Posts, Reviews, Check-Ins, and Reports

Overview

Use the Community and contribution tools to share what you experienced, leave reviews, check in at places, and report conditions, incidents, or hazards. Contributions are attached to a place or organization in the current community.

Available contribution types depend on the community, place, account, and challenge. Some communities may also show options such as hunting check-ins, photo submissions, or questionnaires.

Find Community Activity

Open a place page and view its Community section to see posts, check-ins, reviews, reports, and official updates related to that place. Some communities also show a Community tab with activity from across the community.

Use the type filter when it is available to narrow the list, such as All, Official, Post, Check-In, Review, or Report. Pull to refresh when you want to check for newer activity.

An empty list describes the selected post type and whose activity you are viewing. If posts cannot load, check your connection and tap Try Again. Posts already loaded remain available while you retry. Offline, a list you have opened before shows the posts saved on your device, or the same empty list if it had none; a list you have never opened needs a connection the first time.

To review your own activity, open your profile area and choose Community. Your profile shows content associated with the current community, including activities imported from Apple Health. On iOS, the Showing Your Content In card above the Community, Saved, and Challenges tabs names the current community; tap it to see the other communities where you have community activity, saved content, downloaded maps, subscriptions, or enrolled challenges, and switch to one. You can also open another visitor's profile to see their public activity when profile viewing is available.

Create a Contribution

Open the place you want to contribute to.
Tap the Create or contribution button.
Choose Post, Check In, Review, or Report when options are shown.
Log in if prompted.
Add the requested details, such as text, a photo, a rating, or report information.
Choose a visibility option when the app shows one.
Tap the submit button for the contribution type.

Visibility options may include Public, Organizations Only, and Private. Child accounts and some organization accounts may have different visibility rules.

Add Photos and Ratings

Posts and some check-ins or challenge submissions can include a photo. When you add a photo, the app lets you take a new photo or choose one from your library. Animated images are not supported for contribution photos.

Reviews include a star rating and a short description of your experience. If you already reviewed a place, the app may open the existing review for editing or tell you the place has already been reviewed.

Check-Ins and Challenges

Check-ins use your device's location to confirm you are near the selected place. Allow location access when prompted.

If the app cannot confirm that you are near the place, it may ask whether you want to check in anyway. Some challenge check-ins require location permission and may not allow repeated check-ins for the same challenge location. Contributions that cannot be validated may be reviewed by organization staff.

When a place is part of a challenge, the check-in flow can show an Add to Challenge option. Choose the challenge when you want the check-in or photo submission to count toward challenge progress.

iOS

Allow precise location access when prompted so the app can confirm you are near the place.

Android

Allow Android location access when prompted so the app can confirm you are near the place.

Submit Reports

Reports help organizations understand conditions, incidents, and hazards. The report flow can ask for:

Activity.
Date and time.
Location details.
Condition, incident, or hazard type.
Additional report questions.
A summary before submission.

If you close the report flow before submitting, your answers are discarded.

Open a post to see more detail. You can like, comment on, or share posts when those actions are available. Log in if prompted.

Comments you write in the mobile app use your personal name and profile photo, even if you belong to an organization. Your primary organization's badge may appear beside your photo. Likes also come from your personal account.

Official comments written in Manager show the organization they were submitted for, using its name and logo. An older official comment without a recorded organization shows Organization Representative. Update the app if official comments still show an unexpected organization.

Use the post menu to report someone else's post, mute an account when that option is available, or manage your own post. You can also report comments from the comment menu when a comment needs review.

Muting hides that account's posts from feeds already saved on your device, including when you are offline. Unmute the account in Settings to see its saved posts again.

Edit, Delete, and Sync Your Posts

You can edit or delete your own posts and comments when the app shows those options.

To edit a post or challenge check-in, open its menu and choose Edit. You can change the text and, if the post has no photo, add one. You can change or remove a newly selected photo before saving. Once a photo is saved, you cannot replace or remove it.

Editing requires an internet connection. If your text saves but the photo does not finish, keep the editor open and try saving again. Editing a challenge check-in keeps its existing challenge progress.

Deleting a post cannot be undone. If a post is connected to a challenge response, deleting it can also delete that challenge response.

If your connection drops while creating a contribution, the app may offer to save it on your device so you can submit it later. Keep the app installed and reconnect to the internet. Tap Pending on a saved contribution to prioritize its upload. A message confirms that it is queued or explains that it is waiting for internet or Wi-Fi. If another contribution is uploading, it finishes before the queued upload starts. Pending contributions belong to the account that created them. Logging out or switching accounts can remove unsynced work after you confirm the warning.

If a submission cannot be completed, open Settings > Needs Your Attention. You can find notices there even if you switched communities or can no longer open the original challenge. Discarded text cannot be recovered; any photos available to save remain listed until you explicitly discard them.

Troubleshooting

If you cannot create or interact with a contribution:

Make sure you are logged in.
Complete any profile, age, or guardian-approval steps the app asks for.
Check your internet connection.
Turn on location access for check-ins and challenge location tasks.
Confirm you are in the community where the place or post is available.
Pull to refresh the Community feed or reopen the place page.
Update OuterSpatial from the App Store or Google Play.

If you are still stuck, contact Visitor Success at visitors@outerspatial.com.