Support & Feedback
Swell Signal for iPhone and iPad · and swell-signal.com
Answers to the questions we get most, a box to tell us what is wrong or missing, and where ships are tracked today.
Contact us
Email [email protected] — a person reads every message, usually within a day. In the app: More → Help → Feedback.
Get help
The app says no waves are coming
That is usually correct rather than broken. Big ships pass in bursts; a quiet hour is a real answer. The tide, wind and vessel views always have something in them, so check those to confirm the app is live. The freshness dot on the home screen turns amber when data is getting old and red when the feed is down.
A widget is blank, or shows old numbers
Home Screen widgets are refreshed by the system on its own schedule, not on demand, so a few minutes of lag is normal. Open the app once to force a refresh. If a widget stays blank, remove it and add it again — that rebuilds it from scratch. Low Power Mode stops background refresh entirely.
I am not getting alerts
Alerts are delivered with Swell Signal Pro. With Pro, check that notifications are allowed for Swell Signal in the system settings, that the pin's alerts are on in More → Ship alerts in the app, and that the current time is not inside your quiet hours. Alerts only fire above the wave-quality bar you set, so lowering it is the fastest way to test that the path works.
What is LINEUP?
LINEUP is for the tow boat on the water: it shows where and when each ship's wake reaches your boat if you hold your course, how big it should be there, and a red keep-out zone around every hull. It needs Swell Signal Pro and your location while the screen is open, in the app or at swell-signal.com/lineup. Stay 300 ft off every hull, enter the wave from behind the ship, and never cross a bow. Positions can be minutes old and boats without AIS never show: LINEUP is not a navigation aid.
Do I need an account?
No. The map, pins, tides, wind, alerts and widgets all work without one. An account is only needed to save display layouts, to pair a wall screen, and to rate a wake, because those follow you between devices.
How do I delete my account?
In the app, More → Account → Delete account. It removes the account and everything attached to it immediately. See the privacy policy.
Pairing a wall screen
Put the screen on Wi-Fi. It shows a six-character code and a QR code. In the app, sign in, then More → My Screens → Add a screen, and type or scan the code. The screen then draws whichever layout you assign it.
Where the numbers come from
Tides and currents from NOAA, ferry sailings from WSDOT, ship positions from a commercial AIS feed. Wake heights are computed from vessel speed, size and distance. It is a forecast, not a measurement — see the terms before you rely on it near moving vessels.
Report a bad prediction
The single most useful thing you can send is a report after a predicted wave: the app asks how big, how clean, and how many rideable waves came in, and those answers are what calibrate the physics. Rating a wave that never arrived helps as much as rating a good one. That lives in the app, on the wave itself — the box below is for the software.
Send feedback
What broke, what is missing, what you would actually use. No account needed, and you do not have to leave an address — though without one we cannot write back.
We store the message, the address if you leave one, and which page you sent it from. Nothing else. See the privacy policy.
Support us
Swell Signal Pro
Pro adds push alerts when a ship is headed for the pins you choose — a buzz on your phone before the wake arrives, not just a page you have to be watching. It is a separate thing from the donation below: an auto-renewing monthly subscription, sold only in the iOS app.
- Alerts — $5/month. Ship alerts for the pins you choose, where ships are tracked. Your threshold, lead times, snooze and daily limits.
- Supporter — $10/month. The same alerts as the Alerts plan. Twice the support for the live ship feed.
- Patron — $20/month. The same alerts as the Alerts plan. Four times the support — it pays for new water sooner.
GET PRO IN THE iOS APP (App Store, opens in a new tab)
Already Pro? Sign in here with the account you use in the app, and this site shows your plan.
Manage or cancel any time in Settings → [your name] → Subscriptions on the iPhone that bought it. See Terms for the auto-renewal and refund details.
Where ships are tracked
Ships are tracked along the West Coast from San Diego to Prince Rupert, up the Columbia River to Portland and the Gorge, and along the Texas Gulf — Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel, Port Aransas and Corpus Christi. Tide, current and wind work at a pin anywhere in that area. Each pin says what is live there. Wave sizes outside Puget Sound are estimates until riders there help us calibrate them.
Wind and tide are cheap — we can add those for your area quickly. Ship wakes need paid vessel data and people on the beach to rate the waves.
What a donation buys
- A new region's vessel feed. The AIS data is billed per region, every month, whether or not anyone is watching.
- Wind and tide somewhere new. These come from free public sources, so they are mostly our time rather than our money — they can expand fast.
- Nothing else. There are no ads, nothing is sold, and the tide guide is free and stays free whether you give or not.
Opens in a new tab, handled outside the app. This is a separate, one-time gift — not the same as a Swell Signal Pro subscription above.
Where we can go next
- West Coast and Texas Gulf — live now: ships, wind, tide, ferries.
- Calibrated wave sizes outside Puget Sound — next, with riders' ratings.
- More US water — the East Coast and the rest of the Gulf, region by region.
Tell us which water you watch in the box above. That is how we decide what comes first.
Contact
The form above reaches us fastest. If you would rather use mail: [email protected]