I created these notes for anyone wanting to do the above. Feel free to add to them, slate them, suggest recommendations and other info for them:
Introduction
This is a guide to using the Echoes Creator interface. It assumes you’ve already recorded some audio and taken some pictures to use in the walk.
Creating a New Walk
The Echoes Creator
To create your first walk, you need to go to https://creator.echoes.xyz/ and, if you don’t already have one, create a free account on the website.
New Walk, Default Publish Status
When you first create a walk, it’s Publish Status will, by default, be set to Draft. With this Status, as soon as you Publish the walk, it will be publicly visible. We suggest that the first thing you do when you’ve created a new walk, is to set its Status to Private until you are ready to make it public.
I have mentioned this to the Echoes Developers, so this ‘Public by default’ setting may change in the future. As of October 2024, it’s not changed.
Working with the Echoes Creator
Image Sizes
The recommended image size is 1200x1200 pixels. In some parts of the App, images have a square aspect ratio. In others they are quite a wide landscape ratio. This does make taking the right picture / choosing the right image a little tricky. Our advice is to put the main thing you’re taking a picture of, right in the middle of the image, that way, when it’s cropped, it should still be visible to the user.
Audio Files
The recommended audio file format used to be .m4a renamed to .mp4. To convert audio files to .m4a download, install and run Microplant Adapter. This will convert other file formats to .m4a. You will then need to rename them to .mp4.
Recently, this has changed and .wav files seem to be the ones that work best. I could do with some confirmation around this from Echoes.
Lines
In the Creator, it’s possible to draw Lines. These can be used to indicate a route for the walk. These will only show up in the App if their (i.e. the Line’s) Publish Status is set to Public AND if you have paid for an Echoes subscription.
Echo Radius
When creating a circular Echo, you can make it any size you like. But when saving it, the maximum radius will be 5km.
iBeacons
iBeacons are typically used inside buildings where phones cannot get a GPS location, as they cannot ‘see’ satellites when they’re inside a building. You will need to pay for an Echoes ‘Extra’ subscription to get the iBeacon functionality. Check out Pricing – ECHOES for further details.
Recommended Beacons
I bought Jaalee iBeacons from…
https://www.beaconzone.co.uk/index.php?route=product/search&search=AKMW-iB001N
…but they were unavailable when I last looked. If you do get Jaalee iBeacons, this page may be useful: Jaalee GPS Locator | Bluetooth Tracking Beacon | Support.
I have asked the Echoes developer is he can recommend any alternatives. If you are looking for some, you need to try and get BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) iBeacons as these can last for a year or so without needing the batteries replaced.
Configuring iBeacons
Again, when I last looked, iBeacons could only be configured using the eBeacon App on an iPhone. It can be found in the Apple App Store by searching for ‘eBeacon’ and finding ‘eBeacon:BLE Scanner’ by ‘Lifestyle’.
To configure an iBeacon you first need to make sure that the battery is connected. If you fire up the eBeacon App, you may also need to pick up the iBeacon and drop it on a table until it rings. This will ‘wake’ it up and then eBeacon should then find it.
When you first connect to the iBeacon, use the ‘Connect & Remember’ option.
Once connected to the iBeacon, click Configure top right and you should be able to see and set the UUID, Major and Minor values. Make a note of the UUID or put it directly into the iBeacon Echo in the Echoes Creator. Make sure that it’s all in UPPER CASE. Then set the Major and Minor values. With the first iBeacon, we set these to 1 and 2. It’s worth putting all this info into an Excel spreadsheet, together with the name and location of the walk and echo that you’re configuring it for.
When you are configuring an iBeacon using the App, you also need to set the Beacon State to ‘On’ by sliding the toggle to the right, then clicking the ‘Start configuring’ button to save the settings to the beacon:
This will make sure that the iBeacon does not go into sleep mode.
Echoes Creator - Beacon Proximity Distance Trigger
When you first create an iBeacon Echo, the default setting for the Proximity Distance Trigger is 0. You must change this to the distance, in metres, that you want the iBeacon to be recognised from. If you leave it at 0, the audio will start and stop, and not play properly.
User Notes
Allow Echoes to Make and Manage Phone Calls?
You might see this message pop up when you choose to download a walk. This is Android (and possibly iPhone) asking you if you would like to let Echoes access the Internet to download the file. You do, so select ‘Allow’.
Echoes Wants to Turn Bluetooth On?
If you open a walk that uses iBeacons, you’ll see this message if your phone does not have Bluetooth switched on. This is because Echoes uses Bluetooth to search for iBeacons.