Review: Totem Compass

I attend a minimum of 3 EDM festivals every year, and they all have one thing in common: There’s no phone service anywhere. It’s almost a meme at this point. Trying to send a text message at a festival will have you walking around with your phone in the air, praying that it’ll send. Don’t even think about trying a phone call—it’ll fail every time. It’s gotten to the point where my friends and I started time-stamping our text messages: “I’m at the Forest Stage, 2:42 pm.”

The Totem Compass is the solution.

This device uses the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) and its own Unity Mesh Network to help track down your friends even if your phone has no cell service or Wi-Fi (a problem that other trackers like AirTags can't yet overcome). Once it’s set up, it’ll point you to the directional heading of your other Totem-wielding pals.

Where's Your Head At?

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Totems, also known as doof sticks, are part of festival culture—especially when it comes to bass music. People hold giant signs attached to a pole to help their friends find them in a crowd. No phone service? Just look for the poster of Pikachu puking lasers, or Shaq (AKA DJ Diesel) requesting a mosh pit, and boom: You’ve found your group. But totems are annoying (no totems at Tipper!) and cumbersome, and sometimes are banned from festival grounds.

The viral Totem Compass works similarly, except that instead of looking for a meme or colorful sign, you’ll just look down.

Each Totem compass is a little 2.3-inch plastic puck with a glowing “Touch Crystal” plastic gem in the middle and a ring of lights surrounding it. There are two buttons on the back: A power button and a slightly recessed SOS button. Setting it up is … tricky, honestly. There are a lot of features to navigate and lights to figure out. But there’s a user guide that helps speed the process along. You’ll charge it up via USB-C, power it on and update the firmware, and then take it outside so it can find a satellite to connect to. You’ll also have to calibrate it by spinning around in a circle a few times. It comes with two lanyards, but there are a few accessories available as separate purchases, like carabiner loops and necklace chains.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Once it’s set up, you can pair it with other Totem compasses by holding the Touch Crystals with the compasses close to each other. Once they’re paired, they’ll be your bonds. Each compass can be bonded with up to four other compasses. Using the Totem smartphone app lets you manage your bonds, including renaming them, assigning them one of 11 colors, and deleting them. These bonds show up as lights on the outside of your compass—you’ll walk toward your chosen friend and the light will get bigger and bigger until your Touch Crystal “collects” it once they’re close by. The Totem app has a few other nifty features, like easier software updates and at-a-glance battery levels. Totem says other features are coming soon, such as messaging capabilities and live event maps. The app can be used without phone service—just make sure to save any event layers that you may want to use offline ahead of time.

When it’s not in horizontal Compass mode, Totem can be used vertically in Vibe mode. The ring lights will pulse in time with ambient sound, which is a cute way to add some flair to your outfit. There’s also an Eco Mode, which keeps the gem glowing but gets rid of the lighted outer ring and ambient noise response. This mode preserves the battery life—you’ll get up to 24 hours, versus up to 10 in Day Vibe mode and up to 14 in Night Vibe mode. You can still navigate to find your friends in this mode.

Since Totem uses its own mesh network, the more Totem compasses there are at a festival, the more range (and accuracy) each device has. I tested it with my friends at two different music festivals, and we were always able to find each other’s general direction—even at a smaller fest with few (if any) additional compasses. The compasses drew a lot of compliments and questions, but most importantly, they worked. I navigated to find my pals without ever texting them or letting them know I was on my way.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

The compasses work best when outdoors with few obstructions. An ideal place to use them is a big, open field; indoors in a city, they’re not going to be as accurate and they won’t have as much range. Each compass has a peer-to-peer range of about 1,000 meters, or two-thirds of a mile. But if more Totem compasses are around, that range is extended. And these aren't limited to just festival environments—parents use them to find their kids at events, and hikers like them on group excursions.

There’s even an SOS button that you can press discreetly. A blinking red light on the back shows you that SOS is activated. And on your friends’ side, they’ll see your corresponding color blinking, meaning they’ll know it’s time to track you down. This can be helpful if you’re ready to get picked up, if you’re in an altered state of mind and need a pal, or if the jaw-jacking attendee in front of you is giving you the ick.

Can You See Me?

With all that I like about Totem, there are a few drawbacks. The housing feels a little cheap, lightweight, and plasticky. I haven’t experienced scratches or scuffs, but I'm betting that I will eventually. It’s water-resistant, but not waterproof—when it rains heavily, I put it in my backpack to avoid it getting too wet. It’s labeled as dustproof, but the product guide says not to expose it to excessive dust, so I wouldn’t take it to Burning Man without protection like a waterproof bag or something similar. It also gets warm when it’s working hard, such as setting up a satellite connection, and it gets warm if the weather is hot. And I wish the battery lasted longer. On most festival days, I’m up and at ’em in the festival grounds by 1 pm, and I stay out until at least 1 am if not 5 or 6 in the morning. If I want to use Vibe Mode and have little dancing lights accompanying me, the battery won’t last through my schedule.

I do like that these are rechargeable, but that also means you’ll have to sacrifice some of your power bank’s battery life to keep them stable (if you’re at a camping festival with no power). Totem says battery life will be improved with future software updates. And finally, the device doesn’t feel super intuitive to set up. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what’s going on, partially due to the fact that there's no screen—just a series of lights and blinks.

Courtesy of Louryn Strampe

The companion app can be helpful in this regard, but I recommend playing with the Totem compasses a few times before embarking on a real use-case scenario to become familiar with the lights and indicators. Finally, as of press time, these are not yet FCC certified, so you're technically supposed to keep them at least 0.4 inches away from your skin while they're working—which kind of defeats the purpose of wearing them around your neck. Totem's terms and conditions state that “Currently the Totem Compass is undergoing testing by a TCB certified facility to verify FCC compliance in the United States,” so hopefully this will be remedied soon.

And I’m also testing Totem’s direct competitor, the Crowd Compass (a review is coming soon!). The Totem compass is more affordable; the Crowd Compass has a few more features that I like. However, these trackers aren’t a complete replacement for common sense. You should still have a designated meet-up spot and time with your pals, and you should still keep your phone charged. But if you’re attending festivals and you don’t want to deal with doof sticks or waving your phone in the air trying to get service, these are absolutely worth checking out.