Cardly — Help Guide

New · In-depth walkthroughs
Read the Cardly Screen Guide →
One page per screen, every Setting explained, annotated screenshots. Start here if you're new to Cardly or want to learn what the app can really do.

Getting Started

Cardly keeps your loyalty, membership, and gift cards in one place, ready for when you reach the checkout. There is no account to create — add a card and you are away.

To add your first card:

  1. Start adding a card from your wallet. The camera opens with a scan frame.
  2. Line the barcode on the back of your card up inside the frame. Cardly reads it automatically.
  3. If it will not scan, choose Enter manually and type the number in instead.
  4. Give the card a name, choose its type, and pick a colour so it stands out in your wallet. Colours have names, so you pick Teal rather than a hex code.
  5. Save. The card appears in your wallet straight away.

Tap a card and its barcode fills the screen, ready to scan. Everything else about the card — its number, PIN, balance, pictures and notes — sits on the card screen, one tap further in.

Your cards are private. There is no Cardly server and nothing of yours in our cloud, so no one but you can see them.

Back to Contents


Showing a Card at the Checkout

Scan Mode is the screen you use at the register. The barcode fills the display on a dark backdrop so the scanner reads it easily, and Cardly turns your screen brightness up to maximum while it is showing. Underneath sit the card number, the PIN and the remaining balance, whichever the card has.

If a gift card is linked to a rewards card, Scan Mode shows them one after the other: swipe sideways to move between them, and the dots under the card show where you are. Scan the rewards card for the points, then swipe to the gift card to pay — one trip through the till. Open Scan Mode from a gift card and you get the whole group it belongs to, so a card that pays at three shops brings all three rewards cards with it.

A few things that help the scanner:

  • Hold the phone flat and still, a little way above the scanner glass.
  • Wipe the screen — smudges and glare are the usual culprits.
  • If all else fails, the card number is on screen, so the cashier can key it in.

Back to Contents


The Card Screen

Tapping a card opens Scan Mode by default — the barcode, full screen, at maximum brightness. The card screen itself is one step further in, and it is where everything about a card lives.

At the top is a swipeable panel: the barcode first, then your pictures, then the card's colour tile. The dots underneath show where you are. Which page it opens on is yours to choose under Settings › Card screen.

Below that are the card's number and PIN, each with its own copy button, and a gift card's balance. Then rows that open a screen of their own:

  • Details — everything the card holds, with a pencil to edit it
  • Pictures — up to 10 a card. The front and back are free; the rest are Premium. Scan a card or choose an image you already have.
  • Notes — anything you want to remember about the card (Premium)
  • Linked cards — the gift cards that pay at this shop, or the rewards cards a gift card pays at

Pictures fold away to a strip if you would rather see the number first. Whether they start open is a setting, separately for gift cards and everything else.

Back to Contents


Card Types

Cardly comes with four types:

  • Rewards — loyalty cards you scan to collect points.
  • Gift — prepaid and gift cards, which also carry a PIN and a balance.
  • Member — membership cards.
  • Other — anything else.

The type decides how a card behaves — Gift is the only one that adds a PIN and a balance — and which section it sits in. You choose it when you add the card and can change it later.

Under Settings › Customise › Card types you can drag the types into the order you want your wallet grouped, and add types of your own for anything else you carry. The four built-in types keep their names, because settings and labels throughout the app are worded around them; your own types can be renamed and deleted freely.

A gift card can be linked to as many rewards cards as accept it, which is what you want for a card that pays at more than one shop. Links live on the card's Linked cards screen, and either side of the pair can add or remove one.

Back to Contents


Tracking Gift Card Balances

A gift card shows what is left on it, what it started with, and its expiry date if it has one — so a card does not quietly run out of time in a drawer.

After you spend, tap Update and enter either the new balance or the amount you just spent, whichever you have to hand. The habit worth forming is doing it at the counter while the receipt is still there. Your wallet shows the remaining amount on the card itself, so you can see what is left without opening anything.

If the card has a PIN, Cardly keeps it with the card, masked until you tap to show it, with its own copy button for online checkouts.

Turn on Hide spent gift cards in Settings and a card puts itself away when it reaches zero. Nothing is deleted — the eye in the wallet's top bar brings it back.

Back to Contents


Organising Your Wallet

Your wallet can be laid out five ways. Tiles is the one everyone gets; List, Compact grid, Stack and Full cards come with Premium. Tap the view icon in the top bar to switch, and a free user can preview any of the paid views on their own cards before deciding.

Cards group into sections — starred Favourites first, then one section per card type. Turn Group into sections off and the wallet becomes one continuous run instead. Star the cards you use most and they stay within reach.

The eye in the top bar hides cards you never use. Tap the eye, tap any card to hide or show it, then tap the tick to finish — hidden cards stay out of the wallet until you bring them back the same way. Nothing is deleted, and this replaced archiving in 1.1.

Each card carries its own colour, and cards without a picture shade from light to dark so they read as cards rather than flat swatches. You can turn that off under Card gradients. Add a picture of the card and the wallet shows that instead — useful when several cards look alike, or when the shop name on the card is not the name you think of it by.

Back to Contents


Home Screen Shortcuts

Cardly can put a card on your phone's home screen or in Android's Quick Settings panel, so it is ready without opening the app first.

Home screen. Open the card, then tap the add-to-home icon in the top bar. Android adds an icon for that card. Tap it and the card opens in Scan Mode, barcode up. This is free.

Quick Settings tiles. Swipe down from the top right of your screen and a Cardly tile opens a card from anywhere — even over another app. Set them up under Settings › Customise › Quick Settings tiles: there are four, each holding one card. New tiles land at the end of the panel, so tap the pencil and drag yours up next to the ones you use. Tiles are a Premium feature.

Back to Contents


Home Screen Widgets

Widgets put a card on your home screen so it is visible without opening Cardly at all. They are a different thing to shortcuts: a shortcut is an icon that opens a card, a widget shows the card itself.

Add one the usual Android way — press and hold an empty part of your home screen, choose Widgets, find Cardly, and drag the one you want into place.

There are four. The single card widget is free and shows one card you pick. Favourites shows your starred cards as a grid, Strip as a slim row, and Scan-Ready puts a live barcode on your home screen that a scanner can read without you opening the app at all. Those three are Premium and show a locked tile until you buy it.

Back to Contents


Backup and Restore

Your wallet lives on your phone. Cardly can back it up to your own Google Drive, so you can put it back after a reset or move it across when you change phones.

Backup is in Settings. The copy goes straight from your phone to your Drive account — we never see it, and you can delete it from Drive whenever you like. It carries your cards, their pictures and notes, gift card balances and links, your card types and colours, and your settings, so a restored phone looks like the one you left.

Turn on the daily backup and Cardly keeps it current by itself. It is worth taking one once your cards are in, and the daily one will look after the rest. Backup and restore are Premium.

Back to Contents


Security and Privacy

Cardly can be locked behind your phone's own unlock — fingerprint, face, PIN or pattern — so your card numbers, PINs and balances are not open to anyone who picks up your phone. Turn it on under Settings › Biometric lock. It is a Premium feature, and it uses whatever your phone already uses, so there is no separate passcode to remember.

On privacy, the short version:

  • There are no accounts, so there is nothing for us to hold.
  • Your cards, numbers, PINs and balances are private — there is no Cardly server and nothing of yours in our cloud.
  • We don't track your shopping. Cardly has no connection to the shops whose cards you store, so what you buy, where, and what you spend are not visible to us.
  • No ad networks and no advertising ID. The free version shows one card promoting our own apps, and nothing more.
  • The only copy that goes anywhere is a Google Drive backup, if you choose to make one — and that goes to your Drive, not to us.

Back to Contents


Premium

Cardly is free to use, with as many loyalty, membership and store cards as you like, and one gift card with its balance. Premium is a one-off payment, not a subscription, and unlocks:

  • Four more ways to see your wallet — list, compact grid, stack and full cards
  • Unlimited gift cards, with linking and balances
  • Notes on any card
  • Up to 10 pictures a card — the front and back are free, the rest Premium
  • Home-screen widgets and Quick Settings tiles
  • Google Drive backup and restore
  • Biometric or PIN app lock
  • No promo cards

The free gift card is a real one: you can link it to your rewards cards and track its balance. Premium lifts the limit.

You buy it once and keep it. There is nothing to renew and nothing to cancel. The price shows on the Premium screen in your own currency; payment and any refund go through Google Play, and we never see your payment details.

Back to Contents


Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need an account to use Cardly?

No. There is nothing to sign up for. Add a card and start using it — your wallet is yours alone.

Q: Does Cardly work without an internet connection?

Yes. Cardly does not need a connection to show your cards, so they work with no signal — which matters, because checkout queues are exactly where reception tends to disappear.

Q: The scanner will not read my card. What can I do?

Choose Enter manually when adding the card and type the number from the card instead. This also covers cards whose barcode is worn, damaged, or too small to read.

Q: The shop’s scanner will not read my phone screen.

Cardly already turns the brightness up for you. Wipe the screen and hold the phone flat and steady above the scanner. Some older scanners struggle with screens generally — the card number is shown on screen, so the cashier can key it in instead.

Q: Can Cardly store the PIN for a gift card?

Yes. Gift cards can hold a PIN alongside the barcode, and it is shown on the Scan Mode screen so you are not scratching at the back of a card at the till.

Q: What does it mean when a gift card is linked to a rewards card?

It ties the two cards for the same shop together, so they sit alongside each other and you can flip between them in Scan Mode — scan the rewards card for points, then the gift card to pay.

Q: How do I move my cards to a new phone?

Back your wallet up to Google Drive on the old phone, then install Cardly on the new one, sign in to the same Google account, and restore. See Backup and Restore.

Q: Is my card data sent to your servers?

No. Your cards, card numbers, PINs, and balances are private — only you can see them. We have no accounts and no servers holding your wallet. The only copy that goes anywhere else is a Google Drive backup, if you choose to make one, and that goes to your Drive, not to us.

Q: Can I add a photo of a card?

Yes. A photo helps when several cards look similar, or when the name printed on the card is not what you call it.

Q: What should I do when a gift card is used up?

Set its balance to zero. With Hide spent gift cards turned on in Settings, Cardly puts it away automatically — it leaves your wallet, and the eye in the wallet's top bar brings it back whenever you want it. You can still delete it outright if you would rather.

Q: Is Premium a subscription?

No. Premium is a one-time purchase — you buy it once and keep it. There is nothing to renew and nothing to cancel. If you need a refund, that is handled by Google Play under their refund policy.

Q: My card has no barcode at all — can I still add it?

Yes. Add it manually and record the number, and add a photo of the card if that is what the shop actually looks at.

Need More Help?

Email us at: woohoosoftware@gmail.com