Tomodachi · Help
Answers to the questions people ask most, then what every error code in the app means and what to do about it. The same explanations are inside the app, so you can read them with no signal.
Tomodachi is a travel companion for Japan. It plans your trip, builds a day-by-day itinerary, and helps you follow it once you are there, with maps and directions that work without a signal and help saying things in Japanese.
An itinerary is a suggestion. Tomodachi does not book anything for you.
Yes, once your trip is downloaded. Your trip, maps and phrases live on your phone, so signal is a bonus, not a requirement. The download screen asks before it starts and shows the size first. Download it over Wi-Fi before you fly: the basics start at about 100 MB, and a whole three-city, nine-day trip with the sharper close-up layer was 274 MB.
Your trip cannot load without service if you do not download it ahead of time. If you choose Not now, you can still download it later.
Some things do need a connection: planning a new trip, joining a group, paying, getting a trip back on a new phone, and refreshing the weather. With no signal, the forecast shows the last one you saw.
Every trip has a trip code that looks like TOMO-ABC123, and a PIN of 5 letters or numbers, like K7QPX. Capital or small letters both work, and letters that look alike, such as O and 0, are never used. Older trips keep the 4-digit PIN they were made with, and it still works. Whoever planned the trip sees both at the top of their itinerary. There are no accounts: a trip code and a PIN are all anyone needs.
The PIN is set for you when the trip is made. A new PIN is kept only on the phone that planned the trip; our servers keep it in a form that cannot be read back. It is checked before anything about the trip is shown, so someone who only guesses a code learns nothing, and after ten wrong PINs in an hour the trip stops accepting any PIN for the rest of that hour. If you plan on a new phone, or want a fresh PIN, you can make a new one from Share trip; the old one stops working. Treat your trip code the way you would treat a door key.
Ask whoever planned the trip for the trip code and the PIN. Enter both, check that it is the right trip, and then wait while they let you in. Whoever created the trip approves people, and can remove them.
They can also send you an invite link with your name on it. An invite link works once, lasts seven days and is already approved, so you skip the wait. It opens in the app, so install Tomodachi first. The message also carries the code, in case the link does not open.
Joining needs a connection.
Lost Mode shows you where you are, the way back to the address you confirmed for your stay, and a card in Japanese you can hand to a taxi driver or a stranger. It works offline because everything it needs was downloaded in advance. The card carries your destination, not anything about you.
Lost Mode is not an emergency service and cannot contact one for you. In an emergency in Japan, call 110 for police and 119 for fire or ambulance. Do that first and use the app afterwards.
Lost Mode is offered, never forced, and only to adults. If you drift away from your group, your phone asks first; it never turns on by itself, and you can say no.
A child is never asked anything. When a child travelling as a dependent on the trip drifts too far, the guardian’s phone asks whether to turn on Lost Mode for them. The child cannot switch it off; it lifts when the guardian turns it off or when they are close together again.
Most of what Tomodachi knows about your trip never leaves your phone: your exact location, your home address, your emergency contacts, your packing list and your downloaded maps stay on it. Our databases run in Tokyo, Japan.
Anonymous analytics stay off until you say yes, and the rest of the app works exactly the same either way. If you switch them on, your phone rounds your location to about 110 metres and the time to the hour, and replaces your trip with a one-way code, before anything is sent. That one-way trip code is kept for up to about five weeks. A dependent’s phone never sends analytics, whatever its settings say.
You can switch analytics off at any time in Settings, under Privacy; switching them off also deletes anything still waiting to be sent. To ask us to delete what we hold about a trip, write to info.tomodachiai@gmail.com with your trip code. The full privacy policy is on this site and inside the app.
During the beta the app may be free, and paid features may change. When paying for a trip is switched on, the price is shown before you pay, only the person who created the trip can pay, and one payment covers everyone travelling on that trip.
You can plan up to five trips in any one hour on a phone. If you reach that limit, everything you have made is saved, and the app tells you how many minutes to wait. Every version of a trip you plan is kept on your phone, and you can take a day from an earlier version under Past generations.
If you paid for a trip, you can get it back on a new phone with its trip code and the email on your receipt.
The app can be set to English, Korean (한국어), Traditional Chinese (繁體中文), Simplified Chinese (简体中文) or Spanish (Español). Not every screen is translated yet; anything that is not is shown in English.
The phrase cards are translated into all five, with the Japanese to show or say. This website is in English.
Write to info.tomodachiai@gmail.com. A person reads it. Tell us your trip code if your question is about a specific trip, and the error code if the app showed you one.
If something went wrong, write to us rather than assuming nothing can be done.
When something goes wrong, the app shows a short code such as D-201. The letter says what part of the app it came from; the number says exactly what happened. There are 37 codes. A code always means the same thing, and is never reused.
You have planned five trips in the last hour, which is the limit for one phone. Nothing is broken, and everything you have made is saved.
What you can do
Something went wrong on our side while your trip was being written. Your answers are saved.
What you can do
The trip arrived, but part of it was not in a shape the app can open, so it was not saved.
What you can do
The PIN and trip code you entered do not belong together. For your safety the app does not say which one is wrong.
What you can do
The trip you are trying to reach has already ended, so nobody can join or restore it now.
What you can do
There is no trip with that code.
What you can do
The link you opened is missing the trip code or the PIN, so the trip cannot be found from it.
What you can do
The invite link does not belong to the trip code it was opened with.
What you can do
Each invite link works once, and someone has already used this one.
What you can do
Invite links last seven days, and this one is older than that.
What you can do
Someone has entered a wrong PIN for this trip ten times in the last hour, so the trip is not accepting any PIN for now, including the right one. This protects the trip from people guessing. Nothing about the trip has changed.
What you can do
Part of your offline map did not finish downloading. Whatever finished is kept.
What you can do
The app could not write to your phone’s storage, so this change was not saved.
What you can do
When the app started, it could not set up the storage it keeps your trips in. Trips cannot be saved until this is fixed.
What you can do
The earlier versions of this trip could not be read from your phone. Your current trip is not affected.
What you can do
The app tried to hand these directions to your phone’s maps app, and it did not open.
What you can do
Tomodachi is not allowed to see where you are, so it cannot show you the way or share your place with your group.
What you can do
Your phone has not found where you are yet. Indoors or underground it cannot see the satellites.
What you can do
There is no signal and no saved walking route from where you are. The arrow still points towards home.
What you can do
This device cannot make phone calls, so the call could not start.
What you can do
The app asked your phone to start the call, and the phone did not open its dialler.
What you can do
Your group member’s phone is not connected right now, so the change could not reach it.
What you can do
The path you walked could not be exported from this phone.
What you can do
Payment for a trip is made by the person who created it. One payment covers everyone on the trip.
What you can do
Someone has already paid for this trip. There is nothing more to pay.
What you can do
The payment was not completed, and nothing was charged.
What you can do
Something went wrong on our side while setting up the payment. Nothing was charged.
What you can do
The payment you came back from does not belong to the trip open on this phone. Nothing was charged to this trip.
What you can do
We could not find a paid trip with that trip code and receipt email.
What you can do
This needs the internet, and your phone is not connected right now. Your trip on this phone is safe.
What you can do
Our server did not answer in time. The connection may be slow.
What you can do
Something unexpected went wrong. It is not something you did.
What you can do
Inviting people, approving them and changing roles are for the person who created the trip.
What you can do
Your phone has not been let into this trip yet, so the group cannot be shown.
What you can do
This needs a name, and the box was empty.
What you can do
The name is longer than this box allows.
What you can do
The role could not be changed. You cannot change your own role, and the person must still be on the trip.
What you can do
Nothing matches that. Try one word, or a code like D-201.
Write to us. A person reads it. Tell us your trip code, and the error code if the app showed you one.