Porchlight
Porchlight support
Last updated 15 September 2026.
Porchlight is a map of the doors that have said yes tonight and what each one is putting out: allergy-safe treats, a bowl on the step, step-free access, and no jump scares. Nothing appears on it that a household did not add about itself.
Putting your own door on the map
It is free for every household, permanently. Stand at your door, open Your door, tick what you are handing out, write a landmark if you want one, and give your hours.
Adding your porch publishes the location of your door to everyone using the app nearby, with what you are offering and your hours. A lit porch has said the same thing to strangers for a century, except that a lightbulb is not searchable and this is, so it should be a decision rather than a surprise.
Why it would not let me add my porch
The app checks that your device is within about sixty metres of the pin when you create or move it. That is the only reason location permission is asked for, and it stops somebody pinning a neighbour's house.
- Add the porch while standing at the door, not from elsewhere.
- Allow location while using the app. Nothing runs in the background.
- Phone GPS is poor between buildings, so drag the pin onto your own door before saving.
Changing or taking down a listing
One household has one porch, so opening Your door again edits the one you have rather than adding a second. Change anything and save.
Take my door off the map removes it immediately, from everyone else's map at the same time. You do not have to close your account to come off the map, though deleting your account also removes the porch.
Community listings, the trunk-or-treat in a car park, the school evening, the fire station open house, are arranged through our website rather than in the app, so write in to have one corrected or taken down.
Why a porch disappeared
Every porch has an end time; there is no way to publish one without a stop. Pins are deleted two days after their window closes, and listings thirty days after theirs. Deleted, not hidden, because a hidden row is still a record that a household expected children at a place on a night. A pin can also be gone because it was reported.
Reporting, and what reporting is not
The first report hides a pin immediately, before anybody has judged whether it was right: a wrongly hidden porch means a household hands out less candy, and a wrongly visible one means strangers at a door. Reports are private to whoever filed them.
There is no way to mark a house as one to avoid. No setting expresses it, no report reason creates it, and no screen shows it. A house that is not on the map is simply not on it: not taking part is invisible, not marked, and says nothing about anybody.
Blocking is a different thing
A report takes a pin off the map for everyone. A block takes it off your map and nobody else's. The person you blocked is never told, nothing about their pin changes for any other family, and blocks are never counted or shown. You can undo one at any time from the account screen, where they are listed by date because there is no name attached.
Your data
Stored: your email address and a display name if you set one; your porch, meaning the coordinate you placed, your landmark, the offerings you ticked, an optional note and your hours; where your device stood when you created or moved the pin; and reports. Signing in is by an emailed code, so there is no password.
Never your address. There is no address field in this app and no address column behind it, only a point you placed yourself and a landmark if you chose to write one. Deleting your account removes your profile and your porch immediately. The full policy is at carrierpress.com/porchlight/privacy, and it names the one service involved: the host that keeps the database and sends the sign-in codes.
Contact
One person reads that, so a reply may take a few days.
Porchlight is published by Jeffrey L Carrier.