Questions and answers

Gulp is a water app for you and a few friends. You each have a drawn mascot, you log drinks through the day, and together you fill a shared lake. If someone falls behind, you can splash them with a playful nudge to drink.

Every non-alcoholic drink counts as one gulp, whatever the size: water, sparkling water, tea, coffee, juice, milk and so on. The drink type colors your mascot's fill, and the size adds to your volume for the day, but neither changes the count. Gulp rewards a steady rhythm, not big numbers.

Two gentle rules keep the rhythm meaningful and stop anyone from overdoing it:

• A gulp counts when it's at least 15 minutes after your last counted one. A quicker one is still saved, and the sheet tells you when the next one will count.
• Once you reach your daily goal, you're full for today. Extra drinks are still logged, but they don't add to your goal, drops, the lake or your streak.

Gulp splits your waking day into four windows: morning, midday, afternoon and evening. They come from the wake-up and bedtime you choose, and each window has a couple of slots to fill. You're on rhythm when no window has slipped by empty. A missed window is shown softly and is never held against you.

Yes. Go to Me, then Settings, to change your daily goal, your wake-up and bedtime, and your units (ml or oz). Changes start tomorrow, so today keeps its rhythm.

A day counts toward your streak when you reach your goal, or when you count at least six gulps spread across at least three windows. That forgives one off window without letting a single big evening stand in for a whole day.

A squad is a small group of friends who drink together. On the free plan a squad holds 2 to 4 people, and Gulp+ or a Squad Pass makes room for up to 8. You can also use Gulp on your own and start or join a squad whenever you're ready.

Tap the invite link your friend sent. If Gulp is installed, it opens straight to the squad. If not, the link shows your invite code and the store buttons, so you can install Gulp and then open the link again, or paste the code when Gulp asks you to join a squad.

The lake is your squad's shared goal for the day. Every member's counted gulps pour into it, and it fills as a share of everyone's goals added together. When it's full to the banks, everyone in the squad earns bonus drops. Each person's gulps count toward their own local day, so friends in other time zones still fit in.

You can splash a squad mate who's fallen behind. Their mascot gets soaked and a little sad until they log their next gulp, which dries them off, and then you both earn a few drops. Nobody loses anything. You get two splashes a day, you can't splash someone who's already soaked, and if you've been splashed you can always splash the sender back once.

Your squad has a small podium ranked by earned streaks, with today's counted gulps as the tie breaker. Gulp never ranks anyone by how much they drink.

Drops are Gulp's coins. You earn them for counted gulps that fill a rhythm slot, finished windows, reaching your goal, a full lake, splashes that lead to a drink, and streak milestones. You spend them in the Kit on looks for your mascot. Drops only ever buy looks, so nothing you buy adds gulps, lake, streak days or rank.

Drop packs are sold as in-app purchases through the App Store and Google Play, with prices shown in the app before you buy. Some Kit items unlock only with a streak, and those can never be bought, so earning them still means something.

Gulp+ is an optional subscription with a monthly kit drop of exclusive items, extra drops each month, premium splash effects, streak freezes, insights about your rhythm, Home backgrounds, and room for a bigger squad.

A Squad Pass is bought once a year by one person and lifts the whole squad to 8 members, with the monthly kit drop, premium splash effects and Home backgrounds for everyone in it.

Prices are shown in the app before you buy and can vary by country.

Subscriptions are billed by Apple or Google, so you cancel them in your store account: on iPhone in Settings, then your name, then Subscriptions, and on Android in the Play Store under Payments and subscriptions. Refunds are handled by the store too. Deleting the Gulp app or your Gulp account does not cancel a subscription on its own.

Sign in with the same account, then go to Me and tap Restore purchases.

Gulp sends at most four reminders a day and only during your waking hours. Go to Me, then Settings, to switch off any kind of reminder, or turn off notifications for Gulp in your phone's settings.

Go to Me and tap Delete account. That removes your account along with your drinks, mascot, drops and squad membership. If you have a subscription, cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account as well, since the store bills it. You can also email privacy@astelapps.com and we'll help.

Just what the app needs to work and to get better: your account, your mascot, your drink log and settings, your squad, and basic usage and crash information. We don't sell your data and Gulp has no ads. Our privacy policy explains it all.

No. Gulp is a friendly habit app, not a medical device, and its goals are not medical recommendations. How much you should drink depends on you, so check with a doctor, especially if you have a health condition or have been told to limit fluids.