Bark Back support
Email us and you'll reach the people who actually build the app. We aim to reply within two working days, and we read every message.
Getting in touch
Email us
When reporting a problem, it helps enormously if you can include your iPhone model, your iOS version, the Bark Back version (shown in Settings inside the app), whether you were using a Bluetooth speaker, and what you were doing when it happened. Screenshots are always welcome.
By post
Itch Studio Ltd
Suite RA01, 195-197 Wood Street
London, E17 3NU
United Kingdom
Itch Studio Ltd. is registered in England and Wales, company number 14729010.
Common questions
Prop your iPhone somewhere it can see and hear your dog, choose Echo as the response, and start. Bark Back listens, answers each bark with that same bark, and films what happens. Leave the phone on a stable surface rather than holding it, and stay out of the frame if you can.
The microphone is how it hears the bark, and the camera is how it films the reaction. Both are asked for the first time you start a session. If you declined and want to change your mind, open iOS Settings › Privacy & Security, or find Bark Back in the app list at the bottom of Settings.
Move the phone closer, and make sure nothing is covering the microphone. Detection is tuned to fire on barks and to ignore doors, television and speech, so a quiet or unusual bark from across a room can be missed. If it consistently misses your dog, do tell us. That is genuinely useful to hear.
If you have one, yes. Pairing a speaker makes the echo louder and puts it somewhere your dog isn't expecting, which is the single change that makes the most difference. Pair it in iOS Settings before starting the session. The volume ceiling still applies.
They stay in the app, on your device, and you can save any of them to Photos or send them straight from the share sheet. The clip library has a size budget and removes the oldest clips once it is full, so save anything you want to keep. Every exported clip is watermarked.
No. Bark Back has no account and no server of its own, so your sessions, clips and recordings never reach us. If you turn on Pro sync, they travel through your own iCloud account and remain yours. Deleting the app removes anything held only on that device.
The same session with the echo switched off: it still listens and films, it just doesn't answer. Running a few of them is the only honest way to tell whether the echo is changing anything for your dog, or whether something else is. Watch sessions are free.
Filming and listening at the same time is demanding work. Keep the phone plugged in for longer sessions. Bark Back watches battery and thermal state during a session and will wind itself down rather than stop dead, telling you why.
Open the app's settings and tap Restore Purchases, making sure you're signed in to the same Apple Account you bought with. If it still doesn't appear, email us and we'll sort it out.
Using Bark Back kindly
Bark Back interrupts barking; it does not correct or punish it. Some dogs pause and investigate; some won't respond at all. Stop the session if your dog seems distressed rather than curious.
The guardrails, on every tier
No aversive or ultrasonic sounds, ever. Playback is volume-capped, responses are spaced by an automatic cooldown, and sessions are time-limited. None of these can be loosened by any setting or any purchase, and they are identical on the free and paid tiers.
Signs to stop
Pinned ears, a tucked tail, lip-licking, yawning, hiding or leaving the room mean end the session. If your dog's barking is rooted in separation distress, fear or pain, an echo is not the right tool. Please speak to your vet or a qualified behaviourist. Bark Back is an experiment, not a training programme, and we make no claim that it will reduce barking.
Bark Back Pro
Bark Back Pro is available as a monthly or yearly subscription, or as a one-time Lifetime purchase. All billing is handled by Apple through the App Store, so we never see or store your payment details. The free core (listening, echoing, filming and sharing) stays free whatever happens to a subscription.
Manage or cancel a subscription
On your iPhone, open Settings, tap your name at the top, then Subscriptions, and choose Bark Back. From there you can change your plan or cancel. You can also manage everything at apps.apple.com/account/subscriptions.
Subscriptions renew automatically unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Cancelling stops the next renewal; you keep Pro until the period you've paid for runs out, after which paid features fall back to their free behaviour and your clips stay where they are.
Refunds
Because Apple processes all App Store purchases, refunds are handled by Apple rather than by us. You can request one at reportaproblem.apple.com.
If something in the app went wrong and led to the purchase, do tell us as well. We cannot issue the refund ourselves, but we can usually fix the underlying problem.
Still stuck?
Feature requests are genuinely welcome too, and so are the sessions where nothing happened: knowing which dogs ignore the echo is as useful to us as knowing which ones don't.
