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Congratulations! Welcome to the Totem Tribe.
This Guide will help you set-up your Totem and walk you through all the core features it provides.
Remember: we will be rolling out free software updates based on your feedback to improve your Totem Compass experience.
Help us help you! Product Feedback guides our decisions on what to change and improve, so please share your feedback early and often.
You can submit feedback here: www.totemlabs.com/feedback
Let's build a beautiful future together. 🫶🏼
The Totem Compass exists to bring people together.
O creating a new era for festivals and live events around the world: a safer, more immersive, more beautiful era than ever before.
The Totem Compass is designed to give people freedom. Freedom to roam, freedom to dance. Freedom from fear & uncertainty.
The beauty of the Totem Compass is that it works without cell service, Wi-Fi, or bluetooth, and it's 100% screen free. Screens and apps rip us out of life's most beautiful moments—and that's just not our vibe here at Totem. We're here to help you feel real again.
In most cases, cell phone service gets worse the more people there are in a confined space. The Totem Compass has the opposite effect—the more people that exist with Totem Compasses, the better they function.
The Totem Compass is equipped with three core technologies: GNSS, a peer-to-peer connectionless communication protocol, and our Unity Mesh Network™. These three features work together to create the ultimate trifecta of communication capabilities that bypass regular cell phone service or data connection. This also explains why the Totem Compass is absolutely perfect for crowded settings.
For a more detailed breakdown of the technology behind the Totem Compass, check out our blog post on How the Totem Compass Works.
One thing to note: The Totem Compass works without cell service, but it does need satellite connection. That's why it's best used outdoors with a clear view of the sky.
Welcome to your Totem Compass User Interface!
Please reference the diagrams below to get to know all the buttons, ports, and other features that will allow you to better interact with your Totem.
Just like your phone, your Totem can tell when you pick it up.
This is very important to remember—because depending on the orientation, your Totem Compass will enter different states.
When your Totem is hanging vertically on your chest, it enters Vibe Mode. When you pick it up in horizontal orientation, it enters Compass Mode.
Here is a list of all the available features on your Totem Compass, broken down by orientation:
Vibe Mode (vertical orientation)
Compass Mode (horizontal orientation)
Vibe Mode or Compass Mode
Powering on your Totem Compass is very easy! Here's what you need to know:
And that's it! It's that simple.
Totems are shipped partially charged, so it should power up within a few seconds. If your Totem doesn't turn on when you click the Power Button, charge it for 20 minutes and try again.
Here's what it looks like when your Totem powers on:
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First the Touch Crystal illuminates, then the Halo displays a battery level indicator.
One important thing to know: this battery level indicator is only accurate when your Totem isn't currently plugged into a power source. If you turn your Totem on while it's plugged in, the battery level indicator may tell you that your Totem is more charged than it actually is.
To turn off your Totem, hold the Power Button until the Touch Crystal goes dark.
This usually takes around 2-3 seconds.
When your Totem is hanging vertically, it automatically enters Vibe Mode.
When your Totem is in Vibe Mode, the Halo reacts to the sound around you—whether that be music, or someone's voice. Peep the image below to view Vibe Mode in it's full glory:
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Vibe Mode is beautiful and eye-catching, but if you ever want to be a little more discreet, you can mute the Vibe by entering Eco Mode.
There's one other thing that you can do while your Totem is hanging vertically: send and receive SOS alerts.
To use any other feature, including the Touch Crystal, you'll need to enter Compass Mode by holding your Totem horizontally.
To enter Compass Mode, all you have to do is pick up your Totem and hold it in a horizontal orientation.
All major interactions and features happen here. When you pick it up for the first time, may see your festival compass doing this:
This is the animation that your Totem shows you when it's currently searching for satellite connection.
Your Totem needs a satellite connection in order to navigate to your friends, and for your friends to navigate to you.
The best way to get a satellite connection is to take your Totem outside with a clear view of the sky:
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It should take no more than 10 minutes to establish a satellite connection outdoors.
You can't navigate until you have a satellite connection, but you can still do plenty of other things, including:
and more!
Once your Totem gets a satellite connection, it will show you one of two things.
If you don't have any Bonds yet, you'll see a white light that points North:
Once you add Bonds, that white light will disappear and you'll see your Bond lights on the Totem instead.
When you see this, you can begin to navigate!
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The Totem Compass is all about Bonds.
Bonds with friends, Bonds with family, Bonds with loved ones of all kinds. Although the Bonds within the Totem Compass aren't designed to last forever, they represent the forging of relationships that last a lifetime.
Here's everything you need to know about Bonding your Totems:
To Bond your Totem with another:
This is what the Bonding process looks like:
When you begin Bonding, your Totem's halo fills with a ring of blue light and begins to pulse.
Once you successfully Bond with another Totem, the Halo's color changes to show the color of your new Bond.
Then it collapses to a point and gets collected into the Touch Crystal. Your North Light will also disappear once you add a Bond.
A few things to remember about Bonding:
Your Totem assigns a Bond Color to your friends based on the order you bond with them.
Your first bond is always pink 🩷
Your second bond is always green 💚
Your third bond is always blue 💙
Your fourth bond is always yellow 💛
A few things to remember about Bond Colors:
Here's how to remove Bonds from your Totem Compass:
While your Totem is in Compass Mode, triple-tap the Touch Crystal quickly. After you triple-tap, here's what you see:
All your bond lights are collected into your Touch Crystal, and one is selected.
You'll know which bond is selected because their light will blink inside the Touch Crystal, and the halo will display their color.
If that's the bond you want to remove, simply hold the Touch Crystal until their color disappears from your Halo like this:
If you want to remove a different bond, all you have to do is tap the Touch Crystal once to cycle through your bonds until the one you want to remove is selected, like this:
Then you can remove them by holding the Touch Crystal.
One thing to note:
To exit this state, you can triple tap your Touch Crystal, or wait 8 seconds for it to automatically time out.
You can change the Crystal Color any time you want!
There are 12 different Crystal colors to choose from.
Here's how to change the color of your Touch Crystal:
That's it! Pretty simple, huh?
Remember: You can only interact with the Touch Crystal when your Totem is in Compass Mode, aka horizontal orientation.
The SOS Button is one of the most important features on the Totem Compass.
It allows you to send an SOS Alert to your friends, letting them know that you want to be found.
The SOS Button is designed to help you feel safe.
Sometimes at a festival, we’re not always in the headspace to venture out alone and find our friends, but we still want to link up with them. The SOS Button makes that possible.
Here's how to send an SOS Alert with your Totem Compass:
When you want to stop sending an SOS alert, simply press and hold the SOS button just like you did before.
The button will stop blinking red, which means that you are no longer actively sending an SOS Alert. Your Totem will continue to SOS until you do this, so pay attention to that blinking light behind the button!
Now that you know how to send an SOS Alert, let's talk about what it looks like when your friends receive your SOS Alert.
If their Totem is in Vibe Mode (vertical orientation), their Touch Crystal begins blinking "SOS" in morse code while you are sending the Alert. This gets their attention and tells them to come find you.
This also works the same way if their Totems are in Eco Mode. Eco Mode is a feature that can significantly extend your battery life (and mutes their Vibe while in vertical orientation).
You can see what this looks like in Vibe Mode and Eco Mode in the two images below. 😘
One important thing to note: SOS alerts are completely silent. That means that it won’t alert the people around you that you’ve activated it through noise or haptics. The only people that will know you're SOSing is the people you've Bonded with.
Sometimes, when we’re feeling vulnerable or frightened in a public setting, we don’t want the people around us to know that we’re experiencing discomfort. The discreet nature of the SOS button respects your privacy 🫶
When your friends enter Compass Mode by lifting their Totem into a horizontal orientation, they will see your Bond Light blinking rapidly. 🚨
This shows them your direction and lets them know that YOU were the one who sent the SOS Alert.
Then all they have to do is follow the blinking light until they find you! 🤗
Just like normal navigation, your Bond Light will get bigger and bigger on your friend's Totem as they get closer to you, before eventually absorbing into their Touch Crystal when they get very close. When your Bond light absorbs into their Crystal, that means it's time for them to use their eyes and look around to find you.
One tip for success:
If you are trying to find a friend that sent you an SOS alert, we recommend doing a quick spin before you navigate to them. Your Totem automatically recalibrates itself when you spin around, making it easier for you to find your friends.
The SOS feature is designed with simplicity in mind.
Music festivals and live events are places where it’s easy to experience sensory overload.
When you’re in a vulnerable state of mind, it can be difficult to think clearly. The SOS Button is here to give you peace of mind. 💗
Once your Totems have established Satellite Connection, you and your friends can use them to find each other!
Below, we'll break down everything you need to know to find your friends with your Totem Compass.
To begin finding your friends:
Once you've calibrated your Totem, it will show you the real-time direction of all your Bonds. 🧭
Each Bond receives a dedicated color on the Totem that indicates their direction and distance.
When your Totem is in Compass Mode (horizontal orientation), the Bond Lights move around your Totem's Halo to point you in the direction of your friends.
When you want to find them, just follow the pretty light. 🤩
The location of your Bonds is updated every few seconds, so you can track them in real-time even as they move.
One thing to note:
When you get super close to your friend, your bond light may not always point perfectly at their chest.
This is totally normal. It will still be accurate enough to help you find them—especially across long distances.
The Totem Compass doesn't just tell you the direction of your friends... It also tells you their distance! When you are over 100 meters away from a friend, their Bond Light appears as a single LED on your Halo.
Once you are within 100 meters of them, their Bond Light begins to get bigger.
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As you approach them, their Bond Light gets bigger and bigger until it is absorbed into your Crystal at close-range.
When their Bond Light is absorbed into your Crystal, you know you're in the right spot! It's time to look around and find them.
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Pretty simple, huh? That's everything you need to know for a good ol' fashioned game of hide and seek!
Your Totem's Crystal will absorb your Bond Lights whenever your friends are close by—including right after you Bond with them.
When your Touch Crystal collects a Bond Light, the rest of the Crystal goes dark so you can see the Bond Light easily.
If you look down at your Totem after a successful bonding, you'll see that the bond lights are now collected inside your Touch Crystal.
This happens automatically whenever you're close to a Bonded friend and holding your Totem in Compass Mode.
Whenever you're navigating to a friend and their light jumps into your Touch Crystal, the Totem is telling you that your friend is very close by.
Now it's time to look up and use your eyes to find them. They won't be far!
One thing to note:
Your Crystal collects the bond lights at different distance thresholds based on the satellite precision at that time.
When the satellites are very precise, your bond lights may not collect until you're a meter away from your friend. Or even less!
Other times, it may collect earlier.
Either way, when your Touch Crystal collects your friend's bond light, you know that they are nearby.
Your Totem Compass comes equipped with a rechargeable LiPo battery.
Whenever you power on your Totem, the Halo fills up to show you your current battery level. A full Halo means a full charge.
Remember: Your battery level indicator is only accurate when your Totem is not plugged into a power source.
When your Totem is in normal Vibe Mode, you can expect around 7 hours of battery life before it dies.
If you want to extend your battery life even further, you can do so by activating Eco Mode!
Eco Mode is a special feature that can make your Totem go for over 24 hours on a full charge.
When your Totem gets low on battery, your Touch Crystal will turn Red and start blinking.
When you see this, it's time to charge up!
The Totem charges quickly, and uses a standard USB-C cable.
It typically takes less than an hour to fully charge your Totem Compass, but this may vary depending on your power source and charging cable.
When you plug in your Totem, a light appears in the Touch Crystal to tell you that it's charging.
You can charge your Totem while it's on, or while it's off. Whatever you prefer!
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Eco Mode is a feature built into the Totem Compass that significantly extends your battery life.
When your Totem is in Eco Mode, it can run for over 24 hours! It can also help you get a satellite connection faster.
Eco Mode means that your Totem basically goes to sleep when you're not actively finding your friends.
Eco Mode is also how you turn off Vibe Mode if you're overstimulated, or want to feel a little more discreet while wearing your Totem.
Here's how it works:
You'll know that Eco Mode is on when your Totem's Halo no longer vibes while it's hanging vertically.
You've now learned all the basics of your Totem Compass! 🥳
Let's review everything you've learned about so far, with some helpful visuals.
Watch the video below to view a brief glossary of all major features and animations on your Totem 👇
You may notice that none of these animations include the color red! We save red for special use.
Any time you see the color red on your Totem Compass, this means you've either run into an error, or your Totem battery is very low.
Learn more about errors, warnings, and other troubleshooting tips on our Troubleshooting Guide!
Totem releases free software updates for the Totem Compass on a regular basis.
Software Updates are released to improve performance, extend battery life, and occasionally fix bugs.
Follow these instructions to download the latest Software Update onto your Totem.
Here are some Troubleshooting Tips to help you.
Totem won't Power-On:
Ensure your device is charged. Plug it in and look for the red charging light inside the Touch Crystal.
Totem can't get Satellite Connection:
Take your Totem outside and move away from structures like walls, buildings, or roofs. Ensure you have a clear view of the sky overhead and can see the horizon. Your Totem can get Satellite Connection much faster while it's in Eco Mode.
Crystal is blinking:
There are two possible reasons your Touch Crystal is blinking.
1) One of your Bonds is sending an SOS Alert. You can find out who is sending the Alert by tilting your Totem into horizontal orientation (Compass Mode).
2) Your Totem has low battery and needs to be charged. When your Totem has low battery, the Touch Crystal turns Red and starts breathing. This is the only time your Touch Crystal will ever show the color Red.
This is what it looks like when your Totem has low battery:
Totem isn't Bonding as expected:
Ensure the Totems are very close to each other (less than 1 inch). Press & hold the Touch Crystals simultaneously. Remember that your Totem can only hold a maximum of 4 bonds at once!
If you continue to have issues, try rebooting the Totems and try again.
Bond Light is not accurate while navigating:
Before you navigate, remember to calibrate your Totem by spinning in a complete circle while holding it in Compass Mode (horizontal orientation).
If the Bond Light still doesn't seem accurate after a calibration, check to make sure there are no iron or magnets nearby. These items can emit a small magnetic field which can temporarily confuse your Totem Compass.
If you're still having trouble, check to make sure that you are indeed Bonded to the person you're trying to navigate to.
The Bond Light may not always point perfectly at your friend's chest, but it should always take you in the generally correct direction.
Bond Light is breathing, or fading in-and-out:
When a Bond Light starts breathing on your Totem, it means that you are no longer getting active location updates from that Bond. This could be due to several reasons:
If your Bond gets out of range, don't worry! The breathing Bond Light will still take you to their last-known location. Navigating to their last-known location will usually bring them back in-range, and you will begin getting real-time location updates from them again.
For additional Troubleshooting Tips, check out our Troubleshooting Guide .
See a bug or issue with your Totem Compass? Let us know and we'll fix it!
You can send feedback directly to our Team at this link.
We are constantly rolling out software updates to improve the Totem Compass. Your feedback will guide our decisions on what to change and improve. Help us help you!
Share your feedback with us today.
