Download MP3Seekt Quick Guide: Offline Mode
Welcome to the Seekt Quick Guide series. In this episode, we are looking at offline mode — how Seekt keeps working when players lose their connection.
Scavenger hunts often take place outdoors, in parks, on trails, or in areas with patchy cellular coverage. Seekt is designed for this. When a player loses their connection, the app switches to offline mode automatically. There is no error screen, no interruption, and no need to do anything.
In offline mode, submissions are saved locally in a queue. When a player takes a photo, records a video, or answers a question, the evidence is stored on their phone along with GPS coordinates and a timestamp. The player sees a small indicator showing how many submissions are queued.
When connectivity returns, the queue syncs automatically. Every pending submission is uploaded to the server in the order it was created, with the original timestamps preserved. This means the host sees accurate submission times even if the upload happens minutes later.
If a player wants to sync manually — say, they have moved to an area with better signal — there is a sync button available in the interface.
From the host's perspective, offline mode is invisible. Submissions simply appear when the player reconnects. The only sign that a player was offline is a slight delay between when they submitted and when the evidence shows up in the review queue. The timestamps on the submissions reflect when the player actually took the photo or answered the question, not when it was uploaded.
This design means you do not have to worry about cellular coverage when choosing a location for your hunt. Players can go into dead zones, complete items, and everything catches up when they are back in range.
One thing to note: the leaderboard and news feed on the player's side pause while offline, since they require fresh data from the server. Once the player reconnects, these update immediately.
That is "offline mode" in Seekt. For more, visit the seekt.ca website.