How to use Véda

Everything the app does, a step at a time. You do not need to read it all: pick what you want to know.

Your first reading

1. Agree to the privacy policy. The first time you open Véda it explains what is kept and why. You need to agree before the camera opens.
2. Open the camera with the round button on the Today tab, or from the Véda logo menu at the top of any tab.
3. Center your face in the guide. Look straight at the phone, with your eyes level.
4. Tap the button to take the photo. Véda measures it on your phone, which takes a few seconds.
5. Read your results. If the light or the photo is not good enough, Véda tells you why in a sentence and lets you retake it. For dim or uneven light you can choose Use it anyway; that reading is kept but marked as taken in poor light.

You can take up to three readings a day: morning, midday and evening. Several a day show how your skin changes through the day, not just where it starts.

Getting a good reading

• Even, indirect light works best: near a window, not under a single overhead bulb.
• The same spot each time makes your trend more reliable than any single reading.
• The same point in your routine. Facial hair and skin care products change texture and evenness, so compare like with like.
• Look at weeks, not one number. One reading moves around for reasons that have nothing to do with your skin.

Your results

After each reading you see your photo with a Skin Score, which is the average of seven measures: redness, texture, pores, spots, acne, evenness and wrinkles. Higher is clearer skin.

• Tap a measure to see where Véda found it on your photo. The small rings mark where the measurement was strongest. They are not a diagnosis.
• What does this measure? A link under the photo explains each measure in plain words. How your score works in Profile, or on our website, explains all seven together.
• The icons at the top let you see the reading on the calendar, share it, or delete it. Deleting removes its numbers from our servers and its photo from your phone.

The Today tab

Today is home. It shows your latest Skin Score in the ring, with a round button to take a reading. Beside the ring, a small line of notes rotates: weather, the day, reminders, tips, and now and then a question. Swipe to move between them, or tap the × to dismiss one. Some notes can be tapped to do something, such as turning on reminders.

The Véda logo at the top of every tab opens a small menu: take a reading, check in, let someone try it, and links to this guide, our website and support.

Trends

Trends shows how a measure changes over time. Choose the measure at the top and a time range (7, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days). A few readings are needed before a line appears. The calendar card at the bottom takes you to every reading you have ever taken, by month.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle lets you note the things around your skin, so you can see whether any of them move with it.

• Daily check-in. A few taps for sleep, stress, exercise and water. Skip any you like.
• Food and nutrition. Log meals with calories. Set a daily target in the food card, and mark any days of the week as cheat days with their own target. You can export your food log as a spreadsheet from Profile.
• The charts. Once you have enough readings, Véda shows how your skin averaged on different levels of each: for example, on nights of more or less sleep. Choose bars or rings. This describes what happened; it is not proof of a cause.
• The calendar and log. Every check-in and meal, laid out by day and by month.

Check-ins can be turned on or off in Profile, and they stay on your phone.

Cycle

Cycle is optional. Turn it on in Profile and a Cycle tab appears. Log the first day of a period and Véda estimates the phases of your cycle and shows how your skin averaged in each, as a flower or as rings. It can also give a discreet heads-up a couple of days before a phase begins, if you turn those on. These are estimates from the dates you enter, not medical advice. Your cycle log stays on your phone.

Letting someone try it

Want a friend to see their own reading? In Profile choose Let someone try it (or tap the guest icon on the camera screen). They agree to the privacy policy themselves, take one reading, and see their result. Their reading is kept completely separate from yours, and their photo is not kept anywhere.

Profile and settings

• You. Add your first name and birthday if you like, for a more personal app. Save your account with an email and password, or sign in with Google or Apple, to use Véda on another phone. Without that, deleting the app or losing the phone loses your readings.
• Chart style. Choose how your seven measures are drawn: bars, rings or petals. Pick the one you like; it applies across the app.
• Reminders. A reminder for morning, midday and evening, each at a time you choose, plus custom reminders.
• Weather notes. An optional short note each morning about your local weather. It uses your approximate location, sent from your phone to a weather service and never to Véda.
• Check-ins and Cycle. Switch the daily check-in and cycle tracking on or off.
• Backup. Save a file with your cycle log, check-ins, name, birthday and reminders, and restore it on a new phone or after reinstalling.
• About. How your score works, the privacy policy and the terms.

Your data

• Your photos are measured on your phone and stay there. Delete the app and they go with it.
• Export my data in Profile gives you one file with everything we hold about your account.
• Delete account in Profile removes your account, every reading and your consent records for good.

Still stuck? Visit Support and write to us. We read everything.