GardenThe pencil button on every screen, and what it sends
Partly live · An answer only arrives if somebody writes one — most notes are read, acted on and never replied to, and that is not the app failing. There is also no way to answer back: a reply lands on your report and the conversation stops there.
Every screen has a small pencil button near the bottom right. Tap it, describe what is wrong in your own words, and send. The app quietly attaches which screen you were on, which plant if you were looking at one, and the app version — so you only have to say the part it cannot know. **You can also just tell the chat.** Say a button did nothing or a number looks wrong while you are in Ask, and it reaches us the same way, in the same words you typed — you do not have to find the pencil or know it exists. **And if you cannot get in at all, the sign-in screen has its own way to tell us** — *Not working? Tell us* — which needs no account and no code, because the person who is stuck is the one we most need to hear from.
Where it is
Bottom right of every screen, a small circle with a pencil in it. It sits above the tab bar, so it never covers the tabs, and it is deliberately quiet — it is on every screen, and anything louder becomes furniture within a day.
It is hidden in two places on purpose: Garden Mode, where one card fills the screen and a floating button would sit on top of the thing you are using, and the sign-in screen, where it would open a chat that needs the very account you are trying to get.
If you cannot get in
The sign-in screen has a link of its own: Not working? Tell us. It is on the step that asks for your email and on the step that asks for the six-digit code — and the code step is the one that matters, because a code that will not take, a code that never arrived and a mistyped address all end up there.
It opens a box. Say what happened, tap Send, and it goes. No account, no code, nothing you have not already got.
This is the one report that does not wait for a connection to an account. Everything else in the app saves to your phone first and sends when it can; this posts straight away, because a note queued on the phone of somebody who cannot sign in would sit there for ever.
One box, on purpose
There is no category to pick, no severity, no separate title and description. One plain text box.
That is not laziness, it is the whole design. Every field added is a decision you have to make while still holding the thought — and the thought is the thing we are trying to save. If you walk round the garden and find three things, say all three in one note. Splitting one note into three is quick for whoever reads it and slow for you.
What it sends without asking
Which screen you were on. Which plant and crop, if you were looking at one. The app version, your screen size, whether you were online, and your time zone.
That list exists so you never have to say “on the Today screen, on the tomato, whatever version this is”. The app already knows all of it. The only thing you have to produce is the sentence that is actually in your head.
Nothing else goes with it — no location beyond what you already gave the app, and nothing from anywhere else on your phone.
No signal, no problem
The note saves on your phone first and sends itself when a connection comes back. That is the same way everything else in GardenTrack works, because half of any real garden has no bars.
The message after you tap Send tells you which of the two actually happened — sent, or saved and waiting. A small number appears on the pencil button while anything is still queued, and it disappears when the last one lands.
If you are signed out, a note from the pencil button is kept but cannot be sent: that note has to belong to an account to reach anyone. It says so rather than pretending, and it goes on its own once you sign in from Profile. The link on the sign-in screen is the one exception — it needs no account, so it does not queue.
What happens to it
Notes are read in batches, oldest first, because the order you hit things is information — the third one often only makes sense after the first two. Send as many as you like while you are testing, then say you are done, and they get read together.
Nothing will reply to you inside the app. There is no thread and no notification. If that turns out to matter, it is worth building; right now it is not there.
Common questions
- Can I just tell the chat instead of finding the button?
- Yes, since 17 August 2026. If you tell Ask that something in the app is broken — a button that does nothing, a number that looks wrong, a plant that has vanished — it reaches us exactly as a note from the pencil button does, **with your own words kept as you typed them**. Nothing changes on your screen: you get a normal answer, and the report happens quietly behind it. **Before this it did not.** You would get a kind, helpful reply and the note went nowhere at all, which is worse than having no way to report it, because it looked like it worked. The one thing worth knowing is that saying it to the chat cannot attach which screen you were on the way the pencil button does — so if you can, tap the pencil while you are looking at the thing that is wrong.
- How does it know I mean the app and not my plant?
- Because people say the same words about both, and this was the part that needed care. *"I planted beans two weeks ago and nothing has happened"* is gardening. *"I tapped save and nothing happened"* is us. The chat is reading which of the two you were talking about — **it is not deciding whether you found a real bug, or how bad it is.** That is our job, and it happens in our own code where it can be checked, not in a judgment nobody can see. If it ever gets it wrong and files your bean question as a bug, the cost is a wasted minute of ours and nothing of yours.
- Will anyone answer me?
- Sometimes, and when they do the answer turns up **on your own report** — open Profile and it is sitting under the words you wrote, with a name and a date. **Most notes get read, acted on and never replied to**, which is not the app failing: a bug that gets fixed needs no answer, and you will see the fix rather than a message about it. Nothing here goes to your email.
- Can I write back to an answer?
- Not yet. A reply lands on your report and the conversation stops there. If you have more to say, send another note from the same screen — it is one more tap and it keeps the whole thing in one place.
- Where is the feedback button?
- Bottom right of every screen, a small circle with a pencil in it. It sits above the tab bar so it never covers them. It is deliberately quiet — it is on every screen, and anything louder would become furniture within a day. It is hidden in Garden Mode, where one card fills the screen and a floating button would sit on top of the thing you are using, and on the sign-in screen, where it would open a chat that needs the account you are trying to get. **The sign-in screen has its own link instead** — *Not working? Tell us*, under the buttons.
- I cannot get in at all. How do I tell you that?
- There is a link on the sign-in screen itself: **Not working? Tell us**. It is on both steps — the one that asks for your email and the one that asks for the six-digit code — and the code step is the one that matters, because a code that will not take, a code that never arrived and a mistyped address all end up there. It opens a box, you say what happened, and you send it. **No account, no code, nothing you have not already got.** Your email is a second box underneath and it is optional: leave it blank if you would rather, and the message still reaches us.
- Can I report more than one thing at once?
- Yes, and that is the expected case. It is one plain text box on purpose. If you find three things while walking round the garden, say all three in one note — splitting them up is quick for whoever reads it and slow for you while you are trying to hold three thoughts at once.
- Can I talk instead of type?
- Yes. The box is focused the moment the sheet opens, so your keyboard comes straight up and the microphone key is one tap away. Dictating is the fastest way to use this and it is what it was built for.
- What does it send along with what I write?
- Which screen you were on, which plant and crop if you were looking at one, the app version, your screen size, whether you were online, and your time zone. Nothing else — no location beyond what you already gave the app, and nothing from other apps. The point is that you never have to type "on the Today screen, on the tomato"; the app already knows.
- Does it work with no signal?
- Yes. The note is saved on your phone first and sends itself when you have a connection. The message after you tap Send tells you which of the two happened, and a small number appears on the button while anything is still waiting to go.
- What if I am not signed in?
- A note from the pencil button is still saved on your phone, but it cannot be sent until you sign in — that note has to belong to an account to reach anyone. The confirmation says so plainly rather than claiming it sent. Sign in from Profile and it goes on its own. **The link on the sign-in screen is the exception**: it does not wait for an account and does not sit in a queue — it goes straight to us the moment you tap Send, which is the whole reason it exists.
- Can I see the notes I sent?
- Yes. Open Profile and they are listed newest first, in your own words, with the date you sent each one and any answer underneath it. You do not need to keep your own copy. **The one that will not be in that list is a message sent from the sign-in screen** — it was sent before there was an account to attach it to, so there is nowhere for it to appear. It reached us; it just has no home on your phone.
- If I sign out, do my notes go with me?
- They come back when you sign back in. Signing out wipes the garden off that phone on purpose — the next person to pick it up must not be able to read what you wrote — and signing in pulls your own notes down again from your account. On a brand new phone they arrive the same way, along with everything else.
Shipped 2026-08-03. Last checked 2026-08-23. Something here wrong or out of date? Tell us — support docs going stale is a bug.