Geo Guessing Tips: How to Win More Rounds and Post Better Photos

Geo Guessing is the game in Walk With Me where someone posts a photo from their walk and everyone else drops one pin where they think it was taken. The closest pin wins. The rules take ten seconds to learn, and if you haven't seen them yet, the Geo Guessing game page has the whole thing. This post is the other half: how to get good at it. I've split it into tips for guessing and tips for posting, because the best rounds need both. Geo Guessing is live in Walk With Me now, on iPhone and Android.

Read the photo before you touch the map

The biggest mistake I see is opening the map straight away and scrolling around hoping something jumps out. Do it the other way round. Spend a full minute on the photo first and narrow it down in steps: country, then city, then neighbourhood.

Here's what I look at, roughly in this order:

• Writing. The language on shop signs, street names and posters is the fastest clue there is. Even the font on a street sign can give a city away.
• Traffic. Which side of the road the cars drive on, and the colour of the buses or taxis.
• Buildings. Brick or render, flat roofs or steep ones, balconies, shutters, how tall the street is.
• Street furniture. Lamp posts, bins, bollards and kerbs look different from city to city, and locals know them without thinking.
• Plants and light. Palm trees and harsh shadows tell a very different story to wet leaves and grey sky.

Only once you've got a likely area in your head should you start zooming.

Think about who could have posted it

The poster stays anonymous until the round ends, but that doesn't mean you know nothing. A friends-only round came from one of your friends, so think about where your friends live, work and walk. If half of them are in one city and a photo has that city's look, start there. A public round from the Walk Feed could be from anywhere, which is when the clues in the frame matter most.

One pin, so make it count

You get exactly one guess per round, and other players' pins stay hidden until the round ends, so nobody can copy the leader. That changes the strategy. There's no prize for speed: the only time being early matters is a tie, where the earlier of two equally close pins wins. So unless you're sure, take your time. Look at the photo again later in the day. Sleep on a hard one if the round is long enough.

When you do commit, zoom right in. A pin on the right street beats a pin on the right neighbourhood, and the reveal at the end shows the three closest guesses with their distances, so you'll know exactly how close you came.

That reveal is also the best teacher you'll get. When a round ends, go back to the photo with the answer in hand and look for the clue you missed. Was it the shape of a balcony? A bus stop sign? The way the street dropped toward water? Do that for a few rounds and you start to build your own mental library of what each city looks like at street level, which is exactly what the best guessers are drawing on.

Spend the weekly hint on the right round

Once a week you can use a hint that reveals the city and state, as long as you use it before you guess. It's tempting to burn it on the first round that makes you scratch your head. Don't. It's worth almost nothing on a photo from your own town, where you'd have got the city anyway. Save it for a round from somewhere you've never been, where knowing the city turns a wild guess into a real one.

Posting: one good clue in the frame

Now the other side. A great round is hard but fair. A blank wall is impossible, and a famous landmark is over in five minutes. The sweet spot is a detail a local would recognise: a quirky shop front, a mural, a view down a particular street, a bridge from an unusual angle.

Leave a little context in the frame. Signs, plants, the colour of the buses and the shape of the street lamps all reward a good guesser. Cropping everything out just turns it into a coin toss, and coin tosses aren't fun to play.

Every photo is taken live with the in-app camera, never from your gallery, so plan your round while you walk. When you spot a good clue, stop and frame it then and there.

Posting: pick the length and the crowd

A round can run for 1, 6, 24, 48 or 72 hours. A day is the default, and for most rounds it's the right call: long enough for everyone to see it, short enough that people come back for the answer. Go shorter for a quick round among friends who are all online, and longer for a tricky photo you want people to chew on.

Then pick who can play: friends only, or public on the Walk Feed. A photo from your own neighbourhood is a home game for your local friends. A photo from a trip turns everyone back home into a detective, and that's often the most fun round of all.

One thing worth knowing: the closest pin wins 25 XP, but only when at least three people played. So post where people will see it, and nudge a couple of friends if a round is quiet. You can have up to three rounds running at once.

Post without giving too much away

Posting a photo of where you are can feel exposed, and the game is careful about it. Nobody sees who posted a round until it ends, the spot only shows to a player once they've locked in their guess, and while your round is open your live walk stays off the map. If you'd still rather keep it close, make it friends only. You can never guess your own photo, and nobody can guess after the deadline.

Geo Guessing is live in Walk With Me on iPhone and Android. Update the app, open the games menu and post your first round on your next walk. The Geo Guessing game page has the full rules, our colour photo hunt post covers Spectrum Walk, the other game you play with your camera, and the walking games hub has the rest. Walk With Me is free on iOS and Android.