Headscapades
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When it doesn't work, it's usually Wi-Fi.

Nearby sharing, deck codes, iCloud, and purchases — what each one actually does, and the handful of things that stop it.

Playing a round

  • Hold the phone to your forehead. Tilt down when you get it, up to pass — or, if you would rather not tilt at all, turn Motion Controls off in Settings and play entirely with taps and swipes. That is also how you play it flat on a table, or one-handed.
  • Round length is set on the deck's own screen, not in Settings: 30 seconds, 1 minute, 1:30, 2 minutes, or no timer at all — with no timer the clock counts up and the round runs until someone ends it.

Nearby deck sharing

Nearby sharing connects the two phones directly, over the same peer-to-peer Wi-Fi radio AirDrop uses. There is no router, no Wi-Fi network to join, no accounts, and no internet. It works in a basement, on a plane, in a car.

How it works

The phone that is receiving puts its hand up first, and the sender picks it — the same way round as AirDrop.

  1. Receiver: tap Import, then the Nearby tab. The screen shows a handle like OTTER 42. Read it out loud.
  2. Sender: open the deck, tap Share, then Share Nearby, and tap the name you just heard.
  3. The deck crosses. The receiver taps Save Deck to keep it — until they do, nothing has been added to their library.

The handle is a random animal and number, and it changes every time. It is not your device name: iOS stopped handing that out, and a room full of phones all called "iPhone" would be useless anyway.

Troubleshooting

Almost always one of these, in roughly this order of likelihood.

  • Wi-Fi is switched off. This is the big one, and it catches everybody, because the feature works with no internet — so people reasonably assume it needs no Wi-Fi. It does. Peer-to-peer Wi-Fi is still Wi-Fi, and the radio has to be on. You do not need to be connected to a network; you need the switch on. Both phones. Airplane mode is fine as long as you turn Wi-Fi back on inside it. (There is no Bluetooth fallback, and there is no framework that would provide one — a ten-megabyte photo deck over Bluetooth would take minutes.)
  • Local Network permission was declined. If you see this:

    "Headscapades needs Local Network access. Turn it on in Settings ▸ Headscapades."

    then go to Settings ▸ Headscapades and switch Local Network on. iOS asks for this once, with a prompt that is very easy to dismiss by accident, and there is no second chance from inside the app. Nothing else in the app needs it.

Deck codes and QR codes

A word deck can also travel as a code. The code is not a link to a copy stored somewhere — the deck is the code. That is why it works with no signal, why nothing of yours is uploaded, and why a deck of fifty words comes out around 400–600 characters.

Sending

Open the deck and tap Share. You get three things: a QR square to hold up, the text code with a Copy Code button, and Send in Messages, which drops a two-line message with the code in it into whatever you choose from the share sheet.

Receiving

Tap Import and choose Scan QR or Paste Code. Pasting accepts the whole message — you do not need to pick the code out of it, the app finds it. An imported deck always arrives as a new deck; importing can never overwrite something you made. If the name is already taken, the copy gets a number after it.

Things that surprise people

  • Photo decks have no code. A QR code holds under 3 KB and a single photo card is several hundred. Photo decks go over the air, nearby — which is why the Share screen for a photo deck offers only that.
  • Custom cover images do not travel in a code. They would dwarf the word list, so a deck sent as a code arrives with a symbol instead of your photo cover. Send it nearby to keep the cover.
  • A very long deck can outgrow the QR square — you will see "This deck is too long for a QR code. Send the text code instead." The text code still works; only the picture of it has a size limit.
  • "That code was made by a newer version of Headscapades." Update the app.
  • "That code is damaged or incomplete." A code was cut short somewhere — a truncated copy, a screenshot of a wrapped message. Get the whole thing again, or use Copy Code at the sending end rather than selecting it by hand.
  • Anyone holding the code has the deck. There is no revoking it. Send codes to people, not to the internet.

iCloud sync

Sync is automatic and there is nothing to switch on. If you are signed in to iCloud, the decks you make and your high scores are mirrored into your own private iCloud database and turn up on your other devices. The decks that come with the app are part of the app, so there is nothing to sync.

  • Photo decks are the exception. They stay on the device that made them until you open the deck and tap Upload, because a photo deck can run to megabytes of your iCloud storage. After that they sync like any other deck.
  • Not signed in to iCloud? Everything is kept on the device instead. Nothing is lost and nothing is waiting to be claimed — the decks simply stay on that one phone.
  • A deck missing on your other device is usually sync still in flight, because iCloud is not instant. It will not sync at all on a device with iCloud switched off for Headscapades, which is in the iCloud section of Settings under your Apple Account.

Photo decks

A photo deck holds pictures instead of words — your friends' faces, the family pets, whoever the room will recognise. Take them with the camera or pick them out of your photo library.

  • They travel nearby, not as a code. A photo card dwarfs anything a QR square can hold — see Deck codes and QR codes above — so the Share screen for a photo deck offers the over-the-air transfer only.
  • They do not leave the device until you say so. Open the deck and tap Upload to put it in your iCloud — see iCloud sync above.
  • The camera is asked for once. If that prompt was declined, both photo cards and QR scanning stop working. Switch Camera back on in Settings ▸ Headscapades.

Deck Builder

The app is free and so is your first deck. Deck Builder is a single one-time purchase that lifts the limit.

  • The free deck is a slot, not a one-off. It belongs to whichever deck you spent it on — delete that deck and the free slot comes back, ready for another.
  • To restore a purchase on a new phone, or after reinstalling: open Settings in the app and tap Restore. It is also on the unlock screen as Restore Purchases. You must be signed in with the same Apple Account that bought it — "No previous purchase found on this Apple Account" almost always means a different account is signed in.
  • "Waiting on approval" means Ask To Buy: a family organiser has to approve it. The unlock arrives on its own once they do, with nothing more to tap.
  • "Couldn't reach the App Store" is a connection problem, not a purchase problem. Nothing was charged. Try again on a working connection.
  • Refunds are Apple's, not ours — request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. The unlock is withdrawn if the refund is approved.
  • A purchase made on one device is recognised on your others automatically the next time the app checks. The Deck Builder feature is also eligible for Family Sharing, so everyone in the family can make their own decks.