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 live on Google Play in closed testing, so you'll need an invite to download it. Email support@saathmanzil.com to request one and we'll add you.
Is there an iPhone version?
Coming soon. We're testing on Android first; the App Store version follows. Drop a note to support and we'll tell you when iOS is ready.
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 Indian mobile number (+91 only for now), and verify it with the code we send. No email, no social login.
Why phone-only? Why no email/Google login?
Friend groups in India already share phone numbers. Asking for one more email + password is friction, and social logins ship your identity to Google or Facebook. Phone-only is the simplest path that keeps your data inside India and inside this app.
I changed my number. What now?
Email support@saathmanzil.com from the new number with a note from the old one (or vice versa). For now we move numbers manually; an in-app number-change flow is on the way.
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 Profile, 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?
Email support@saathmanzil.com from the phone number on your account with subject line "Delete my manzil account". An in-app deletion button ships before public launch. Full details in the Privacy Policy.
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
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. Crashes are auto-reported to Sentry but a human note always speeds up the fix.
Someone in my trip is behaving badly.
You can remove them from the trip yourself (trip detail → members → remove). 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.