The Phone App
What the phone app is for and how to sign in, with a guide for each job at the shelf: scanning, browsing and re-shelving, correcting, lending, photographs, whole shelves, and working without a signal.
What the app is for
Cataloguing happens where the books are, and the books are rarely next to a desk. The AllMyBooks phone app is the shelf-side half of the job: hold a book up to the camera and it tells you in a second whether you already own it, and adds it if you don’t. It’s the same library you see on the website — the same books, the same members, the same permissions — reached from whichever hand isn’t holding the book.
It’s also the version of your library that travels. In a second-hand shop, the question is "have we got this already?", and the app answers it from your own shelves in an instant, even when the shop has no signal. Away from the shelves you can browse and search the collection, correct a record the catalogue got wrong, and photograph a cover the catalogue doesn’t have.
The app is still in development and is not yet available to install. It isn’t on the App Store or Google Play, and there’s no test build to join yet — this guide describes how the app works, ahead of its release. In the meantime, books can be added, corrected, and photographed from the website.
Signing in
The app opens on a sign-in screen, and the Library, Scan, and Settings tabs appear once you’re signed in. Use the same account you use on the website — enter your email and password and choose Sign in, or choose Create an account if you don’t have one yet. You stay signed in between sessions, so this is normally a once-only step.
A brand-new account created with a password lands on a "Check your inbox" screen rather than the Library, because the address has to be confirmed first. Open the link in the email — it opens the website, on any device — then tap “I’ve verified” in the app and the tabs appear. The same screen can resend the email, and signing in with Google never shows it.
Continue with Google signs you in with your phone’s own Google account, without a browser window. If you signed up on the website with Google, this is the same account and the same library — not a second one. If you signed up with GitHub or Facebook, those aren’t available in the app yet; tap "Signed up with GitHub or Facebook?" on the sign-in screen and it explains the way round — sign in on the website, set a password in your account settings, and use that password here.
The Settings tab shows the libraries you belong to and your role in each, and is where you switch which one is active. Everything the Library and Scan tabs show belongs to the active library, so switching changes what you see everywhere. Below that sits Library setup, which is where the active library’s rooms and shelves are tended. Settings also holds the appearance choice — Light, Dark, or Follow the phone — which applies at once and is remembered on that phone; Language and region, which follows your account to every device (see Account & privacy); and Sign out and account deletion.
Continue with Google appears only where the app has been set up for it. Email and password sign-in always works.
Scanning books with the phone
Open the Scan tab and hold a book’s barcode in the frame: the app reads it on its own, tells you whether you already own it, and adds it if you don’t. A printed book label’s QR code is read by the phone’s own camera instead, which opens that copy on the website.
Your library and shelves on the phone
The Library tab lists the active library’s books, and “Search your shelves” searches only your own collection. Settings → Library setup builds rooms, bookcases, shelves and boxes from the phone, and a book’s “Move it” re-shelves a copy where you stand.
Correcting a book and marking it read
Under “Put it right”, “Correct these details” fixes a record the catalogue got wrong and sends only the fields you changed. “Mark as read” is one tap, and your read status is yours alone.
Lending from the phone
“Lend this copy” on a book’s screen records who has it before they leave with it — a name is all it needs — and Loans, under More on the Library tab, shows what is out and what you have borrowed.
Photographs and descriptions
Photograph the printed description and let the phone read it into the record, photograph a cover, and add a book’s other photographs — your library’s, plus any approved for the shared catalogue. Condition photographs belong to one copy and are never shown outside your library.
Reading a whole shelf
From the Library tab, under More, “Scan a shelf” photographs a row of books and reads the spines, so a shelf you have never catalogued — even one with no barcodes — has somewhere to start other than typing.
When there’s no signal
The app keeps your library’s text on the phone, so it still tells you whether you own a book without a connection. Scans of books you don’t own are saved and sent on their own when the signal returns; corrections and photographs wait for a signal.