StudyPass App Guide

Welcome to StudyPass

StudyPass is your college's private mobile app for staying in touch with students and colleagues. This guide walks you through everything you can do in the app, step by step. No technical knowledge needed.

The app has three main areas, which you switch between using the tabs along the bottom of the screen:

Resources — files, documents and folders shared by your college.
PinBoard — a social feed of posts (like Instagram) where you can share updates, photos and videos, and people can like and comment.
Chats — private messaging with individuals and groups (like WhatsApp or iMessage).

Who is this guide for? Staff (educators) and administrators. A few features are limited to administrators only — these are clearly marked with an Admins only badge throughout the guide.

Jump to a topic

Signing in Updating your profile Start a chat Create a post Who can do what

Signing in

The first time you open the app you'll set it up for your college, then sign in with the details from your invitation email.

Step 1 — Enter your college identifier

When you first open the app you'll see a Welcome to StudyPass screen asking for your college identifier. This is a short code from your invitation email that connects the app to your college.

Type the identifier into the box.
Tap VERIFY.
The app loads your college's branding and takes you to the sign-in screen.

The college identifier welcome screen — The welcome screen where you enter your college identifier.

Can't find your identifier? It's in the invitation email your college sent you. If you can't find it, contact your trainer or college administrator.

Step 2 — Sign in

Enter your email and password. Tap the eye icon to show or hide your password.
Tick I agree to the Terms of Service. The SIGN IN button stays greyed out until your email, password and this tick are all filled in.
Tap SIGN IN.

The sign-in screen — Enter your email and password and agree to the terms to sign in.

First sign-in: set your own password

If your account was created with a temporary password, the app will ask you to create a new password straight after signing in. Choose a new password (at least 10 characters) to continue.

Forgot your password?

On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot Password.
Enter your registered email. A one-time code (OTP) is emailed to you.
Enter the code, then set and confirm your new password.
You'll see a confirmation, then you can sign in with the new password.

Finding your way around

Once you're signed in, everything is reached from the three tabs at the bottom of the screen.

The bottom tabs

Resources (left) — browse files and folders.
PinBoard (middle) — the posts feed.
Chats (right) — your conversations. A small dot appears on this tab when you have unread messages.

The three bottom tabs — Resources, PinBoard and Chats along the bottom.

Where are the settings?

There's no separate Settings tab. To open Settings (and your profile), go to the PinBoard tab and tap your profile picture or your college name at the top of the screen.

Tip: From Settings you can reach your profile, notification and appearance settings, help, the privacy and terms pages, and the sign-out button.

The Settings screen, opened from your profile picture on the PinBoard tab.

Your profile

Keep your photo and display name up to date so people recognise you across chats and the PinBoard.

Open your profile

Go to the PinBoard tab and tap your profile picture (or college name) at the top to open Settings.
Tap Profile to open the Edit Profile screen.

📷Screenshot: Edit Profile screen

Change your photo, display name and password from the Edit Profile screen.

Change your photo

Tap your photo (it has a small pencil badge).
Choose Camera, Gallery, or Remove Photo (Remove only appears if you already have a photo).
Position the photo in the circular cropper, then confirm.

Change your display name

In the Preferred name box you can set the name shown to others throughout the app (up to 30 letters). This doesn't change your official name on your account.

Your email can't be changed in the app. It's shown greyed out. If your email needs updating, ask your college administrator.

Save your changes

Tap SAVE CHANGES. You'll see a "Changes saved!" confirmation.

Change your password

On the Edit Profile screen, tap the password Reset row.
Enter your current password, then your new password and confirm it.
Your new password must be at least 10 characters and the two new-password boxes must match.

Notifications & appearance

Control which push notifications you receive and switch between light and dark mode.

Open Settings (tap your profile picture on the PinBoard tab), then tap App Settings.

Push notifications

There are three independent toggles. Turn any of them off to stop those notifications:

Chats — new messages.
Pinboard — new posts and activity.
Events — event updates.

Dark mode

Under Appearance, switch Dark Mode on or off. The app remembers your choice.

The App Settings screen — Notification toggles and the dark mode switch in App Settings.

One-on-one chats

The Chats tab works like WhatsApp, Signal or iMessage. Here's how to start a private conversation and everything you can do inside one.

The chat list

The Chats tab shows all your conversations, each with a photo, name, a preview of the last message, the time, and an unread count. Pull down to refresh, and use the search bar to find a conversation by name.

Start a one-on-one chat

On the Chats tab, tap the compose icon in the top-right corner.
On the New Chat screen, search for the person you want.
Tap their name — your conversation opens straight away.

The New Chat people picker — Tap the compose icon, then pick a person to start chatting.

Sending messages

Type in the Message box and tap the send (up arrow) button. To send media, tap the attachment button to open the tray, where you can choose:

Camera — take a photo or video.
Photos — pick one or several photos/videos from your device.
GIF — search and send a GIF.

You can quickly select several photos from the grid at the top of the tray. Videos are automatically compressed before they send.

Replying, reacting and more

Reply — swipe a message sideways, or press and hold it and choose Reply. Tap a reply later to jump back to the original.
React — press and hold a message to show the quick reactions (👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😢 🔥), or tap + for the full emoji list. You can also double-tap a message to add a ❤️.
See who reacted — tap the reaction badge under a message.
Copy — press and hold a text message and choose Copy.
Save media — press and hold a photo or video and choose Save to download it to your device.
Edit — you can edit your own message for a short time after sending. After that you'll see "Edit window expired".
Report — on someone else's message, press and hold and choose Report.
Delete — you can delete your own messages. Admins only Administrators can delete anyone's message.

Message reactions and actions — Press and hold a message to react or open its actions.

Read receipts & typing

A single tick means your message was sent; a double tick means it's been read. When the other person is typing, you'll see a typing indicator.

Managing a conversation

Press and hold a conversation in the list (or swipe it) to see options such as Block. Admins only Deleting an entire conversation (which removes it for everyone in it) is limited to administrators.

Group chats

Group chats let several people message together. Admins only Creating a new group is limited to administrators — staff can use and help manage groups but start one-on-one chats only.

Create a group Admins only

On the Chats tab, tap the compose icon, then tap the group icon in the top-right to switch to New Group mode.
Tap people to select them — they appear as chips along the top. Tap a chip to remove someone.
Tap Next.
On the New Group setup screen, add a group photo (Camera or Gallery), a group name (required, up to 30 characters) and an optional description (up to 200 characters).
Tap Create.

Selecting group members — Tap people to add them — they appear as chips along the top.

The New Group setup screen — Set the group photo, name and description before creating.

Group details & managing members

Inside a group chat, tap the group name or photo at the top to open Group Details, where you can see the photo, name, description and member list (each member shows their role, and the creator shows an Owner badge).

Staff and administrators can also:

Edit the group — tap the pencil icon to change the group's name, description or photo.
Tap a member to view their profile, message them privately, or remove them from the group.

Members added through a class can't be removed from the group here — they're managed in the class settings by an administrator. Only individually-added students can be removed from the group directly.

The Group Details screen — Group Details shows the photo, description and member list with roles.

The member actions sheet — Tapping a member opens options to view their profile, message them or remove them.

Creating posts

The PinBoard is your college's social feed, styled like Instagram. Everyone except students can create posts.

The PinBoard feed, with the create-post icon top-right.

Create a post

On the PinBoard tab, tap the create post icon in the top-right corner.
Add a Post Title and your content (the "What's this post about?" box).
Tap Add Media to attach photos or videos from your Camera or Gallery. You can add several — they show as preview thumbnails (videos show their length). Tap the ✕ on a thumbnail to remove it.
Choose who sees the post (see below).
Tap Post. (The button is disabled while media is still uploading.)

The New Post screen — Add a title, content and media, then choose your audience.

Choosing who sees your post

Staff: choose one group to post to from the Select Groups list. You can only post to one group at a time, and you must pick a group before you can post.
Admins only Administrators also have a Post Publicly toggle, which shares the post with everyone.

Editing a public post as staff: if you edit a post that was made public, it will be saved as a group post (not public) when you save it.

Editing & deleting your posts

On any of your own posts, tap the ⋯ (more) menu to Edit or Delete it. You can only edit and delete your own posts. Admins only Administrators can delete anyone's post.

Likes & comments

Posts work just like Instagram — like them, see who liked them, and join the conversation in the comments.

Liking a post

Tap the heart icon to like a post, or double-tap the post for a heart animation.
The Liked by… line names people who liked it. Tap "and X others" to see the full list.

Comments

Tap the comment icon to open the comments sheet.
Type in Add a comment… and send.
Reply to a comment to start a thread (replies are grouped, with "View more replies").
Tap the heart on a comment to like it.

You can edit and delete your own comments. Admins only Administrators can delete anyone's comment.

The comments sheet, with replies and likes.

Resources

The Resources tab is where your college shares files and documents.

It's organised into folders and files, each with an icon showing its type (PDF, document, image, video and so on).
Tap a folder to open it; use the back button to go up a level.
Tap a file to download and open it in your device's viewer. On Android you may be asked to allow storage access the first time.
Pull down to refresh the list.

Note: Resources are added and organised by your college. In the app you can browse and open them, but not upload.

The Resources file browser — The Resources tab, showing folders and files.

Notifications

StudyPass sends push notifications so you don't miss new messages and posts.

Tapping a push notification takes you straight to the message or post it's about.
You control which notifications you get from Settings → App Settings → Push Notifications, with separate toggles for Chats, Pinboard and Events.

Not getting notifications? Check the toggles in App Settings are on, and make sure notifications for StudyPass are allowed in your phone's own settings.

Account, help & signing out

Everything else lives in Settings — tap your profile picture on the PinBoard tab to open it.

Help & legal

Help — guidance within the app.
Privacy & Legal and Terms of Service — open these documents inside the app.
The app version number is shown near the bottom of Settings (handy if you ever contact support).

Viewing other people's profiles

Staff and administrators can tap a person (for example in a group's member list) to view their profile — their photo, display name, role and the groups they're in — and start a private message from there.

📷Screenshot: a user's profile

A person's profile, with their role and the groups they're in.

Switching to a different college

There's no in-app switch between colleges. To use a different college, sign out and enter that college's identifier on the welcome screen.

Signing out

Open Settings.
Scroll to the bottom and tap Logout.
Confirm by tapping Yes. You'll return to the welcome screen.

App updates. StudyPass updates itself in the background. Occasionally you may see a brief update screen when you open the app — just wait a moment for it to finish.

Who can do what

Staff (educators) can do almost everything. A few abilities are reserved for administrators and sub-administrators. Here's a quick comparison.

Action	Staff	Admin / Sub-admin
Start a one-on-one chat	Yes	Yes
Create a group chat	No	Yes
Edit a group & manage its members	Yes	Yes
Delete an entire conversation	No	Yes
Delete someone else's message	No	Yes
Create a PinBoard post	Yes	Yes
Post to a group	Yes	Yes
Post publicly (to everyone)	No	Yes
Edit / delete your own posts & comments	Yes	Yes
Delete someone else's post or comment	No	Yes
View other people's profiles	Yes	Yes

Don't see a button mentioned in this guide? It may be limited to administrators, or your college may not use that feature. Check the table above, then ask your college administrator if you're unsure.