Pay Buddy Pro — User Guide
Note
Version: v1.0.0 · Last updated: 2026-07-21 · Platform: iOS 15+ / Android 12+
What Is Pay Buddy Pro?
Pay Buddy Pro lets you personalise and manage your STYL e-ink device — a wearable badge — entirely from your phone, with no account and no internet. Create a profile, pick a preset or design your own image in the built-in editor, and sync it to your device over Bluetooth. The badge holds up to six images in numbered slots, so you can pre-load several looks and switch between them on the device itself. Your Style, Your Signal.
Requirements
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Device | iPhone (iOS 15+) or Android (12+) |
| Bluetooth | Must be enabled and permission granted |
| STYL e-ink badge | Powered on, in pairing mode, and within ~5 m |
| Internet | Not required — all features work offline |
| Account | None — all data is stored locally on your phone |
Getting Started
1. Launch the App
Open Pay Buddy Pro. A branded splash screen ("Pay Buddy Pro — Your Style, Your Signal") appears briefly while the app initialises.
2. Welcome Screens
On first launch, a short intro carousel introduces the key features. Swipe through or tap Next. You can tap Skip on any screen before the last to jump straight to Home, and replay the intro anytime from Settings → View App Introduction.
3. Grant Bluetooth Permission
Bluetooth permission is required to discover and sync to your badge. The system permission prompt appears the first time you open Add Device.
Important
If you deny Bluetooth permission, scanning is blocked and a Bluetooth Access Denied dialog appears over the scan screen. Tap Open Settings to enable it, or Close to dismiss the dialog and stay on the scan screen. On Android this is shown as the Nearby devices permission. When you return to the app with permission granted, scanning resumes automatically.
Adding Your First Badge
1. Scan for Devices
From the Home tab, tap Add Device. The app scans for nearby STYL badges. Put your badge into pairing mode first: press the device button once — the blue light flashes and a 20-second pairing window opens.
Important
If Bluetooth is switched off on your phone, a Bluetooth is Off dialog appears. Turn Bluetooth back on and the scan restarts automatically. Scanning stops after 20 seconds if no device is found — tap Scan again to retry.
2. Select Your Badge
When the scan finds devices, they are listed by their hardware (MAC) address. Tap the badge you want to add.
Note
Pay Buddy Pro supports up to 100 devices. If you're at the limit, a Device Limit Reached message appears ("You've reached the maximum limit of 100 devices. Remove an existing device to add a new one."). Remove an existing badge from the Users tab before adding a new one.
3. Name the Badge & Assign a Profile
Enter a Device Nickname (up to 50 characters — a live counter shows how many are left), then, under Assign To Profile (optional), tap an existing profile row to select it (a checkmark confirms your choice), leave No Profile selected, or tap + Create A Profile to add a new one inline. Tap Pair Device to finish.
Note
Nicknames and profile names support letters, numbers, and spaces (English and Chinese), up to 50 characters. Emoji, line breaks, and other special characters are rejected with a validation warning. Names must be unique.
When creating a profile, tap the avatar to choose an emoji icon from the picker (20 options; 🎯 is the default). The chosen emoji appears beside the profile name everywhere it's shown.
Tap Create Profile to save the new profile, then Pair Device to complete pairing. A confirmation screen confirms the profile was created.
Choosing a Look (Customise Tab)
The Customise tab (palette icon — formerly labelled "Look") lets you browse curated presets, the full image library, and your own saved designs, via three pill-shaped sub-tabs: Presets, Library, and Saved.
Presets
Pay Buddy Pro includes 60 preset images across six categories — Popular, Cartoon, Animal, Portrait, Art, and Landscape (10 each; "Popular" was previously labelled "Hot"). Tap any preset to open the editor. Presets cannot be deleted.
Library & Saved
The Library tab lets you import your own photo — when empty, tap Upload First Image to import from Gallery or capture with the camera. The Saved tab holds images you've edited and kept (newest first) — when empty, tap Go To Presets to start designing. Tap any image to open the editor.
Tip
To import your own image, choose Import from Gallery or Capture with Camera. Only JPEG and PNG files up to 20 MB are supported.
Editing an Image
Images are shown in full original colour in the editor and library. The badge's four-colour conversion happens automatically at sync time — see Syncing to Your Badge.
Crop & Position
The editor shows a 200 × 200 guided square that matches the badge display. Drag and zoom to frame the image, or tap Fit to auto-scale it to fill the square. Tap Crop & Position to enter crop mode; the reset icon restores the default framing.
Adding Text
Tap the Add Text (T) tool to overlay a label. You can type English or Chinese text and choose:
| Option | Choices |
|---|---|
| Font | Dot Matrix · Bold · Outline |
| Position | Top · Center · Bottom |
| Colour | Black · White · Red · Yellow |
Text wraps automatically within the image bounds.
Tip
Because the badge uses only four colours, pick high-contrast text (e.g. black on a light area or white on a dark area) so your label stays readable after conversion.
Saving Your Design
Tap Save to store the edited image as a new entry in the Saved tab, or Replace (when editing an existing saved image) to overwrite the original silently. Saving is optional — you can sync an edit without saving it.
Note
The Saved library holds up to 30 images. When full, a Save Image Limit message appears — delete an existing saved image (single or multi-select) before saving a new one.
Unsaved Changes
If you tap back (or use the Android back gesture) with unsaved edits, a dialog asks whether to Keep Editing or Discard Changes. Syncing does not trigger this prompt — sync and save are independent.
Unsupported Formats
Only JPEG and PNG are supported. Selecting another format (e.g. HEIC, GIF, WebP) shows an Unsupported File Format message with Try Again and Cancel.
Choosing a Device to Sync
Below the text tools, the editor lists My Devices — every badge you've paired. If you have only one, it's selected automatically; with several, tap the target device row (a radio mark confirms the selection). Tap Sync To Device at the bottom to start the transfer — editing and syncing now happen on the same screen, so there's no separate "start sync" step.
Syncing to Your Badge
1. Choose a Slot
A Choose a Slot sheet slides up. Your badge has six numbered slots — tap the slot you want to write to, then tap Sync to a Slot. Each slot holds one image; syncing replaces whatever was in that slot.
Important
Keep your phone close to the badge and the app in the foreground throughout the sync. Locking the screen, switching apps, taking a call, or moving out of range can interrupt the transfer. A typical sync completes in well under a minute.
2. Sync Result
A success screen confirms the transfer. Wait 3–5 seconds for the badge display to refresh.
If the sync fails, a failure screen explains the cause. Bring the badge closer and tap Back to Edit Image to return to the editor, then tap Sync To Device to try again.
Note
The on-device colours come from a four-colour palette (black, white, red, yellow). Your saved image keeps its original colours — only the synced copy is converted.
Managing Profiles & Devices
The Users tab lists all profiles (with their emoji icons) and the badges assigned to them.
From here you can:
- Tap a profile to view or edit it (including changing its emoji)
- Create new profiles (up to 50)
- Rename a profile — all assigned badges follow the new name
- Assign or reassign badges to profiles
- Delete a profile — its badges move to No Profile and are not otherwise affected
Tapping a badge opens its detail screen, with:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Customize | Jump straight into the editor to update the badge's E-Ink display image |
| Locate Device | Open the Locate Device screen (Find My / Find Hub integration) |
| Assign To Profile | Assign or reassign this badge to a profile |
| Device Guide | Open the hardware guide (buttons, LED, payment, tracking) |
| Unpair Device | Remove the badge from local data (destructive — cannot be undone) |
Locating Your Device
The Locate Device screen shows whether your badge is currently nearby (a live Bluetooth status chip) and links out to the system tracking networks for finding it when it's out of range.
- Apple Find My (iOS) — opens the Find My app
- Google Find Hub (Android) — opens the Find My Device app
Note
Only one tracking network can be active for a device at a time. Set this up from the system app, not from within Pay Buddy Pro.
Device Guide
The Device Guide explains your STYL badge hardware. Access it from the Home tab or a device's detail screen. It covers:
| Topic | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Tracking Network | Setting up Apple Find My or Google Find Hub (one at a time) |
| Smart Buddy Payment | NFC payment is handled by the device's physical chip and card slot — the app never processes payments |
| Payment Privacy | No payment credentials are ever collected, stored, or processed by the app |
| Pairing & Photo-Update Mode | Press the button once → blue light flashes, 20-second BLE window opens |
| Button & Lights | Hold the button 2 seconds → advance to the next stored photo; LED states below |
LED indicator states
| State | LED behaviour |
|---|---|
| Normal operation | Off |
| Low battery | Blinks every 5 seconds |
| Charging | On |
| Fully charged | Off |
| Pairing / update in progress | Blinks every 1 second |
Managing Settings
Navigate to the Settings tab to access app preferences.
| Setting | Description |
|---|---|
| Language | Switch between English, 中文, and Bahasa Melayu — applied instantly |
| Appearance | Choose Light, Dark, or System Default theme |
| Permissions | View Bluetooth, Camera, and Photos/Storage status; tap to open OS Settings |
| View App Introduction | Replay the 3-page welcome introduction |
| About | Product info, display format, connectivity, and app version |
| Wipe All Local Data | Permanently deletes all local profiles, images, sync history, and onboarding state |
Changing Language
Tap Language and pick English, 中文, or Bahasa Melayu. The change applies immediately — no restart needed — and persists across app restarts.
Choosing a Theme
Under Appearance, tap the theme row to open Select a Theme, then pick Dark Theme, Light Theme, or System Default (a checkmark marks the active option). The app applies your choice immediately.
Replaying the Introduction
Tap View App Introduction to replay the 3-page walkthrough (branding → key features → getting-started steps).
Wiping All Data
Warning
Wipe All Local Data is irreversible. It deletes every profile, saved image, sync record, and onboarding flag, returning the app to its first-launch state. It does not revoke OS permissions or change your language preference, and it does not affect images already on your badges. You'll be asked to confirm twice.
Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Badge / e-ink badge | The STYL wearable e-ink device that Pay Buddy Pro manages |
| Profile | A named record (with emoji icon) assigned to one or more badges |
| Slot | One of six numbered image memory locations on the badge |
| Preset | A built-in image included with the app (60 total, 6 categories) |
| Saved image | An image you've edited and stored locally (up to 30) |
| Sync | The Bluetooth transfer that writes an image to a badge slot |
| Four-colour | The badge palette — black, white, red, yellow — applied at sync |
| BLE | Bluetooth Low Energy — the protocol used to talk to the badge |
| MAC address | The hardware identifier shown for each badge in the scan list |