welcome to
whimsee

Whimsee is a gentle way to leave little glimmers of wonder in the wild for others to find, and to wander out and discover the ones left near you. It’s not a feed. There are no likes, no adverts, no endless scroll. Just small daily reasons to look up and notice the world.

You leave two kinds of things. A glimmer is a little note or photo that lives in one spot for a while, then quietly fades at a time you choose. A spot is a lasting place you love and want to mark for others, and it stays put. Then you go wandering to find what other people have left.

1. Get it on Google Play. Whimsee is live on Android now. On an Android phone (Samsung, Google Pixel, and most non-Apple phones), open whimsee on Google Play and install it like any other app.
   • On an iPhone: the Apple version isn’t quite ready yet. It’s coming, and it won’t be long. Join the waitlist and I’ll send one gentle note the moment it’s here.
2. Open it and step outside. There’s no code to enter and no sign-up to get through. Open whimsee and you’re a wanderer, with a whimsical nature name of your own.
3. Let it find you. The app will ask permission to use your location. That’s what makes the wandering work, so please say yes.

You don’t need to sign up with an email or make a password. You can add an email later if you’d like to keep your collection safe across phones, but it’s entirely optional.

Wherever you are, you can leave something for the next wanderer. Please do. A world with lots of little glimmers in it is far lovelier to explore.

• Plant a glimmer: write a short note (or add a photo), choose how long it should live, from a couple of weeks to a whole season, and leave it right where you’re standing. When that time is up, it quietly fades away.
• Mark a spot: found a bench, a view, a favourite tree? Mark it as a spot. Spots are lasting, they don’t fade, so they become the little landmarks others gather around.

A gentle tip: if you’re going to plant a few glimmers somewhere, mark a favourite spot nearby first. At Symond’s Yat I’ve marked the rock and Biblins bridge as spots, the lasting landmarks, and then the glimmers are the smaller, more fleeting bits scattered around them.

whimsee works best in little clusters. A handful of glimmers gathered around one lovely place gives a wanderer plenty to find on a single walk, where one lone glimmer miles from anything can feel lonely. So it’s well worth a few of you seeding the same favourite spots, a park or a stretch of woods you all know, so there is a warm, busy little patch to explore together.

Leave things in places that are safe and welcoming to walk to: a path, a park, a green you know. Never anywhere that would send someone into danger or onto private land.

This one is lovely to try with friends. A mosaic is a glimmer you make together: each person adds a little fragment, and once it’s whole it hides itself out in the world as one glimmer to be found.

• In the app, tap Leave something, then Start something together. Give your mosaic a name, add your first fragment, and you’ll get a little share code.
• Send that code to the friends you’re wandering with. Each person opens the same screen, enters the code, and adds their own fragment.
• When the last fragment is added, the mosaic is whole and settles somewhere to be discovered, with every piece credited to the wanderer who left it.

It’s a gentle little group project. See how it feels to start one and to add to someone else’s.

This is the heart of whimsee. When there’s a glimmer hidden nearby, you head out to find it, but there’s no map dot giving it away. Instead the app plays a game of warmer and colder.

• As you walk towards a hidden glimmer, the screen grows warmer, gold and glowing, with fireflies gathering.
• As you walk away, it cools. Turn around and try another direction.
• Your phone gives a soft buzz that quickens as you warm up. If you’d rather not feel it, tap the little wavy button near the top of the hunt screen to turn the buzz off.
• When you’re nearly on top of it, tap Check Here to reveal what’s there. It all happens on your phone, so you leave no trace.
• If it’s one you love, tap Keep Forever and it’s saved to your collection. If not, let it drift away for someone else.

The whole point is to look up and enjoy the walk. Eyes on the world, not the screen.

Some of the loveliest places to wander have no phone signal at all. Whimsee can tuck the glimmers around you onto your phone before you set off, so the hunt still works out in the wild with no bars.

• On the home screen, tap the small round button in the bottom corner to pack the glimmers near you. It brings their photos too, so a photo glimmer still opens when you’re off the grid.
• You can do the same from the Explore screen: there’s a little pack for offline button tucked into the card at the top.
• It packs what’s within your wander distance, and as you walk it quietly keeps up whenever there’s a moment of signal.

Some of the loveliest wanders are right out past the last bar of signal. This is what lets you follow one there.

If you have a question at any time, however small, just reach out. Nothing is too silly to ask. Use the contact form on this website, or email me at sea@whimsee.co.uk. Whatever’s easiest for you.

If something ever feels unsafe or upsetting, a glimmer in a risky place, or anything unkind, please flag it straight away. Every glimmer and spot has a gentle flag option in the app, and you can reach me any of the ways above.