Frequently asked questions

The questions below come up most often, from stylists, salon owners, and clients alike. Each answer links out to the article that covers it in full.

Does Embrly need my Instagram password?

No. Embrly never asks for your Instagram password and has no login to your account. When you share a look, Embrly copies your caption to the clipboard and hands the photo to your phone's normal share sheet — you pick Instagram and finish the post there yourself. See Sharing to Instagram.

Why does Embrly say my Instagram is "not connected"?

Because it isn't, and that is the normal state. Sharing works through your phone's share sheet, which needs no connection at all. "Connected" refers to a future mode that reads your post's reach automatically — it depends on Instagram's approval and on your account being a free professional (Creator or Business) account.

Can Embrly see my Instagram followers or my other posts?

No. Embrly has no access to your Instagram account, so it cannot read your followers, your DMs, or anything you post. Participation in Embrly is what you report after sharing, which is why leaderboards rank consistency and never follower counts.

How much does Embrly cost?

Think of it per chair: every salon plan works out to $25 or less per stylist a month, under a dollar a day. Solo is $29 for one person. Salon Lite is $24.50 per chair ($49 a month covers two, then $25 each). Salon Pro is $19.90 per chair ($199 a month covers ten, then $15 each). Salon Scale is $17.45 per chair ($349 a month covers twenty across multiple locations, then $10 each, so it keeps falling as you grow). Solo, Pro and Scale also have annual pricing. See Plans and pricing.

Which plan should I pick?

The pricing page has a seat slider — set it to your team size and it shows the tier that fits. Roughly: one person is Solo, two to seven is Salon Lite, eight to nineteen is Salon Pro, and twenty or more (or more than one location) is Salon Scale. Lite and Pro have identical features; at eight seats they cost the same $199, and Pro's extra seats are cheaper from there, which is why eight is the crossover.

Can I add a seat mid-month?

Yes, and it's instant. The owner adds it in Dashboard → Settings on embrly.app; you're charged a prorated amount for the rest of the month and the seat works right away. Reducing your seat count is the other way round — it applies from your next renewal, there's no refund for the current month, and it never removes anyone from the roster. See Seats and team management.

Where do I buy or change my plan?

In the app or on the web — whichever you prefer. In the app, Settings → See plans subscribes through the App Store or Google Play; in the US the same screen can hand you to web checkout instead. On the web, sign in at embrly.app and open Dashboard → Settings for your plan, seat usage, and the billing portal. Where you bought the plan is where you manage it.

What counts as a seat?

A seat is a person: any active member of the salon, including the owner. Ten seats means ten people. If you run several locations under one brand on Salon Scale, your locations draw on one shared pool rather than each buying their own, and someone who works at two of your locations still counts once.

How do I cancel?

Where you subscribed. Bought in the app: cancel in your phone's subscription settings (App Store or Google Play) — the app's plan row takes you there. Bought on the web: open Dashboard → Settings on embrly.app and use the billing portal. Either way the plan runs to the end of the period you've already paid for, your panel shows that it ends on that date rather than renewing, and your content stays yours.

What happens to my looks if I leave the salon?

They go with you. Captures and portfolios belong to the stylist, not the salon, so removing a membership never deletes your work. Weekly themes and rosters belong to the salon; your photos, your page, and your history follow you.

Do I need client consent before sharing a photo?

Yes, for any photo with a person in it. Embrly will not let a look go public without a consent record from the person in the chair — the system enforces it rather than trusting a policy page. Without consent the look stays private to you. The one exception is product shots, where nobody is in frame and there is no client to ask.

How does a client give consent?

At the chair, usually by scanning a QR code you show them. The same in-chair link can also invite them to leave a note, but the two are kept deliberately separate: agreeing to be photographed and writing a review are different decisions, and someone can do either without the other.

Which of my looks are public?

Only looks you have shared and that carry a consent record. Everything else — drafts, unconsented captures, anything you kept for yourself — stays private to you and is not visible to your owner, your team, or the web. On top of that, your public page and your listing on Discover each have their own toggle in your profile.

Can salon owners see everything I post?

Owners see team activity — who is participating, how the week is going, the looks that were shared. They never see your private or unconsented captures, and money figures on the dashboard are aggregated for the whole salon rather than broken out per stylist.

Can clients browse Embrly without an account?

Yes. Discover, the specialty and city pages, the stylist and salon directories, every stylist's page, and every individual look are all open and free. You can flip photos to see the before, save a look to your device, and follow a stylist's booking link without signing in. See Finding a stylist on Embrly.

How do client notes work — can anyone leave a review?

No. A note can only be written through a single-use link handed out after a real appointment; there is no way to leave one from the website. It publishes with the client's first name only. That is why stylists have few of them and why they are worth reading.

Do AI captions include a call to action — and can I train that?

There's a dedicated control for it. On the caption screen, Tone shapes how the caption sounds (playful, balanced, editorial), and Call to action shapes what it asks — book me, DM to ask, follow for more, come visit, or none at all. Pick the intent and the AI writes the ask in your own voice, so you never have to figure out the wording yourself. Your voice samples still steer the phrasing: if your past captions have a signature way of inviting people in, the generated ask follows it.