For customers

Finding a place and joining

For customers, and for the staff who help them: how to find a place, see how busy it is before you go, choose what you came for and take your place in line from your phone.

Three ways in#

Line Me Up runs in your phone's web browser. There is nothing to download from an app store and nothing to pay: a customer never pays Line Me Up anything. You reach a place in one of three ways:

• Scan its QR code. Many places put a poster by the door or at the counter. Point your phone's camera at the code and tap the link it shows. The place's own page opens straight away.
• Open a link it shared. A business can share the same link on its website, in a message or on social media. It opens the same page.
• Search the directory. Open go.linemeup.in and you land on Find a line, the list of places that have chosen to be listed.

Search the directory#

The Explore tab at the bottom of the screen is the directory. Its heading is Find a line, and under it is a search box and a row of filters.

To find a place by name:

1. Tap Explore in the bar at the bottom of the screen.
2. Tap the box that says Search by name and type part of the place's name. The list narrows a moment after you stop typing.
3. Tap a place in the list to open its page.

To narrow the list by kind of place:

1. Tap one of the pills under the search box: Clinics, Salons, Car care, Food & drink or Other.
2. Tap the same pill again to clear it and see every kind of place.

To narrow the list to one city:

1. Open the City picker (it starts on Everywhere). It only offers cities that have at least one listed place.
2. Choose your city. Choose Everywhere to go back to the whole list.

Each place in the list shows, at a glance:

• its name, the kind of place it is, and its city;
• whether it is Open or Closed right now, with when that changes — for example "closes 6:00 pm" or "opens 9:00 am" — on the place's own clock;
• how many people are waiting there now;
• how far away it is, when you have turned on Near me.

Above the list, Places tells you how many were found. A search shows up to fifty places at a time, so if your search is broad, add a word or a filter to find the one you want.

If the list is empty#

• Nothing matches that — nothing listed matches your words and filters. Try a different name, or clear the filters.
• No places yet — nobody is listed yet. If you have a link or a QR code from a place, that still works.
• We could not load the list. Please try again. — usually a weak connection. Try again in a moment.
• Too many tries. Give it a few minutes. — too many searches came from your network in a short time. Wait a few minutes rather than retrying straight away.

Sign in to keep browsing#

You can search without an account, but after a number of searches in an hour the list is replaced by a card that says Sign in to keep browsing. This keeps the directory from being copied by machines. Press Sign in to confirm your phone number (see Sign in when you join for how) and you come back to your search. Any place still opens from its own link or QR code without signing in.

Find places near you#

Near me is the first pill in the row. It puts the closest places first and shows a rough distance in kilometres on each one.

1. On Explore, tap Near me.
2. Your phone asks whether this site may use your location. Allow it. The list reorders with the nearest places first, each showing a distance such as "2.4 km".
3. Tap Near me again to turn it off. The list goes back to name order.

Your position is rounded to about 110 metres before it leaves your phone, is used for that one search, and is not stored. It is never put in the page address, so it does not end up in a link you share. A place's exact position is never sent to your phone either — only how far away it is.

Read a place's page before you go#

Every business has one public page. Anyone can read it without an account — you only confirm your phone when you decide to join or book. The top of the page tells you:

• The name, kind of place and city, and whether it is open or closed now — for example "Closed · opens 9:00 am".
• Directions — opens the place in Google Maps, in a new tab, so this page stays where you left it. It appears when the place has given an address, a city or its own map link.
• The place's phone number, if it gave one. Tap it to call.
• Today's changes, when there are any: "Closed all day today" with the owner's own note (for example, a holiday), or "Special hours today" with the hours that apply.
• ← Back to search at the very top takes you back to the directory.

Below that, under Choose what you need, is the place's menu: one card for each part of what it offers (for example "Haircare" and "Colour", or "Consultation" and "Lab"). The count beside the heading — "3 available" — is how many cards there are. Each card shows:

• its name;
• what kind of line it is, as a small mark: a walking figure for Walk-in, a calendar for Bookings only, and both for Walk-in + booking;
• how many are waiting there now;
• when people are waiting, roughly how long a new arrival would wait — for example "About 25 min from now";
• where to go inside, if the place wrote it down — for example "Lab, 2nd floor, room 4".

When a place offers more than one card, each card starts folded. Tap a card's heading to open it and see what is inside; tap it again to fold it. A place with a single card shows it open.

Choose what you came for#

You join a line by choosing a service — the thing you came for, such as a haircut, a consultation or a car wash. The right line follows from your choice, so you never have to guess which line to stand in.

A menu can go up to three levels deep. A salon might have Hair, then Colour under it, then Roots under that. Group headings that you cannot tick yourself are shown as plain headings with their choices indented beneath them.

To choose a service:

1. Open the card for what you need by tapping its heading (if it is folded).
2. Under Select services, tick the box next to each service you want. Each row shows how long the service usually takes and, if the place lists one, its price.
3. If you have not decided yet, tick the first row, Not sure yet — just a … visit (for example "Not sure yet — just a Haircare visit"). You still join the right line and can decide with the staff.
4. Look at the bar that appears at the bottom of the screen. It sums up what you chose, for example "2 services · 45 min".

Some services are served on a different line from the card they sit in — a test in the lab, for example. Their row says which line, how many are waiting there and, when there is a wait, about how long: "Lab · 4 waiting · about 20 min".

When a row cannot be ticked#

A greyed row stays on the page with a short reason beneath it:

• Up to 10 services at once — you have already chosen the most one visit can hold.
• Can't be combined with what you've chosen — the place does not offer this one together with something you have already ticked.
• Book this one on its own — this service has to be taken by itself. Untick the others first.
• A reason about the whole line, such as Full for today — see When you cannot join.

Join the line#

Once something is ticked, the bar at the bottom of the screen holds the button that takes your place. Its words change with what you chose:

To join:

1. Tick the service or services you want.
2. Check the summary in the bar at the bottom.
3. Press Join. If you are not signed in yet, you are asked to confirm your phone first — see the next section.
4. Wait a moment while the button says Joining…. Then your ticket opens, showing your token number and how many people are ahead of you.

Your ticket is a private link of its own. Keep it open, bookmark it, or share it with someone you are visiting with — Waiting, your ticket and alerts explains everything on it.

Join several lines at once#

Some visits need more than one line — a consultation and a blood test, a wash and a polish. Tick services in each card, and the button becomes Join 2 lines (or more). The bar lists each line with "now" or the time you chose beside it.

It is all or nothing: either you get a place in every line you chose, or in none of them and the page tells you why. When you join more than one line, you land on Your visits (the Visits tab), which lists every place you now hold.

Join now in one line and book a time in another#

If one of your services is on a line that takes bookings, the card shows a day and times to choose from. Choose a time there, tick what you need now elsewhere, and press Join & book. Booking a visit covers choosing a day and a time.

Sign in when you join#

Looking is free and anonymous. You confirm your phone number only when you press Join or Book. Before you press it, the bar says why: your phone number is how you get back to your place if you lose the link, and how the desk reaches you. There is no password.

1. Press Join. The Your phone number screen opens.
2. Type your number in Phone number. If your number is not from the country the screen suggests, start it with your country code.
3. Press Send me a code.
4. On the next screen, type the code you received into 6-digit code.
5. If you like, add Your name (optional) — so staff know who to call. Use 2 to 60 characters.
6. Press Continue. You come back to the same place's page, signed in.
7. Tick what you need again if it is no longer ticked, and press Join.

Once you are signed in, the header shows that you are, and you stay signed in on that phone. The same account keeps the directory open for you, and lists your places under the Visits tab. Your account, language and privacy covers signing out and everything else about your account.

When you cannot join#

A line that cannot take you right now stays on the page, greyed, with the reason in words. Here is what each one means and what to do.

When a place is closed#

A closed place treats each kind of line differently:

• Walk-in lines cannot be joined from a phone until the place opens.
• Walk-in + booking lines can still be booked: choose a time, and the button becomes Book.
• Bookings only lines take bookings as usual.

The desk itself is not bound by this: staff can still add someone who is standing in front of them.

If something goes wrong when you press Join#

• Something went wrong on our side, not yours. — try again in a moment, or ask at the desk; staff can add you themselves.
• We could not reach Line Me Up. — check your connection and try again, or ask at the desk.
• A sentence about a line — for example that you already have a place in it, or that a time was just taken — means the page has refreshed itself to show what changed. Look again, adjust what you ticked, and press the button again.

The live demos#

If a place's page says, for example, This is the Line Me Up demo — a pretend clinic run by bots., it is one of Line Me Up's live demos and not a real business. You can join it to see how waiting works; the line moves on its own because bots run the desks. When you sign in from a demo, the sign-in screen offers Use a demo number so you do not need to use your own. See Trying the live demos.

For businesses: help customers find you#

Everything on this page is what your customers see. To appear in the directory, tick Show us in the Line Me Up directory in Settings, and add a city — without one, customers who narrow the directory to their own town will not see you. Your own link and QR code work either way, and they are the surest way in: put them where people arrive.

• To show a distance under Near me, save where your business is in Settings (Use my current location, or a Google Maps link). The link also gives your page its Directions button.
• To tell people where to go inside, fill in a line's Location — it appears on the card customers choose from. (Lines are set up by an owner or a manager.)
• Customers choose services, not lines, so the menu you build in Services is the page they read.