Device getting hot or the game lagging: what the game does and what you can do

The game lowers the load by itself: on a phone it starts without a background, and when the device can't keep up, it lowers the video quality and turns the background off. You can help too: remove the background or pick a lower quality.

What the game does by itself. There's nothing to configure:

• On a phone and tablet it starts without a background effect, while on a computer it turns on blur by default. Without an effect, video goes straight from the camera, which is easier on the device.
• The night screen on a phone is simpler: the starry sky doesn't move, and there are no role scenes or cars in the city. Music on a phone is off until you turn it on yourself.
• Poor connection: the video quality drops by itself, and you see a message with the new value, for example “360p · 20 fps”. When the connection recovers, the quality comes back.
• The background effect can't keep up: the game first simplifies it, then turns it off and shows “Background effect turned off: this device cannot keep up with it”.
• On a weak or hot phone, after the night other players' videos come back one at a time, not all together.

When the quality changes, your picture may vanish for other players for a moment.

Heat on iPhone and iPad. The game can't see the temperature, but on iPhone and iPad it can tell when the system is holding back a hot device. If this goes on for a while, the game turns on a power-saving mode: it lowers the video quality, makes the background effect lighter and, once per game, offers to turn it off: “Your device is overheating. Turn off the background to lighten the load” with a “Turn off background” button. When the device has cooled down and the connection is good, the quality comes back with a message like “Your device has cooled down — video quality restored to 480p · 24 fps”. If you raised the quality by hand, the game won't lower it again because of heat.

The same message can appear on a cool phone if Low Power Mode is on on an iPhone. On Android and in Chrome on a computer there's no such mode: only simplifying or turning off the background and changing quality because of the connection apply there.

What you can do. Open the menu next to the camera button (the small arrow in the game's bottom bar), press the “Video Settings” gear and:

1. In the “Effects” section press the “Remove effect” icon: video will go straight from the camera.
2. Press the quality icon (for example, “720p”) and pick a lower value, say “360p · 20 fps”. The “Auto” label sits next to the value the game picked for your device.
3. Press “Done”.

In the same place you can bring the background or a higher quality back once the device cools down.