Antiphon

Support

Antiphon composes the shape of a conversation for a group sitting together, and hands the table one prompt at a time.

Getting started

1. Answer five questions about the table: how many people, how well you know each other, how long you have, how loud the room is, and whether you are seated, standing or walking.
2. Tap Build the arc.
3. Put the phone in the middle of the table. Tap the right half of the screen for the next move, the left half to go back.

Common questions

The timer ran out and nothing happened.

That is deliberate. The bar is a suggestion for the host, not a rule. Interrupting a conversation with a timer would be the opposite of what this app is for.

Why can I only pick 21 minutes in a loud place?

Because that is the longest arc that will actually hold there. In a loud room nobody holds the floor for more than about seventy seconds, and an arc longer than eighteen moves stops being a shape and becomes a list. Quiet: 45 minutes. Lively: 33. Loud: 21. The rest of the evening is a second arc.

Why does it ask about the room instead of using my location?

GPS cannot tell whether a bar is loud. The person in it can. Antiphon never requests location.

Why does it want the microphone?

Only if you tap "measure what's playing", and only for five seconds. It computes three numbers — tempo, energy and spectral brightness — and throws the audio away. Nothing is recorded, stored or transmitted. It is the app's only permission.

Do I need an account?

No. There is no sign-in, no registration and no server. Nothing you say at the table is stored anywhere, including on your own device.

I bought the unlock and it is not showing.

Open the end-of-arc screen and tap Restore purchases. If it still does not appear, make sure you are signed into the same Apple Account that made the purchase.

Does the Apple Watch app need the phone?

It needs the phone to start an arc, then regenerates that arc itself from a deterministic seed. If the connection drops mid-evening the watch keeps working.

Contact

Write to brkekahraman@icloud.com. Include your device and iOS version if something is not working.