How to use Bingo Bestie

Before you play 0:00

Hello and welcome to Bingo Bestie. This is an app that follows along with the paper bingo cards in front of you and tells you when one of them is a winner. It is recommended that you keep dabbing your cards the way you always have. Bingo Bestie is a second set of eyes. It catches the ones you missed. It does not replace dabbing and the hall still needs to see your dabbed card.

And please check if your bingo hall has any rules for using an app. I am going to show you three things. Setting up a game, playing it, and looking at your bingo stats. Let's get started.

First startup and navigation 0:31

When you first open the app, tap the let's go button. On your first startup, you will get a short walkthrough. Tap next to read through each page. Hit the get started button at the end. You can see these again any time from settings. Along the bottom, you have four buttons: games, templates, stats, and settings. We will spend most of our time on games.

Games, rounds, stages, and patterns 0:57

Before we begin a game, four words. Everything else makes sense once you have these: game, round, stage, and pattern. A game is one night of bingo, start to finish. A round is one set of cards. For example, blue cards are one round. When those are finished and you flip to your orange cards, that is the next round. Each round holds its own cards.

A stage is the pattern you are playing for. Let's say stage one is any line. Somebody calls bingo and the caller says we are now playing the inner square. That is stage two. Same cards on the table. New way to win. And a stage can hold more than one pattern. If the caller says inner or outer square, both go in the same stage.

Set up your game 1:40

Let's build tonight's game. Two rounds, two stages each. First, enter a game name you will recognize later. I will call mine Tuesday night. It saves as you type, so if you back out, nothing is lost. Round one is my blue cards, so I will name it that. The name is optional. Leave it blank. And it just says round one. Now the stages.

Stage one tonight is any line. There it is sitting on the stage. If you want to see what a pattern actually looks like, press and hold it. 12 different lines fall under this pattern. Stage two tonight is postage stamp or four corners. Either one wins, so they both go in the same stage. Picked the wrong one? Just tap it to take it off.

Nothing here is permanent.

Scan and check your cards 2:25

Now we enter the cards. You can type the numbers in by hand or let the camera read them. I will use the camera for this tutorial. Lay the card flat, get good light, and fill the frame. It finds the card and reads the numbers on its own. Now check the numbers against the paper card in your hand. Flip between the photo and the numbers.

If one is wrong, tap it and fix it. Then save. One tip, Bingo Bestie labels your cards by number in the order you scan them. Card one, card two, and so on. It helps to write that number in the corner of the paper card. So when you get a bingo, you know exactly which one to hand over.

Finish setting up your rounds 3:04

Round two is my orange cards. Same idea. So I will skip over the stage and card entries. You can add these cards now or wait until you have them in your hand at the hall. A few other things you should know. The three dots on a round let you move it or remove it. Tap a card to edit it, delete it, or move it to another round.

And if your hall plays a shape that is not included in the list, you can draw your own. That is it. Now, scroll to the bottom and hit the create game button. Notice how there is a green status that says ready to play. That means we have entered all required details to start the game. If there is anything missing, the status would say setting up and it will list out all missing game details.

Start playing and enter called numbers 3:59

Scroll to the bottom of the game details screen and hit the start playing button. This is the play screen. Let's walk through it. At the top is your game name and the time it was created. Below that, the round and stage you are on and the pattern in play. Tap the pattern to see it. The next section is called numbers. Every number you tap in shows up here.

Below that is the number pad. As the hall calls the bingo balls, tap the letter, then the number. And finally, at the bottom, your cards. Swipe between them or tap one to zoom. Let's play. The caller says B8. So, I tap B and then eight. It marks that number on every card in this round at once. I will call a few more balls.

Confirm a Bingo and move on 4:57

And there it is. Bingo. The winning squares light up on the card. Two buttons. Confirm win if the hall accepted it. Not a win if they did not or if you dabbed something wrong. Not a win simply carries on with the round and you can fix any mistake in the cards right from the gameplay screen. After clicking confirm win, you can share a win with your friends if you would like.

Now on to stage two. Notice the numbers already called stay on the cards. Same round, new pattern. Let's say somebody across the room gets the postage stamp before we hit bingo. All I have to do is tap the end stage two button at the bottom. That was the last stage of the blue cards. So, we can move on to round two, which is the orange cards.

It looks like we unlocked an achievement for our first win. Nice. Notice the called balls reset for the new round and we are working with a new set of cards. Stage one of the orange cards is looking for the pattern any line.

Fix mistakes during a game 6:03

Now that you understand the basics of a game, let's go over some important features. Anything you do in here can be undone. Tap the wrong number? Undo. Changed your mind? Redo puts it right back. Did you enter the wrong number three calls ago? Tap that ball in the list and take just that one off. The rest stay put. Did you miss a lot of calls?

Click the expand button. Tap numbers on or off and save. Did you move to the next stage too soon? The three dot menu has a return to previous option. This will work for stage or round. Notice you entered a card incorrectly halfway through the night. Tap the card and edit it. It rechecks that card against every number already called and, if it was a winner all along, it tells you.

Did you select the wrong pattern for the stage? Did your hall add a surprise bonus round? Tap the three dot menu and tap edit game. You can change what you need to and save your updates. One note, while you are playing, the round you are on and any already completed rounds are locked, so they cannot be shuffled around. Everything else is still yours to change.

Let's skip these next two stages now that we have covered playing and updating a live game.

Review a completed game 7:18

Game complete. Across the top, you get your night at a glance. Rounds, cards, numbers called, and which cards and stages won. Underneath, a round-by-round breakdown. See which patterns you won on and review all of your bingo cards. And from here, you can copy this whole setup into a fresh game for next week, or tuck it away in the archive. Tap the back button at the top to return to the main game screen.

Bingo Bestie Plus and stats 7:45

The stats tab is part of Bingo Bestie Plus, and there is a 3-day free trial if you want to look. Up top, the overview. Games played, total wins, your win rate, numbers called, then some more detailed stats. Metrics like total cards played, average calls to a win, longest winning streak, and the most called letter. Milestones are badges you can share, which are collected through regular play.

Some examples are 100 completed games, first win, perfect game, etc. Tap on a milestone to share it with your friends. Below that, it shows which round and which stage you actually tend to win on. You can also see your lucky numbers, the ones you win with most. You can narrow all of this down by date. You can also tap any one of these tiles to share your stats the same way you shared your win.

Reuse templates and create patterns 8:47

If your hall plays the same way every week, templates save you setting it all up again. Full game saves a whole night, every round, and every stage. It does not save your cards since those change each week. Round saves just one round for when only part of the night repeats. Patterns is where you can create your own win pattern. If your hall plays a shape that is not in the list, you can make it here.

Now, it will show up in the pattern list alongside the built-in ones. A pattern can also have more than one shape that all count as the same win. The way any line is actually searching for 12 different lines. Adding more than one shape to a pattern is a Plus feature.

Settings and data controls 9:29

Now that we went over all the main features of the app, let's do a quick run through the settings. Sound effects and haptic feedback, which is the little buzz on a tap. Theme light or dark or follow your phone. Favorite patterns, the ones pinned to the top of your list. Card skin. Scan method can be switched between two different scan types if Bingo Bestie is having difficulty reading your cards.

Your Plus subscription and restore purchases if you get a new phone. Links to our website, bingobestie.com, news updates and a link to this video. Contact us goes straight to the developer. A real person answers. Startup tips and the pointer hints. Turn those off once you have the hang of the app. You can also view the welcome pages anytime you want them again.

Please do read the disclaimer before using Bingo Bestie. Delete card photos frees up space while still keeping your numbers in older games. And clear all data wipes everything. Games, stats, patterns. There is no undo on that one. So it asks you twice.

Recap and support 10:31

That covers everything. Four important words. Game, round, stage, and pattern. Game is your night. Round is your set of cards. Stage is the set of patterns you are playing for. Pattern is what the app considers a win and the one to remember. Dab your cards and let Bingo Bestie catch what you miss. If something is not working right or you just have an idea, write to support@bingobestie.com.

Thanks for watching and good luck.