FAQs

Zannel is a service millions of people use to see and share what’s happening now.  It’s a free service that allows you to see something cool - snap a quick pix or vid of it using your mobile phone - and post it in a nano second.  To spark thousands of conversations across social networks on mobile & the web. 

Nope, Zannel is a free service.  However, when using Zannel on your phone, we recommend that you have an unlimited data plan, as standard text message rates and data charges could apply. Contact your phone carrier for more details on available data plans.

If you have comments, issues or suggestions, we’d love to hear from you.
Email for general feedback or technical issues. For business related questions, email .  Check out our contact page for more ways to contact us.

Zannel officially supports most video and web enabled handsets in the U.S. Even if we don’t officially support your specific phone, most features should still work, though you may experience a few glitches here and there. Contact for more information or to report an issue.

We are a mobile & web service.  If you register for our service on mobile, we need your phone number in order to effectively deliver content, messages, and notifications to you.

All personal information you submit to Zannel remains absolutely confidential. Please read our Privacy Policy for all of the details.

We automatically assign your first posted picture or video as your profile icon. To change it, click on the edit button one of your other media updates and select the option to set as your profile pic. On your phone: login, go to MyZannel, and click the change pic option.

The address book comes in handy when sending friend invites as well as for sharing your pictures and videos with friends. Get started by heading to your Zannel Address Book page.  Click on add contacts and then enter the mobile number or email of the friend you want to add. You can also import multiple contacts from one of your email accounts by clicking import contacts.

To change your contact info, password and other account related information click on Account Settings on your page.

To invite friends to join Zannel, visit your Address Book and click Invite Friends. On the phone, you’ll find an invite friends link on the homepage.

When you find an image you want to set as a wallpaper on your phone, click on the wallpaper link. It will ask you to select your carrier, so be sure to select the correct one so that we can send you the proper image for your phone.
Note: Verizon blocks all 3rd party (that’s us) downloads, so wallpapers won’t work on any Verizon phone.

To set your Zannel to private, login to your account, click on the privacy link at the top right of the page, select the Private option and click save. Setting your Zannel to private stops anyone who isn’t your friend from viewing your Zannel (including your updates) and leaving you comments. It also prevents non-friends from following you and removes you from their favorites.

You can disable the wallpaper option for your pictures if you don’t want others to save them on their phones.  To disable all wallpaper capabilities, click on Account Settings and change the Wallpaper Setting. You can also disable wallpapers for individual pictures by clicking edit and changing the setting for that particular picture.

The first line of defense against harassment on Zannel is to block a user. This will prevent them from sending you messages and interacting with you. Blocking a user should delete them from your friends, but just in case double check to make sure you remove them from your friends list.

You also have the ability to set your Zannel account to private so that anyone who isn’t your friend can’t leave comments or view your updates. If, however, a user is persistently harassing you or you feel a user is violating Zannel’s Terms of Use, you can use the report abuse link found at the bottom of the main Zannel website to notify us of the situation. In your note, be sure to include all relevant information regarding the issue, including usernames, offending text or links to specific examples of abuse. 

To block a user on Zannel, login to your account and click on the privacy link at the top right of the page. At the bottom of the Privacy Settings page you will see a Blocked Users list. To add a user to this list, enter their name in the box and click add. All users who appear in the Blocked User list will be unable to view your Zannel (including your updates), leave you comments or send you messages. This will also stop them from following you and remove you from their favorites and friends.

If you’d like to cancel your account, click the “profile” link to adjust your profile settings.  At the bottom of the profile page, you’ll see a link for “delete your account.“  Click that link to delete your account from Zannel.

In order to receive mobile alerts you will first need to confirm your phone number. To do this, click on the confirm link found on your Alert Settings page. When you receive the SMS, follow the instructions to confirm your mobile number.

Text the word STOP to 58888 (If outside the US use +447797801545) or reply STOP to any SMS alert. You can also visit your Account Settings page on the mobile site.

If you are having trouble in the opt-out process, please send an email to with your request and we are happy to help resolve your issue.

You can selectively change the preferences for alerts you receive for new comments, messages, friend and follower updates, among other things. To modify your alert settings, click on the Account Settings link on your page. There you will find an Alert Settings section to toggle alerts on/off, as well as choose if you want alerts sent via email, text message, or both.  You may also choose to restrict the maximum number of alerts sent to you per day or the time period you want them sent.  Reply STOP to any text alert to turn that alert type off or reply STOP ALL to turn off all text alerts.  Text alerts are free from Zannel but your carrier’s standard messaging rates will apply.

Text (SMS) commands allow you to interact with Zannel using text messages.  The commands are detailed in our SMS (text) guide which is available here.
 

You can post video, picture, and text updates to your Zannel from your phone and/or a computer.

From your mobile phone:

• For text updates send an SMS with your text update to 58888 (If outside the US use +447797801545)
• For media (picture and video) updates: click the post update link from the homepage. You will see an email address listed on the page. Send a picture or video to the address displayed. You can save the address to your phone’s address book so you only have to type it once. Note: Any text you include as part of your media message will be included in your update as the description.

From the web:
Login, click on My Zannel and enter a picture, video or text in the upload box on the top of the page.

First, make sure you are sending the picture or video update to the correct address (see above). If you are sending it to the right address, there may be an issue with your carrier’s network. Sometimes things may be running a bit slow on their end, so be patient. In general, your update should appear within 10 minutes of sending. Videos could take longer.

We support almost all mobile phone camera images. In addition, we accept other standard image formats: jpg, gif, png, tiff, and bmp.

Videos must be less than 10 minutes long and smaller than 100MB in size. Remember, shorter videos (under 2 min.) tend to work best for mobile phones.

Supported Formats

QuickTime (Animation, Apple BMP, Apple Pixlet, Apple Video, Cinepak, Component video, DV and DVC Pro NTSC, DV PAL, DVC Pro PAL, Graphics, H.261, H.263, H.264, JPEG 2000, Microsoft Video 1, Motion JPEG A, Motion JPEG B, MPEG-4 (Part 2), Photo JPEG, Planar RGB, PNG, Sorenson Video 2, Sorenson Video 3, TGA, TIFF, 3GPP, 3GPP2.)
AVI (Cinepak, DV)
MPEG (1 and 2)
WMV (7, 8, 9)
FLV (Flash Video)
DivX

If you come across a video or picture that you find inappropriate (obscene, graphically violent, sexually explicit, etc.) click on “report”. We will review your report within 24 to 48 hours and determine whether the content violates our Terms of Use. If this is the case, it will be removed from the site.

There are two possible reasons your update would be removed from Zannel.  One, if it violated our Terms of Use.  Two, if it was posted without permission of the legal copyright owner.  In either case, you will be informed why your content was removed.  Please refer to our Terms of Use for specific details on allowable content.

Anything you see on Zannel can be sent to your friends. Simply click on the share button and enter the email or mobile number for the person you want to send it to. It’s a great way to share things your friends would enjoy.

From the Zannel website, cick on the embed button underneath a pice of media you’re viewing, copy the code, and then paste it on the site where you want it to appear.

There’s a special application just for Facebook. To add the app, click here. If you are having trouble adding the application or have questions, send an email to .

Zannel allow you to automatically post your updates to other sites such as flickr and twitter. To set this up, visit your account settings page and look under the “feed your Zannel to the world” section.

• For Zannel2Twitter, all you need to do is enter your twitter username and password and your picture, video and text updates will appear in your twitter stream.
• For Zannel2Flickr all we need is your flickr email address. After entering your address and setting the privacy options your picture updates will appear on your flickr account.

The Flip is a great way to capture video and easily get it to a computer via the USB connector.  However, the Flip camera’s native video format is .avi which results in large files that can easily exceed Zannel’s 100mb file upload maximum.  For best results, we recommend converting your Flip videos to Quicktime with the h.263 or h.264 video compression, AAC audio compression, and with a 320 x 240 window size. 

Anything you upload to Zannel remains yours. We simply host your content and have the permission to share it with Zannel users. Please refer to our Terms of Use for detailed information on Copyrights/Licenses.

It is our policy to promptly respond to copyright infringement notices according to Digital Millennium Copyright Act protocol. If you feel that another user has posted material that infringes your copyright, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail) that sets forth the items specified below.

Please note that you may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is infringing your copyrights.

So we can process your request, please include all of the following when submitting a copyright infringement notice:

• Identify in sufficient detail the copyrighted work that you believe has been infringed upon. For example, “The copyrighted work at issue is the video that appears on http://www.legal.com/legal_page.html.“
• Identify the material that you claim is infringing the copyrighted work listed in item #1 above. FOR SEARCH, YOU MUST IDENTIFY EACH VIDEO/PICTURE THAT ALLEGEDLY CONTAINS INFRINGING MATERIAL. This requires you to specify (a) that you found the video/picture on Search, (b) the title of the video, and (c) the URL of the playback page for that video (like this: http://www.zannel.com/infringingvideo/viewer.jsp?title=MGGJPKK06I).
• Provide information reasonably sufficient to permit Zannel to contact you (mailing address, telephone number, email address - ideally all).
• Provide information, if possible, sufficient to permit Zannel to notify the user of the account that allegedly contains infringing material (username and user’s account URL is preferred).
• Include the following statement: “I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above on the allegedly infringing web pages is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.“
• Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.“
• Sign the paper.
• Send the written communication to the following address: Zannel, Inc., Attn: Zannel Inc., DMCA Complaints, 113 Stillman Street, San Francisco CA, 94107 or fax to: (415) 896.1230, Attn: Zannel DMCA Complaints

If you believe your videos/pictures were unduly removed due to a copyright infringement notice, you can file a counter notification pursuant to sections 512(g)(2) and (3) of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. To file a counter notification with us, you must provide a written communication (by fax or regular mail) that sets forth the items specified below. Please note that you will be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that a product or activity is not infringing the copyrights of others. Accordingly, if you are not sure whether certain material infringes the copyrights of others, we suggest that you first contact an attorney.

So we can process your counter notification, please include all of the following:

• Identify the specific URLs of material that Zannel has removed or to which Zannel has disabled access.
• Provide your name, address, telephone number, email address, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which your address is located (or Santa Clara County, California if your address is outside of the United States), and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.
• Include the following statement: “I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that each search result or message identified above was removed or disabled as a result of a mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.“
• Sign the paper.
• Send the written communication to the following address: Zannel Inc., DMCA Counter Notification, 113 Stillman Street, San Francisco CA, 94107 or fax to: (415) 896.1230, Attn: Zannel DMCA Counter Notification

The term refers to a piece of code you insert in your post that is preceded by this sign:

#

The words following the # sign are handled differently within Zannel, as explained below.

You can hash tag your posts with topics, location, or the name of a person on Zannel.

Here’s how these hash tags work.

Topics
Say you’ve got a cute picture of your westie puppy and you want to share it with other westie owners.  You can add the following to your post:

#westie #west_highland_terrier

Note that all hash tags must be followed by no space after the # symbol.

We’ll automatically turn the hash tag into a link.  Now when people click on the link they’ll be taken to a special page within Zannel that consists of all other posts tagged #westie.

(This example won’t work on this page; to see a real example for #sundance09 click here). 

This is a fun way to share your passions with others in the Zannel community.

Geo locations
The hash tag for locations works very similarly … except when we turn it into a link, clicking on it takes you to a map on the web. Location tags are listed last in a post, and begin with #@ or #at, followed by a space and then a zip code, city and state, or specific street address.

Username
Finally, if you enter @username, this will turn into a link to the person’s profile page on Zannel.

Try it!  It’s fun.

Sorry.  Right now these features are implemented first on the desktop web but in typical Zannel style, we’ll bring them to Zannel on your mobile phone in two shakes.

Yes and no.
Yes, they count towards the total 255 characters we allow you to post on Zannel
But we exclude the hash tag character count when looking at your post and shortening it down to the initial 160 characters that displays of your entry.  In any event, this isn’t anything you have to worry about – as we handle counting characters for you.

The following are all valid hash codes that indicate your location
Make sure your hash tag for location is the very last thing in your post
#at 94107
#at 113 Stillman Street, San Francisco CA
#at San Francisco, CA

Alternatively you can enter:
#@ 94107
#@ 113 Stillman Street, San Francisco CA
#@ San Francisco, CA

What’s important is that you start your manual geo tags with a hash sign (#) and the word or symbol “at” - then leave a space.  Everything after the space will be interpreted as geographic information.  NOTE:  The geotag should be the LAST thing in your post.  So, if you are also adding keyword tags (such as #dogs or #frisbee), put these before your geolocation information in your post.

Not only will hash tagging your entries like this add your location to your post ... on the web, you’ll also get a link that people can click on to go to a map so they can see the location you are referencing. 

It depends on your phone.  If you have an iPhone and have given the camera on your phone access to location information, then the answer is - in general - no.  We’ll automatically pick up the geo tag information and associate it with your posting on Zannel. 

For all other phones, you can add geo-location information to your post manually.  You can do this on the go when you are out and about or after you posts by editing your entries after the fact.  See this faq for more information:  http://corp.zannel.com/start/faq/407

Of course!  Returning to the example above ... if you search on the term westie and you’ll get all posts that contain the term westie plus all posts that contain the hash tag #westie.

Zannel is a place where you can interact with your friends, meet new friends, and share pictures and videos and text updates about what is going on in your life. However, like any online community, you need to be careful about whom you share your zannel page with, how you interact with people you don’t know, and how you present yourself. A few online safety recommendations include:
* Never share your password with anyone.
* Keep your zannel upload address secret to prevent others from posting to your account.
* Be extremely cautious about posting or sharing ANY personal information, especially information that could be used to identify you or locate you offline, such as your physical address or telephone number.
* Be cautious when adding strangers to your friends list.  It’s always fun to get to know new people, but, unfortunately, sometimes people are not who they say they are. Avoid meeting people in person whom you do not fully know. If you must meet someone, do it in a public place and bring a friend or trusted adult.
* Block and report anyone that sends you inappropriate or suspicious communications. Harassment, hate speech and unwelcome contact should also be reported. If you feel someone’s behavior is inappropriate for the zannel community, use the report links, or send a detailed note to .
* Don’t pretend to be over 18 if you’re not, or don’t say you’re younger than 18 if you’re not. If Zannel determines you are under 18 and pretend to be older, we will delete your profile. If we determine you are over 18 and pretend to be a teenager to contact underage users, we will delete your profile, and, if necessary, make the appropriate report to law enforcement.
* Finally, don’t post anything to zannel that might embarrass you later. Once you post something to the internet, be aware that it could easily be copied and distributed by anyone who finds it.