Keeping your seat with an account

A guest's seat is kept on one browser. Signing in from it moves the seat to your account, so the bill or tab is on every device you sign in on, in your lists, and you can do what needs an account, such as confirming a payment. Everything claimed and paid from the seat stays with it.

How to keep your seat

On the bill you joined as a guest, press Sign in, beside "You're a guest on this phone. Sign in to keep your seat on all your devices." In a tab opened from your own link, press Sign in beside "You're a guest on this phone. Sign in to keep your seat with an account."
The page is headed Sign in to keep your seat, with the bill above the form: its name, its day, who invited you and which seat is yours.
Sign in. With no account, follow the form's link to sign up: the page is then headed Create an account to keep your seat, with the same bill above the form.
The next page reads Keeping your seat while your seat moves to the account, then opens the bill.

Not now, keep going as a guest takes you back to the bill as the guest you were. Your claims and payments stay either way.

If your account is on the bill already

An account has one seat on a bill. If yours already has one, the page asks, for example "You're already on this bill as Tom", and offers:

Merge: the guest seat is folded into your own. What it claimed and paid moves to your seat.
Keep separate: the guest seat stays on the bill with what it claimed and paid, free for whoever that person is. You carry on as your own seat.

A bill that is Ready for payment cannot merge two seats until the organiser reopens it, so only Keep separate is offered. In a tab, a merge offers Undo.

Joining from a shared link

A tab's or a group's shared link needs an account to join. Its sign-in page is headed with what you are joining, such as Sign in to join Lisbon weekend, and once you are signed in it takes you back to choose your name.

Worked example: Priya keeps her seat

Priya joined Luigi's Trattoria as a guest on her phone, and her Your total so far is 19.25. She wants the bill on her laptop too, so she presses Sign in on the bill.

The page reads Sign in to keep your seat. Above the form are "Luigi's Trattoria", its day, and "Invited by Maya - You're Priya". She has no account, so she follows the link to sign up, and the page reads Create an account to keep your seat. She makes one.

The page reads Keeping your seat, and then the bill opens. Priya's seat is now her account's: she still owes 19.25, the same items are claimed for her, and the bill is in her lists on her laptop as well. Maya's People step shows her as Joined where it showed Guest since before.

If something stops you