Help

1. Open KiddoCue and tap Start my family.
2. Add your first name, family name (e.g. “The Kennans”) and your kids’ first names.
3. Pick a username and password.

Then follow the Get set up checklist on Home: it walks you through the next steps.

1. Go to Family → + Add a parent → Send to partner and text them the link.
2. They tap it, add their name, and pick their own username and password.

You both see the same kids, posts, requests and chats. Each of you gets your own notifications. The link works once, for 48 hours.

• Invite link: Family → Send invite link. When they tap it and sign up (or log in), you’re connected automatically.
• Code: type their 6-letter code under Family → Enter their code.
• From a class: tap 🤝 Connect on the class list. They accept on their Home screen.

Only families you’re connected with see your kids and posts. You can remove a connection anytime with ✕ in the Family tab.

iPhone / iPad: open the site in Safari → tap Share → Add to Home Screen → Add. Then open KiddoCue from your Home Screen and log in again (iPhone keeps it separate from Safari).

Android: tap Install when Chrome offers it, or the ⋮ menu → Add to Home screen.

On iPhone this is needed for notifications.

Tap Turn on in the Home checklist, or Family → Settings → Notifications, and allow them when your phone asks. Tap Send a test to check. Each phone is turned on separately.

1. Tap My kids are free on Home.
2. Pick the kids, when (right now, after school, tomorrow, or 📅 Another day in the next two weeks), and where.
3. Send to: all your families, ⭐ just your kids’ friends, just certain families, or a class or group.

They get a notification with an Ask to play button. Tap No longer free on your post to take it down.

Family tab → Invite to play next to them → 📅 Another day → pick the day and times. Only they see it (marked 💌 Just for you).

Home → ⛔ Add a busy time. Pick the kids, a reason (⚾ Baseball…), and 🔁 every week (days + times, optional end date) or just once. Your families see it quietly on Home, with no notification. If you post “free” during a busy time, the app double-checks with you.

Tap Ask to play on a friend’s post, pick your kids, and add a note if you want. They answer Yes, let’s play! or Not this time, from the app or right from the notification (on Android). Requests waiting for you show on Home and under Plans.

When someone says yes, both families get a play date card (Home and Plans):

• ✏️ Edit plan: who’s dropping off, who’s picking up and when, the address, and notes.
• Status buttons: 🚗 On our way · ⏰ Running late · 📍 We’re here · 👋 Picked up. The other family gets a notification.
• Safety info: the other family’s allergies, Call/Text buttons, and (around the time) their emergency contacts.
• 📅 Add to calendar, 💬 Message, and the weather for park play dates.

On a play date card (during or after), tap 📷 Add photos. Each photo shows when it was taken. Save puts a copy on your phone with the date stamped in the corner. Only the parents of the two families can see them, and only the family who added a photo can delete it. Past play dates keep their photos under Plans → Past.

Messages tab → + New message. Pick one family, or several for a group chat (you can name it, e.g. “Soccer team ⚽”). Tap ⋯ in a chat to add families, rename, 🔕 mute, or leave. You can message families you’re connected with or in a class with. Both parents in each family see the chat.

1. Home → 🎂 Send an invite (or Plans → + New invite).
2. Pick the type, title, date and time, and place. Tick families, and untick any kids who aren’t invited. Invite all of a class ticks everyone in it.

Guests answer Going / Maybe / Can’t, how many kids, and a note. You see a headcount, can ⏰ remind people who haven’t answered, edit, invite more, or cancel. Each invite has its own group chat and photos, and everyone going gets a reminder the day before.

Add a kid’s birthday in Family → Edit (month and day; the year is optional and shows their age), and yours in Settings. Upcoming birthdays on Home shows the next 30 days, with 🎈 Send invites for your kid and 💬 Say happy birthday for friends. You get a morning reminder on friends’ kids’ birthdays and 3 weeks before your own kid’s (turn it off in Settings).

1. Family → 🏫 Classes & groups → + Start a group (class, daycare, team, neighborhood…).
2. 📨 Invite families and paste the link in the class group text or school email. Each family joins and picks which of their kids are in it.
3. Letting families in: new classes ask each new family to wait until someone lets them in. The organizer sees Let in / No, and any parent in the class can tap I know them. Until then, they see nothing of the class. The organizer can turn this off under Admin.

From the group you can 🤝 Connect with families, post ✋ We’re free to the whole class, 🎂 Invite everyone, and use the class 💬 group chat. Under Your family in this group you choose whether to share your phone number and kids’ birthdays with it. The admin (whoever started it) can rename it, change the link, or remove a family.

When your party ends, Home shows 🎈 … is over! with 📷 Add photos and 💌 Say thank you. Photos go to everyone invited. The thank-you (a note that’s already written for you, which you can change) goes to the families who said they were coming, as a notification and on the invite. You can edit it later without sending another notification.

Wherever there’s an address (party invites, a play date’s “Where”, carpools, and a pickup you’ve taken), tap 🧭 Get directions and pick Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze. On iPhone, Apple Maps is first; on Android, Google Maps is.

Hosting? Put the venue’s name (like JumpZone) in Place name and the street address in Address, so maps find the right spot.

1. Open your class → 🎂 Invite everyone. Families already on KiddoCue are ticked. Leave 📨 Also make a party link on.
2. After you send it, tap 📨 Share the party link and paste it in the class group text or email.
3. Families not on KiddoCue open the link and see the party (not the address). They can RSVP & join KiddoCue in about 30 seconds: they’re on your guest list, see the address, get reminders, and ask to join the class. Or they can RSVP without an account, by name.

Have the class email list? On your invite, tap ✉️ Email the invite and paste the addresses. Each parent gets the invite with an RSVP button. (This needs the site’s email service turned on. We only use the addresses to send the invite once, and don’t keep them.)

Handing out paper? 🔳 QR code on the invite, or 🔳 QR code / flyer on the class, shows a code parents scan with their phone’s camera. Tap 🖨️ Print a flyer for the backpack folder.

Every RSVP says how many kids are coming and how many grown-ups are staying (or “just dropping off”), so you can plan food and space. You see everyone’s answers on the invite, including RSVPs from the link. Change your mind? Link off stops the link, and 📨 Party link makes a new one.

Family → Edit next to a kid:

• Avatar: pick an emoji and color, or use a photo.
• ⭐ Friends: the kids they love playing with. Their posts show “⭐ friend”, and you can post to just friends or only get alerts about them.
• ⚠️ Allergies & medical: quick picks, mild or severe, 💉 EpiPen, and notes. Shared only with the family who has your kid (see who can see what).

Family → 🆘 Emergency contacts: up to two people to call if they can’t reach you. Family → Settings → Your contact info: your phone (shown as Call/Text buttons on play date and party cards; you can hide it) and email (private: password resets and a link to each new play date, which you can turn off).

Automatic: Family → Settings → 📅 Put KiddoCue on your phone’s calendar → Add to iPhone / Apple Calendar (or Google, or copy the link for Outlook). Play dates, parties you’re going to, carpools, busy and free times, and your family’s birthdays show up by themselves, and changes update. Apple checks about hourly; Google can take a few hours.

One at a time: 📅 Add to calendar on a play date card.

Your calendar link is private. If you shared it by mistake, tap Reset it.

Family → 📊 Play date history shows how often your kids have played together (“Sam & Riley · 6 play dates · last 3 weeks ago”), with an Invite button.

Family → Settings → ☀️ Weather on park posts → Turn on. Your phone asks for its location once. It’s rounded (about 1 km) and stays on your phone. Park posts then show e.g. “☀️ 75°F · nice for the park” or a rain warning.

When you say your kids are free, tick 🔁 Repeat every week and pick the days (like Wednesday, or Mon & Wed). The time and place are the same each week.

• Each week’s free time shows up for your families a week ahead, under “Coming up”.
• On the day, 3 hours before, your families get a notification with an Ask to play button.
• Skip a week: tap No longer free on that week’s post. Weeks your kid is busy (like a dentist visit you added) are skipped on their own.
• Stop it: Home → 🔁 Every week → Stop.

Plans → 📅 Calendar. One month at a time: play dates, parties, carpools, busy times, free times (including weekly ones) and birthdays, each with its own color. Tap a day to see what’s on, and tap an item to open it.

To have it all on your phone’s calendar too, tap 📲 Put this on my phone’s calendar (the same as Family → Settings → 📅). Changes you make in KiddoCue show up there by themselves. Things you add in your phone’s calendar don’t come back into KiddoCue.

Home → 🆘 Pickup help. Pick who needs a ride, where and when, and add a note if you like. It goes to all your families, or just the ones you pick.

• The first parent to tap 🙋 I’ve got it takes it. You get a notification with their name and number, and everyone else hears it’s covered.
• The family helping sees your number, your kids’ allergies and your emergency contacts, and taps ✅ Picked up when they have your kids.
• Sorted it out yourself? Tap Never mind and we’ll let them know.

Plans → + New carpool. Name it (like “Soccer practice”), pick the days and time, your kids riding, and the families sharing the driving. Each family adds their own kids.

• Turns go week by week, starting with you. The Plans tab shows who drives the next few rides.
• Can’t drive? Tap Can’t drive on your day. The others get a notification with an I’ll drive button.
• Want a day? Tap I’ll drive on any ride.
• Everyone gets a reminder the evening before, saying who’s driving and which kids are riding.

Family → Settings → 🧒 Kid mode → Start kid mode. The first time, pick a 4-digit grown-up code. Then hand over your phone.

• Your kid sees big faces of their friends (kids in families you’re connected with). ⭐ best friends and anyone free now come first.
• They tap a friend, then Yes! The ask comes to you as a notification, never to the other family. Kids can’t message anyone or see anything else.
• On Home you’ll see “Sam wants to play with Riley!” Tap Invite them to play to ask (or invite) that family the usual way, or Not now.
• To get out, tap 🔒 Grown-ups and type your code. Forgot it? Use your password instead.

Kid mode is a friendly lock, not a security lock. It stays on if the app is closed and reopened.

Family → 📊 Play date history → 📸 Sam’s year of play. Swipe through the last 12 months: how many play dates, best buddy, photos, favorite spot, most playful month and more. In June and around New Year’s, a card on Home lets you know it’s ready.

On the last slide, 📤 Share makes a picture with the numbers (no photos of other kids) that you can text or post.

• A family (or class) says their kids are free, or invites you
• Someone asks to play, and answers to your requests
• Play date plan changes and “on our way / running late / here / picked up”
• New messages, invites, RSVPs, and invite reminders
• Birthdays (in the morning) and new photos
• Your partner posting or answering (so you both know)

Family → Settings → 🔔 Alerts:

• 🌙 Quiet hours (e.g. 8 PM–7 AM): nothing buzzes, and you get one summary when they end.
• Only tell me when my kids’ ⭐ friends are free: invites just for you, requests and messages still come through.
• Birthday reminders on or off.

To quiet one chat, open it → ⋯ → 🔕 Mute.

On Android and computers, notifications have buttons: Ask to play, Yes, let’s play / Not this time, Going / Can’t make it, and Reply for messages. iPhone doesn’t show buttons for web apps yet, so tapping the notification opens the right screen instead.

On the login screen tap Forgot password?, then:

• Email me a reset link: if you added an email (and email reset is turned on), or
• Recovery code: the one you saved from Settings, or
• Reset code from your partner: they tap Family → Reset password next to your name (works for 1 hour).

Tip: make a recovery code now (Family → Settings → 🔑 Recovery code) and keep it in your notes.

Family → Settings → Change password. Your other phones and computers get logged out.

Family tab → bottom → Delete account (needs your password). Choose just your login (if another parent stays) or your whole family: kids, photos, posts, invites and messages. Play dates you had with another family stay in their history, but your photos are removed. This can’t be undone.

Tap 🚩 next to a family (Family → Other families, a class list, or Chat options). To report one message, tap it in the chat. To report a photo, open it and tap 🚩 Report.

• Report: pick what’s wrong and send it. It goes to the KiddoCue team, not to the other family, and includes the message or photo you reported.
• Block: disconnects you. They can’t reconnect, ask to connect, message you, invite your kids or see your class posts, and you won’t see theirs or their messages in class chats. They aren’t told.
• Unblock: Family → Settings → 🚫 Blocked families. It doesn’t reconnect you.

If a child is in danger, call 911 first.

Family → Settings → 📦 Your family’s data → Download our data. You get one file with your family, kids, posts, play dates, invites and messages. It never includes passwords or other families’ private details.

1. Add KiddoCue to your Home Screen (see above) and open it from there, not from Safari.
2. Family → Settings → Notifications → Turn on, and allow.
3. Check iPhone Settings → Notifications → KiddoCue is on, and Focus / Do Not Disturb isn’t blocking it.
4. Check your KiddoCue quiet hours.

iPhone keeps Home Screen apps separate from Safari, so you log in once more there. After that it remembers you.

Calendars check for changes on their own schedule: Apple about every hour, Google every few hours. On iPhone you can speed it up in Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Fetch New Data. If you reset your calendar link, add it again.

You need to be connected (or in a class together, for class posts). Check Family → Other families. They may have sent the post only to certain families, or it may have ended.

They no longer see the class list, class posts or the class chat. If you’re connected with them directly, that connection stays.

Close KiddoCue completely (swipe it away) and open it again.