Help & FAQ

FindTogether helps neighbors coordinate volunteer search efforts for a missing person, a lost pet, or a community safety hazard. Campaign owners post details and safety guidance; anyone can log the areas they've searched so effort doesn't get duplicated, and everyone sees progress on a shared map.

It's a coordination tool, not an emergency service. If there's immediate danger, or you believe you've found a genuine lead, stop and call 911 (or the campaign's official contact) first.

No — browsing campaigns and groups, marking a searched area, and posting a hazard update all work without signing in. Behind the scenes we quietly assign your browser a private identifier so you can edit or delete your own contributions later; there's no login screen for this.

Signing in (Google, Apple, or an emailed link) is only required to start a campaign, report a new hazard, or join a group — a deliberate anti-spam measure, since those actions post new public content or tie activity to your identity rather than adding to something that already exists.

Nearby shows every public (and your own unlisted) campaign and hazard around a location — your current location by default, or anywhere you search for — as one combined map and list, rather than separate tabs for each. Groups only shows up once you're a member of at least one group, and shows everything tagged to your group(s), with filter pills to narrow it to one specific group.

Both share the same search box, distance filter, and an "Inactive / resolved" toggle for including closed campaigns and resolved hazards. To see everything you've personally created, regardless of status or visibility, use "My campaigns" or "My hazards" from the account menu.

Click "Start a campaign" in the header (requires signing in). You'll give it a name, subject type (missing person / lost pet / other), description, and optional last-seen location — that last-seen pin is entirely optional, and can be shown as an exact point or fuzzed to an approximate area (block/ neighborhood/general area), which is worth using if the exact spot (e.g. a home address) shouldn't be made public. A city is auto-filled from that pin (you can edit it) so the campaign is easier to find by location, but it's optional too.

Logging a searched area is done from the FindTogether mobile app. Open a campaign there and you can log what you covered in three shapes, whichever best matches how you actually searched:

• Area (circle) — drop a pin and pick a radius. Good for a yard, a park, or "roughly around here."
• Path — click a line of points tracing a street, trail, or route you walked. Doesn't close into a shape, just a line, like tracking a road.
• Area (multi-point) — click three or more points to outline an irregular area you covered, like a block or a section of park that isn't a simple circle.

Every entry fades in color the older it gets, so the map stays easy to read without ever fully hiding older coverage. On the web, a campaign's page shows that same live search log and map — you can browse everyone's contributions and, if you're signed in, delete your own past entries — but adding a new one requires the app. The campaign's "last updated" time reflects the most recent search log too, not just edits by the owner.

As the owner (or a co-owner you've added), you can: change the campaign's status (active/resolved/ paused/closed), add co-owners (they get the same edit rights as you), edit the campaign's title/ description/photo/contact info/guidance/city, add or remove official map pins (likely locations, a command centre, notes), and edit the last-seen location — all from the "Manage campaign" button and the sections below the map on the campaign page itself.

Every campaign (and hazard) is one of three visibilities, set when it's created and changeable later from "Manage campaign":

• Public — shows up on the home page map and browse list for anyone.
• Unlisted — link only. It won't appear on the home page map or browse list, so only people you send the direct link to will find it. This isn't password protection: anyone with the link can still view and contribute to it, so only share it with people you trust.
• Group — visible only to members of one or more groups you pick, inside that group's own page. See "What are groups?" below.

Use the "Share" button on a campaign page to send its link directly — on most phones this opens your device's normal share sheet (text, email, social apps); on desktop it copies the link to your clipboard.

From the home page's Nearby tab, click "+ Report a hazard." This requires signing in (to deter spam). A photo is optional. Hazards without recent activity automatically fade out of the active list after a few days — unless you checked "📌 Keep this visible until resolved" when posting it, which keeps it visible no matter how long it's been quiet. A hazard can be public, unlisted, or tagged to a group, same as campaigns.

Posting an update afterward — confirming it's still there, adding a note or photo, reporting it's moved, or marking it resolved — is done from the FindTogether mobile app. On the web, a hazard's own page still shows its full location history and every update posted from the app, so you can always check on one even if you can't post an update yourself from a browser.

Anyone using the FindTogether mobile app — not just the original reporter. It's the same anti-spam-but-still-open philosophy as search logs: reporting is gated behind signing in, but confirming a hazard is gone is something any neighbor who sees it can do. Once resolved, it stays resolved (an admin can reopen it if it was marked resolved by mistake).

A group is a shared space for a neighborhood, HOA, search-and-rescue team, or any set of people who want their own feed of campaigns and hazards, separate from the public map. Members see everything tagged to the group on its own page and in the home page's Groups tab; campaign/hazard owners choose to tag their post to one or more groups by setting its visibility to "Group."

Groups are public (listed and searchable by city, so anyone can find and join them) or private (never listed — you need a direct invite). Within either, joining is either invite-only (an admin has to add you) or request to join (you send a request and an admin approves or denies it). If you were sent an invite link by email, opening it adds you automatically.

"Create a group" from the Groups tab lets you name it, set a city, and choose its visibility/join settings above. As an admin, "Manage group" on the web lets you change those settings later, invite people by email, promote/demote other admins, remove members, and delete the group entirely. Approving or denying a pending request to join is done from the FindTogether mobile app.

Notifications live entirely in the FindTogether mobile app now — there's one clear place to turn them on and manage them, instead of a separate, more limited setup on the web. From the app you can mix and match: broad alerts for anything new posted near a location you choose, watching a specific campaign or hazard for its own updates, and alerts for activity in a group you're a member of. If you're a group admin, you're also always notified when someone requests to join.

The web version of FindTogether doesn't send push notifications or keep a notification history — it's for browsing, starting a campaign, reporting a hazard, and joining a group without needing the app at all.

Before submitting a search log or joining a search effort, you're asked to confirm basics like not entering private property and not approaching/confronting anyone or anything you find. These aren't just formalities — see the full Terms of Use and each campaign's safety guidance section for details specific to that effort.

On the web, you can delete your own search log entries and hazard updates from the campaign or hazard page they're on (campaign owners can also hide entries instead of deleting them), whether or not you were signed in when you posted them — your browser's private identifier is what ties a contribution back to you. Editing a search log entry or hazard update, and managing your notification subscriptions, is done from the FindTogether mobile app. A campaign or hazard itself can only be edited by its owner, co-owners (for campaigns), or an admin.

In the app: go to Account, scroll down, and tap Delete account — it takes effect immediately, no email required. If you don't have the app or can't sign in, see Delete Your Account & Data for how to request deletion by email instead (it has to come from the same email address your account uses).

See the full Privacy Policy for details on what's collected and why — short version: no account needed for most actions, no ads, no selling data, and location precision (like the last-seen fuzzing above) is something owners control.