Living with a Matchbox

What you need

• A wall or a shelf near a power outlet.
• Wi-Fi on 2.4 GHz with an internet connection. Almost every home router offers 2.4 GHz, often under the same name as its 5 GHz network.
• An iPhone with the Matchbox app.
• A free Matchbox account, which the app helps you make. One account controls a Matchbox: every phone that changes it signs in to that account (Your account).

The matches reach your Matchbox from our service, over the internet.

Setting it up

1. Plug it in. It wakes up and says HELLO, then shows its name, a six-digit code and ENTER THE CODE ON YOUR PHONE.
2. Open the app. Make an account, then pick your club, your competitions and any other teams you follow. Then the app finds your Matchbox nearby, and your phone asks for the six-digit code on the wall. Your Wi-Fi name and password go in once, from the app. The wall says JOINING and your network’s name, then restarts by itself and takes it from there.
3. Hang it, or stand it.

Your Wi-Fi password goes straight from your phone to the Matchbox. It is never sent to us.

Wi-Fi: networks it can and can’t join

It joins a home Wi-Fi network on 2.4 GHz that has a password, or none.

It can’t join:

• a network that is 5 GHz only;
• a work or school network that asks for a username as well as a password;
• a network with a sign-in page, like a hotel’s, a dorm’s or a café’s. The app may say it joined, and then the Matchbox never connects.

Some networks block the connection it needs, even when it joins them: often at work, at school, or on a guest network. A filter on your own network can do the same, such as parental controls or an ad blocker for the whole house. If the Matchbox joins but never shows any matches, let it through the filter, or try a phone hotspot to see whether the network is the reason.

If your router uses one name for 2.4 and 5 GHz and the Matchbox struggles to join, give the 2.4 GHz network its own name for a moment while you pair. Many routers allow it.

Mesh Wi-Fi should work. Each time it connects, the Matchbox picks the strongest access point it hears. If you move it, unplug it for a moment and it looks again.

A hidden network has to be typed in by name.

If your router is set to WPA3 only, switch it to WPA2/WPA3 (some routers call it “mixed” or “transition”). WPA2 is the setting that’s known to work.

It keeps losing its connection

Some routers stop letting a device back in after it has dropped off and rejoined many times. You might see:

• the app saying Your Matchbox Keeps Losing Wi-Fi;
• the wall saying NO CONNECTION (What the wall is telling you);
• pairing that fails, though the password is right.

What helps:

1. Restart your router.
2. If the Matchbox still won’t connect, unplug it for an hour, then plug it back in. If it doesn’t connect within a few minutes, pair it again (The buttons on the back).
3. Still no luck? Tap Send a Report in the app (Getting help). It records each try, which tells us whether it’s the password, the signal or the router.

The buttons on the back

The Matchbox’s buttons are on its back. On the wall, lift it off to reach them.

Which Matchbox is this? Press either button once. For a few seconds it shows its name (MBOX-…) and the version of its software. Support may ask for either.

To pair it again (a new router, a new Wi-Fi password, or it stopped showing its six-digit code): hold one button and tap reset once. It goes back to pairing and forgets nothing. Then open the app, go to Settings and tap Re-pair Matchbox….

To reset it completely (before you give it away, for example): hold both buttons as you plug it in. It says FACTORY RESET, KEEP HOLDING and LET GO TO KEEP EVERYTHING while a line fills, about ten seconds: let go before the line is full and nothing changes. Hold on and it says EVERYTHING FORGOTTEN, then PAIR AGAIN FROM THE APP. It forgets your Wi-Fi, the phones it knew, your club and the secret code it keeps, and makes a new one. It goes back to pairing, and its pairing screen keeps saying EVERYTHING FORGOTTEN until someone pairs it.

What the wall is telling you

While you set it up

• ENTER THE CODE ON YOUR PHONE: type the six digits it shows into the app.
• CONTINUE ON YOUR PHONE: your phone has it; carry on in the app.
• LOOKING FOR WI-FI, then JOINING and your network’s name: it’s getting onto your Wi-Fi.
• CAN’T JOIN and your network’s name, with TRY THE NETWORK AGAIN IN THE APP: your router said no. Check the password, then see Wi-Fi.
• CAN’T FIND and your network’s name, with CHECK THE NETWORK IN THE APP: it couldn’t find that network. Check it’s on 2.4 GHz and close enough.
• COULD NOT REGISTER, with its name: contact us (Getting help).

While it’s showing your matches

• NO CONNECTION: the Matchbox has lost its own connection to the internet. During a match it holds the last score, faded, with SINCE and the time it was last sure. It keeps trying by itself, and may restart while it does; most of the time it comes back without you doing anything. If it doesn’t, see Wi-Fi and It keeps losing its connection.
• NO SCORES: your Matchbox is fine, but the scores have stopped arriving from our service. Nothing to do; it carries on when they come back.
• NO FEED, with a count, in the score bar: the match’s data has paused. The count says for how long.
• NO BALL DATA: the ball’s position has paused for a while. The score and the clock are still live.
• REPLAY and a date: it’s playing back a match from that day, not a live one. Your app’s Evening Replay setting decides whether it does.
• QUIET HOURS: your club is playing during your quiet hours, and you’ve let it wake the wall.
• UPDATING with KEEP IT PLUGGED IN: it’s installing an update by itself. It waits while your club’s match, or a match you’ve pinned, is on, for up to four hours.

“The score is behind my TV”

Matchbox shows the match from a live data feed, which usually runs behind the broadcast: often by tens of seconds, sometimes more. The ball plays about twenty seconds behind on purpose, so it can move smoothly.

Watching on a stream that runs behind? Turn on Spoiler Delay in the app (Settings, then Spoiler Delay). The wall then runs a minute behind, so it doesn’t show a goal before your screen does.

Which matches it shows

Today: the Premier League, La Liga, MLS and the Leagues Cup. Follow a club from one of those leagues and its matches reach your wall in each of them. International friendlies can play when nothing you follow is on.

We’d like to cover more. If your league isn’t here, tell us which one: it helps us decide what comes next. We can’t promise when.

Your account, and the phones in your home

One account controls a Matchbox. Every phone that changes it signs in to that account.

Signing in. Use an email address and a password, or Sign in with Apple.

A second phone in your home signs in to the same account:

• An account with an email and a password signs in on any phone with the app.
• An account made with Sign in with Apple signs in with Apple on phones that use the same Apple ID. For any other phone, give the account a password first, on the phone that set up your Matchbox:
  1. In Settings, tap your Matchbox. Under Account, note the email. If you chose Hide My Email, it’s an address Apple made for you.
  2. Tap Sign Out.
  3. Tap Sign In, then Forgot Password?. Type that email exactly, tap Use My Matchbox, and choose a password.
  Then sign in with that email and password on the other phone. Sign in with Apple still works too. If the app says it couldn’t reset your account, check the email is exactly the one under Account, then try again, or write to us (Getting help).

Signing in with Apple on a phone with a different Apple ID makes a separate account. A separate account can’t change your Matchbox from its own phone: the app says it’s already claimed by another account.

Forgot your password? On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot Password?, then Use My Matchbox. Your phone needs to be near the Matchbox, and paired with it: pairing reads the secret code your Matchbox keeps, and that code lets you set a new password. If it needs pairing again first, hold one button and tap reset once (The buttons on the back), never both: both starts it from scratch, and then Use My Matchbox may not be able to reset your account. If you signed up with Apple and the app says it couldn’t reset your account, sign in with Apple, pair your Matchbox again, then try again. Otherwise, write to us (Getting help).

Your privacy, in short

No ads, no tracking, no location. Your Wi-Fi password never reaches us. We keep your email and your Matchbox’s settings so the app and the wall can work, and a 30-day history of what your Matchbox did, so we can help when something goes wrong. The whole policy is our privacy policy.

Moving, giving it away, or selling it

Moving house: pair it again on the new Wi-Fi (The buttons on the back). Your account and settings stay.

Giving it away or selling it:

1. In the app, go to Settings, tap your Matchbox, then Remove This Matchbox…. It leaves your account, and your settings go with it.
2. Reset it completely (The buttons on the back).

A gift is easiest unopened, so the person it’s for sets it up with their own account.

A second-hand Matchbox

If the app says it’s claimed by another account, it still belongs to the person who had it before.

• Ask them to remove it: in their app, Settings, then the Matchbox, then Remove This Matchbox…. Then reset it completely (The buttons on the back) and pair it.
• Can’t reach them? Email us with its name (MBOX-…, on the label on its back) and we’ll help.

Getting help

In the app: go to Settings, then Help & Contact. From there you can email us or Send a Report.

Send a Report is the quickest way for us to help. It’s also on your Matchbox’s page (Settings, then your Matchbox). Opening it asks your Matchbox for its own report, which reaches us at once. The rest it shows you before you send it, by email.

Or write to us at malik@staytethered.app. Your Matchbox’s name (MBOX-…) is on the label on its back, and it shows it when you press either button once. It helps us find it.

Deleting your account

In the app, go to Settings, tap your Matchbox (or Account if no Matchbox is paired), then Delete Account…. Deleting your account releases your Matchbox. It keeps playing what it already has until someone pairs it again.

You can also email us and we’ll do it for you. What we delete and what we keep, and for how long, is on Delete your account.