How to use CircleNest

Quick guide

The private home for family life — here's how it fits together

New? Start with the 5 steps below. Already using it? Pick the role that fits you.

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5-minute quick start

1. Set up your householdAdd your home, your kids (with month + year of birth), and invite your partner or co-parent. You can label them as partner, spouse, legal guardian, or other — the label is just for friendlier copy across the app.
2. Connect a few trusted familiesSearch by name or email, or share an invite link. Trusted families can be added to circles and invited to plans.
3. Create or join a CircleCircles are small groups of trusted families — a class, a team, neighbors. Chat and plan inside the circle.
4. Plan something simpleA playdate, a pickup, a birthday. Invite a circle or specific families. RSVPs are private, and a silent decline is fine.
5. Use chat the way that fitsFamily chat, circle chat, 1:1 with a trusted family adult, or a private note-to-self. Teens get their own self-chat too.

Pick what describes you

Feature index

CirclesSmall trusted groups — class, team, neighborhood. Chat and plan inside.

PlansPlaydates, pickups, birthdays. Either co-parent can RSVP for the household. FYI-share to a co-parent's household or trusted family. Duplicate to next week in one tap.

CarpoolSeat claims, status updates, private ride ledger. Built to avoid favor-debt feelings.

ChatFamily chat, circle chat, 1:1 with trusted adults, voice notes, notes-to-self, and Us 💛 — an optional space for adult partners, created only when both people choose it.

MomentsAdults-only photo posts (up to 4 photos) shared with your trusted families. Default 7-day expiry, extendable once to 14 days. No notifications, no streaks, no read receipts.

VibesA 24-hour ambient status with three private reactions. Goes to your trusted families by default; if you're in circles, the composer lets you pick. Adults only.

Free to meetShare a free window or ask if anyone's around. Either way, only the people you chose can see it, answers are optional, and it expires when the window ends. One open offer and one open ask at a time — starting another of the same kind replaces it, and we ask you first.

Free-to-meet guest linksShare one free window or ask as a link with a family who isn't on CircleNest. They see the window and your one-line note — nothing about your address, kids or other availability — and reply free / maybe / can't. You confirm before any plan is created.

See your plans in Apple or OutlookTurn on a read-only calendar link in Settings → Connected calendars and subscribe in Apple Calendar, Outlook or Google. Choose full details or just 'Family plan'; rotate the link any time.

Share into CircleNestInstall CircleNest to your home screen and it appears in your phone's share sheet. Share a class email or flyer in and we read the date, time and place on your device — nothing is uploaded, nothing saved until you create the plan.

Organizer mode for circlesTurn a circle into an organised team or class: announcements, paste-roster, per-kid yes/no on events, co-organizer. Hidden by default — toggle on in circle settings.

TimelineOne place for what your family kept — photos from chats and photos added from your phone, newest first. Tap a photo to open it full-screen and swipe through the moment. Filter by the people it involves; the same memory is never shown twice.

Add a memory from your phone'Add memory' takes photos straight from your device or camera. It's not an album importer — a few photos at a time, kept privately to you until you choose to put them on a shared timeline. Video isn't supported yet.

YearbooksA chronological PDF for one year, built from what you're already looking at — it inherits your Timeline people selection, keeps photos from the same moment together, and never prints a memory twice. Every home includes one Family Yearbook for each calendar year — you can reopen it, change what's in it and download it again anytime without using anything up. CircleNest Plus adds room for additional, separate yearbooks. Household yearbooks are built on demand and returned to your device. Per-kid yearbooks are stored privately for 30 days so you can re-download them, then the stored file is removed — the memories themselves stay.

KeepsakesChoose a few kept memories, pick a look, and download one designed page. Portrait, landscape, square or 'Best fit', and you can drag and pinch each photo to frame it. Two core looks — Modern Minimal and Sky & Stars — are included for every home; the full collection of twelve comes with CircleNest Plus. Nothing is published to a public link.

Unkeep, and Recently removedUnkeeping a memory takes it off your timelines and out of yearbooks and keepsakes, and stops it counting towards storage. It waits in Memories → Recently removed so you can restore it, or end your keeping of it right away.

Bring outside calendars in — on your termsAdd a Google account or paste a calendar link in Settings → Connected calendars, organised by what comes in and what goes out. Each calendar is set to 'Don't include', 'Busy only' or 'Show title', and can be shared with the other adults in your household so nobody adds it twice. Reminders stay personal: one delivery preference, one default per calendar, and optional per-event overrides.

Future lettersWrite a note to a kid today; it unlocks on a month you choose — a 16th birthday, a graduation — up to 50 years out.

Love tapsSend a kid a tiny heart from your household chat. No text, no counts, no streaks.

Kid controls & allowancesPer-kid tier, region, chat capabilities, circle visibility, PIN (5 wrong tries locks the device for 15 minutes), device binding. Fine-tune what's allowed, feature by feature.

Household notesShared sticky notes for everyone in the house. WiFi, vet, school dates, anything you want findable.

Kid artKids draw in kid mode and send to family. You decide what to save to the kid's timeline. Unsaved art clears after 90 days; teens (13+) can re-view their own recent drawings (last 30 days) inside Kid Mode.

"My things" for a kidOn a kid's own creations, or a saved memory that's only about that kid, you can choose to show it to them in Kid Mode. It's a read-only shelf: nothing to save, change or send on, nothing recorded about their viewing, and turning it off removes it straight away. Not available under 4, or at 13+.

"My Goals" (10+)Young people aged 10 and over can write down something they're working toward, with a few steps and an optional date. It's theirs alone — you don't get a view of it, and there are no reminders, scores or progress tracking. If they want help, they use the same "Ask a grown-up" request you already see.

Pets in your householdAdd the pets that live with you so co-parents, caregivers, and trusted adults know who needs feeding or walking. Pet entries are descriptive only — no logins, no separate data.

FYI plans on your calendarShare a plan as 'FYI' with your co-parent's household or a trusted family so it shows on their calendar for context. FYI copies are read-only, muted, hideable, and auto-cleanup if the connection ends.

Household-binding RSVPsWhen a kid is invited, parents and co-parents share one RSVP — either of you can reply on the household's behalf. The latest reply wins and is mirrored to the other adult(s).

Parent peekOpen a read-only view of a kid's day — upcoming plans, open jobs, pending requests. Private surfaces (chats, drawings, notes-to-self, PIN) are never shown.

Archive a kid profilePauses everything for that kid — invites, requests, caregiver and trusted-adult access, scheduled future letters — without deleting anything. Unarchive any time to resume.

Legacy contacts & memorializationNominate a trusted adult to step in if something happens to you. They can request memorialization, pause your scheduled future letters, and help hand off kid profiles to a co-parent. No login-level access to your private content.