A walk through a Village
Eight short stops through what members of a Village use every day: the home page, stories, photos, conversations, events, decisions, their own records, and help in their own language. Each stop shows the screen and says what it does, and what it does not.
What is happening in your Village, on one page
The home page shows recent activity from the people in your Village, with shortcuts to chat, direct messages, the member list and the Ask Village AI assistant.
Good to know. A new Village starts simple. More tools, such as the calendar, documents and polls, appear depending on the kind of Village and its stage, so not every Village shows every shortcut.
Good morning, Sam
- Priya posted a story: Community garden, first harvest
- Tom added 6 photos to Street party 2026
- Tomorrow: volunteer day at the reserve
Share a story, and choose who sees it
Members write stories and post them to the Village. Whoever writes a story chooses who can see it. Try the three choices in the example.
Good to know. Each of the three choices limits who can see a story to members of the Village. Putting a story on the Village's shopfront, the page it shows to people who are not members, is a separate choice its author makes.
Title
Community garden, first harvest
Visible to every member of Harbourside Neighbours. Visible to members of the groups you pick, such as the Garden group. Visible only to you, until you change it.
Photos and albums, kept together in the Village
Members upload photos into shared albums, so the street party or the volunteer day lives in one place instead of across a dozen phones.
Good to know. Photos are for members of the Village, unless someone chooses to show one on the Village's shopfront. The app does not post them to any social network.
- Street party 202648 photos
- Community garden23 photos
- Volunteer day at the reserve12 photos
- Winter lanterns31 photos
Group chat and private messages
Chat rooms are for group conversations. Direct messages are for one-to-one conversations between members of the Village.
Good to know. Direct messages are not end-to-end encrypted.
Priya Beans are ready. Anyone want some?
Tom Yes please, I can pick them up after work.
You Could you keep a bag aside for the volunteer day lunch?
Events people can say yes to
The calendar lists what is on in the Village, and members reply with whether they are coming, so whoever is organising knows how many to expect.
Good to know. Whether the calendar appears depends on the kind of Village and its stage.
Volunteer day at the reserve
Vote on a question together
Polls let members vote on a question, with the same visibility choices as stories.
Good to know. The results here are invented, and your vote on this page is not recorded.
Should the volunteer day move to Sunday mornings?
Your vote is counted on this page only.
Visibility: All members.
See your own records, and take a copy with you
The Sovereign Records page lists your own records held by your Village. The verify button checks whether a record has changed since it was signed, and the download button gives you a signed copy of your data to keep.
Good to know. Inside a Village, the button runs the actual verification. Here it is only an example and checks nothing. Get the offline verifier and check a record yourself
Story
Community garden, first harvest
✓ Verified: this record has not changed since it was signed. (This is only an example and checks nothing.)
Ask for help, in your own language
The Ask Village AI assistant answers questions about how your Village works. You can use the app in five languages: English, te reo Māori, German, French and Dutch. Each member chooses their own.
Good to know. The translations on this page were made with a machine translation service. Te reo Māori is marked as provisional: it has not been reviewed by tangata whenua.
How do I make a story visible only to the garden group?
Open the story, choose who can see it, and pick the Garden group.
An example answer, written for this page.
LanguagesSeeing a Village that works
This page shows the app with invented content. The example Villages are the same app, running with made-up content for different kinds of community. A Village of your own is only set up by arrangement with us.