Hail Mobile App - User Guide

The Hail mobile app lets you follow organisations and stay up to date with their latest news, notices, publications and events - all in one place.

Start by downloading the app from your app store:

Available on iOS (App Store)

Android (Google Play).

Getting Started

When you first open the app, you will be taken to the Explore screen where you can search for and follow organisations.

You will also be prompted to enable location services and push notifications (see individual sections for more info on why we request access to these).

On the Explore screen, once you find and select an organisation, a short interactive tutorial guides you through key features of the app. You can revisit the tutorial anytime from the app Settings.

Location Services for Recommended Organisations

If you enable location services, the app will be able to suggest nearby organisations on the Explore screen. Tap Follow to add an organisation to your list and receive their content. We do not track your location - we only use your location data to show local suggestions you might be interested in, but you are welcome to disable location services at any time from the app Settings page, which will disable this feature.

Following an Organisation

You can follow organisations from the recommended list, or search for a specific one:

Tap the search bar at the bottom of the Explore screen.
Type the name of the organisation you are looking for.
Tap Follow in the search results to add the organisation to your list.
The organisation will now appear in your Your Organisations section, and you will be automatically subscribed to push notifications by default (you can unsubscribe from individual organisations or switch notifications completely anytime).

You can follow as many organisations as you like, and switch between them as you wish.

Switching Between Organisations

You can browse and switch between your organisations from the Explore page. When viewing a particular organisation, you can also tap the organisation name in the header bar at the top of the screen to list all your organisations and switch between them.

The app uses a tab bar at the bottom of the screen. The tabs available depend on the organisation you are currently viewing:

Explore Tab

This is always present, and shows:

Your Organisations - A horizontal scrollable list of all organisations you follow. Tap an organisation to switch to it. You can also unsubscribe from push notifications for each organisation here by tapping the bell icon, or unfollow to remove them from your list completely.
Recommended Organisations - Organisations near you (if location is enabled) that you might want to follow. We may also suggest organisations we think are worth following (like Hail, for example!).
Search - Tap the search bar to find and follow new organisations.
Settings - Settings is always accessible from any screen, via the Settings icon in the top right of the header.

Feed Tab

The main content feed for your selected organisation. This is always present, and includes a horizontal list of tabs to group the organisation's content:

Articles

News, stories, and updates published by the organisation. Tap an article to read the full story and view images, videos and attachments.

Filters - Tap the filter icon to filter your articles:
New - Articles you have not read yet.
Read - Articles you have already viewed.
Liked - Articles you have saved for later (via swipe actions or the like button).
Tap filters to toggle on and off, and press Apply to confirm and view results.
Swipe right on the New filter row to easily mark all articles as read.
Search - Tap the search icon to search articles by keyword (note that any active filters will also apply to your search results).
Swipe actions - Swipe right on an article to mark it as read/unread; swipe left to like/unlike (view all your liked articles using the filters).

Publications

Digital publications (newsletters, magazines, yearbooks) shared by the organisation. Tap a publication to browse its content and articles, and tap on individual articles to read further.

Noticeboards (if any)

Noticeboards from the organisation, if any are shared with the mobile app. Notices shared under a particular noticeboard are displayed here.

Pinned notices - Important notices will be pinned to the top of the list.
Tap a notice to view its full content, including any attachments or location information.

Notices (if any)

(Standalone) notices from the organisation. Notices shared without attaching to a particular noticeboard are displayed here, if any.

Tap a notice to view its full content, including any attachments or location information.

Calendar (if configured)

Shows the organisation's upcoming events via their Google Calendar, if this has been configured.

Absences Tab (schools only)

A form for parents and caregivers to report student absences. Only available for school organisations that have enabled this feature. The form requires:

Student and parent/guardian names
Classroom/year
Date of absence
Contact details (email and phone)
Reason for absence
Signature confirmation

Each school's form remembers your key details (names and classroom) for future submissions.

Organisation Info Tab

Contact details, description, website, location map, social media links and other information about the selected organisation.

Push Notifications

When you first launch the app, you will be prompted to enable push notifications. Enabling notifications means you will receive updates for organisations you follow and subscribe to. By default, following an organisation subscribes you to notifications for their new content (articles, publications and notices), but you can unsubscribe (turn off notifications) for any organisation while continuing to follow them. You can also turn off notifications for the Hail app altogether at any time if you wish (and vice versa!).

If you choose to disable push notifications, no new content notifications from any of your followed organisations will be displayed on your device.

Management

Per-organisation - To toggle notifications on or off for particular organisations: from the Explore screen, tap the bell icon on that organisation in your list; from the Feed screen for the selected organisation, tap the bell icon in the header.

Device settings - You can turn notifications on or off completely for the Hail app in your device's Settings app anytime. Navigate to your device's settings by tapping the app Settings in the top right and selecting the App Info section.

Settings

Access Settings from any screen by tapping the cog icon in the top right corner of the header.

Preferences

Theme - Choose between Light, Dark, or System (follows your device setting).
Restart Tutorial - Revisit the interactive app tutorial shown on first launch of the app.

Info

About - Information about Hail, with links to our social media.
App Info - Technical details, app version, and options to open device settings or clear cached data. Clearing the cache resets your read/unread and liked/unliked status for articles and absence form details, and restarts the tutorial when you select an organisation. Your followed organisations and notification preferences are preserved.
Legal - Links to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Help

Hail Support - Contact details and links to the Hail help centre.
Report Technical Issue - Send an email to report bugs or problems.

Tips

Dark mode - The app supports dark mode and will follow your device setting by default, or you can choose a specific theme in Settings.
Accessibility - The app respects your device's font size setting. Text and icons scale proportionally for comfortable reading.
Offline - The app requires an internet connection to load content. If you lose connectivity, a message will appear and content will reload when you are back online.
Pull to refresh - Pull down on most screens to refresh the content.
Tablet support - The app is optimised for both phones and tablets, with adaptive layouts for larger screens.