Adding people
This guide describes the Pillars phone app. The website does the same calculations, but some screens and features work differently or aren't here yet.
BaZi gets more interesting with more than one chart. A mother next to her daughter. Two old friends. A couple. In People you can keep the charts of the people around you, and the app reads them alongside yours.
Two ways in
In People, tap Add person. You'll get two choices.
- Scan their code (Recommended). The other person opens Pillars on their phone and shows you a QR code. You point your camera at it. Their details go straight from phone to phone, with no server, and only because they chose to show them.
- Enter their details myself. The same form you used for your own chart: name, date, time, how sure the time is, birthplace and traditional formula. Then tap Calculate their chart.
People added from typed-in pillars in earlier versions of the app still show the label Imported, unverified.
Who are they to you?
Each way of adding asks the same question: the person's Relationship to whoever is "you" right now. If you're Julian, it reads "Relationship to Julian".
The choices are Partner, Mother, Father, Child, Sibling, Friend, Colleague, Other and No relation.
No relation is a perfectly good answer. Maybe it's someone you just met, or a chart you're curious about. You can add or change links any time, between any two people, in the Relationships block on their page.
Ask first
A birth date, time and place are personal. When you scan a code or type someone's details, the app asks you to tick: "I have this person's permission to keep their details on my phone." Please mean it.
Their details stay on your phone, encrypted, and never go to a server. Still, it's their information, and asking is the kind thing to do.
What you can do next
Tap someone in People and they become "you" for the whole app: Today, Chart and Timeline show their chart, until you switch back.
On their page you'll find their pillars, their Day Master, their elements and the year they're in. You'll also find their Relationships, the buttons to see your charts together or as a group, and Events you shared: the day you met, a wedding, anything you want to look back on. Tap the star by their name to keep them near the top of every list.
Changing or removing someone
On their page, Edit details fixes a date or a time. Delete person removes from this phone their chart, notes and relationships, and the events they're part of.