⏱️ 5 min · 📱 iPhone and Android · Applies to the self-hosted bot and the hosted plans
Related: Guide 11 (the WhatsApp bot), Guide 15 (running everything from a phone), Option 6 (Telegram or WhatsApp bot).
1. How people use Samayly on a phone
Who touches what
- Members never install anything. They are already in the group; they type a question and read the reply.
- Owners manage the tracker from the same chat with owner commands. The sheet itself opens in the Google Sheets app when they want to edit by hand.
- The website is where owners read the docs, compare plans and ask for access. It works at phone widths and can be installed on the home screen (section 3).
2. Why there is no separate app
| Reason | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The chat app is the app | Every member already has WhatsApp or Telegram open all day. A second app would compete with the product's main advantage: nothing new to install. |
| Adoption | A class of 40 will add a bot to a group in a minute. Getting 40 people through an App Store install is where adoption stops. |
| Cost and upkeep | Two native codebases, store review, Apple's cut, push-notification plumbing, an account system. Months of work that adds nothing a member cannot already do by typing @bot. |
| Owner jobs are occasional | Connecting a sheet, picking brief times, billing. A mobile-friendly web dashboard covers these; a native app would be opened a few times a year. |
When an app would make sense. Only if one of these becomes true: push notifications are needed outside WhatsApp (for example if the official WhatsApp Business API cost per message becomes a problem), a market of groups that do not use WhatsApp or Telegram appears, or an institutional buyer requires an app for procurement. Even then, build it as a thin wrapper around the web dashboard, not a replacement for the chat.
3. Put samayly.com on a home screen
The site ships a web manifest and icons, so phones treat it as an installable app: full-screen, the Samayly icon on the home screen, no browser bar.
iPhone or iPad (Safari)
- Open
https://samayly.comin Safari. - Tap the Share button (the square with an arrow).
- Scroll and tap Add to Home Screen.
- Keep the name "Samayly" and tap Add.
Android (Chrome)
- Open
https://samayly.comin Chrome. - Tap the ⋮ menu, then Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app).
- Tap Add, then Add again on the confirmation.
The icon is the Samayly clock-in-a-bubble mark. Opening it goes straight to the site; the docs, pricing and contact pages all work offline-tolerant in the sense that they are static pages, but they do need a connection to load.
4. What to say when someone asks "is there an app?"
Paste-ready reply for a group or a customer email:
You already have it. Samayly runs inside WhatsApp and Telegram, so your group just adds the bot. Nothing to install and nothing new to learn. If you want it on your home screen, open samayly.com in Safari or Chrome and choose "Add to Home Screen"; it installs like an app.
Short version for the FAQ: Samayly lives in WhatsApp and Telegram. There is no separate app to install; the website installs to a home screen if you want a shortcut.
5. Owners: running the bot from a phone
If you self-host, the bot runs on your Mac and you can manage it from an iPhone over SSH. That is covered in Guide 5 (Termius), Guide 10 (HTML reports and a one-tap Shortcut) and Guide 15 (every command from every device). On hosted plans none of that is needed; the owner commands in the chat are enough.
6. FAQ
Will members get notifications? Yes, the normal WhatsApp or Telegram notification for a message in the group, including the 08:00 and 22:00 briefs. No extra permission needed.
Can the bot work in a Telegram channel or a WhatsApp community announcement group? It replies where it can post. A Telegram group or supergroup and a WhatsApp group both work; broadcast-only channels do not let a bot answer questions.
Does the home-screen install store anything on the phone? Only the site's pages in the browser cache. Your sheet and chats stay where they are.
Will there ever be a native app? Not planned. See section 2 for the conditions that would change that.
Questions or corrections: [email protected]