Phone and tablet | Distari guide

A phone gives you a reading companion. A tablet adds a workspace rail, with Ask and project tools alongside your library. Both can keep papers for reading and search without a connection.

Get the app and connect

On an iPhone or iPad, install Distari from the App Store. It needs iOS or iPadOS 15 or later, and it is available in every App Store country. Android is in internal testing and has no public Google Play release yet; check the Apps page for current availability.

Open Distari and choose Continue in browser. Sign in to your Distari account in the browser, check that the displayed approval code matches the app, and approve the connection. Return to Distari to open your library. Use the same account you use on the web so your projects appear.

Read on a phone

The three bottom tabs are Library, Discover and Notifications. In Library, open the menu at the top to choose a project or folder. Its Folders panel also leads to Account, Offline and sync and This phone. Account controls remain available even when you have no projects.

Tap a paper to open its details and summary. Choose Read PDF to read the paper as sentences. Tap a sentence, then choose a highlight colour or add a comment; the mark stays linked to that passage. Use the paper’s Comments tab for its discussion. For the broader annotation workflow, see Read and annotate.

iPhone reader showing the GPlates paper as sentences with a highlighted passage. — iPhone simulator: tap a sentence to highlight it or comment on the passage. These examples use a fictional demo library.

Use search to find papers across projects, including matches inside their full text. Without a connection, results come from the material cached on this device; keep the papers you will need before leaving the network.

Android phone Library showing the Reading desk project and its Earth and climate papers. — Android phone emulator: Library is the starting point for papers, folders and summaries. The screenshot follows your system's light or dark appearance.

Discover finds and shortlists papers while connected. Notifications lists activity across your projects; tap an item to mark it read and open the paper’s comments, or use Mark all read. The tab’s dot indicates unread activity. In-app notifications are separate from the operating system’s permission to deliver push notifications.

The phone does not contain Ask, Writing or the tablet’s Notes, Overview and People screens. Use a tablet, desktop or the web for those tasks and for organising projects and folders.

Work on a tablet

Use the side rail for Projects, Library, Ask, Writing and Discover. The top bar has search and a notification bell. Open More for Notes, Overview, People, project and account links, Offline and sync and This tablet.

Ask answers questions against the selected research with citations; open a citation to return to its source. Saved conversations remain available in Ask. New AI answers need a connection and use your plan’s usage. See Ask questions.

iPad workspace with a side rail and an Ask conversation answering a question about GPlates with a paper citation. — iPad simulator: Ask sits beside Library in the tablet rail.

Writing lets you browse drafts, then opens editing in the browser. Notes holds project notes; Overview shows research progress; People shows project members. Graph, Compare, Project settings, Profile and Settings also open in the browser. Follow the browser’s sign-in prompt if needed; approving the app does not sign every browser in automatically.

Android tablet workspace showing its navigation rail and the same cited GPlates conversation in Ask. — Android tablet emulator: the wider workspace keeps project tools within reach.

Keep research offline

While connected, open Offline and sync from the phone’s Folders panel or the tablet’s More drawer. Choose Keep another project or folder, then select what you need. You can also keep an individual paper from its paper screen.

A kept project or folder includes matching papers added later, after another sync. Wait for their PDFs to finish downloading before going offline. If Download on Wi-Fi only is enabled, downloads wait for Wi-Fi. Library’s OFFLINE tag shows that a paper is kept, including through its project or folder. Removing a paper’s own keep choice does not remove a copy still kept by a folder or project; manage that scope in Offline and sync.

Kept papers include their downloaded PDFs, summaries and cached text for search. You can read them and add highlights or comments offline. Changes wait on this device and send when it reconnects. Discover, new Ask answers and browser pages still need a connection.

Offline and sync shows storage, kept items, changes waiting to send, conflicts and the last sync:

Choose Sync now for an ordinary refresh and to retry sending changes. Check any displayed error if changes remain.
Choose Rebuild offline copy while connected if expected papers or folders are missing. It refreshes the library while preserving changes waiting to send and reuses unchanged downloaded PDFs.
Review conflicts before leaving the device. Follow the offered resolution for that item; project-note conflicts offer Keep both so you can preserve a separate copy of your work.

Do not clear the app’s storage or reinstall it to retry a sync: that can remove the only copy of unsent work.

Set up this device

Open This phone from the Folders panel or Account, or This tablet from More. These preferences apply to this device:

Push notifications, Mentions and replies and Shared project activity control the notifications you request. The operating system must also allow notifications. A Reconnect notice means this installation needs a fresh approval before it can change notification settings.
Download on Wi-Fi only holds kept PDF downloads until Wi-Fi; it is on by default. Keep opened papers also caches PDFs you open online, even when you have not explicitly kept their project or folder.
Face ID lock on iOS/iPadOS or Fingerprint lock on Android appears on supported devices. When enabled, it asks when opening with a saved connection and after at least five minutes in the background. Unlock this device before expecting to read its protected offline copy.

Push delivery, biometric authentication and Wi-Fi detection depend on device support and permissions. Their release-validation requirements include real hardware; these simulator screenshots do not establish those checks. Share-sheet capture and physical stylus behaviour remain in release validation.

Sign out or reconnect

Signing out removes this account’s offline data from the device, including changes it has not sent. Open Account on a phone, or the account controls in More on a tablet, and choose Sign out.

If changes are waiting, the confirmation counts them. Choose Cancel to keep working or Sync first to send them and review the count again. Check Offline and sync for failures or conflicts before confirming. Confirming sign-out discards whatever remains unsent; research already synced stays in your account.

Sign-out must revoke the device’s access online. If that request fails, you stay connected and your changes remain on the device. Restore the connection and try again.

Reconnect from an account screen keeps unsent changes for the same account while you approve a new connection. If the service refuses an expired or revoked key, it also holds unsent work for the original account. Reconnect with that account to send it; another account cannot receive those changes.

The demo papers are The GPlates Portal by R. Dietmar Müller and coauthors (2016), and Mapping climate adaptation corridors for biodiversity by Ian M. McCullough and coauthors (2024), both published in PLOS ONE under Creative Commons Attribution licences. The screenshots retain their paper content; the demo summaries and saved answer are editorial examples.