Complete Guide

How to Use Beamfy

Everything you need to know — from your first launch to advanced smart-glasses integration. Follow along step by step.

Step 1

Getting Started

Set up Beamfy in under a minute.

First Launch

1
Sign in with your Apple ID or Google account. No passwords to remember.
2
Grant permissions — Camera, Microphone, and Location. All three are essential for the app to describe your surroundings, listen to voice commands, and provide navigation.
3
Quick Setup — Adjust your voice speed, volume level, and description detail.
4
You land on the Home Screen. Tap the microphone and ask your first question!

System Requirements

  • ✓ iOS 16+ or Android 12+
  • ✓ Internet connection (Wi-Fi or mobile data)
  • ✓ Camera & microphone access
  • ✓ Location Services enabled (for navigation & emergency)
Core

Home Screen

Your camera is always ready. Just tap and ask.

The Home Screen shows a live camera feed. At the top, a status pill tells you the current state: Ready Listening Analyzing Speaking.

How to Describe Your Surroundings

1
Tap the large microphone button at the bottom of the screen.
2
The app captures a photo from your phone camera (or smart glasses if connected).
3
AI analyzes the image — the status changes to Analyzing.
4
The description is spoken aloud and displayed on screen.
5
Detected objects appear as overlay chips on the camera view.

Action Buttons

Four shortcut buttons sit above the microphone:

📝

Read Text

Opens the OCR screen. Point your camera at any text — signs, menus, labels — and hear it read aloud.

🧭

Navigate

Opens voice-guided navigation. Say a destination and follow turn-by-turn directions.

📷

Scan

Instantly analyzes whatever is in front of you in high detail — products, barcodes, objects.

🚨

SOS

Activates the emergency screen. After a 3-second countdown your emergency contact is alerted.

Hands-Free Tip

Say “Hey Beamfy” at any time to trigger a scene description without touching the screen. The wake-word listener runs in the background whenever the app is open.

Feature

Read Text (OCR)

Capture text from the real world and hear it instantly.

Step-by-Step

1
Tap the Read Text button on the Home Screen (or the Read tab at the bottom).
2
Point your camera at the text you want to read — a sign, menu, letter, medicine label, etc.
3
Tap “Tap to Read”. The camera captures the frame.
4
OCR extracts all visible text. If your target language differs from the original, the text is automatically translated.
5
The extracted text appears on screen and is read aloud automatically.

Controls

  • ▶Play / Stop — Replay or stop the spoken text at any time.
  • 📋Copy — Copy extracted text to clipboard for sharing.
  • ✕Clear — Reset and scan a new text.

Finding a Destination

1
Tap the Navigate button on Home Screen or the Navigate tab.
2
Tap the microphone and say where you want to go — e.g. “Nearest pharmacy” or “Central Park”.
3
The app searches nearby places. If one match is found, you see a confirmation card with name, address, and distance.
4
If multiple results appear, tap the one you want or say its number.
5
Say “Yes” (or tap the button) to confirm. Navigation begins.

During Navigation

1
A large direction arrow pulsates on screen showing the next turn.
2
The distance to the next turn is shown in large text.
3
Each instruction is spoken aloud automatically.
4
Use the bottom controls:
  • • Previous — Go back one step
  • • Repeat — Hear the current instruction again
  • • Next — Skip to the next step
5
When you arrive, the app announces “You have arrived at your destination”.

Proactive Hazard Alerts

While navigating, Beamfy can continuously scan your environment for obstacles and traffic. Enable this in Settings > Alerts.

High

Strong vibration + loud warning

Medium

Alert vibration + voice warning

Low

Light tap + quiet notice

Alternative: Type Your Destination

Prefer not to speak? Scroll down on the navigation screen to find a text input field. Type the place name and results appear instantly.

Safety

Emergency SOS

One tap to alert your emergency contact with your live location.

Activating an Emergency

1
Tap the SOS button on the Home Screen.
2
A 3-second countdown begins with haptic pulses each second. You can still go back.
3
When the countdown hits zero:
  • • An SMS is sent to your emergency contact with your GPS coordinates and a Google Maps link.
  • • If Auto Call is enabled, Beamfy automatically dials your emergency contact.
  • • The backend logs the alert and can notify additional services.
4
The screen turns red and shows “EMERGENCY ACTIVE” with your location.

Cancelling a False Alarm

1
Hold down the “Hold to Cancel” button for 3 full seconds.
2
The button text changes to “Keep Holding” while you hold.
3
After 3 seconds the emergency is cancelled and you return to the Home Screen.

Setting Up Your Emergency Contact

Go to Settings > Safety > Emergency Contact. Enter the phone number of a trusted person. Optionally write a custom emergency message and enable Auto Call so Beamfy dials them automatically during an SOS event.

Advanced

Smart Glasses Integration

Pair your Ray-Ban Meta glasses for a truly hands-free experience.

Pairing Your Glasses

1
Make sure your Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are turned on and Bluetooth is enabled on your phone.
2
Open Settings > Smart Glasses > Connect Glasses.
3
Beamfy scans for nearby Bluetooth devices. Your glasses will appear in the list.
4
Tap the glasses name to begin pairing. Status changes: Disconnected → Connecting → Connected.
5
Once connected, the battery level of your glasses is shown in Settings.

Using the Glasses Camera

1
After pairing, enable “Prefer Glasses Camera” in Settings > Smart Glasses.
2
Now every time you tap the microphone or say “Hey Beamfy”, the app captures a photo from your glasses camera instead of the phone camera.
3
The glasses camera provides a natural eye-level perspective, which gives more accurate scene descriptions compared to a phone held at waist level.
4
If the glasses camera fails (e.g. low battery, disconnected), the app automatically falls back to the phone camera.

Spatial Audio

Enable Settings > Smart Glasses > Spatial Audio. When active, audio cues come from the direction of the hazard or turn. For example, if there is an obstacle on your left, the warning plays through the left speaker. This gives you an instinctive sense of direction without needing to interpret verbal left/right instructions.

👓

Eye-Level Camera

Captures what you actually see, not what's in your pocket. More accurate AI descriptions.

🎧

Spatial Audio

Directional sound cues from glasses speakers help you sense obstacles without looking at the phone.

🔋

Battery Monitoring

See your glasses battery level directly in Beamfy Settings. Get notified when it's low.

Hands-Free

Voice Commands

Control every feature without touching the screen.

Wake Word

Say “Hey Beamfy” or just “Beamfy” to instantly trigger a scene description. No tap required. The wake-word listener is always active while the app is open.

Supported Commands

Navigation

  • “Navigate to [place]”
  • “Take me to [place]”
  • “Directions to [place]”
  • “How do I get to [place]”

Actions

  • “Describe scene” — Capture and describe surroundings
  • “Read text” — Open the text reading screen
  • “Scan” — Scan a product or barcode in detail
  • “SOS” or “Emergency” — Activate emergency mode
  • “Stop” — Stop current speech or action
  • “Repeat” — Repeat last spoken instruction
  • “Settings” — Open the settings screen

Navigation Controls

  • “Yes” / “Yeah” / “Sure” / “OK” — Confirm destination
  • “No” / “Cancel” — Reject and search again

Tip: Unrecognized Commands

If you say something that doesn’t match a known command, Beamfy treats it as a general question and describes the scene in front of you. So you can just speak naturally — there’s no wrong thing to say.

Configuration

Settings

Customize every aspect of the app to your preferences.

Language

Beamfy supports 74 languages and automatically detects your device language on first launch. If you want to change it later, go to Settings > Language and pick from the list.

Voice & Audio

  • Voice Speed (slider: 1.0x – 2.0x)
    Controls how fast the AI speaks. Start at 1.0x and increase as you get used to the app.
  • Description Detail (Brief / Normal / Detailed)
    Brief gives a one-sentence overview. Normal is the default balance. Detailed describes everything the AI sees — objects, colors, distances, text.

Haptic Feedback

Toggle Haptics on or off. When enabled, the phone vibrates for: confirmations, alerts, countdown ticks, navigation turns, and emergency events. Each event has a distinct vibration pattern so you can learn to identify them by touch.

Alerts

  • Obstacle Alerts (On / Off)
    Warns you about stairs, walls, holes, poles, and debris detected by the proactive scanner.
  • Traffic Alerts (On / Off)
    Warns you about vehicles, bikes, and heavy pedestrian traffic approaching your path.

Safety

  • Emergency Contact
    The phone number that receives SMS alerts and (optionally) gets called during SOS.
  • Auto Call (On / Off)
    If enabled, Beamfy automatically dials your emergency contact when an SOS is triggered.
  • Emergency Message
    Custom text included in the SMS. Default: your name + GPS location + Google Maps link.

Accessibility

  • High Contrast (On / Off)
    Boosts the contrast of all UI elements for users with partial vision.
  • Large Text (On / Off)
    Increases font sizes throughout the app.

Smart Glasses

  • Connect Glasses
    Scan and pair your Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses via Bluetooth.
  • Spatial Audio (On / Off)
    Directional sound cues through the glasses speakers.
  • Prefer Glasses Camera (On / Off)
    Use the glasses camera for all AI analyses instead of the phone camera.

Account

  • Sign Out
    Logs you out and returns to the sign-in screen. Your data is preserved on the server.
  • Delete Account
    Permanently deletes your account, all analysis history, and personal data. This cannot be undone.
Plans

Premium Plans

Start with a 1-week free trial. Upgrade when you're ready.

Monthly
$4.99/mo
  • ✓ Unlimited AI descriptions
  • ✓ Real-time object detection
  • ✓ Text reading & OCR
  • ✓ Voice commands
  • ✓ Navigation assistance
  • ✓ Emergency features
Includes 1-week free trial
YearlyBest Value
$39.99/yr

$3.33/mo — save 33%

  • ✓ Everything in Monthly
  • ✓ Priority AI processing
  • ✓ Offline mode
  • ✓ Priority support
Includes 1-week free trial

How to Subscribe

1
Open Settings > Premium (or tap the Premium card on the Settings screen).
2
Choose Monthly or Yearly.
3
Tap “Subscribe Now”.
4
Confirm the purchase through the App Store or Google Play payment sheet.
5
Your premium features activate instantly. Subscription dates appear in Settings.

Restore Purchases

Switched to a new phone? Open the Premium screen and tap “Restore Purchases”. Your subscription will be automatically restored from your App Store or Google Play account.

Ready to Get Started?

Download Beamfy and experience the world with AI by your side.

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