Awuu

User guide

How Awuu works — from creating an account to your first walk together.

1. Getting started: account and dog profile

In Awuu the dog profile is also the user profile: one dog per account.

  1. Create an account with an email address and password, with Google, or with Apple on an iOS device.
  2. If you signed up with an email address, confirm it from the link sent to you. You can only sign in after confirming.
  3. Fill in your dog's details step by step: name, breed, date of birth, size, energy level, temperament tags, introduction and a photo. Kennel name and Instagram username are optional. The breed is always shown in the language of the app.
  4. Set your home location — either by picking a city or by using your device's location. It determines who you see and who sees you.

You can interrupt the sign-up at any point. Continue later signs you out and reopens the same form the next time you sign in; Delete account removes the unfinished account immediately.

2. Finding dog friends

The Browse tab shows the dogs near you, with a List/Map switch at the top.

At the top of the Browse tab there is also a My events carousel: your upcoming events as organiser and participant, plus your five most recent past ones.

If you move far from the home location you set, the app points it out and offers to update it. You can also change the location at any time from the Browse tab menu.

Other users never see your address. A random offset of 200–500 metres is always added to your location, and others are shown only your city, this approximate point on the map and the distance.

3. Events

An event is a shared walk or meet-up. You'll find them on the Events tab, and you create a new one from the round + button in the middle of the bottom navigation.

Creating an event

  1. Give it a title and description, pick the place on the map and set the time. Add a cover photo if you like. You can mark the time as negotiable, so participants see that it is still open to discussion.
  2. Choose the visibility: a public event is shown to users nearby, a private one does not appear on the Browse tab and only invited dogs can take part.
  3. For a public event, choose who it is for: all dogs, only the same breed as your dog, dogs of your dog's size and energy level (My dog), or size and energy combinations you pick yourself (Choose myself).
  4. Optionally cap the number of participants and limit the dogs' age. The age limit works with every participant option.

Joining an event

Open the event and tap Join. Joining always sends a join request to the organiser, who approves participants — you'll get a notification once your request has been handled. If your dog doesn't meet the event's limits, the app tells you before the request is sent. You can also invite other dogs from the event page.

Group chat and gallery

Every event has a group chat and a photo gallery for its participants. When you upload a photo to the gallery, the app asks separately for permission to use it on Awuu's social media channels — answering yes is always optional.

If the organiser cancels the event, all participants are notified.

After your first event has ended, the app asks once for short feedback (a 1–5 rating and a free comment). If you give a good rating, the app may also suggest leaving a review in the app store. Both are optional, and you can send feedback later from the Account tab as well.

4. Messages

The Messages tab holds both private conversations and event group chats in the same list. You can send text, photos and links.

Message text is end-to-end encrypted: only the devices of the people in the conversation can read it. This is also why a push notification never shows the content of a message. Photos shared in messages are stored in private storage without end-to-end encryption, and only the participants of the conversation can access them.

New phone? Your old message history does not appear immediately when you sign in on a new device. The conversation's encryption key is kept on the participants' devices — both yours and the other people's — and one of them hands the key to your new device the next time it is online. So the history usually unlocks by itself after a short delay.

Old messages can no longer be opened only if every device of every participant has been wiped or discarded. New messages still work normally even then.

5. Hazard map

The hazard map is a separate layer on the Browse tab's map. It is used to warn other dog owners and to search for lost dogs. The layer can be hidden and shown again from the map buttons. The reporter stays anonymous to other users.

Report types

Making a report

  1. Tap Report a hazard on the map. Location permission is required for reporting.
  2. Choose the type and, where applicable, the severity. The location defaults to your device's current position; you can also tap a point on the map, up to 5 km from where you are.
  3. Optionally add a description and a photo (for every type). A Dog loose report can also include the breed.

A report stays active for 24 hours, poisoned bait for 7 days. You can make at most three reports per day. Other users can confirm your report, and the number of confirmations is shown in its details.

Sightings and lost dogs

Sightings can be added to every Dog loose report: open the report and choose I saw the dog — either at this spot or elsewhere by marking the map, with a photo if you like. Sightings form a trail on the map that can be opened from the report's details. Each sighting extends the report by 24 hours from the sighting, up to 7 days from when the report was created. One sighting per hour can be added to the same report. If there are already Dog loose reports nearby (5 km), the app asks when you start a new report whether it is the same dog — in that case your sighting is attached to the existing report.

With Follow sightings you get a notification for every new sighting. The reporter gets them automatically.

If your own dog is lost, choose My dog is lost in a Dog loose report. The severity is locked to 2, and the breed and photo are filled in from your dog's profile. Your name and your dog's photo are shown to others only if you give separate permission (Show my dog's profile in the report) — then a finder can contact you by message. In the own-dog mode the location can be marked on the map up to 20 km away, and when the dog is found, close the report with the Found! button.

Managing reports and alerts

You can edit your own report, mark it resolved or delete it. Other people's reports can be reported to moderation. Users nearby get a push notification about a new hazard within 5 km of their home location, about poisoned bait within 10 km; the notification gives the hazard type and distance, not the description.

6. Settings and account

On the Profile tab you edit your dog's details and manage your account. The Account tab contains:

Blocking and reporting

You can block a user from their profile or from a conversation. A blocked user cannot message you or see your profile, and neither of you receives notifications about the other. You can also report a message, a profile or a hazard report — reports are reviewed by moderation.

Deleting your account

Deleting your account is permanent and the data cannot be restored. It permanently removes your user account and profile, your dog profile, your images (profile photos, event cover images, gallery photos and chat images), your conversations, your event participations, your hazard reports and sightings with their photos, and your blocks and feedback. Exceptions: moderation reports are retained as a handling history without user identifiers, and event photos already published on Awuu's social media channels with your permission are not removed automatically — request their removal from info@awuu.app. Full description: data deletion.

Didn't find what you were looking for? See the frequently asked questions or write to info@awuu.app.

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