Getting started with Drop

You create your account (section 1) and the app guides you through four steps, from “Step 1 of 4” to “Step 4 of 4”: How people find you (your name, your handle and your studio), Your profile and your assistant, Your week (sections 2 to 4) and That is it, a tour of the app that ends in Go to Drop. With Back you return to the previous step without losing what you had typed, and in the second and third steps you can press I will finish this later; Home will remind you with a card of what is missing. You are not asked for a language: the app uses your iPhone's.

1. Create your account

Download the app or go to drop.ink and press Create account. First tick that you accept the artist terms, with the data processing agreement (DPA) for your clients' data, and that you have read the privacy policy: both links are under the box, and without it no account is made (not with Google or Apple either). We keep which version of the terms you accepted and when. If you log in with Google or Apple from Log in without having created the account first, or if the terms change, the app and the web ask you for them with the same box before going on; if you don't want to accept them, you can sign out. Then choose Continue with Google, Continue with Apple or type your email and a password (at least 8 characters, with letters and numbers). With email we send you a link: open it and press Continue to confirm your account; until you confirm it you cannot log in. If you have the app installed, the link opens it directly. If it does not arrive, check your spam folder or try to log in with your email and password: we will offer to resend it. You can ask for another one a minute after signing up or after the last resend; the button shows you how long is left.

Your email is your identity on Drop: you log in with it and your alerts go to it.

If you have already chatted with a Drop artist using that same email, the sign-up tells you the same thing (“check your email”) and you receive Confirm to create your artist account. Press the button and then Continue, choose your password, and your artist account is created with that email; your chats with other artists stay as they were. If you have the app installed, the link opens it: you choose the password there and go straight on to the welcome steps (if you close that screen with the “X”, nothing is created). If not, it opens in the browser, and afterwards you log in to the app with your email and that password. The link works only once and expires in an hour; if you did not get to choose the password, sign up again (or press “Forgot your password?” with that email) and you will get another one. It also works the other way around: with your artist email you can chat as a client on another artist's page (not on yours; to test it, use another email).

2. Choose your name and your handle

The handle (in the app, Your address on Drop) is the last part of your link: drop.ink/@yourhandle. It is unique, lowercase, and allows letters, numbers, periods and underscores. It is the link you will put in your Instagram bio, so choose the same name you use there if it is free.

Also add the studio where you work: its name and its address, which you pick from the suggestions that appear as you type it (with it Drop knows its time zone). It will be your default location, the one the agent proposes when a client does not say where. You can add more locations and guest spot dates later, in Home → Settings → Locations.

3. Set up your agent

Your agent (in the app, the AI assistant) talks to your clients on your behalf, so you tell it what you are like and what it can say:

About you: a couple of lines for your page about what you do and how you work.
Tone: how you want it to sound (friendly, direct, formal...). From Trace; on Zero it uses the standard tone.
What it should know: styles you do, the ones you do not, which parts of the body you tattoo, how you work on designs.

During the setup you fill in what it should know (and the tone, if your plan includes it), and the app asks for your permission for Drop to send OpenAI and Anthropic (United States) what the agent needs to answer for you and summarise your chats: the messages and images of your chats, your projects, your profile, your Flash, your prices and your availability, only to prepare its replies and the summaries you ask it for. The detail of which data goes and what for unfolds under More information, next to the links to the AI policy and the privacy policy. Without that permission the agent answers nobody and writes no summaries: your clients see that nobody is answering right now and every message comes to you. You can give it or withdraw it at any time in Home → Settings → AI assistant (the first card) or, on a computer, in the AI assistant section of your account at drop.ink; in the app the switch applies at once, with no need to tap Save; withdrawing it asks you to confirm and turns the agent off in every chat, without touching each chat's AI switch. Afterwards, in Home → Settings → AI assistant, you also have:

When would you rather answer yourself?: topics or cases where it hands the conversation to you (the handover). Outside of those, it answers: handing over to you is the last resort.
Payment methods offered: how clients can pay you (cash, card, Bizum, bank transfer...).

The agent never gives or works out a price: it only repeats the "price from" that the Flash piece or the project already has. It answers in the client's language and always says it is an AI if asked.

4. Your week: hours and duration

During the setup you set the hours of your default location (which days you open and from what time to what time, day by day), the default How long a session lasts and your Currency. The hours of your other locations are changed in Home → Settings → Locations, and how long a session lasts and the gap between sessions in Home → Settings → Agenda. With that, the agent works out the slots it offers. The days or hours when you cannot tattoo you block by hand from Calendar.

Your page is online from the moment you choose your handle, and it is Public unless you change it to Unlisted in Home → Settings → Profile → Visibility (see Your page and your Flash). If you keep it unlisted, Home reminds you with the Publish your page card and its Make it public button.

Upload at least three pieces from the Flash tab (clients write much more when they see your work) and check how it looks: tap your name on Home and then See your page. On that same screen, Share your page, you have the QR code, your link (copied with one tap) and Share link.

Put the link in your Instagram bio. From that moment on, whoever opens it can talk to your agent.

Frequently asked questions

Can I change the handle later?
Yes, from Home → Settings → Profile, at most once every 48 hours (what you choose during the setup does not count). Your old link will keep redirecting to the new one for 90 days.

Do I need a card to get started?
No. You can start for free on the Zero plan. Paid plans are bought on drop.ink, never in the app. You can see your plan and the credits you have left in Home → Settings → Plan.

Can I use Drop on Android or on a computer?
The app is for iPhone and iPad; there is no Android version. From the web you manage your account (email, password, logging out and deleting it), your plan, your billing and your deposits; managing chats, projects, calendar and Flash is done in the app.