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SOS and support

What is SOS?

Updated September 2026

SOS is a full screen you can open from anywhere in the app, and it is the one place in Fold'em that asks nothing of you. It carries six calming tools, everyone in your circle whose number is on this phone, and the helpline for your country. Nothing on it can change your block, end your term or open an app. It closes when you press I am calm, and nothing else on the screen closes it.

What the screen holds

SOS opens as a full screen cover on a pure black canvas, and the line at its head reads Nothing has to be decided right now. Under that sit six tools in an even grid: Breathe, Ground, Recall, Numbers, Unscramble and Trace. Breathe is first because slowing the breath is the ground the other five stand on; nothing below it is ranked, so the order is fixed rather than clever.

Under the grid, Reach someone lists everyone in your circle whose number is on this phone, with a Helpline button beside them. A person is on that strip only once they have accepted their invite and only once the number stored for them forms a working call and message pair, so a face here is always somebody you can actually reach. Tapping one raises the system's own alert carrying their name, their role and their number, with Call, Text and Cancel. Nothing is hidden to protect the layout: a circle with a keyholder and several witnesses wraps onto a second line rather than dropping anyone.

The way out is one button at the foot, I am calm. It is the only door out of the whole screen, which is why it is never disabled and never behind a confirmation. Every tool returns to this menu through the chevron at its top left, and the check that follows a tool returns here through Still here.

What the screen records

A session starts the moment SOS opens and finishes at the first of pressing I am calm or the phone going to the background. A session of at least 60 seconds is written to this phone as an urge ridden out; a shorter one is not written at all. Opening SOS again starts a fresh session and keeps whatever tool you were on. The running count appears on the Your progress page and never on SOS itself, because a screen you reached mid craving is the wrong place to be scored. The record stays on the phone: nothing about a craving session is uploaded today.

SOS: the pad, the hub, the helpline and the games On the left, the SOS pad: one round ember button on the block screen, on the home screen widget and in the app. Pressing it opens the SOS hub on the right, a black screen with three doors. The first calls someone in your circle. The second is the helpline for your country. The third is the games: something to do with your hands for the next few minutes while the urge passes. WHEN IT IS BAD RIGHT NOW SOS The pad on the block screen, the widget, the app RIGHT NOW This passes. Call Mariayour circle, one tap The helplinefor your country Ride it outthe games, a few minutes
The SOS pad opens the hub: a call to someone in your circle, the helpline for your country, or the games to ride out the next few minutes.

Opening it, and what the tools do

  1. Press SOS

    The orange SOS bar sits above the tab bar on Home, Shield, Circle and Settings, and one press opens the screen. It shows at the top of a tab and hides while you are on a page pushed inside one, so it never covers a sub page's own controls; going back brings it straight back.

    The Settings tab with the orange SOS bar sitting above the four tab items.

    The SOS bar, above the tab bar

  2. Pick a tool, or a person

    Six tools, one strip of people, one helpline. Ground walks the senses down in five steps, from five things you can see to one slow breath. Recall, Numbers, Unscramble and Trace occupy your hands and your working memory instead, and the order among them carries no meaning.

    The SOS hub: six tiles named Breathe, Ground, Recall, Numbers, Unscramble and Trace, then Reach someone carrying only the Helpline button, because this phone has nobody's number stored, and I am calm at the foot.

    The hub

  3. Breathe paces itself

    The circle guides four seconds in and six seconds out, and it runs on its own: there is nothing to press and hold. Six breaths fill the ring, and the button under it reads I'm steadier whenever you are ready. With reduced motion turned on the disc stops moving and the count still advances.

    The Breathe tool at breathe out, longer, six, with the guide circle and the I'm steadier button.

    Breathe, at the exhale

  4. The games have no clock

    Numbers sets six rounds of simple arithmetic and says so under the title: take your time, there is no clock. A wrong tap draws a fresh problem instead of a penalty, and the foot button leaves whenever you want. Nothing on these screens is timed against you and nothing scores you.

    The Numbers tool showing one arithmetic problem, four answer tiles and six progress dots.

    Numbers

What this does not do

SOS decides nothing. It cannot change your block, end your term, open an app or move any deadline, and no tool on it is an input to an unlock. It does not dial for you: a call happens when you choose a name and press Call. It makes no claim about how long a craving lasts, and it carries no urge timer, because a promised duration is folk wisdom and an invitation to chase the clock. Opening SOS from inside the app tells nobody; the escape on the block screen is the one that records a blocked attempt, and that count is the part your keyholder can see.

If you need someone now

Free, all hours, and not run by us.

National Problem Gambling Helpline (US) 1 800 522 4700, call or text.

Hjelpelinjen (Norway) 800 800 40, hjelpelinjen.no.

National Gambling Helpline (UK) 0808 8020 133, gamcare.org.uk.

Gam-Anon is a community for people supporting someone who gambles.

Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.