Questions, answered

DartsKEY is an automatic dart scoring app for iPhone and Android. Point your phone's camera at your dartboard, throw, and the app reads where every dart landed and keeps the score for you. Play X01, Cricket, practice drills and party games on your own, against DartBot, with friends in the room or online.

No. DartsKEY uses the camera on the phone you already own. All you need is your dartboard, some steady light and a way to keep the phone still: a clamp on the surround, a tripod, a phone stand or a shelf. See the set-up guide.

iPhones and iPads running iOS 17 or later, and Android phones running Android 8.0 or later. DartsKEY uses the phone's back camera and works in portrait or landscape. Dart detection runs on the phone itself.

DartsKEY is made for standard 20-segment dartboards. If your board isn't reading well, tell us.

Use your email and a password, your Google account, or your Apple ID (Apple sign-in is on iPhone only). For email, tap Sign Up, fill in your name, email, username and password, tick the Terms box and tap Create Account. If you signed up with Google or Apple, always log in with that same button: those accounts have no DartsKEY password.

DartsKEY is a subscription app. The Local plan covers every game in Local Play on your own board, with auto-scoring. Full Access adds online play, friends and online doubles. Joining a friend's Play Together game is free. Prices are shown in the App Store and Google Play.

On something steady facing the board, so the whole board, number ring included, fits in the camera picture. Keep the phone upright, so the line between the 20 and the 3 looks roughly vertical, and put it to one side rather than straight on, as far as the Angle meter asks. The Fill, Centre and Angle meters tell you when it's right: adjust until they turn green. Set-up guide.

A detection model on your phone finds the board's ring and every dart tip in the camera picture, then works out the exact segment: single, double, treble or bull. Turn the camera on with the camera button in the game's top bar (or switch on Auto Enable Auto Scoring in the side menu). When a match starts, the Camera Setup panel calibrates the board for you. No darts are scored until you tap START GAME.

Calibration is automatic. Turn the camera on with the camera button, point it at the board and hold the phone still. The Camera Setup panel ticks Board in view and Calibration locked, and the button changes from CALIBRATING… to START GAME. Tap it to play. Later legs of the same match go straight into play.

Fill is how much of the picture the board takes up. Centre is whether it sits in the middle. Angle is your side angle and tilt. Each meter shows a hint such as "Move closer or zoom in" or "Rotate left". Green is good, amber needs a nudge, red stops calibration. A phone dead straight on shows "Move to one side of the board": a side angle works best, left or right: move until Angle turns green.

Light the board evenly and move any lamp that reflects straight off it. The app tells you what it sees: "Glare on the board", "Board looks too dark" or "Board looks too bright". Then use the brightness slider on the left of the camera picture. Once it looks right, save it as a Bright, Normal or Low light preset on the Camera Setup panel and tap that preset next time.

Use the zoom buttons at the top right of the camera picture (tap for a step, hold to zoom smoothly), or pinch the picture. Your zoom is remembered on that phone for the next game. If the board is too small you'll see "Please move the camera closer or increase the zoom level".

Yes. Tap the camera button in the game's top bar to turn the camera off and enter scores by hand, and tap it again to turn it back on. On the Camera Setup panel, ✕ does the same. In X01 you can also choose Input Each Round and type one total per visit on a keypad.

You can fix it before it counts. Every visit ends with a check showing your darts: tap Edit, tap the wrong dart, choose the right segment (or MISS) and tap Confirm. You can also tap a dart's box during your turn. In online X01, Edit last lets you correct your previous visit until the next player's first dart lands.

By default, yes: with Wait for Darts Removed on, the turn passes once the board is clear. To move on without pulling, tap Remove darts • tap to skip in X01, or Remove Darts on the visit check in other games. You can switch this off in the side menu.

With Auto MISS on Early Removal on (the default), the darts you didn't throw count as MISS and the turn passes. Made a mistake? In local X01 one tap of Undo reopens your visit; in online X01 use Edit last. You can switch Auto MISS off in the side menu.

In X01 a BUST banner appears over the scoreboard with the reason, such as "You need a double to finish.", and the caller says it as the dart lands. The visit scores nothing and your score goes back to where it was at the start of the visit. Tap Confirm Bust to pass to the next player.

PPR is points per round: your average for a visit of three darts. PPD is points per dart, which is PPR divided by 3. Switch between them during a game in the menu (⋮) under Average score.

With the Caller on (the default), DartsKEY calls each dart as it lands, then your visit total. In X01 it calls what you need at the start of your visit, for example "Alex needs 96", whenever a finish is possible, and it tells you why you bust. Turn off Dart Callouts in Profile Setting to keep only the visit and checkout calls. Score Voice picks the voice from those installed on your phone.

In X01, when you can finish, the empty dart boxes show a suggested route marked Suggested, for example T20, T16, D12. It's on by default; switch it with Show Checkout Guide in the game menu (⋮). It also helps in 41-60 and Catch 40, and is off by default in Gotcha.

16 games, all scored by the camera. X01: 301, 501, 701 or 901. Cricket: Standard, No Score, Tactics, Random and Cut Throat. Practice: Around the Clock, JDC Challenge, 41-60 and Catch 40. Party: Hammer Cricket, Half It, Killer, Shanghai, Bermuda and Gotcha. Rules for each are in the side menu under Darts Rules. See the games.

Yes. In X01's Game Setting choose Straight, Double or Master In, and Straight, Double or Master Out. Double Out needs a double to finish (double bull counts); Master Out accepts a double or a treble. Under Double or Master Out, leaving 1 is a bust.

Yes. X01 can be played as a single leg, as first to 1-6 legs, or in sets; Standard Cricket can be played over legs. Choose it under the match format when you set up a local, friends, online or doubles game. The start of each leg moves round the players in turn.

In X01 with two or more players, Closest to Bull is on by default (online it needs Input Each Dart). Everyone throws one dart at the bull and the closest dart starts the match: a bull beats an outer bull, and so on, then the shortest distance. Darts within 2 mm of each other are too close to call, so those players throw again. You can confirm or correct each dart.

You play the targets 61 to 100, each once, in a shuffled order, with six darts per target and a double to finish. Finish in 2 darts for 3 points, in 3 darts for 2 points, or in 4-6 darts for 1 point. A bust in your first three darts loses the rest of those three, and you start the target again from dart 4. A bust in darts 4-6, or a score you can no longer finish, fails the target.

41-60 and Catch 40 are solo practice games. Killer, Shanghai, Cut Throat and Hammer Cricket need at least two players. Everything else can be played on your own, with friends on one phone, or with DartBot in the line-up. DartBot can't play on its own, so at least one person is always in the game.

Three: Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. In Local Play, tap DartBOT in the line-up, choose a level on BOT Setting and tap Done. DartBot starts at Beginner each time you open Local Play. The level sets how well DartBot plays X01; in other games it plays the same at every level.

The home screen shows Your Stats: 3-dart average, checkout rate and matches played, with today's figures. Tap the arrow next to Your Stats to open My Profile for X01, Cricket, Practice and Party detail over your recent 10 legs up to all of them. The HISTORY button there lists your recent games with leg-by-leg detail.

On the results screen at the end of a game: open the Heatmap or Leg Heatmap tab. It shows where each player's darts landed, for X01, practice and party games. Cricket results don't have a heat map yet.

Open the side menu, tap Friends, then the add-person icon at the top right. Search for a username or name and tap +. They'll find your request in their Requests tab and can accept or decline it. You can also add players from the Online Lobby or from their profile.

Choose a game, tap Play Friends and Continue, pick friends from your list and tap Send Invitation. The game starts by itself once everyone has accepted. An invitation can be accepted for 120 seconds; if you're in a match it waits until you leave it.

Use the Online Lobby. The Live Games tab lists public games waiting for players: tap Join. To start your own, tap Create Game, choose the game and the number of players and tap Create Lobby. Once at least two players are in, tap Start Game. A lobby that hasn't started closes after 5 minutes.

Doubles & Teams is 2 against 2 online, with four players on four phones and four boards. Pick your partner and opponents from your friends list, name the teams and tap Create Game; start once all four have joined. Each team has one score, and the throwing order is Team A player 1, Team B player 1, Team A player 2, Team B player 2. Online doubles.

Not yet. Doubles & Teams is online only: each player needs their own phone and account. To play with several people on one phone, use Local Play, where everyone plays for themselves.

Yes. When someone else is throwing you see their board on live video, and online matches have voice chat. Your microphone starts muted: tap the microphone button in the top bar to talk. To stop sharing your board, switch off Share my video in the game menu (⋮); your camera keeps scoring your darts.

In a one-against-one match the player who quits loses and the other player wins. In doubles the whole team of the player who quits loses. With three or more players each playing for themselves, the match carries on without them.

Yes, for online X01 matches over legs or sets. When the match is decided, tap Play Again: the others see a rematch request and tap Join to start again with the same settings.

Not in the app yet. There's no tournament, league or leaderboard feature. You can see players' own records, such as games won and win rate, on their cards in the Online Lobby and on their profiles.

Play Together lets friends in the same room join your game from their own phones while you all throw at your board. Open the side menu, tap Play on One Device and Create Game; friends tap Join Game and connect over Bluetooth or with your session code. Up to 8 players, each result is saved to that player's own profile, and joining is free.

Up to six in Local Play, in any mix of you, guest players and DartBot. Guests are saved on your account and don't need their own account or phone. Press and hold to drag players into a different order.

On the login screen tap Forgot password?, enter your email and tap Send. Open the "Password Reset" email and tap Reset Password within 15 minutes. If you signed up with Google or Apple, there's no DartsKEY password: just tap that button again.

Yes. Tap your photo at the top right of the home screen to open Profile Setting, then the pencil next to Username. Usernames are 3 to 30 characters: letters, numbers, dots and underscores, with no spaces.

In your phone's store, not in the app. On iPhone: Settings, your name, Subscriptions. On Android: Google Play, Payments and subscriptions, Subscriptions. Deleting your DartsKEY account does not cancel a subscription, so cancel it in the store first.

Yes. In Profile Setting tap Delete Account, read the warning, type DELETE and confirm. Your name, email, username and photo are removed and this can't be undone. If you subscribe through the App Store or Google Play, cancel there first.

Dart detection happens on your phone. In local, solo and DartBot games no video leaves the device. In online matches the other players see your board on live video, and you can switch off Share my video. An optional Help improve DartsKEY setting, off by default, can share game pictures to improve detection.

Use the contact form and pick Support, or message us on WhatsApp. Tell us your phone model, your dartboard and what you were playing.

Read the message at the top of the camera picture. "Please make the camera towards the dartboard" means no board is found. "Please move the camera closer or increase the zoom level" means the board is too small. "The video is too tilted" means straighten the phone so the 20-3 line is vertical. "Adjust the camera to make the full dartboard visible" means part of the board is cut off. Still stuck? Tap ✕ to turn the camera off and score by hand.

The camera square tells you why. "DartsKEY needs camera access to score your darts." means allow the camera: tap Open settings. "Another app is using the camera" means close that app and tap Retry. "The camera is on but not sending a picture" means tap Retry, and restart the phone if it persists.

That's normal: camera scoring keeps the camera and the detection running. DartsKEY keeps the screen on during a game and lowers the camera's frame rate as the phone warms up. On Android you may see "Phone is heating up — a short break keeps detection sharp."

Allow notifications for DartsKEY in your phone's settings. Notifications are listed under the bell in the side menu. An invitation can be accepted for 120 seconds; after that it's declined automatically, and invitations older than 3 minutes aren't shown.