Paint Together

Paint Together puts up to eight people on one canvas, live: every stroke lands as it’s drawn. Each person paints on a layer of their own, so nobody paints over anybody by accident.

Host a session

1. Open a painting, or tap Paint Together on the home screen to start a new one.
2. Tap Paint Together, the people button at the top right, then Host a Session. The first time, Smudjo asks for the name the others will see; it’s your device’s name until you change it.
3. The panel shows the room code, six characters such as NF6-CGY, and a QR code. The copy button puts the code on the clipboard, to send it however you like.
4. As people join, they appear under the code with their color. Jump to takes you to where someone is painting; the ✕ removes them from the session.
5. When you’re done, tap End Session. The painting stays yours, with everything painted in it.

Allow new people, turned off, closes the door: whoever is in stays in, and nobody new can join. Nearby people join without the code lets devices on the same Wi‑Fi join from Who’s painting on their home screen, without typing it. It is off unless you turn it on, and over the internet the code is always needed.

Join a session

• With the code: on the home screen, type it under Join someone and tap Join. In a painting, open Paint Together and type it in the panel.
• With the QR code: on iPhone and iPad, tap the QR button next to Join and point the camera at the host’s screen.
• Nearby: on the same Wi‑Fi, tap See who’s painting nearby on the home screen. Hosts nearby appear under Who’s painting; a lock means that one needs its code. The first time, Smudjo asks to look for devices on your network.

You arrive in the host’s painting, on a layer of your own named after you. Joining is free: nobody needs Smudjo Unlocked to join a session or to paint in it.

When one of you has an older Smudjo than the other, Smudjo says who needs to update it from the App Store; then join again.

On the same Wi‑Fi, or anywhere

On the same network, devices find each other and connect directly; no internet connection is needed. Anywhere else, the session goes through a relay run by Gargant, which passes along what it cannot read: every session is encrypted end to end with a key that comes from the room code itself. The same code works both ways.

To keep sessions on your network only, turn off Paint together over the internet in Settings. The same section takes another relay’s address, if you run your own.

Painting together

Everyone has every brush and tool. Each person paints on their own layer, and undo takes back your own edits. In Layers, the host can mark a layer Shared, so everyone in the session can paint on it.

When someone joins, leaves or loses the connection, a short notice says so at the bottom of the canvas. If your own connection drops, Smudjo says Reconnecting… and picks up where it was.

When the session ends

When the host ends the session, or removes you, the painting stays on your screen and a notice says what happened, with:

• Keep a Copy, which saves the painting to your own paintings. Keeping a painting from someone else’s session is part of Smudjo Unlocked.
• See the Recap, a time-lapse of what the session added, each painter’s strokes marked with their name.
• Rejoin, when the session is still there.

The host keeps the painting as it is, in their paintings. Time-lapse… in the Actions menu can play just what the session added: choose This session.

What Smudjo Unlocked adds

Only the host needs Smudjo Unlocked to bring in more than one guest. One purchase covers iPhone, iPad and Mac: see Smudjo Unlocked.