Signing Up
Signing Up
First-run is a single scrolling page — each step unfurls below the previous one rather than replacing it. You can scroll back up to re-read earlier steps at any point.
1. The global summary
As soon as you open the app, Furbol prints a short live roundup of what’s been happening across Furbol in the last 30 days — how many games played, in how many cities, by how many players. It’s there to set the scale: “this is what Furbol actually is, at the moment you’re arriving.”
2. The local summary
Next, Furbol prints the same shape of summary scoped to your cities — the cities it thinks are relevant to you, based on a quick IP geolocation plus the cities configured in the build. This tells you whether there’s a real scene to join where you live before you commit to signing up.
3. Your phone number — verify or skip
Furbol asks for a phone number. Two ways to handle it:
- Verify now. Type the number, get the SMS code, type it back in. That’s what proves the number is yours and matches you to any pre-registrations a friend made on your behalf (see Pre-registered Players).
- LATER — browse without verifying. Furbol files an unverified account against the number you typed (so it knows who you are) but skips the SMS. You can keep going through signup, land on the home screen, and look around. The moment you tap something that needs a verified number — joining a game, sending a message, syncing contacts — the verification wall pulls up and asks you for the code then.
Tapping through to the terms and privacy link is part of this step. By submitting, you accept them.
4. Your nickname
Pick a name that other players will see. Rules are on Nickname — briefly: it has to be unique, and Furbol doesn’t let it collide with an existing user’s name or with an obvious slur.
Nickname is the only signup step you can’t skip. Once it’s set, you’re on the home screen.
5. Your avatar
Pick a photo, or let Furbol generate a placeholder. The avatar is how you appear on rosters and in the activity log — it gets treated with the same importance as the nickname.
6. Contacts — your first connections
The last step is where Furbol starts populating your network. It asks for permission to read your phone contacts:
- If you grant it, Furbol matches your contacts against other Furbol users. Anyone you know who’s already on the app appears as a possible friend — a one-tap connection.
- If you skip it, Furbol shows a teaser of stalkers — silhouette profiles who have your phone number saved (i.e. people already on the app who have your number in their contacts). You can still sync contacts later to see them for real.
This is also where Furbol generates your personal invite link, which you can send to friends who aren’t on the app yet — once they install and sign up, they show up as connections automatically.
What “registration complete” actually means
Furbol considers your profile complete when all five of these are set:
- City (resolved from the cities summary)
- A phone number on file — verified, or unverified-with-the-number-known
- Nickname
- Avatar
- At least the required number of connections — a threshold Furbol can tune; right now it’s effectively off, but it can be raised if a city or campaign needs it.
Until you hit the connections threshold and your phone is verified, you can browse the app but you can’t book into games — see Playing Requirements and The Verification Wall.
7. Go for the games
Once the contacts step is past, the button at the bottom — Go for the games — takes you to the home screen. From there you’re inside the main app: you can browse listings, see who’s playing, follow people, and (once the requirements are met) book your first spot.
If you drop off mid-signup
The onboarding is resumable. Furbol remembers whatever you’ve finished — phone, nickname, avatar, contacts — and drops you back into the first unfinished step next time you open the app. You don’t restart from scratch.