Getting Started

You can read and post in the open Main Lounge with just a name. To unlock private rooms, direct messages, and notifications, verify:

1. Open the menu — tap ☰ at the top on mobile — and tap Sign in (it reads Account once you’re verified).
2. Enter the email you joined with — we send you a one-time code.
3. Type the code back in. When you see “Private rooms unlocked,” you’re in.

Choose your handle when prompted after verifying. It’s how the room knows you and how other members find and tag you.

Check your spam or junk folder first, then ask for it again. To use a different email, go to Account → Sign out / use a different email.

That shows up on a new phone, a new browser, or a private/incognito window — it just doesn’t recognize you yet. Open the menu (☰ on mobile) and tap Sign in — you’ll also see “Already a member? Sign in” on any members-only screen (the Back Room door, the Humidor pop-up, the Cigar Don’s page) — then sign in with the email you joined with. Everything you built, your humidor and all, comes right back.

Open the link they sent you — it brings up a page that says “A Gift Awaits You.” Enter your name, choose your lounge name, and your email, then tap “Take My Seat.” You’re a member — no payment needed. The code is built into the link, so there’s nothing separate to type in. If the link won’t open, open it in your real browser (Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android).

The What’s New page lists the latest additions to the lounge — find it in the menu (tap ☰ on mobile).

This matters — notifications won’t work until you do it. Open thecigodfather.com in Safari, tap the Share icon (the square with an up arrow), choose “Add to Home Screen,” then open the lounge from that new icon. A Safari tab on its own can’t receive alerts.

You’ll see an Install option — a prompt, a banner, or in your browser menu. Tap it and open it like an app.

When you open the lounge from a link inside Instagram, Facebook, Signal, or an email app, it opens in that app’s own little browser — and those often can’t hold your sign-in or run notifications. Open thecigodfather.com in your real browser instead (Safari on iPhone, Chrome on Android), or better, add it to your Home Screen and always open it from that icon. If a sign-in code or alert wouldn’t work, this is usually why.

Verify first, then go to Account → Turn on message alerts → Allow. On iPhone you must add the app to your Home Screen first (see above). You’ll be alerted for a direct message, activity in a private room you’re in, and when someone @mentions you — and tapping the alert opens that exact conversation.

Run through these in order:

1. iPhone: add the app to your Home Screen and open it from that icon — a plain Safari tab can’t get alerts.
2. You tapped Allow when asked.
3. Alerts are on in Account (it reads “Turn off message alerts” when they’re already on).
4. Allowed them but still nothing? In Account, toggle message alerts off, then back on. Switching them on in your phone’s settings alone isn’t enough — the app has to reconnect your phone to the alerts, and the off/on does exactly that.
5. Test with the lounge closed or in the background. Alerts don’t pop while you’ve got the lounge open in front of you — you’ll hear the in-app chime instead.

Still quiet after all that? Ask me here and I’ll take it to the boss.

A phone can quietly drop its connection to alerts after a system update or a long stretch with the app closed. Same fix as above: open Account and toggle message alerts off, then back on. The app reconnects and you’re set. (The app now tries to mend this on its own when you open it, but the off/on is the sure thing.)

A tag only pings if they have alerts turned on — you can’t turn them on for someone else. Also, tagging yourself never pings your own phone, and an alert won’t pop on a phone that has the lounge open in front of them (they get the in-app chime instead). If they’ve got alerts on and still hear nothing, point them to “My notifications aren’t working” above.

Tap Rooms, then pick the room you want.

Tap Rooms, type a name in the Room name box, and tap Create.

To invite someone to your room, open it, use Find a member, search their handle, and tap Add. To direct-message someone, find them in member search and start a DM.

Start typing their name in the message box, then tap the suggestion that pops up. Their name shows in gold, and if they have alerts on, their phone gets a tap.

Tap Search and type a word to find old messages — or type a member’s name to find their messages.

Tap the microphone in the message bar and just talk. When you’re done, tap Send — a box pops up with what it heard so you can read it over and fix any words, then tap Send again to post it. Works the same way with the Cigar Don.

Tap the photo icon in the message bar, then pick Take a photo to use your camera or Choose from library for one you already have. Send it to the room, a DM, or the Cigar Don — he’ll read a band, a box, or a drinks menu and tell you what he sees.

Open it from the Cigar Don (the Humidor button on the concierge). Add a cigar two ways: type what you have in plain words, or take/upload a photo of the band or box and the Don logs it for you. Track each one, rate it, add notes, and sort by brand.

Always. It’s yours — you can export your whole collection and take it with you anytime. You never lose your humidor.

From the lounge, tap Smoke With The Cigar Don. Type the cigar’s name or snap a photo of the band. Before the flame, tell him her line and size — for example, “Cohiba, red dot, Siglo VI.” Once he’s got her, tap Light up together and you both begin.

He pins her down before you light. Give him the name or the band, and if her house lives two lives — a Cuban Cohiba and a new-world one are not the same smoke — he settles which she is before he reads a single note. If he needs the exact line or size, he asks once, then you’re lit.

Talk to him like the man in the next chair. A few that work well: “I’m getting cedar and cream.” · “The burn is tunneling — what do I do?” · “What whisky pairs with this?” · “Here’s the wine list — what should I pour?” (with a photo) · “She won’t stay lit.” He answers in the moment, for the cigar you’ve actually got going.

Tap the camera in the message bar any time mid-smoke. Send a photo of the burn and he turns burn doctor — canoeing, tunneling, a runaway burn, he talks you through the fix. Show him a wine list, whisky shelf, or bar menu and he picks the pour that flatters the cigar in your hand.

The Don smokes right along with you, so the night moves through the thirds on its own — first, second, final — as the cigar burns. Smoking a little quicker than him? Just tap the cigar to step into the next third early, or to finish whenever you like. Either way, he speaks to where she’s actually going at each stage — like a man smoking beside you, not a script.

Hear him: tap Hear the Don on any reply for his own voice. Finish: tap I’m finished (or just say “I’m done”) and he gives you his closing verdict — a keeper, a sometimes, or a pass — saved to your history. Flag: if he ever gets something wrong, tap 👎 on his reply to send it to the commission for review.

Your sessions are private to your account. The Don verifies matters of record — a cigar’s maker, origin, and year — against reliable sources before he states them, so he won’t pass a guess off as fact. Anything you photograph stays yours: burn shots and pours go to your own gallery, and a cigar he recognizes is filed to your humidor — never invented.

Ask the Don anything about cigars — recommendations, pairings, how to light and cut, brands. He tailors his picks to your taste and your humidor, he’ll read a photo of a wine or drinks menu and tell you what to order, and he can speak his answers aloud. Talk to the Don →

In the Games Room — Stump the Capo, Cuban trivia, the cigar finder, the hold quiz, and more.