Support
Need a hand, found a bug, or have an idea? Get in touch:
- Email: info@nowhereman.eu
- Issues: github.com/nowheremanmail/Polyptych/issues
When reporting a problem, please include your app version (tap ⓘ on the home screen), which devices were involved, and what you were doing when it happened.
If the problem is that a show looks wrong across the screens, the most useful thing you can send is a photograph of the devices running the Test pattern show — one shot with all the screens in it. That card is drawn to be measured, so the photograph usually answers the question on its own. See What is the Test pattern show? below.
- Build the show. Open Shows → New show, add pictures, and set the order, the transitions and how long each picture is held. Tap the eye to watch the whole thing across as many devices as you like — no other devices needed, see below. Or skip this for now: Polyptych arrives with a Test pattern show already on it, ready to start.
- Open a room. On the device that will run it, tap Start a room. It shows a QR code and a six-character code. A room is the gathering of devices; a show is what plays in it.
- Join from the others. On each other device, tap Join a room and point its camera at the code — or type the six characters.
- Lay them out. Every device shows its own number, whether to hold it upright or turned, and the numbers of the devices either side. The hosting device shows the whole plan.
- Push them together and start. Edges touching, then tap Start the show.
How do I get it onto the other devices? Each device needs Polyptych installed. In the app, tap Get it on another device on the home screen: it shows a code the other phone can scan, which leads to the Download page. After that, joining is a scan of the room code the hosting device shows — a different code, and it only works on a device that already has the app.
Do I need an internet connection? No. The pictures travel directly between the devices over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Nothing goes through the internet — see the Privacy Policy.
Nothing is found when I try to join. All the devices need the app open and awake, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth switched on, and Polyptych allowed local network access (Settings → Polyptych). Aeroplane mode stops it working.
The camera will not scan the code.
Type the six characters shown beside the QR code instead. They are chosen from an alphabet with no O, 0, I or 1, so they survive being read out.
Why is my device turned sideways? The layout may turn a device a quarter-turn when that fits the picture better. Your own screen says which: Portrait or Landscape.
One iPad says “Polyptych needs the whole screen”. It is in a window — Split View, Slide Over, or one of the resizable windows iPadOS now puts apps in — rather than filling the screen. Polyptych measures each device's piece of the picture from that device's physical screen, so in a window the piece is the right piece but the wrong size and in the wrong place, and it cannot line up with anything. Make it full screen and it joins back in on its own, without rejoining the room.
One screen shows the picture sideways, or upside down. That device is lying the wrong way round. Each screen behaves like a picture stuck to its glass: turn the device and everything on it turns too, the way a photograph would — the picture, the big number and the buttons together.
So the fix is always the same: turn the device until its number reads the right way up. The number and the picture are upright at the same moment, so once one reads correctly, so does the other. This also settles which of the two ways to lay a device on its side, which Horizontal on its own cannot.
Usually the device will also ask: Turn this one upright, or on its side. It cannot always tell — one lying flat on a table gives its sensors nothing to work with — so if nothing is asking and the number reads sideways, trust the number.
Why do the seams not line up perfectly? The arrangement is worked out in millimetres, from a table of known device models. A device Polyptych does not recognise falls back to an estimated bezel, so its seams may be slightly out. The Test pattern show is the quickest way to see how far out, and which device is the odd one.
What is the Test pattern show? It is the show Polyptych comes with, so there is something to start before you have added any pictures of your own — and it is the fastest way to find out why an arrangement looks wrong. Start it, then photograph all the screens together with another phone and read the picture back:
- The letters. The first card is a grid of lettered cells, A1 in the top-left through L8 in the bottom-right. Each screen holds its own stretch of the alphabet, in order, left to right and top to bottom. Letters out of sequence mean the devices are not standing where the app thinks they are — swap them, or start again with the plan on the hosting device.
- The lines and the circles. Two straight lines cross the picture corner to corner, and three circles sit in the middle. A line should cross the gap between two devices without a step, and a circle should stay a circle. A visible jog at a seam means a screen's measurements are slightly out; a circle that photographs as an egg means a scale is wrong rather than a position.
- The corners and the arrow. Each corner of the picture carries a different shape — circle, square, triangle, diamond — and the middle carries an arrow pointing up. Upside-down text, or the wrong shape in a corner, is a device being held the wrong way round.
- The greys and the colour bars. The second and third cards are not about the arrangement at all. If one screen looks warmer, dimmer or bluer than the one beside it, that is the hardware: screens differ, and it is worth knowing that before hunting for a bug.
The three cards loop, and the grid stays up for fifteen seconds at a time — that is the moment to take the photograph. The middle of every card carries its number, so a photograph of only part of the wall still says which card it came from.
Delete it like any other show if you would rather not keep it. It stays deleted — Shows then offers Add the test pattern if you want it back.
The picture looks soft. Every device holds every picture, so pictures are handed out at a capped size. An arrangement physically wider than that resolution has to upscale. Fewer, larger screens look sharper than many small ones.
“Start the show” is greyed out. It waits until every device has every picture — the Pictures section says how many are still to go. That wait is what makes the transitions instant afterwards.
Where do I edit a show I already saved? Shows holds all of them: the one you are building at the top, New show, and the saved list underneath. Tapping any of them opens it for editing.
Can I change the show without everyone joining again? Yes, and nobody has to rescan anything. On the device running the room, the The show card lists every show saved on it — tap another one and it takes over. The connections stay up and each device keeps its number.
Two things happen when you do. The pictures of the new show are handed out over the links that are already open, so Start the show goes grey again until every device has every picture. And the arrangement is worked out afresh: a show whose pictures are a different shape may want the devices laid out differently, so check each screen before starting — they will have updated themselves.
Does the device running the show have to be one of the screens? No, and by default it is not — the device you set up on stays a control panel. Turn on Use this screen too in Devices on the setup screen if you want it to be one of the panels.
How many pictures can I add? As many as memory allows, up to 48. The limit is that every device keeps every picture decoded, so it is a handful of photographs or a good many GIF frames. The Pictures section shows how much of the budget is used.
Can I show a video instead of pictures? Yes. In the show editor, tap Use a video instead and pick one. A show is either pictures or one video, not a mix: a video has no running order to arrange and no transitions between turns, because there are no turns.
Two things to expect. Every device is given the whole file, so there is a wait before anything can start — the editor tells you how big it is, and Start the show stays greyed out until every screen has it. A 40MB clip across five devices means moving 200MB over Wi-Fi first. And the sound is muted on every device: five phones playing the same soundtrack a few milliseconds apart is a mess, so play the audio from something else if you want it.
Videos are limited to 80MB. Past that the wait stops being a wait.
Why is the video muted? Because the alternative is worse. The screens are synchronised to a few hundredths of a second, which is close enough that nobody sees a seam — but it is not close enough for five separate speakers playing the same track.
The video looks out of step on one screen. Each device plays the file itself and keeps itself honest against the shared clock: small differences are corrected by playing imperceptibly fast or slow, and a large one by jumping to the right moment. If one screen stays out, it has probably lost the clock — the devices need to be awake and in range of each other. Pause and start again to re-anchor everything.
Can I use an animated GIF? Yes. It becomes a sequence of frames and plays as a flip-book at roughly the GIF's own pace. A long GIF is sampled evenly across its whole length rather than cut short, so the result is an impression of the animation rather than the animation itself.
Where are my saved shows?
One folder per show inside Polyptych's own Documents, visible in the Files app: a readable show.json describing the running order, alongside the pictures. Deleting the show or the app removes them.
A device dropped out in the middle. Have it join again with the same code. It receives the whole show and rejoins the arrangement — the numbers on the other devices will update if its place has changed.
The transitions look out of step. The devices agree a shared clock between them, which needs them awake and in range. Moving one out of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth range breaks it; bring it back and it re-syncs.
Can I try it before I gather the devices? Yes, and you should. Tap the eye in the show editor: pick how many devices of each screen size to imagine — 6.1″ up to 13″ — and the show runs across all of them on the one screen, each drawn where it would stand, turned the way it would be turned, with its number on it. The arrangement is worked out from the real measurements of those models, so it is the arrangement you will get.
Can I send a GIF straight in from another app? Yes. Anything that can share a GIF or a photo can send it to Polyptych: tap the share button, then Polyptych. It arrives as a new show named after the file, and a GIF becomes its frames playing at the GIF's own pace. If you are already building a show, Polyptych asks before replacing it.
From GifMotion, make the GIF and choose Open in another app → Polyptych. The show takes the project's name.
Can each picture have its own timing? Yes. The show sets a default hold and transition time, and any turn in the running order can override either — tap the times under a turn. A dot means that turn is still following the show.
What does the "device by device" transition do? It changes one device at a time, in a random order, until the whole picture has turned over — each screen a pixel of a very slow image. Every other transition changes all the screens at once.
Can an Android phone lend a screen? It is being built, and it is not released yet — there is nothing to install from Google Play today. When it arrives it will join a show, not host one: hosting means measuring every screen in the room, working out the arrangement and being the clock everyone trusts, and that stays on the device holding the pictures.
One difference is worth knowing in advance. On an iPhone or iPad the app already knows the exact physical size of the screen and of the device around it, which is how the picture continues behind the bezels. Android exposes neither reliably, so the Android app asks: you give it the screen size corner to corner, as printed on the box, and an estimate of the border between the picture and the edge of the device. That border is what decides how well the seams line up, so it is worth measuring rather than guessing if you care.
An Android screen will show pictures. It will not show video in the first version.
What language is the app in? Polyptych follows your device's language. It speaks English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Portuguese and Italian; anything else falls back to English. Change it in Settings → Polyptych → Language.
Can I use it in dark mode? Yes — it follows your device's appearance, light or dark, with no setting of its own.
Can I rotate the app? Everywhere except the screen showing the picture. That one screen is pinned, because the layout is worked out from the physical device and the picture must not turn underneath it. Hold the device the way your own screen tells you to.
Nothing vibrates on my iPad. iPads have no haptic engine, so the buzz on the About screen is silent there. It is felt on iPhone.
Polyptych is free, with no ads and no tracking. If it gave you a good evening, a donation goes towards keeping it maintained:
