Short FAQs for the most common things. If your question isn't here, email support@saathmanzil.com, a real person reads it.
Installing manzil
How do I get the app?
manzil is in private beta. It's on Google Play and the App Store, but you'll need an invite to sign in once it's installed. Email support@saathmanzil.com to request one and we'll add you.
Is there an iPhone version?
Yes. manzil is on the App Store for iPhone, alongside the Android build on Google Play. Same app, same invite, and your trips follow you across both.
Why is access invite-only?
We're keeping the beta small so we can fix things quickly and look after everyone's data with care. Once you're in, signing in takes a minute.
Getting Started
How do I sign up?
Once you've been invited and installed manzil, open it, enter your email address, choose a password, and enter your invite code. We'll email a six-digit code to confirm the address, enter that and you're in.
How do I sign in?
Enter the email address on your account, then your password. If your account was never verified, we'll send a fresh code and take you straight to the code screen instead of leaving you stuck.
The verification code didn't arrive. What now?
Check your spam or promotions folder first, it's a common landing spot for a first-time sender. Still nothing after a couple of minutes? Tap "Send a New Code" on the code screen. If it keeps not showing up, email support@saathmanzil.com and we'll sort it out.
I forgot my password.
Tap "Forgot Your Password?" on the sign-in screen and enter your email. We'll send a code to reset it, follow the prompts to set a new one.
Can I add a phone number?
Yes, it's optional. Add it from Me → Edit Profile. It's contact info only, not a sign-in credential, and only you can see it, trip members always see your name, photo, and UPI ID, never your number.
Trips and Friends
How do I add someone to a trip?
Open the trip, tap "Invite", and share the link. It takes them to a page where they can get manzil and join your trip. They'll need a beta invite of their own to sign in.
Can I be in more than one trip at once?
Yes, as many as you want. Each trip is its own private space with its own expense ledger, location shares, and (later) photo album.
What happens when a trip is archived?
Archiving a trip is the "we're done with this one" signal. Any active location shares end, and location data is purged within 24 hours. Expenses stay forever, they're the memory (photos will too, once they're added).
Expenses and UPI
How do splits work?
Equal split for now, if four people are on a ₹4,000 expense, each owes ₹1,000. You can mark someone as not participating in a specific expense ("Karan skipped the beach club"), and they're left out of that split's math. Custom-percentage splits are on the way.
Why does the settle-up plan suggest fewer transfers than the raw "who owes whom"?
manzil runs a "minimum-transfer" optimisation. If A owes B ₹500 and B owes C ₹500, the plan asks A to pay C ₹500 directly and leaves B out, one transfer instead of two, same outcome.
How does "Pay with UPI" work?
When you tap it, manzil builds a UPI deep link with the recipient's UPI ID and the exact amount, then hands it to your phone's UPI app (GPay, PhonePe, Paytm, your bank app). The payment happens entirely inside that app, manzil never touches the money. After paying, come back to manzil and mark the settlement as paid.
The recipient hasn't added a UPI ID.
Then "Pay with UPI" is disabled for them. Ask them to add their UPI VPA from the profile screen, or pay them via your usual route and mark the settlement as paid manually.
Photos
What's the difference between standard and original quality?
The same idea as WhatsApp's media-upload setting. Standard (the default) uploads a 720-pixel version of each photo, looks great on a phone, much smaller on mobile data (~150-250 KB per photo). Original uploads the full-resolution file on top of the standard version, friends can save the original to their own phones, at the cost of more data on upload (~2-5 MB per photo). You can flip the setting in Me, and you can override it for a single upload on the picker screen.
What does my friend see when they download a photo I uploaded?
If you uploaded at Original quality, they get the full-resolution file. If you uploaded at Standard, they get the 720-pixel version with a small note that says "Saved at standard quality." Same pattern WhatsApp uses, nobody's stuck waiting on a download that never comes.
Does manzil compress my originals after a while?
No. If you upload at Original quality, the file you sent is the file we keep. We don't run a "compress after 90 days" job. The quality is your choice, not ours.
Location Sharing
How does location sharing work?
It's strictly opt-in and time-bounded. You pick a duration (e.g. 4 hours) and start sharing, your live location is visible only to trip-mates on the map for that window. When the timer expires, the share ends automatically. No background tracking, no surprise follow-ups.
Does manzil sell my location data?
No. Location coordinates never leave the trip you shared them with, not to advertisers, not to our analytics provider, not to anyone else. See the Privacy Policy for details.
Account
How do I delete my account?
In the app, go to Me → Delete Account. There's a 7-day cooling-off window during which you can cancel, in-app or by emailing us. Can't get into the app? Email support@saathmanzil.com from the email address on your account with subject line "Delete my manzil account". Full details in the Privacy Policy.
Can I change my email address?
Not yet, changing the email tied to your account isn't self-service today. Email support@saathmanzil.com from the address currently on your account and we'll help you move it.
I signed in on a new phone and got signed out of the old one.
That's by design, one active device per account. Sign back in on the phone you'd like to use, and the other one signs out automatically.
Reporting Issues
How do I report something?
Open the photo or the post, tap the "..." menu, and choose Report. Only our team sees the report. Nobody in the trip is told who reported it. We look at every report and remove anything that breaks our content standards within 24 hours. You can also email support@saathmanzil.com. If someone should not be in the trip at all, the organizer can remove them from the Friends list.
I found a bug. How do I report it?
Email support@saathmanzil.com with the steps you took, what you expected, and what happened. A screenshot helps a lot, we don't currently get an automatic report when the app crashes, so your note is how we find out.
Someone in my trip is behaving badly.
If you're the trip organizer, you can remove them (trip detail → Friends → remove). If you're not the organizer, ask one to do it. If the behaviour is serious, harassment, fraud, impersonation, also email support@saathmanzil.com so we can look into the wider account.
Still Stuck?
Email support@saathmanzil.com. Real person, real reply.