Our goal is to make every aspect of group travel easier and more efficient for our Hosts and Travelers. A key feature in this goal is Trova's mobile app. The app makes it easy to view your trip and itinerary details, as well as a great way to engage your Travelers in the group chat feature. We will go over the tools, features, and best practices for using the mobile app effectively on your trip.
Downloading the App
Trova's mobile app is available on Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store. Download the app to your smartphone and sign in using the same email and password you use to sign into your Portal. All users will be invited to the app around 60-50 days before the trip starts. If you have previously downloaded the app, you will not see your current trip until this date, but can still view past trips.
The minimum device requirements to download and operate the app are:
Android: 5 series or higher
iPhone: 14 or higher
Navigating the App
Once you have signed in, you should see a view of the home page with all your past, current, and future trips. Scrolling left and right, you can choose the trip you are looking for. The bottom bar will take you to your trips page, your chats page or your profile page as you need it.
Trips
Clicking on the trip allows you to see the trip details like:
A picture carousel of your trip, similar to what displays on your public trip page.
The trip name, and the name of the Host.
The location and date of the trip.
Several links/buttons to the trip group chat
The Host profile (you will not be able to view this as the Host, but your Travelers will!)
Chats
This tab at the bottom will bring you to your chats page for past, present, and future trips, highlighted with a tag on the right. We will go more in-depth later in this article on the chat features. However, you can view group chats on this page, displayed first. Or you can scroll down to view individual direct messages from the group. This can include messages from your Travelers or Guide.
If there is no internet connection, the app will display all details up until the connection was lost. Additionally, it will display a no Internet connection notification.
Profile
Clicking on the profile button on the bottom nav bar will bring you to your profile page. This is where you can view your settings, as well as preview what others will see on your profile page in the app. This includes:
Preferred pronouns
Location
Languages
Instagram Profile
Your bio
Clicking Edit Profile will allow you to make changes to this page.
Settings
The Settings button (a gear icon in the top right) will allow you to make account changes and contact our Support teams. You can:
Enable push notifications
Change your password
View our Help Center
This allows you to send a message to our Support team. However, during the trip, this will also have emergency contact numbers for the Operator, and your Guide.
We always recommend all app users enable push notifications so they don't miss important messages or updates. Feel free to direct your passengers to this field to enable these.
Using the Chat
Your Travelers will be invited to the group chat around 60-50 days before the trip starts, right around when the trip closes. We always advise engaging your community in the group chat, even migrating any existing group chats from Instagram, WhatsApp, etc. There are many benefits to keeping this on Trova's platform!
Chat Settings
Click the trip icon/picture in the top right of your chat will bring you to the chat settings. This allows you to:
View and direct message the members of the chat.
View your pinned messages
Explore the shared media in the chat
Mute the channel
Messaging Features
The chat operates like most other group chats, with some key features built to make Hosting easier! Clicking the plus (+) icon will allow you to:
Add photos or videos from your library
Open your phone's camera
Add files from your device
Share your location
Typing a forward slash (/) or clicking the grid icon brings up your chat commands. These include:
Setting Alerts: this sets a highlighted message in the chat for all of your users. This is great for announcements, updates, etc.
Ban/Unban: If you need to remove a user from the group chat for any reason, this allows you to remove/re-add them easily.
Giphy: Add a gif directly in the chat.
Mute/Unmute: Similar to banning, this will prevent users from messaging in the chat, but will still give them access to view the content.
Message Actions
Hard pressing on any message in the chat also gives you several options via a pop-up menu. These include:
Reactions: Heart, thumbs up/down, question, or emphasize a message in your chat easily.
Thread: Reply in a thread to a message to keep your chat less cluttered or directly respond.
Pin/unpin: Pins the message which can be later viewed in the Pinned Messages in the chat settings.
Flag: Flagging a message will notify our moderating team of any inappropriate or urgent content. Please review our Community Guidelines to see more.
Mark as Unread: This will remove the read status and display an unread message notification.
Copy: Allows copying the content of a message to paste elsewhere.
Help Center
The Help Center of the mobile app will display differently depending on the status of the trip. Before and after your trip, you will still be able to receive General Support, with the ability to message our Support team.
During the trip, you can select On-Trip Support, for more urgent contact needs. This will display the Operator's emergency contact number and your Guide's contact.