Guides
Who's who
Hot Takes has three kinds of people. The quickest way to hold them in your head: reviewers put feedback in; teammates take feedback out; the owner runs the place.
What is an owner?
The owneris whoever created a project. They control its settings, project key, teammate invites, and reviewer access (including revoking a reviewer). The owner's plan governs every limit on the project, and billing hangs off the owner's account — upgrades, the billing portal, and downgrades all happen there.
What is a teammate?
A teammate is a web account holder the owner adds to a specific project by email invite. Teammates get vieweraccess to that project's gallery — they can read every capture — but can't change settings or billing. Teammates are counted per project against your plan's teammate cap.
What is a reviewer?
A revieweris the person giving feedback. They enroll with an email and a one-time code right inside the beta build on their phone — no web account, no password. A reviewer exists per project, tied to the devices they enrolled on, and their output is the captures you see in the gallery. Reviewers never see the gallery themselves; the mobile experience is submit-only. Reviewers are counted per project against your plan's reviewer cap.
What's the difference between a teammate and a reviewer?
They're opposite ends of the feedback loop. Reviewers are the stakeholders giving feedback from inside the prototype — they collect. They never sign in to the web app. Teammates are people on your side consumingthat feedback in the web gallery — they can't submit captures. The two caps are separate levers: reviewers is the collection lever, teammates is the consumption lever.
Frequently asked questions
How do reviewers enroll in a project?
Inside the prototype app, tap the floating Hot Takespill (or shake the device, if the designer configured shake-to-trigger). The first time, you'll be asked for your email address, then a 6-digit code sent to that email, then a display name. After that one-time step, your device is remembered — no password, nothing separate to install.
Why can't I record longer than a few minutes?
Recording length is capped by your team's plan: 30 seconds on Free, 2 minutes on Starter, 5 minutes on Pro, and effectively unlimited on Enterprise (in practice capped around ~8 minutes by a technical file-size safety limit in the SDK, not a billing restriction). If you need longer recordings routinely, ask your project owner about upgrading.
Where did my old captures go?
Captures are kept for a retention window based on the project owner's plan: 15 days on Free, 30 days on Starter, 365 days on Pro, and indefinitely on Enterprise. When a capture ages past that window it disappears from the gallery, but the underlying files are kept for a further 30-day grace period — if the project is upgraded within that window, aged-out captures are automatically restored. After the grace period, deletion is permanent.
How do I cancel my subscription?
From your account page, open the billing portal (powered by Stripe) and cancel there. Cancellation takes effect the way Stripe's portal describes (typically at the end of the current billing period).
What happens if my payment fails?
If a renewal payment fails, your workspace drops to the Free plan immediately— there's no retry grace period today. Your projects and captures aren't deleted, but anything over the Free plan's limits gets hidden behind an upgrade prompt until you fix payment or your usage fits under Free.
How do I delete my account?
From account settings, choose “Delete Account.” You'll need to type your email to confirm. You must cancel any active paid subscription first — the delete flow is blocked while a paid plan is active, so you cancel deliberately through the billing portal rather than have deletion silently cancel billing for you. Deletion removes every project you own and everything in it, and is permanent.
Does a screen recording include my voice?
Yes. Screen recordings capture the microphone the entire time you're recording, mixed into the video's audio track, so your narration is part of the capture. If you don't want your voice included, use a screenshot with a typed note instead, or stay silent while recording.
What does my team see when I submit a capture?
Everyone who's a member of that project can see your capture: the screenshot or video, any typed note, your display name, and basic device/app context (device model, OS version, app version) attached automatically to help them reproduce what you saw. Reviewers can't see other reviewers' captures or anyone else's gallery.
Can I use it without installing anything as a reviewer?
There's nothing separate to install — the capture tool lives inside the specific prototype app you were invited to review, via a tiny floating pill. You only need the beta build the designer sent you.
Recording doesn't work / the option is missing — why?
Screen recording requires a real iPhone; it isn't available in the iOS Simulator (an Apple/ReplayKit limitation). Screenshots always work. If recording is missing on a real device, the host app may be missing a required permission description — ask the project owner to check their app's setup.
How do I invite teammates to my project?
From your project settings, use the invite-by-email field. Team size is capped by plan (2 on Free, 5 on Starter, 10 on Pro, unlimited on Enterprise) per project.
I regenerated my project key — did that break enrolled reviewers?
No. Regenerating the project key only affects new enrollments going forward; reviewers who already enrolled keep working normally.