Frequently Asked Questions

SF Stairway Spotter is a mobile app that serves as a guide to San Francisco’s public stairways. It helps you discover stairways across the city, view photos and details, keep track of the stairs you’ve visited, and turn exploring them into an ongoing challenge.

The app is for curious walkers, urban explorers, stairway enthusiasts, and San Francisco locals and visitors who want to see the city from a different angle. You can use the app to find nearby stairways, plan an outing, explore a neighborhood in depth, or work toward visiting all of the city’s public stairways.

Open the app to view the map and browse more than 1,250 stairways. You can view photos, see stairway details, and filter the collection by neighborhood or rating. If you create an account, you can also mark stairways as spotted, verify visits, earn badges, track your progress, connect with friends, and join the optional leaderboard.

No. Anyone can browse the map and stairway information without signing in. You need an account to save progress or use account-based features such as marking stairways as spotted, verifying visits, earning badges, joining the leaderboard, and connecting with friends.

SF Stairway Spotter is free to browse. You can create an account and maintain an unlimited private checklist of stairways you have spotted at no charge. Your first 10 unique verified stairways are also free, allowing you to try visit verification and earn introductory badges. When you pay for the app, you unlock unlimited verified visits, repeat-visit tracking, the full badge collection, mayorships, the leaderboard, and upcoming premium exploration features such as curated stairway walks. You can add friends for free, but leaderboard progress and the progress you share with friends are based on verified stairway visits.

Purchase restoration instructions will be added here when paid features become available.

If you believe you have paid but cannot access the features you purchased, contact Support before paying again.

SF Stairway Spotter is launching first for iOS, with Android support planned next.

You can also explore the interactive map at www.sfstairwayspotter.app. Visit www.sfstairwayspotter.com for information about the app.

Anyone can browse the stairway map from anywhere, but the collection and location-based activities currently focus on San Francisco. Verified visits use geolocation and are designed to happen while you are near a mapped stairway in the city.

Alexandra Kenin is a San Francisco-based urban hiker, the founder of the urban hiking tour company Urban Hiker SF, and the author of the bestselling guides Urban Trails: San Francisco, Urban Trails: East Bay, and Urban Trails: Peninsula & South Bay. You can follow her urban adventures on Instagram and Facebook. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Alexandra Kenin looked for a project to keep her busy, so she decided to visit all of San Francisco’s public stairways. She began by digitizing the stairway index from Stairway Walks in San Francisco, then expanded this collection with stairways she discovered through her own explorations. She initially created a Google My Map with all the stairways she visited, but realized it wasn’t particularly mobile-friendly or interactive. After over 260k people visited the online map, Alexandra was inspired to create SF Stairway Spotter.

For the purposes of this project, a public stairway is associated with a public pedestrian space. It might be located on a sidewalk, form part or all of a street block, or pass through a park. Stairways leading into buildings don’t count. Nor do stairways inside playgrounds as playground access is generally restricted to children and the adults accompanying them. A location may qualify even if it has only one step when it also has recognizable stairway infrastructure, such as a railing. Most stairways in the app have many more steps.

SF Stairway Spotter currently includes more than 1,250 public stairways across San Francisco. Alexandra continues to discover and add stairways and estimates that the city may have 1,300 or more. Because the collection continues to grow, it is mostly—but not completely—comprehensive. Newly discovered stairways are added to the directory as they are found.

Every stairway in SF Stairway Spotter has been photographed firsthand. The directory includes information such as location, photographs, neighborhood, step count, description, and rating. Alexandra started with the index from Stairway Walks in San Francisco and expanded the collection through her own knowledge and extensive exploration of the city.

If you are viewing the stairway in the app, select Report an issue with this stairway. Your report will automatically be connected to that stairway. For a missing stairway or a general correction, go to Menu → Feedback. You can describe the issue and optionally provide a contact email and one supporting photo. You can preview, change, or remove the photo before sending. Please include the stairway’s location and as much useful detail as possible. Submissions are reviewed before the public directory is updated.

A stairway’s presence in SF Stairway Spotter does not guarantee that it is public, currently open, safe, accessible, or suitable for every person. Conditions can change because of construction, damage, vegetation, weather, closures, or access restrictions. The app does not provide authoritative accessibility information or real-time condition updates. Follow posted signs, remain aware of traffic and your surroundings, use your own judgment, and do not enter closed or private areas. If a stairway is closed, damaged, obstructed, or incorrectly mapped, select Report an issue with this stairway from its stairway card. You can include a description and an optional supporting photo. For general help, visit Support. Do not use feedback or Support for emergencies. Contact the appropriate emergency service instead.

Open the map and tap the location button to center the map on your position, or move and zoom the map to explore another area. Tap a colored stairway dot to see its photograph and details. You can also select Nearby stairs to find stairways close to your current location.

Yes. Use the Filters panel in the lower-left corner of the map to filter stairways by neighborhood or rating. You can combine filters to see just the subset of stairs you want.

The stairway-rating system was created by Adah Bakalinsky for Stairway Walks in San Francisco :

• 5 — Red dots: The Scheherazade category. These stairways surprise the walker. Elegant or rustic, short or long, they exhibit variety, stir the imagination, and delight the senses.

• 4 — Orange dots: Impressive qualities with minor shortcomings, one outstanding aspect, or extremely attractive design.

• 3 — Yellow dots: Little known but deserving of wider recognition because of their surroundings or human-made or natural features. The neighborhood is generally very attractive.

• 2 — Green dots: Intrinsic to neighborhood history and ambiance. Well-trodden and functional. In many cases, the architectural context or view rates more highly than the stairway itself.

• 1 — Blue dots: It may be so boring that you’ll fall asleep on the first landing. We gave some stairways different ratings from Bakalinsky’s and created our own assessments for newly added stairways.

A spotted stairway is one you add to your private checklist by selecting Mark as spotted. You can do this from anywhere; your location does not matter. A verified visit means the app confirmed that you were near the mapped stairway and verified your visit with a photo. Verified visits contribute to verified totals and community features such as badges, stairway mayorships, and the leaderboard. The temporary verification photo is not uploaded or added to your photo library. It is different from a photo you voluntarily attach to feedback or an issue report.

Sign in, tap on a dot on the map to open a stairway card, and select Mark as spotted. The stairway is added to your private checklist and remains marked when you return to the app. You can remove the spotted status later if you selected it by mistake.

When you are physically near a mapped stairway, tap its dot to open its card, then select Verify today’s visit. The app checks your location and uses a temporary camera photo as an additional on-site action. The temporary photo is not saved or uploaded. You cannot complete a verified visit remotely.

Location is used only when you choose a location-based feature, such as centering the map on your position, finding nearby stairways, verifying a visit, or suggesting a stairway using your current location. You can browse the map without granting location access.

When you take a photo of the stairway, the app conducts a location check to confirm that you are near the selected stairway. The verification photo is temporary. It is not uploaded, added to your photo library, displayed to other users, or retained with your visit record. The app removes it from temporary storage after verification finishes. This is different from an optional photo you deliberately attach to feedback or a stairway issue report. Feedback attachments are uploaded privately so the SF Stairway Spotter team can review them.

Yes. A stairway can remain in your spotted collection while you record verified visits on different days. Only one verified visit to the same stairway per San Francisco calendar day counts toward visit history and mayorship competition.

SF Stairway Spotter relies on an internet connection to load current map data, sign in, save progress, and complete verification. Content already visible may remain on the screen temporarily, but the app should not be treated as a fully offline map.

Badges recognize milestones and exploration across the city, including progress within individual neighborhoods and broader stairway-count goals. You can view available badges by going to Menu → Badges.

Newly added stairways become part of the map. When you are signed in and the map loads new additions since your previous visit, an in-app notice lets you know. Select Show me for a single addition or See all when there are several, then choose a stairway to open it on the map. Your first signed-in visit establishes a starting point, so it does not announce the entire collection as new.

An earned neighborhood badge may also show a numbered indicator for newly added stairways you have not yet verified or opened. Tap the badge to explore them. The notification number decreases as you open each new stairway card and disappears when none remain. Viewing a card does not mark the stairway as Spotted or Verified, and the viewed status follows your account across devices. Your earned badge stays earned.

These are in-app notices. Which additions you have seen follows your signed-in account across devices and browsers.

The leaderboard ranks participating users based on their total number of unique verified stairways. It allows you to see how your progress compares with other explorers. Participation is optional. You can access the leaderboard through the app menu.

A stairway mayor is the participating user with the highest number of eligible verified visits to a particular stairway during the active 30-day period. It is a playful recognition of recent, repeated exploration—not an official title or claim of ownership.

Mayorships use eligible verified visits from a rolling 30-day window. A person needs at least two eligible visits on different days before a stairway awards its first mayorship. Only one visit to the same stairway per San Francisco calendar day counts. The current mayor keeps the title in a tie. You remain mayor as long as you have at least two qualifying visits in the past 30 days and no one moves ahead of you. If no one has at least two qualifying visits during the active window, the stairway has no mayor.

Yes. Leaderboard participation is voluntary and opt-in. If you do not join, your progress and ranking will not appear on the public leaderboard. You can change your participation under Menu → Settings.

Your username represents you in community features such as the leaderboard and friend lists. It is the name other users see when viewing rankings or shared progress. You can create or update your username under Menu → Settings.

Sign in, create a username under Menu → Settings, then open Friends and enter the email address associated with your friend’s SF Stairway Spotter account. If your friend already has an account, they will receive a friend request that they can accept or decline. A new incoming request generates a one-time alert after sign-in and remains available in Friends until it is accepted or declined. If your friend does not have an account, the app offers the option to send an invitation through Messages, Mail, or another sharing app installed on your device.

Open Menu → Friends to manage your connections.

• To remove a friend, open the options beside their name and select Remove friend. This ends the friendship for both people but does not prevent a future request.

• To block someone, open the options beside their name and select Block. Blocking removes any existing friendship or pending request, prevents new friend requests in either direction, and hides the two users from one another on the leaderboard.

• To report someone, open the options beside their name in Friends or on the leaderboard and select Report. Choose a reason and optionally provide additional details. Reporting someone does not automatically block or remove them. You can view and unblock people from the Blocked section in Friends. Unblocking does not restore a previous friendship; either person can send a new friend request.

Your report is sent privately to the SF Stairway Spotter team for review. You can select a reason and optionally provide additional details. Reports should be made in good faith and are not an emergency service. Submitting a report does not automatically remove, hide, or block the person. If you do not want to see or receive friend requests from that person, use the separate Block option. Reports are not displayed publicly or shown to the reported person within the app. The team may review the report and act when appropriate but cannot guarantee an individual response or a particular response time.

The pending request is deleted, and only you see confirmation that you declined it. The sender does not receive a rejection notification. They return to a neutral state and may send a new request later unless either person blocks the other.

Go to Menu → Friends, find the request under Sent, and select the cancel action beside the pending request.

Friends can see one another’s username and total number of unique verified stairways. Friends may also be identified in community and leaderboard features. Friends cannot see your spotted checklist, live or historical location, exact visit dates, verification photos, or a list of the individual stairways you have visited. The app does not currently include a friends activity feed.

If you create an account, the app handles information needed for authentication, saved progress, verification, badges, optional community features, reports, and support. Depending on the features you use, this may include your email address, account ID, username, check-ins, verified visits, settings, friendships, blocked-user choices, reports, and submissions. If you send feedback or report a stairway issue, the app also collects your message, any optional contact email, and any photo you choose to attach. The full explanation—including service providers, retention, and your choices—is available in the Privacy Policy.

For nearby searches and visit verification, precise location is used to provide the feature and is not retained with your visit record. If you choose to submit a stairway using your current location, its coordinates are retained as part of that submission. See the Privacy Policy for more details.

Most personal activity is private. If you voluntarily join the leaderboard, your chosen username, verified total, stairway mayorship, and aggregate 30-day mayorship count may appear publicly. Your spotted checklist, individual visit dates, temporary verification photos, and precise visit locations are not shown publicly.

Open the app menu and choose the option to sign in or create an account. You can then select one of the available sign-in methods.

SF Stairway Spotter supports email and password, Google sign-in, and Apple sign-in on supported platforms.

If you sign in with an email address and password, open the sign-in screen and select Forgot your password? Enter the email address associated with your account and select Send reset link. Open the email and follow the link to choose a new password.

If you do not see the email, check your spam or junk folder.

If you normally sign in with Apple or Google, use that same sign-in option. Manage your Apple or Google password through that provider.

Yes. Your saved progress is associated with your account rather than a particular installation. Sign in with the same account on another supported device to access your account-based progress.

Sign in and go to Menu → Settings. Edit your username and save the change.

Sign in and go to Menu → Settings → Delete my account, then follow the prompts to confirm your identity. Account deletion is permanent and removes account-linked progress, including check-ins, verification records, badges, leaderboard settings, and friend connections. If you cannot access the app, follow the instructions on the Delete Your Account page.

Check that location services and camera access are enabled for SF Stairway Spotter. Move to a place with a clearer GPS signal, confirm that you are near the mapped stairway, and try again. If connectivity was interrupted after you took the photo, use Retry verification before retaking it when that option is available. If the problem continues, use Menu → Feedback or visit Menu → Support. Include what happened, your device model, and an optional screenshot or photo if helpful. Never send a password or authentication code.

You can still browse the stairway map. Features requiring a denied permission will not work until you enable access. Location is required for centering the map on your position, finding nearby stairways, and verifying visits. Camera access is required for photo verification. Camera or photo-library access is needed only if you choose to attach a photo to feedback or an issue report. You can change these permissions later in your device’s Settings.

Confirm that you are signed in and connected to the internet, then close and reopen the relevant screen. If a save fails, the app should display an error rather than silently recording the change. If your progress is still missing, use Menu → Feedback or go to Menu → Support. Include the stairway name, what you attempted, when it happened, your device type, and an optional screenshot or photo.

For general feedback or incorrect app behavior, select Menu → Feedback. Describe what you were trying to do and what happened. You can optionally include your contact email and one supporting photo. If the problem concerns a particular stairway, open its stairway card and select Report an issue with this stairway so the report is connected to the correct listing. You can also visit Menu → Support or email info@urbanhikersf.com. Include your device type and a screenshot if helpful. Never send a password or authentication code.