck, contact Visitor Success at visitors@outerspatial.com.