Questions people ask

Does it really work with no signal?

Yes. The AI model, the search index, the 70 manuals, the photo identifier and any maps you download live on the phone. After the one-time download, you can put the phone in Airplane Mode and everything works: answers, your plan, routes you planned, photo identification.

What's in the download, and how big is it?

About 3.5 GB: a 4-billion-parameter language model (2.5 GB), a search model (440 MB), the manuals as a searchable library (63 MB), a photo-identification model (608 MB), a species index (13 MB) and the manuals' diagrams (68 MB). Do it on Wi-Fi. It happens once.

Which manuals?

Seventy US government and allied publications: the Army Survival Manual (FM 21-76), Survival, Evasion and Recovery (FM 21-76-1), the First Aid manuals (FM 4-25.11, FM 21-11), Bandaging and Splinting (FM 8-50), the Special Forces Medical Handbook, Nuclear War Survival Skills, FEMA's Are You Ready? and its hazard sheets, CDC and NWS preparedness guides for hurricanes, floods, heat, cold, wildfire smoke and more, and National Park Service backcountry guidance. Every answer names the manual and the page it came from.

Is it medical advice?

No. It quotes and adapts the manuals, which were written for people with no doctor in reach, and it can be wrong. It is not a substitute for emergency services. When you can reach them, call 911.

What leaves my phone?

Nothing about you. There is no account. Your chats, photos, people, places, gear and plans stay on the phone; we have no server that holds them. The app goes online only to download its files, map areas you choose, and (on Operator, optional) public safety updates for your map areas. Purchases go through Apple and RevenueCat, which see an anonymous install ID and the receipt. Full details on the privacy page.

What does it cost?

A 3-day free trial of everything. Then Survivor ($14.99 a month or $199.99 once): unlimited questions, the full library, your whole plan. Operator ($24.99 a month or $299.99 once) adds offline maps and routes, photo identification and your own documents. After the trial, the plan stays free with 5 questions a week.

How good is the photo identification?

It covers more than 13,500 North American plants, fungi and animals and runs on the phone. It is useful, not infallible: on clean photos it names the right species about three times in four and the right genus nine in ten. When it isn't sure it says so and asks for a closer photo. It never certifies that something is safe to eat; it routes you to the manuals' look-alike and edibility-test guidance.

How do the offline maps work?

Map "squares" of about 30 miles a side cover the whole United States. You download the ones you need: your area, and the corridor to wherever you would go. Each square carries the map, the roads for routing, addresses and places. You can plan the drive to your bug-out destination ahead of time; on the day the phone follows it turn by turn and finds the way back if you leave it.

Which phones?

A recent iPhone. The language model needs about 3 GB of memory to run well; iPhone 15 Pro and later, or iPhone 16 and later, are the comfortable minimum. Android is not available.

Can I put my own documents in?

On Operator, yes: PDFs and text files (equipment manuals, state regulations, your family's medical information). They are searched alongside the manuals, offline, and answers cite them.