Support & User Guide

JourneyM8 is a whisky companion for collectors and enthusiasts — a place to organize your bottles, log your pours, learn at your own pace, and keep the story of your whisky journey in one place. This guide walks through every feature. You don't need to read it end to end; reach for the section you need, when you need it.

Getting Started

Download & sign in

Download JourneyM8 free from the App Store. When you first open the app, you can sign in two ways:

• Sign in with Apple — the quickest option. Your name and email stay private to your device and our account system; no password to remember.
• Email code — enter your email and we'll send a 6-digit code. Type the code to sign in. There's no password to set or forget.

Confirm your age

Because JourneyM8 contains whisky content, you'll be asked to confirm you're of legal drinking age in your country before you continue. This happens once, during setup.

Your home screen

The home screen is built from tiles — Collection, Daily Pour, JourneyLine, Community, Academy, and more. Tap any tile to expand it in place, and tap again to collapse it. You can drag tiles to reorder them so the things you use most sit at the top. The bottom navigation bar gives you fast access to the Library, the Dashboard, and a + button for quickly adding a bottle.

Your Collection

My Collection is the heart of the app — what you own, what you've tried, and what you're chasing next.

Add a bottle by search

Open the My Collection card and choose Add Bottle (also available from the + in the bottom nav). Search by name or distillery, pick your bottle, and add the details that matter to you — type, fill level, and notes.

Add a bottle by scanning the label

Choose Scan Label and point your camera at the front of the bottle. JourneyM8 reads the label and matches it against our expression library. Scanning works best with the front label square in the frame and good lighting. You can always adjust the match or fill in details by hand afterward.

Three sections: Collection, Tastings, Wishlist

Your collection is organized into a continuous view:

• Collection — bottles you own. Track fill levels, tasting notes, pour history, and production details for each one.
• Tastings — whiskies you've tried but don't own, so your tasting history isn't limited to your shelf.
• Wishlist — bottles you want next.

Sort and find bottles by distillery, region, type, or name, and use the alphabetical slider to jump quickly through a large collection.

Bottle details

Tap any bottle to open its detail view: fill level, your tasting notes, pour history, and — where available — distillery and production information. Each tasting note can capture the four S's: Sight, Smell, Sip, and Savor.

Logging Pours

There are two ways to mark a dram, for two different moods.

Daily Pour

The Daily Pour is one suggested pour a day, chosen from your own collection with smart weighting so you stay in touch with bottles you might otherwise forget. Expand the Daily Pour tile on the home screen to see tonight's selection, then log it. Logging a pour each day builds your streak and feeds your JourneyLine.

Quick Pour

Quick Pour is the no-fuss option: log a dram and adjust your bottle's fill level in a few seconds, without writing full tasting notes. Reach it from a bottle's detail view when you just want to record that you poured one. There's no daily limit — it's a simple ledger.

The Whisky Library

Tap the Library icon in the bottom navigation bar to explore our reference library — 400+ distilleries and 1,500+ expressions across five of the world's great whisky nations: Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Japan, and Australia, with more countries arriving in future updates.

Search or explore

Use the search bar to jump straight to a distillery or expression. Or use the carousel, which was built for exploration — pick a country, drill into a region, and browse the distilleries within. You don't need to know what you're looking for; follow what catches your eye. Each tile carries a short guide at the bottom to help you navigate.

Expression details

Every expression includes detailed tasting notes (Sight, Smell, Sip, Savor), Flavor Map scene mappings, and a 12-axis flavor profile so you can compare whiskies at a glance.

The Flavor Map

The Flavor Map is a new way to taste — and one of the most distinctive things in JourneyM8. Instead of a traditional flavor wheel, it uses 20 sensory scenes — a bakery, a garden path, a smokehouse — that mirror how your brain actually stores aroma. Step into a scene and the flavors reveal themselves. You'll find the Flavor Map inside the Academy, alongside the research paper that explains the framework behind it.

Academy & Daily Challenge

The Academy is where you learn — at whatever pace suits you.

• Flashcards — 180 cards across production, history, and tasting.
• Curriculum modules — eight guided modules, from grain to glass.
• Glossary — whisky terms explained in plain language.
• Perspectives — essays that go deeper into the craft.
• Flavor Map & research paper — the sensory framework and the science behind it.
• Articles — original writing from the JourneyM8 team.

Daily Challenge

One question a day about whisky — geography, production, history, or tasting. Find the Challenge card on the Dashboard (the center icon in the bottom tab bar). Getting one wrong is part of the point — the explanation after each answer is where the learning happens. Answer one each day to build a streak; a fresh question arrives every day.

JourneyLine

JourneyLine is your whisky journey, visualized. Every bottle you add, every pour you log, every tasting note, challenge, and milestone appears here automatically as a living, personal timeline. Open the JourneyLine tile on the home screen to explore it. You can filter by what you want to see and share a view of your journey. If you visit a distillery, you can drop a pin to mark the moment — including from your Apple Watch.

Tasting Sessions

A Tasting Session is a shared tasting you host with friends — together in the same room or miles apart, each on their own phone.

• Set the lineup — the bottles you're tasting.
• Tag who's there — invite the friends joining you.
• Everyone writes their own notes — your notes stay yours, theirs stay theirs. Nothing is merged or overwritten.
• Echoes & photos — capture the highlights and shared photos from the session in one place.

When the session ends, each taster keeps their own record, and the session lives on in your collection and JourneyLine.

Community

Open the Community tile to connect with other enthusiasts.

• Friends — send and accept friend requests, and see your friends' activity.
• Cheers — react to a friend's pour.
• Compare Collections — see where your shelves overlap and where they differ.
• Forums — browse categories, read threads, and start a discussion.

Keeping it civil — reporting & blocking

JourneyM8 has zero tolerance for objectionable content or abusive behavior. On any user-generated content — forum posts, session echoes, photos, and direct messages — you can Report the content or Block the person. Blocking hides their content from you immediately; you can manage and unblock people anytime from Settings → Blocked Users. Reports are reviewed and violating content or accounts are removed, typically within 24 hours.

Journal, Lists & Notes

Journal

When you want to write about a dram properly — what the nose reminded you of, the memory it stirred, what you'd pair it with next — open the Journal. It's for the longer thoughts, not a score card.

Lists

Create custom lists for whatever you're planning: a wishlist, a tasting flight, bottles to try at a favorite bar. Add bottles from the library or your collection.

Quick Notes & Echo

Quick Notes capture a thought in the moment. With Echo, you can record a quick voice note — handy when your hands are full and a glass is in one of them — and keep it attached to the moment.

Investment Portfolio

If you hold investment-grade bottles, the Investing tile lets you track them separately from your everyday collection:

• Record purchase price, current valuation, and condition.
• See gain/loss at a glance, and update valuations with a tap.
• Store related documents alongside each bottle.

This is a tracking tool to help you understand the value of what you hold. JourneyM8 does not buy, sell, or broker bottles.

Apple Watch

The JourneyM8 Apple Watch app keeps the essentials on your wrist — no phone required:

• Daily Pour — spin through bottles from your collection and log with a tap.
• Quick Notes (Echo) — record a voice note in the moment.
• Collection browsing — glance at what you own.
• Pin drop — mark a distillery visit on your JourneyLine.
• Complications — add JourneyM8 to your watch face and keep your streak in view.

The AI Assistant

JourneyM8 includes a built-in assistant you can chat with. It works on two levels:

• How-to help (free) — ask how anything in the app works (“How do I log a pour?”, “Where are my tasting notes?”) and get a clear answer.
• Your whisky companion (Master Distiller) — with a Master Distiller subscription, the assistant becomes a personalized guide: collection-aware recommendations, deeper insights, and answers to your whisky questions.

You'll find the assistant from its chat entry point in the app. If it ever says it's having trouble connecting, see Troubleshooting below.

Subscriptions

JourneyM8 offers two tiers. The app's Settings → Subscriptions screen always shows the current, definitive details.

Managing your subscription

Subscriptions are handled by Apple through your Apple ID, and renew automatically until cancelled.

• To cancel or change: open the iPhone Settings app → tap your name → Subscriptions → JourneyM8 → cancel or change your plan. (You can also reach this from the App Store: tap your profile photo → Subscriptions.)
• Free trial: the first week is free. To avoid being charged, cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.
• Restore purchases: if you reinstall the app or switch devices, use Restore Purchases on the Subscriptions screen to restore your access.
• Refunds are handled by Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com.

Account & Privacy

Notifications

JourneyM8 can send notifications for friend activity, session invites, and reminders. Manage them in the iPhone Settings app → JourneyM8 → Notifications, and in the app's own settings.

Deleting your account

You can permanently delete your JourneyM8 account at any time from Settings → (account) → Delete Account. This removes your account and associated data from our system. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.

Privacy

JourneyM8 uses no advertising SDKs, does no social-media tracking, and never sells your data to third parties. Full details are in our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Contact Support

Still stuck, or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.

• In the app: Settings → Help
• On the web: visit the support page at journeym8.com
• Email: support@journeym8.com

Thank you for being part of the JourneyM8 community. Slàinte.