Bonds are the connections between your Totem Compass and your friends’ Compasses. They stay saved when your Totem turns off, and they aren’t hard-paired, so you can remove or replace a Bond whenever you like: on the Compass itself, or in the free Totem Compass App.
Totem exists to bring people together. The Totem Compass is a screen-free wearable, used by 65,000+ people in 80 countries, that helps you stay connected with your friends without relying on cell service or Wi-Fi, and your Bonds are the part that decides who you’re connected to. Knowing how to manage them means you can make room for the new friend you met at the rail, clean up after a weekend, or hand a Totem to someone else with confidence.
This guide covers how Bonds work, how to change and remove them, what the App adds, what Version 5.0 does with inactive Bonds, and how Bonding protects your consent. New to Bonding? Start with How to Bond Your Totem Compass, then come back here.
Three Bonded Compasses, each showing a light for the other two.
How Totem Bonds Work
In Totem vernacular, “Bonding” means pairing: connecting your Compass with another Compass so each one can point toward the other.
Totems share their locations through encrypted messages, sent directly from Totem to Totem. Bonding is what tells your Compass which of those messages to read and lead you to. No cell tower, Wi-Fi router, or central server is involved, which matters at crowded events, where cell service tends to get worse as more people gather. At big events, other Totems nearby can also help relay messages through the Unity Mesh Network™, so more Totems around you means more devices that can help carry your messages.
A few things worth knowing about Bonds:
- A Bond connects Compasses, not people. Your light points to your friend’s Totem. If they leave it charging at camp, it will lead you to a very nice charging cable.
- Bonds last. Your Totem remembers its Bonds when it turns off or the battery dies.
- Bonds aren’t hard-paired. With current software, each Compass can Bond with any eight other Compasses, and you can swap Bonds in and out whenever you like.
How to Change or Remove a Bond on Your Totem Compass
The magic of the Totem Compass is that it’s designed to Bond with both old and new friends. If you meet someone new at a festival and your Bonds are full, it’s simple to make room.
Changing your Bonds on the Compass itself happens in Tribe Management Mode:
- Enter Tribe Management Mode. Hold your Totem horizontally in Compass Mode and triple-tap the Touch Crystal.
- Pick the Bond. Single-tap the Touch Crystal to cycle through the friends you’re Bonded with. The light for the selected friend blinks.
- Remove it. Press and hold the Touch Crystal to remove the selected Bond.
Removing a Bond puts your Totem straight into Bonding mode, so you can Bond with a nearby friend right away, and the new Bond takes the free spot. If no Compass is close enough or ready to Bond, the old Bond is simply removed.
Tap to cycle through your Bonds, then press and hold to remove one.
How to Manage Your Bonds in the Totem Compass App
You never need a phone to use your Totem. Bonding, navigation, and every core feature work on the Compass alone. But if you like a screen for housekeeping, the free Totem Compass App (App Store and Google Play) connects to your Compass over Bluetooth and adds:
- Bond names and colors: name each Bond and choose its color from a wider palette than the Compass uses on its own.
- Show, hide, and filter Bonds to keep your Halo focused on the friends you’re looking for.
- Delete Bonds from a list, without cycling through lights.
- A name for your own Totem, which shows up in your friends’ Apps when they Bond with you.
- Compass Lock, which locks your Compass settings to prevent unintentional changes. It’s handy for families, or when you’re lending a Totem and don’t want your carefully built Bond “family tree” rearranged.
Our Totem Compass App guide walks through the rest of its features.
What Happens to Inactive Bonds on Version 5.0?
Sometimes a Bonded friend’s Totem goes quiet: they turned it off, the battery died, or they’ve gone home. Their last known location still exists, but it gets less useful over time.
Since Version 5.0, when a Bond hasn’t shared an updated location in a while, your Compass automatically collects it into the Touch Crystal, where it pulses. The Bond isn’t deleted and you don’t need to do anything. When that friend’s Compass is active again, their light returns to your navigation ring.
So on Version 5.0, a light in your Touch Crystal can mean two things: a solid light means that friend is close by, and a pulsing light means their location is out of date. Either way, there’s no need to remove a Bond just because someone went quiet.
Can Someone Bond With Your Totem Compass Without Your Consent?
The Totem Compass is designed with your safety, and your consent, in mind.
Totems talk to each other through a connectionless peer-to-peer protocol, with no central server in the middle, and every Totem Compass holds a secure key within that protocol that helps keep each Bond secure. On top of that, Bonding is deliberately physical:
- Distance: to Bond one-on-one, the two Compasses need to be about an inch apart, so they detect a very strong signal from each other.
- Action: both people have to press and hold their Touch Crystals at the same time. A Smart Group also requires each Totem’s Touch Crystal to be pressed while the whole group is side by side.
- Lock: Compass Lock in the App can keep Bonds from being changed on a Totem you hand to someone else.
Together, these make it very difficult for anyone to Bond with your Totem without your knowledge. And if you ever see a Bond you don’t recognize, you can remove it using the steps above.
Bonding only works when the Compasses are about an inch apart.
How to Keep a Large Group Connected
Each Compass can hold up to eight Bonds, but a big group doesn’t have to be one closed circle. Spread your Bonds around: John Bonds with Alli and Tim, Tim also Bonds with Elayne and Rand, and Alli Bonds with Gwynneth and Sam. Nobody has to be Bonded with everyone for everyone to be findable by someone.
If your whole crew will be together all weekend, a Smart Group is the easiest setup, because everyone gets one color on every Compass. Our guide to 8 Bonds and Smart Groups covers how to plan Bonds for groups of every size.
Getting Totem Compasses for Your Group
If your crew is getting Totems together, the Totem Compass Bundle builder lets you customize the best Bundle for your group size, for up to eight people. The bigger the group, the lower the price per person. The Standard Bundle includes a Compass, a Skin, and charging for each person, and the Premium Bundle adds a necklace for everyone. At checkout, you can split the payment with friends using Paysquad.
Bonds That Change, Connections That Last
Our technology is designed to connect you to your loved ones, both new and old.
The Totem Compass exists because we believe the most beautiful moments happen alongside the people we love. And no one, regardless of race, creed, or upbringing, deserves to feel lost and afraid.
The Bonds on your Compass are easy to change. The relationships behind them tend to last a lifetime. 🫶
The Totem team with a member of the Totem Tribe.
Build your group’s Totem Bundle →
Already have your Totems? Here’s how to Bond them.
