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Short guides to every part of Catch the Ghost, written for the iPhone and Android apps. Search for a topic, or browse by category.

Getting started

Install the app, set up your account, and catch your first ghost.

Getting started with Catch the Ghost

Install the free app, answer a few setup questions, choose a guide, create your account, and start your first 25 minute Deep Focus session.

Choose your guide

Your guide is the historical figure who cheers you on through every session. Pick one during setup and switch any time from your Profile.

Focus sessions

How the digital hourglass, Deep and Shallow Focus, and stakes work.

Deep Focus is the 25 minute session that reveals one apparition, a chapter of a ghost's life, through the digital hourglass. Choose who you are catching, set a length, start the timer, and stay with it until the picture is complete.

The digital hourglass

The digital hourglass is the face of a Deep Focus session. The apparition's picture is drawn as a grid of dots that fills in as time passes, and tapping it lets you peek at the time left.

Shallow Focus

Shallow Focus is a flexible timer for work that does not need a locked-in session. It catches no apparition, but it pays a session reward and keeps your streak going.

Stakes and grace periods

A Deep Focus session has real stakes. Ending early or staying away too long loses the apparition you were catching, and coins are only ever at risk if you choose to stake them. Grace periods give you three one minute exits per session to step away.

Practice catches

Your first three Deep Focus catches are practice. Until the third catch, the only way to lose an apparition is to stop the timer on purpose, and a practice report after each one explains how grace periods work.

Tags for your focus sessions

Tags label a focus session with a name and one of 15 colors, such as Writing or Study. You create and choose them from the Focus tab, and rename or recolor them later from your Profile.

Ambience sounds and breaks

Play one of six background soundscapes while you focus, then take a timed break from the rewards screen when a session ends. Both are free on iPhone and Android.

The lock screen countdown

On iPhone a Live Activity and the Dynamic Island keep your countdown in view outside the app. On Android an ongoing notification does the same. Locking your phone is free; leaving to the Home Screen or another app uses a grace exit.

Collecting ghosts

Chapters, the ghost library, and how a life story gets completed.

Chapters and apparitions

A ghost is a historical figure with many apparitions, each one chapter of their life told in order. A chapter is a Quote, a Story or an Image, and every Deep Focus session catches exactly one.

Your ghosts, In Progress and packs

The Ghosts tab holds every ghost you have caught, the ghosts you are still catching in an In Progress row, and the packs you own. You can sort, search and open any of them.

Ghost pages, apparitions and liked quotes

Open a ghost you have caught to read their biography and the facts on record, browse every apparition, and like the quotes you want to keep. Your liked quotes are collected in one place.

The Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia lists every ghost in the library, caught or not, in alphabetical sections you can jump through or search. If a ghost is missing, you can suggest them from the search results.

The Ghost Universe

The Ghost Universe is a map of connections between historical figures, with the ghosts you have caught shown as portraits. You can pinch to zoom out, tap a ghost to open their page, and use the minimap to keep your bearings. It is a Catch the Ghost Pro feature.

Sharing an apparition

Turn a quote you have caught into an image card. Pick a template, a shape and a text size, preview the card, then send it to a friend or save it to your photos.

Streaks and progress

Streaks, repairs, history, and where you stand on the leaderboard.

How streaks work

Your streak counts the days in a row you finished a focus session, pays a bigger coin multiplier as it grows, and can be recovered with coins if you miss a day.

Your focus history

History charts your focused time by day, week, month and year, splits it by tag, and lists every session. It is part of Catch the Ghost Pro.

The weekly leaderboard and your player card

The Leaderboard ranks everyone by the XP they earn each week, resets every Sunday, and pays coins to the top three. Your Player Card shows your flag, XP, streak and a favorite apparition.

Store, coins and Pro

Earning and spending coins, themed packs, and what Pro adds.

The Store and ghost packs

The Store sells themed packs of ghosts for coins you earn by focusing. Browse by collection or category, search by name, save packs for later, and find the packs you already own under Purchased.

Coins: earning, spending and the Coins page

You earn coins by finishing focus sessions and spend them on ghost packs, longer grace periods and streak recovery. The Coins page holds your balance and the coin-spending extras, and the app asks you to confirm before every spend.

Catch the Ghost Pro

Catch the Ghost Pro is a paid subscription that adds four things to the free app: Legendary ghosts, the Sleep Timer, the Ghost Universe and Full History. This page covers what each does, the free trials, how to cancel, and what stays yours if Pro ends.

Focus Together and friends

Shared Deep Focus rooms, inviting friends, and double rewards.

Focus Together, start to finish

Focus Together is a shared Deep Focus session for up to 8 people. The host creates a room, friends join with a code, a link or a QR code, everyone's timer starts at once, and when at least two people finish, each finisher earns double coins and XP.

Share and Earn

Share your invite code, QR code or link with a friend. When they finish their first 25 minute focus session, you earn 3,000 coins and they earn 1,000.

Sleep

The Sleep Timer, its multiplier, and the wake-up alarm.

The Sleep Timer

The Sleep Timer is a Catch the Ghost Pro feature that turns a night away from your phone into a catch. Choose a wake-up time, go to sleep, and wake to an apparition and a larger reward.

Account and settings

Sign-in, notifications, subscriptions, and troubleshooting.

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