You are on the line, not at sea. Most days you are at
home living your own day. Being on the line means the people on it can see
what you have said you are doing, and you can see them.
Your day is one page. Morning, afternoon, evening.
Put something on it and they see it; mark yourself Out and they see that
instead. There is nowhere to say why, on purpose.
Now and then some of you sail together. A few days
everyone is in the same place — that is a cruise. It is a label on those
days, not a room you have to go into.
The ports have their own things on. Whatever the line
is doing, the towns around you are running concerts and markets, and the
app goes looking overnight. Nobody is inviting you; it is just what is
on.
No feed, no likes, no followers, and nobody counting how often you open
it. An empty day is a day.
Read how all of it works — the full guide, including
every word this app borrowed from ships, and exactly what other people can
and cannot see about you.
Install it on your home screen
- iPhone / iPad (Safari): Share button → “Add to Home Screen”.
- Android (Chrome): menu ⋮ → “Add to Home screen” or “Install app”.
- Mac (Safari): File → “Add to Dock”.
- Windows / Chromebook (Chrome or Edge): install icon in the address bar.
On iPhone and iPad the home-screen app keeps its own sign-in, separate from
Safari, so a freshly installed copy may open signed out. That is how the
system works rather than a fault here. Settings → “Add another device” gives
you a code to sign it in.
What changed
Every release, back to the first — a page inside the
app, so it works with no signal. A panel you have to scroll past thirty
releases to leave punishes you for opening it.
The flags
What this line spells, and what each flag actually means
Signal flags only signal when a vessel flies them. On a
page they are just a picture, which is the only reason the last one here is
funny rather than alarming.
T E A M J, spelled in signal flags. On a halyard a
hoist reads top to bottom; here it reads across, because five flags in a
column is a tall thing to scroll past on a phone.
T — Tango
Keep clear of me.
E — Echo
I am altering my course to starboard.
A — Alfa
I have a diver down; keep well clear at slow speed.
M — Mike
My vessel is stopped and making no way through the water.
J — Juliett
I am on fire and have dangerous cargo on board: keep well clear of me.
Read as a sentence that is nobody's fault: keep clear,
turning to starboard, diver down, dead in the water, and on fire. It spells
the right thing and means something else entirely, which is the best a
coincidence can do.
And the one that actually describes this app:
P — Papa, the Blue Peter
In harbour: all persons should report on board, the vessel is about to proceed to sea.
Which is this whole app in one flag, and it has been flown
for that exact purpose for about two hundred years.
And the line's own flag, which is not a code flag at all:
Team J Line
Papa’s block on Juliett’s bar, with the livery inside it.
Lines invented their own flags so that one saying who you
are could never be mistaken for one saying what is happening to you. This
borrows the shapes of both and is neither, so it cannot signal anything to
anybody. It carries the same six bands as the app’s icon, in the same
order, for the same reason.
How all of it works
Cruises, shore parties, cabins, proposals, what other people can see, getting a
new phone signed in, and every word this app borrowed from ships.
Open the full guide — it is part of the app, so it
works with no signal.
Having trouble?
Something not working? Copy the report below and send it to
whoever invited you, or whoever set this up for your family
— the app calls that person a Commodore, and it has no way to contact them
itself. Send it however you normally talk to them.
The report says what device and browser you are on and which
version you are running. It contains nothing about your days, and nothing
anybody could use to sign in as you.
Privacy, terms, accessibility & how to report a barrier