Your Connection and Your Check-In
A check-in is a live conversation, not a video you upload afterward. That puts a real demand on your internet. Here is what it needs, what Okaya does when your connection is weak, and what you can do about it.
What Actually Happens During a Check-In
Most of what you do online sends data down to you. A video buffers a few seconds ahead, so you never notice the gaps. A check-in works the other way. It sends data up from you, continuously, and a live conversation can’t buffer ahead. That’s why a check-in can struggle on a connection that streams movies just fine.
Two things go up while you talk:
Okaya sends your voice up as you speak, so it becomes words in real time. That’s what lets Sanora answer you in the moment instead of after you finish.
Goes Up · ContinuouslyYour device reads the shape of your expression on its own, then sends up a short list of coordinates. Think of it as the difference between sending a photograph and sending a dot-to-dot.
Goes Up · ContinuouslyIt never leaves your device. No recording of your face goes anywhere. The picture on your screen is for you.
Stays on Your DeviceWhere Okaya Runs
Okaya’s servers are in Oregon, in the United States. Your check-in is processed there. We would rather tell you that plainly than leave you to guess.
Distance costs time. Every sentence you say makes a round trip to Oregon and back before Sanora replies. The farther away you are, the longer that trip takes. From Europe, Asia, Africa, or South America, you may notice a short pause before Sanora responds. That pause is the distance. It doesn’t mean the check-in is failing.
The Bar We Hold, and Why
Before a check-in starts, Okaya measures how fast and how steadily your device can send data up. That measurement puts you in one of three places.
Your Upload Speed, and What Okaya Does With It
Everything runs at full detail. You won’t notice any of this.
Okaya sends less automatically, so fewer points go up from your face. Your conversation is unaffected and the check-in finishes normally. The reading it produces is a little less detailed.
Okaya stops you before you start, rather than partway through.
That last one is a deliberate choice, and it’s worth explaining, because most apps would let the session run anyway and quietly get worse.
A check-in isn’t entertainment. It produces a reading that you, and sometimes the people supporting you, will act on. If the signal reaching us is patchy, the reading built from it is wrong in ways nobody can see afterward. A wrong number is worse than no number. So below a certain point, we would rather tell you the connection wasn’t good enough. That beats handing you something that looks like an answer and isn’t one.
What to Try, in the Order Worth Trying It
Get Closer to Your Router
The single biggest change most people can make. Upload speed drops off much faster than download speed as the Wi-Fi signal weakens, so one room’s distance can be the whole problem.
Try the Other Network
On Wi-Fi? Try cell data. On cell data? Try Wi-Fi. Hotel, café, and shared office Wi-Fi are often capped hard on upload even when they feel fast.
Pause Anything Else That’s Uploading
Photo and cloud backup, file sync, a video call in another window, or a large upload in another tab. These compete for exactly the capacity a check-in needs.
Close Other Apps Using Your Camera
Anything else holding the camera makes your device work harder for every frame it reads.
Try a Different Time
Shared connections slow down when everyone is home. If evenings never work, a morning check-in often will.