Support

Help with Moonlight

Get in touch

Email

moonlight.arche.support@gmail.com

Tell me what you were doing, what you expected, and what happened instead. Your iOS version and iPhone model help. Screenshots help more.

Common questions

Why do I need an account?

So your word bank is backed up and comes back if you lose your phone, delete the app or get a new iPhone, and so friends can find you on the Social tab. Sign in with Apple, Google or an email address — whichever you prefer. Once you're signed in, capture and review still work with no signal.

I forgot my password.

On the Welcome screen, tap Have an account? Sign in, type your email, press the arrow, then tap Forgot? in the password row. A reset link goes to that address. If you signed up with Apple or Google, there is no Moonlight password — use the same button you signed up with.

How do I add a friend?

On the Social tab, type their @username (or their friend code) into the box at the top. In person, tap the QR icon in the top left: show yours, or scan theirs. A friend's QR code also works from the iPhone's own Camera app — it opens Moonlight and adds them. To invite someone who isn't on Moonlight yet, use Invite from Contacts during sign-up, or Share on the friends screen (the person icon on Social).

Can I change my username?

Yes. On the Social tab, tap You're @name · change under the search box. Your old username is freed for someone else as soon as the new one is saved.

I cheered a friend but they didn't see it.

Cheers reach friends who have added you back. If they haven't, ask them to add your @username, and the next cheer will land.

What can my friends see?

Your name, @username, streak and word counts, the words you choose to share, and the book you're reading only if you switch on Show what I'm reading. Never the rest of your word bank. The privacy policy lists it field by field.

The mic didn't pick up my word.

Moonlight recognises speech on the phone itself, which needs both Microphone and Speech Recognition permission — check Settings → Moonlight. It is tuned for single words rather than sentences, so say the word on its own, and give it a beat before you tap stop.

A word came back with no definition.

The bundled dictionary is Princeton WordNet 3.1 — 86,811 headwords. It doesn't carry proper nouns, very recent coinages, or every inflected form, so try the base form of the word. Apple's own dictionaries cover a lot of the rest once you've downloaded them.

Definitions look different on my phone than on someone else's.

Apple's dictionaries are downloaded per device, on demand — a phone that has never downloaded one will fall back to Moonlight's bundled entry. To add them: Settings → General → Dictionary, then tick the ones you want. Whichever entry you read, the WordNet text is what gets saved to your word bank.

The total page count is wrong.

Book details come from Open Library, whose page count is a median across every edition — so it often doesn't match the copy in your hands. Open the book, tap edit, and type the real total. The progress slider follows whatever you set.

I deleted a book. Did I lose its words?

No. Deleting a book removes it from your library and leaves every word you captured from it in your bank, just no longer filed under a title. Words are only ever removed when you remove them yourself.

Where is my data, and how do I get it out?

On your iPhone, with a private backup in your account so nothing is lost when you change phones. You can export your whole word bank as a CSV from Profile → Export, and send it wherever you like.

How do I delete everything?

Profile → Settings → Delete account. It removes your friend profile and username, your backed-up words, your account, and everything on the phone, in that order. Deleting the app on its own leaves your account in place — use Delete account first, or email us and we'll delete it for you.

Requirements

Device: iPhone. Portrait only.
System: iOS 26.5 or later.
Account: Apple, Google or email. Needed once to sign in.
Network: Needed to sign in, back up and use Social. Capture, lookups and review work offline once you're signed in.
Permissions: Microphone and Speech Recognition for voice capture; Camera for capturing words off a page and scanning friends' QR codes; Photos for words in a picture you've taken. Each is asked for only when you first use that feature, and declining one leaves the rest working. Moonlight never asks for your contacts.

Privacy

Your words are private to your account; friends see only what you choose to share. No analytics, no ads, no tracking. The full policy, field by field, is on the privacy page.