šŸ’¬ Help Center

Common questions, troubleshooting tips, and how to reach a human when you need one.

CouchVote Support

Last Updated: 2026-05-26

Welcome to the CouchVote help center. This page covers how the app works,
the most common questions we get, and how to reach us when you need a
human.

If you can't find what you're looking for, email support@couchvote.com
ā€” we typically respond within 24ā€“48 hours.

Getting Started

What is CouchVote?

CouchVote is a couch consensus engine for movie night. It runs a quick,
timed voting flow on a single device ā€” passed around the couch like a
remote ā€” so that you, your roommates, your partner, or the kids can pick
something to watch together without the 40-minute scroll.

What you need

  • An iPhone or Android phone with the CouchVote app installed.
  • Internet access for the voting session (to fetch movie metadata and
    recommendations).
  • One or more humans on the couch.

How a session works

  1. Open the app and start a new session.
  2. Pick a context (e.g. date night, family movie night, friends).
  3. Set quick rules: max runtime, hard vetoes, any preferences.
  4. Pass the device around. Each person swipes a small, timed deck of
    movie cards ā€” yes, no, or let the timer auto-skip.
  5. CouchVote tallies the votes and shows the winner: poster, overview,
    ratings, and which streaming services have it.

Common Questions

How long does a session take?

Most sessions land in about five minutes. The defaults are 10 cards
per round at 25 seconds per card. You can tune both numbers in session
settings if you want it faster or longer.

Can I run a session on multiple devices?

The free MVP runs on a single device. Multi-device sessions (real-time
sync across phones in the same room) are planned for premium tiers and
are not yet available.

Why was a movie I'd love filtered out?

CouchVote respects hard vetoes absolutely ā€” they're not "soft hints",
they remove titles from the deck. Check:

  • The active context's vetoes (e.g. "Family Night" may forbid R-rated).
  • Your couch's baseline rules (e.g. "no horror, ever").
  • The current session's ad-hoc filters (e.g. "tonight: under 2 hours").

Rule precedence is: Session > Context > Couch > App defaults.

Where do the movies come from?

  • Titles, posters, and overviews come from TMDB.
  • Ratings come from OMDB (a proxy for IMDB-style ratings).
  • Streaming-provider availability is sourced from TMDB's watch-provider
    data ā€” accuracy depends on your region.

We sync this catalog in the background and serve you a pre-filtered,
diversified pool so you don't see the same five movies every weekend.

I keep getting recommendations I've already seen.

A few things help:

  • Mark titles as watched (or not interested) when prompted ā€” those
    feed back into the recommender.
  • Add a session filter to exclude rewatches.
  • Check your couch's preference settings ā€” if the genre weights are
    skewed, the pool will reflect it.

Does CouchVote work offline?

The app itself can launch offline, but starting a new voting session
requires internet to fetch fresh recommendations and provider data.
Once a session is in progress, brief connection drops are handled
gracefully.

Can I change my email or password?

Yes ā€” both can be changed from the in-app account settings. If you
signed in with Apple or Google, use that provider to manage the
underlying credentials; CouchVote just stores the identifier returned
by them.

Troubleshooting

The app crashes on launch

  1. Make sure you're on the latest version from the App Store or Play
    Store.
  2. Restart your phone.
  3. If it still crashes, email support@couchvote.com with your phone
    model, OS version, and what you were doing when it crashed. Crash
    reports go to our backend automatically (via Application Insights),
    but a description helps us reproduce.

My session won't start

  • Check your internet connection ā€” sessions need it to bootstrap.
  • Verify that your hard vetoes haven't filtered the deck to zero titles
    for the active context.
  • Sign out and back in from settings; this re-syncs your couch and
    preferences.

A streaming provider is wrong / missing

Provider availability is region-specific and depends on TMDB data. If
you see something clearly wrong, please report it ā€” include the title,
your country, and which provider is incorrect.

I forgot my password

Use Forgot password? on the sign-in screen. We'll send a reset link
to your registered email. If the email never arrives, check spam, then
contact us.

Account & Data

How do I delete my account?

Open the app, go to Settings ā†’ Account ā†’ Delete account, and confirm.
Account deletion is immediate and cascades to your votes, sessions,
watchlists, and couch memberships you own. Backups containing residual
data are rotated and purged on a rolling schedule (typically within 30
days).

If you can't get into the app, email legal@couchvote.com from the
address on your account and we'll handle it manually.

How do I export my data?

In-app data export is on the roadmap. Until it ships, email
legal@couchvote.com with your account email and we'll send you a
machine-readable archive of your data.

What about privacy?

Read the full Privacy Policy. The short version:

  • We collect the minimum needed to run your account, your couch, and
    your votes.
  • No third-party ad SDKs, no data sales, no profiling.
  • Hosted in the EU (Microsoft Azure, North Europe).
  • Account deletion erases your personal data.

Still need help?

We'd love to hear from you ā€” bugs, feature requests, or just hello.

You can also visit the Contact page for everything in one place.