When is a photo "PicAnchor Verified"?
When, at the moment you took it, all of these were true:
- the phone was online and the time had been checked against an internet time server in the last 5 minutes;
- the phone had a fresh GPS location (under 30 seconds old);
- the location was not faked by a mock-location app.
What do the other badges mean?
- Not verified (grey): the time could not be checked online, or there was no fresh location. The stamp then shows no coordinates and no address.
- LOCATION NOT VERIFIED (amber): the phone reported a faked location.
Can I change my phone's clock to fake the time?
No. When the phone is online, the app corrects the time from an internet time server. If it can't, the photo is not verified.
How can someone check my photo?
At verify.picanchor.com (opens in a new tab) they type the 16-character code or scan the QR. They see when our server registered the photo. They can also drop the photo file on the page; it is compared on their own device and nothing is uploaded.
The file "does not match". Was it edited?
Not necessarily. WhatsApp, email and social apps recompress photos, which changes the file. Send it as a document or file attachment to keep it exact. The code on the photo still looks up the record.
What doesn't "Verified" prove?
That what the photo shows is true. It proves when and where the photo was taken and that the file hasn't changed since.
Still stuck? Tap Menu, then Help, then Contact support, or email hello@picanchor.com.