Question 1

How does the family calendar work?

Accepted Answer

It's meant to feel like the fridge calendar your family used to share. Everyone in the same place, so everyone knows whose birthday is next Sunday, where Easter lunch is, and when the family is going to Mallorca. Add any moment that matters (birthdays, dinners, trips, appointments, football finals) and the next few sit right under the dashboard hero. Birthdays added to a member's profile quietly surface as the day approaches. No separate apps, no excuses forgetting a birthday present.

Question 2

Do I need an account?

Accepted Answer

One person sets up the family with a name and 6-digit PIN, then shares the generated join code + PIN with other devices. No email, no password.

Question 3

Can we use FamFeel as a shared calendar only?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in calendar mode the dashboard fills up with upcoming family events — birthdays, dinners, trips, appointments. Morning check-in nudges turns off in this mode. It's a good fit for any household that wants to keep track of every appointment. Open Settings → Family and turn on Calendar-only mode. Flip it off any time to bring the check-in cards back — no data is lost.

Question 4

Can I turn the shared iPad into a kitchen display?

Accepted Answer

Yes — this is FamFeel's quiet superpower. Open Settings → Kitchen display on the iPad you want to dedicate and it lands there in ambient mode from then on: a greeting, the time, today's events and what's coming up next. Walk past the fridge and you can see at a glance what the day holds — dinners, school pickups, the vet visit Thursday — without tapping anything. Works with or without mood check-ins. Tap to exit any time.

Question 5

Why do we need mood check-in — can't we just talk?

Accepted Answer

Check-ins are optional — the family calendar is the core of FamFeel. But when families turn on the 10-second mood slider, something quiet happens: Mum left for work at 6am, the teenager slept till 11, Dad's been in back-to-back meetings, the youngest is at grandma's. Nobody sat down for breakfast together. With check-ins on, one glance tells you how everyone slept and what kind of day they're having — even the people you haven't crossed paths with yet. It doesn't start conversations for you; it just means you're never starting them from zero.

Question 6

Can I use FamFeel as a single person?

Accepted Answer

Yes. A "family of one" is a perfectly valid setup. You get the same calendar, pet care log, mood and sleep tracking, kitchen display mode and phone calendar subscription. Solo dog parents use it to keep walks, feeds and vet visits in one place. Anyone living alone can use the morning check-in as a calm private rhythm log instead of a journal. Free for life — the free tier covers up to 4 members, so a one-person setup never bumps into a paywall.

Question 7

Can I see FamFeel in my phone's own calendar?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Open Settings → Notifications and tap "Get my subscription link". You'll get a private URL plus an "Add to Apple Calendar" button that opens iOS Calendar's subscribe sheet automatically. On Android, copy the link and add it under Google Calendar → Other calendars → From URL. On Outlook, use Add calendar → Subscribe from web. The feed is read-only — your phone calendar can't write back to FamFeel — and refreshes every 30 minutes. Each family member can subscribe on every device they own; one link works for everyone.

Question 8

Do I have to subscribe to everything in the family calendar?

Accepted Answer

No. Use the category chips above the URL to pick which kinds of events go into your subscription. Maybe you want birthdays and school events on your work calendar, but not pet care or dinners. Tick the chips, copy the new link — it's a separate stream. The token stays the same, so you can always come back and adjust without resubscribing. One parent can subscribe to everything, the other to just kids' school events; same family, different streams.

Question 9

What if my subscription link gets shared by mistake?

Accepted Answer

Open Settings → Notifications → "Regenerate link (revoke the old one)". A new URL is minted instantly and the old one stops working — anyone subscribed to it will need the new link to keep seeing your family's events. The events themselves don't move; only the URL changes.

Question 10

Can I import my kids' school holidays?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Most schools and many governments publish a public iCal URL with their term dates and holidays. In Settings → Connected calendars, paste the URL, give it a label ("Kids — school"), and tick "Show events from this calendar as quiet background bands". FamFeel will paint a thin tint on each holiday day instead of stacking 50 all-day pills on top of your real family events. The bands also auto-detect — anything titled "spring break", "half term", "in-service" or "no school" gets rendered as a band even from a regular feed.

Question 11

Why don't school holidays show up in my phone calendar subscription?

Accepted Answer

Background-band imports are excluded from the iCal export by default — otherwise your work calendar would suddenly fill with two months of "summer break" all-day events. If you do want them, open the subscription link in Settings and tick the "school_break" category chip; it builds you a separate URL that includes them. Your other family members' subscriptions are unaffected.

Question 12

Can I import my Google Calendar?

Accepted Answer

Yes — open Settings → Family and look for "Pull events from another calendar". Paste the calendar's secret iCal URL and FamFeel mirrors its events into the family calendar, read-only, refreshing every few hours. After import, open each event to tag who it's for. The Settings card has a step-by-step "Where do I find that URL?" panel for Google Calendar, Apple iCloud and Outlook.com / Microsoft 365 — each one is a slightly different click path, so we keep the up-to-date instructions there rather than in this FAQ.

Question 13

Why is FamFeel a web app and not on the App Store?

Accepted Answer

On purpose — and it works in your favour. Real families are mixed across every phone, tablet and laptop brand; a native app would mean picking sides. FamFeel lives at famfeel.com and runs in any modern browser, so every device in the household joins the same family the same day. No app store, no version mismatches, no 'update required' screens. Add it to the home screen once and it looks and feels like a real app — because it is one. Just one that doesn't care what brand your phone is.

Question 14

How do other family members sign in on their devices?

Accepted Answer

Open famfeel.com, tap 'Have a code', enter the join code + PIN. That device stays signed in until you sign out. You can also scan a QR code from the parent's device to skip typing the code. Once signed in, everyone should add FamFeel to their home screen — a tap on the Ff icon opens the app full-screen, no bookmarks or URL typing, and it feels like a real app instead of a website.

Question 15

Is FamFeel really made for all ages?

Accepted Answer

Yes — that's the whole point. A parent sets up the family and stays responsible for it (PIN, billing, who's in, what kids can do). From there the app quietly reshapes itself around each person's age and role, so everyone from the youngest kid to grandparents (and pets) has a card that already fits them. Nothing to configure, nothing hidden behind tutorials.

Question 16

What if a child is too young to use sliders?

Accepted Answer

Children under 7 automatically get 'Kid Mode' — huge emoji sliders, no text tags, oversized buttons. Tap their card and a simplified dialog opens. For families with even younger kids (toddlers, or a mix where the youngest isn't ready for mood sliders at all) two other modes often fit better: Toddler mode (Settings → This device) locks a shared iPad to one child's simplified card with pure-CSS animations for tapping, and Calendar-only mode (Settings → Family) hides the mood cards altogether and turns the dashboard into a shared fridge calendar the whole household still uses together.

Question 17

Can kids see each other's check-ins?

Accepted Answer

Yes — FamFeel is designed as a shared family dashboard. Everyone can see everyone's check-ins. Parents have extra controls (edit settings, add/remove members, private notes). Kids cannot change family settings.

Question 18

How is privacy handled?

Accepted Answer

Your family data is stored on our server, scoped to your family_id. The family PIN is hashed with bcrypt. There is no analytics, no third-party tracking, no ads. If a device is lost, open Settings → Family → Signed-in devices on any other signed-in device and kick just that one — or sign out every other device at once.

Question 19

What happens if I forget the PIN?

Accepted Answer

Any already-signed-in device stays signed in. From that device, open Settings → Family and set a new PIN. If every device is signed out, the current PIN cannot be recovered — this is by design.

Question 20

What if one of us loses our phone?

Accepted Answer

If a device is lost or stolen, open FamFeel on any other signed-in device and go to Settings → Family → Signed-in devices to kick just that one — or sign out every other device at once.

Question 21

How many family members can I add?

Accepted Answer

Free: up to 4 members, unlimited check-ins, family calendar (10 upcoming events), dog walk planner, and pet care log for 1 dog or cat. Plus: up to 6 members — great for adding a grandparent — plus custom photo avatars, photo attachments on events (tickets, flyers, receipts), unlimited calendar events, birthday push reminders, and pet care log for 2 dogs or cats. Grand: up to 10 members — big households, pet packs — everything in Plus, plus pet care log for 3 dogs or cats, and Houses (grouping members under Mum's / Dad's / Grandparents' labels, built for blended / split / three-generation households). Extended Family: up to 20 members — very large blended or multi-generational households, dog sitters, fosters and small rescues — includes everything in Grand, plus the pet care log for every dog and cat in the family. Current prices are on the pricing section of the landing page.

Question 22

We're co-parenting / split / three-generation family — does FamFeel handle that?

Accepted Answer

Yes — this is one of the kinds of family FamFeel is built for, alongside core households and grandparent set-ups. Instead of running two separate apps (or asking everyone to ignore the bits that aren't theirs), each side of the family lives in its own room within the same shared workspace. The kids — and the things that involve everyone — sit in front of both rooms. Adults keep a corner of their own. Available on the Grand and Extended Family plans.

Question 23

What can the ex / new partner / other house actually see of me?

Accepted Answer

The bare minimum needed to co-parent well, and nothing else. They can see the people in your house exist (a name and an avatar) and any event you're tagged in that affects the kids or them — a school pickup, a handover, a parents' meeting. Your mood, your sleep, the small private notes you tuck under a check-in, and the day-to-day inside your house stay on your side of the wall unless you choose to share them. There's no read receipt, no location, no log of when you opened the app, and no nudge to the other house when you check in.

Question 24

How private is Houses, really?

Accepted Answer

Real, but not paranoia. Houses are designed for amicable co-parenting, blended families and three-generation households who want one shared rhythm without showing each other everything — and they hold up well for that. They are not built for adversarial situations or restraining-order territory: anyone holding the family-wide join code is implicitly trusted, the same way anyone with the front-door key is. If trust changes, the family code and PINs can be rotated from Settings → Family in seconds, which signs out every device that hasn't been updated. For most families, knowing the other house can't read your check-ins is enough. For some, it won't be — and we'd rather you knew that up front than discover it later.

Question 25

Will I get notifications?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and they're entirely opt-in — we hate notification noise. You can get a gentle morning nudge if you use check in, a quiet birthday ping on the day so everyone knows, and optional pings for calendar events or when it's time to walk the dog. No marketing, no 30 annoying pushes a day. Turn push on from Settings → Notifications.

Question 26

Can we share lists like a packing list or shopping list?

Accepted Answer

Yes — tap the icon in the menu. Make as many lists as you want — camping packing, weekly shop, books to read. Anyone in the family can add or tick off items. Tag a person and add a due date if it matters. Each list also has a private share link you can hand to a babysitter or grandma. Print view too. Included on every tier, Free too.

Question 27

Can we track chores?

Accepted Answer

Yes — FamFeel has a built-in chores list (tap the icon in the menu). Add a chore, pick who it's for and how often it repeats. One tap marks today's done. Every member card shows a small progress chip at a glance. Included on every tier, Free too.

Question 28

What if my pets are my kids?

Accepted Answer

Then treat them like kids — give each their own card, add a birthday (yes, really), pick their species, and they'll sit on the dashboard alongside everyone else. FamFeel doesn't rank family members by species. Their 'how are they today' card is shaped for how they actually live (walks for dogs, feeds and fresh water for the rest) instead of being squeezed into a human-shaped mood slider. For a lot of households, pets are the only dependents at home — so the same two questions you'd ask about a kid (fed? seen to?) deserve the same one-tap answer.

Question 29

Why can my pet be a family member?

Accepted Answer

Because pets are family — and the daily questions ("did you feed the hamster?", "when did Buddy last go out?") eat up way too much family time. Each pet's card shapes itself to their species, so one glance tells the whole family whether they've been seen to. Anyone can tap to log care, and an "Other" button credits a neighbour, pet-sitter or granny.

Question 30

What pet species does FamFeel support?

Accepted Answer

Dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, birds, turtles, fish, reptiles — plus a flexible "Other" option for whatever doesn't fit (ferret, axolotl, tortoise named Keith). Each card quietly tunes itself to its species' rhythm; pick when you add the pet, switch any time.

Question 31

How does the dog walking feature work?

Accepted Answer

Add your dog as a family member and their card turns into a walk tracker. Anyone — family member or "Other" for a neighbour or dog-walker — can log a walk in one tap, and the whole household sees who did it last. You can also queue the next walk ("Dad, 17:00") so nobody's the one left holding the leash at the last minute.

Question 32

Can I track vet visits, flea/tick treatments and baths?

Accepted Answer

Yes — for dogs and cats, each card has a small Care log for the annual vet exam, tick/flea treatment and last bath. One tap stamps the date and a quiet countdown tells the rest of the family when the next one is due. Walks, feeds and fresh water are included on every plan. Optional push reminders — vet exam, tick/flea, food, water — are part of the paid tiers (Plus and up). The Care log itself is free for your first dog or cat, unlocks a second on Plus, a third on Grand, and covers every dog & cat on Extended.

Question 33

What about the private note toggle — who sees that?

Accepted Answer

Only you. The text is encrypted in your browser (AES-GCM, key derived from your family PIN) before it leaves your device, so the server only ever sees ciphertext. Other family members see a small lock icon on your card; you see it in plaintext when you reopen your own check-in. Caveat: this protects against a server breach, not an already-unlocked phone. If a device is lost or stolen, open FamFeel on any other signed-in device and go to Settings → Family → Signed-in devices to kick just that one — or sign out every other device at once.

Question 34

Can I delete everything?

Accepted Answer

Yes. From the parent Settings → Family → Danger zone, you can permanently delete the entire family workspace — members, check-ins, messages, everything. The action is irreversible.

Question 35

Can I look back at old check-ins?

Accepted Answer

Yes — tap any member's check-in and hit the "History →" chip in the top-right of the dialog to see their full diary-style log: mood, sleep, plan, tags and notes day by day. On Free you get the last 14 days (enough for a quick read of how the fortnight went); Plus and above unlock the full window — 30 days, 90 days, all the way back to last year. This is the feature parents tell other parents about: "I can scroll back and see what our teenager's November actually looked like." Days without a check-in are skipped so it reads like a diary, not a chart.

Question 36

What does it cost?

Accepted Answer

The core 4-member family is free, with unlimited check-ins, the family calendar (up to 10 upcoming events), dog walk planner, and the pet care log for 1 dog or cat. Plus is $3.99/month or $39.99/year (up to 6 members, saves ~17% yearly) — adds custom photo avatars, photo attachments on events (concert ticket, school flyer, vet receipt), unlimited calendar events, birthday push reminders, and the pet care log for 2 dogs or cats. Grand is $6.99/month or $66.99/year (up to 10 members, saves ~20% yearly, everything in Plus) — adds the pet care log for 3 dogs or cats, plus Houses (grouping members under small house labels with per-house PIN locks, built for blended / split / three-generation households). Extended Family is $9.99/month or $95.99/year (up to 20 members, saves ~20% yearly, everything in Grand) — adds the pet care log for every dog & cat in the family, made for very large blended households, multi-generational setups, dog sitters or small rescues. Members are counted across every plan, and pets count as members. Upgrade any time from Settings → Family → Manage billing; upgrading extends your expiry by the new period length, so nothing is lost. Prices auto-convert to your local currency at checkout. Cancel anytime. Payments handled by Stripe.

Question 37

Does FamFeel use AI?

Accepted Answer

Sparingly, and only where it earns its keep. The Flyer Scanner uses AI to pull dates and titles out of a photo or flyer. Nothing else in the app does. No AI chatbot pretending to be a family member, no "your week, summarised by AI". Most family coordination isn't an AI problem, it's a visibility problem: the dates already exist, people just don't see them. FamFeel solves that with a calm shared calendar everyone can read, not with "magic".

Question 38

Can it read a school flyer or photo?

Accepted Answer

Yes — that's the Flyer Scanner. It pulls dates, titles and times out of a photo, screenshot, school email or PDF and lets you bulk-add them in one tap — picture day, swimming lessons, term dates, whole school years' worth in a couple of seconds. It runs on Google's Gemini AI under a bring-your-own-key model: the family enters their own free Google AI key in Settings, the photo goes straight from your device to Google, and FamFeel never stores or sees the image. Cost stays at zero (Google's free tier easily covers a normal family) and there's no FamFeel surcharge. The Flyer Scanner is opt-in; turn it off and the rest of the app works exactly the same.

Question 39

Why is there no chat or messaging inside FamFeel?

Accepted Answer

On purpose. Your family already has a group chat (or three) — adding another one just splits attention and leaves you wondering where the plan actually lives. FamFeel is the board on the wall: events, who's where, how everyone slept, what the dog needs. Planning conversations happen in the chat app you already use; FamFeel is where the agreed result lives so nobody has to scroll through 200 messages to find it. If you specifically want a planning tool with a built-in group chat, Howbout does that well — but for most households, "one more inbox" is the opposite of what they need.

Question 40

How is FamFeel different from Google Family Calendar or Apple Family Sharing?

Accepted Answer

Google Family Group and Apple Family Sharing are great at one thing — a shared event grid tied to your existing accounts. FamFeel is the rest: birthdays surfaced ahead of time so nobody forgets, pet walks and feeds in one tap, mood and sleep at a glance, kitchen display mode for the iPad on the fridge, photo attachments on tickets and school flyers, kid-shaped cards for under-7s, Houses for blended families, school-holiday import as quiet background bands. And you don't have to choose — FamFeel pulls events from your Google / Outlook / iCloud calendar (read-only mirror) AND publishes a private iCal feed back to them, so the school pickup at 15:40 still shows up on your work calendar without anyone retyping it. Use both side by side; the work meeting stays in Outlook, the family rhythm lives in FamFeel.

Question 41

What exactly is a House inside FamFeel?

Accepted Answer

A House is a side of your life inside one shared family. Most often it's a parent and the people who live with them — Mum's, Dad's, Grandparents' — but it can also be a place ("The cottage", "The Oslo flat") or a chapter ("At Aunt Sara's for the summer"). Each House holds the people in it, the appointments that belong to it, and the smaller private corners of the day. The kids and pets who move between Houses don't live in just one — they sit in the shared space that every House sees. You can have one House, two, or several; rename them, merge them, or turn the whole layer off without losing any history. Houses are part of the Grand and Extended Family plans.

Question 42

How do Houses help co-parents and blended families?

Accepted Answer

By giving you one shared family without forcing everyone to share everything. The school play, the dentist appointment and the handover plan show up on both parents' phones automatically, because they belong to the kids — not to a house. Date night, the early-shift commute and a new partner's birthday quietly stay inside the house they belong to. Stepkids and step-siblings can join the house they're physically in for the week and see what's relevant. Grandparents can be set up as their own group and only get the calm overview, not every detail. The whole arrangement removes the most common co-parenting pain point — parallel apps, parallel calendars, and the kids carrying messages between them — without making either parent feel observed in their own home.

Question 43

How is privacy handled across Houses?

Accepted Answer

Inside your own House, things are open by default — the people who live with you see your day. Across Houses, sharing is opt-in: your House decides what to publish to the wider family and what stays internal. Sensitive notes attached to a check-in are encrypted on your device before they leave it, so neither another House nor FamFeel itself can read them. Defaults are conservative — children's check-ins, in particular, don't broadcast across Houses unless a parent enables it — and any setting can be changed later without losing the history you've already built up.

Thingspeople ask.

Things
people ask.