The Beratungsraum app

What the app does

Beratungsraum is the app for your online counselling on onlineberatung.digital. It runs on iPhone and iPad. The app is optional, everything also works in the browser. It just keeps your room closer to hand:

• Messages. You write to your counsellor whenever it suits you. You can see when your message has been read.
• Video counselling. One tap takes you into your appointment, with video and whiteboard.
• Appointments. You see all your appointments, add them to your calendar and cancel if something comes up.

If you only have one room, the app opens your chat straight away. If you have several, you first see your rooms with your counsellor's name, the latest message and the next appointment.

Signing in

The first time you open the app, it greets you with “Welcome”. “Continue” takes you to sign in.

You do not create an account in the app. You sign in with the pseudonym and password you chose on onlineberatung.digital. If the password is saved on your device, iOS suggests it.

If you have forgotten your password, tap “Forgotten your password?”. onlineberatung.digital then opens in a window, and you set a new password with your recovery code. How this works is explained under Account and security.

After that you stay signed in. If you do not use the app for 14 days, your sign-in ends and the app shows “Please sign in again.”

Appointments

At the top of the chat, below your counsellor's name, you see your next appointment. Tap it to see all appointments.

• “Join appointment” takes you to the appointment page shortly before the start. It opens full screen, with video and whiteboard just like in the browser. The first time, iOS asks whether the app may use your camera and microphone. The screen stays on during the appointment. How the appointment works is explained under The video session.
• “Add to my calendar” opens your device's calendar with the appointment. The title only says “Appointment”. You decide whether to save it.
• “Cancel appointment” asks you once more first. Below each appointment it says what applies when you cancel.

If no appointment is planned right now, you can still write at any time.

Notifications without content

After you sign in for the first time, the app asks you two short questions. First it asks whether it may send you notifications.

A notification only says that something new is there, for example “New message in your room” or “Your appointment starts soon”. It never says who is writing or what the message says.

Tapping the notification opens your room. If you have that room's chat open right now, no notification appears. The message simply shows up in the chat.

You turn notifications on and off in the menu under “Settings”. If you have turned them off in iOS, it says “Change in iOS Settings” there. Email reminders are separate. You set them up under “Account and security”.

Protecting the app with Face ID

The second question after your first sign-in is whether you want to protect the app with Face ID. Then only you can read your messages, even if someone else is holding your device.

With protection on, the app asks for Face ID when you open it. It also asks when it has been in the background for more than a minute. It never asks during a video appointment. If Face ID does not work, your device passcode works too. If your device has Touch ID instead of Face ID, the app uses Touch ID.

You turn the protection on and off in the menu under “Settings” with “Protect with Face ID”. Your device needs a passcode for this. You set it in the iOS Settings.

Screen cover

When you switch to another app, Beratungsraum covers the screen with a plain image: the icon and the name “Beratungsraum”. So the overview of open apps does not show any messages either.

Appearance

In the menu under “Settings”, you choose “Automatic”, “Light” or “Dark” under “Appearance”. With “Automatic”, the app follows the setting on your device. Your choice also applies to the appointment page.

The menu

Tap the three dots at the top right to open the menu. There you will find:

• “Account and security”: email reminders, changing your password and a new recovery code. If you change your password here, this device stays signed in. Other devices and the browser are signed out.
• “Settings”: Face ID, notifications and appearance.
• “Sign out” ends your sign-in on this device.
• “Help”, “Privacy” and “Legal notice” open the pages of onlineberatung.digital in a window.

At the very bottom of the menu, one tap calls the emergency number 112 or the Telefonseelsorge (German crisis line) on 0800 111 0 111. onlineberatung.digital is not an emergency service.

Deleting your account

In the menu under “Account and security”, tap “Delete account”. Enter your password, turn on “Yes, delete my account.” and confirm once more.

Your pseudonym, your password, your recovery code and your email address are deleted straight away. Upcoming appointments are cancelled. This cannot be undone. The app then signs you out and shows “Your account has been deleted. You can no longer sign in with it.”

If you want to keep your messages, download them first in the browser, as described under Your room. What happens to your rooms afterwards is explained under Account and security.

If you only delete the app from your device, your account remains. You can still sign in in the browser.