Add The Visitor to your Home Screen

Install the app first, then launch it from its Home Screen icon before signing in or performing. This gives the fake phone screens their full-screen presentation.

iPhone — Safari

1. Open your Visitor app link in Safari.
2. Tap Share (you may need to open the More menu), then Add to Home Screen. If it is missing, use Edit Actions to add it.
3. Leave Open as Web App switched on if shown, then tap Add.
4. Return to your Home Screen and tap The Visitor icon.

Android / Samsung — Chrome

1. Open your Visitor app link in Chrome.
2. Open the three-dot menu and choose Add to Home screen or Install app.
3. Choose Install if offered and follow the confirmation steps.
4. Launch The Visitor from its new icon.

If you opened the link inside an email or social app, open it in Safari or Chrome first. An installed app should open without the normal browser address bar.

For the first setup, stay online while the app downloads its images. Before a performance, open your chosen brochure and rehearse its reveal. If you plan to work offline, test it in airplane mode beforehand.

Installation help: Apple’s iPhone guide · Google’s Android guide.

What The Visitor does

The Visitor is a performance companion for your brochures. It displays a simulated lock screen and keypad, then reveals the selected brochure image as wallpaper or a photo when the spectator enters the four-digit performance PIN. It does not change your phone’s real PIN or wallpaper.

Find your settings

After signing in, tap the cog at the top right of the dashboard. On this same Settings page you can choose your lock-screen background, select Classic or Modern home-screen appearance, and add custom images and gallery photos. Android also offers Round icons; iPhone offers Classic and Modern only. Tap the back arrow to return to the dashboard.

A clearer wallpaper reveal

Swipe left across the fake home screen to show a second page with just four icons and the dock, leaving more of the prediction visible. Swipe right to return. Hold the top-left corner for about one second to return to the control panel.

Signing in

Enter the email address used for your purchase and your five-digit PIN. Select Remember me to keep this device authorised after the online check.

Before performing

Choose the brochure you are going to use before you introduce it to the spectator. Select Wallpaper or Photo. When Zoo is selected, Typography is also available. Paranormal uses Photo only. Press Arm, place the phone face down in clear view and do not refer to it until the reveal.

During the effect

After you have worked out the image number, ask the spectator to pick up the phone. Tell them to swipe upwards from the middle of the lock screen. On an iPhone, avoid swiping from the very bottom because this can minimise the app.

When the keypad appears, give them the four-digit PIN. The first two digits are always 08 and the final two digits are the image number. For example, image 6 uses PIN 0806. On Android they enter the PIN and press OK. On iPhone the reveal opens automatically after the fourth digit.

PINs

0801 opens image 1, 0802 opens image 2, continuing through to 0812 for the twelve brochure images. Custom Images use 0801 through to 0820.

Wallpaper reveal

The selected image appears behind the phone’s normal home-screen icons and dock, giving the impression that it was already set as the wallpaper before the performance.

Photo reveal

The selected prediction opens in the centre of a swipeable photo gallery. Up to ten performer-supplied photos can appear before it and ten after it. Each image fills the screen width between black bands above and below. Pictures are cropped centrally to fill this gallery area without stretching.

Typography reveal

Typography is available only when Zoo is selected. The PIN opens a different animal image containing the name of the spectator’s chosen animal hidden repeatedly within the picture. Let the spectator first see the apparently incorrect animal, then ask them to pinch and zoom into the image to discover the hidden animal name.

Custom Images

Open Settings from the dashboard and add an image to any of the twenty custom slots. Custom images are stored on that device. You will need your own system for remembering which image is stored in each numbered slot.

Photo Gallery

Open Settings and add up to ten ordinary personal photos before the prediction and ten after it. The same twenty photos can surround every Photo reveal and are stored locally for offline use.

Lock screen background

Open Settings to choose an optional image for both the fake lock screen and the PIN keypad. Use Replace image to choose another picture, or Restore default to return to the original background.

Reset

Hold the top-left corner briefly to return to the dashboard. This works from the PIN keypad, the wallpaper reveal and the photo or typography reveal.

Offline use

The first sign-in must be completed online. Once authorised with Remember me selected, the app, Custom images and Photo Gallery images can continue to work offline on that device.

How The Visitor works

Each brochure contains twelve images. Hand the chosen brochure to the spectator and ask them to think of any one image without naming it out loud.

Each brochure contains one main Monday-to-Friday section that secretly identifies the thought-of image. Other timetables and activities are included only to make the brochure look natural.

The main section in each brochure

• Zoo: Daily Feeding Schedule
• Aviation Museum: Interactive Flight Simulator Schedule
• Sea Life Centre: Daily Keeper Talks
• Car Museum: Interactive Driving Schedule
• Maritime Heritage Bay: Guided Information Talks
• Theme Park: Fast Pass Availability

Recommended presentation

Use the wording that fits the brochure. For the Zoo, you might say:

Wait for their yes or no answer. Then jump to Thursday:

After their second answer, ask:

They can now tell you Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday as applicable. This feels more conversational than asking about every day one after another.

Alternative presentation

You can simply ask which days their thought-of image appears in the brochure’s main schedule. They look through all five days and tell you the relevant days.

The binary values

Friday is a red herring and is always ignored. Add together the values of every relevant day from Monday to Thursday. The total is the image number.

Revealing with the brochure

Once you know the image number, ask the spectator to close the brochure. You can direct them to the numbered map on the back, or take the brochure yourself and look up the matching location. You can then reveal the thought verbally, with a drawing, or in any style you prefer.

Revealing with the app

Before handing out the brochure, select that brochure in the app, choose the reveal type, press Arm and place the phone face down in clear view.

Perform the brochure routine and work out the binary number. At the reveal, explain that before you began you changed your wallpaper or selected a photograph. Ask the spectator to lift the phone, swipe up from the middle of the screen and enter the PIN you provide.

The first two digits are always 08. The final two digits are the binary number. For example, image 6 uses 0806. On Android they press OK. On iPhone the chosen Wallpaper, Photo or Zoo Typography reveal appears automatically after the fourth digit.

Using Custom Images

The app also contains twenty custom image slots. These use the same PIN structure, from 0801 to 0820. Custom Images are not tied to the brochure method, so create your own method for secretly obtaining or remembering the required slot number.

Eye Test bonus

The bonus eye-test brochure does not use the app or the binary system. Force the Eight of Clubs beforehand, then ask the spectator to read down the chart in the direction shown by the arrows.

The letters read phonetically as U CHOSE AN ATE OV KLUBZ, which sounds like: “You chose an Eight of Clubs.”