Help and support

1. Open the Calandrea app, or go to calandrea.app, and choose Create a family.
2. Sign in with Apple, Google or an email code.
3. Follow the short welcome tour. The Getting started card on Today then lists what's left: connect a calendar, add your children, invite another adult, add a chore and a reward, and set up the wall.

Each step ticks itself off once it's really done, and tapping it opens the right place.

See also:Inviting another adultSetting up the wall

There are no passwords. Sign in with Apple, with Google, or with your email: Calandrea emails you a 6-digit code that works for 10 minutes. The email also has a link that signs you in on that device.

You can add more ways to sign in to the same account in Settings > You > Sign-in methods, for example Apple on your iPhone and Google on your laptop.

1. On your phone or the web, open Settings > People and add them as an adult with their email address.
2. Choose Email the invite, or Share invite link to send it yourself.
3. They open the link, sign in with Apple, Google or an email code, and tap Join.

Invite links work for 7 days and only once. If it has expired, tap New link on their row. Only the family's owners can invite adults.

See also:The invite says it's for a different email

An invite only works for the email it was sent to, so nobody can join with a forwarded link. If you signed in another way (for example Apple's Hide My Email), tap Send a code to … on the invite page. Calandrea emails a code to the invited address; type it in and you'll join.

Children don't sign in. Add each one in Settings > People with a name, a colour and an emoji or picture. They then have their own chores, stars and rewards, and you can say which events are theirs.

If they're at school, you can choose their school dates on their profile too.

Open Settings and tap Take the tour. The tour starts again, and the Getting started card comes back on Today.

To change what you said when you first set up (who lives here, children, pets, calendars and the wall), open Settings and tap Set up again. Steps you skipped are also on the Getting started card, and each one opens where you left it.

Safari on iPhone and iPad can hide parts of a site you've chosen to hide (Hide Distracting Items), and it keeps hiding them. If the tour's box was hidden that way, it fades out a moment after it opens.

In Safari, open Calandrea, tap the page menu in the address bar and tap Show Hidden Items. Then tap Take the tour in Settings. If you use Calandrea from your Home Screen, do this in Safari first, then remove the Home Screen icon and add it again from Safari's Share menu.

1. Make an app-specific password at account.apple.com (Sign-In and Security > App-Specific Passwords). It looks like abcd-efgh-ijkl-mnop.
2. In Calandrea, open Settings > Calendars > Add a calendar and choose iCloud.
3. Enter your Apple Account email and the app-specific password (never your Apple Account password), then tick the calendars to show.

iCloud calendars sync both ways and are checked for changes every 5 minutes. Yahoo, Fastmail and other CalDAV calendars connect the same way with an app password.

Most schools, clubs and apps offer a calendar link (it often starts with webcal:// or ends in .ics). In Settings > Calendars, tap Add a calendar, choose Calendar link and paste it.

Not sure where to find it? Tap Where do I find the link? for short guides to Compass, Sentral, SchoolBox, Team App, TeamSnap, Proton Calendar, Cozi and Outlook.com. Links are read only and update automatically.

1. On a computer, open Google Calendar and sign in with the account that should hold it.
2. Next to Other calendars, choose Add calendar, then Create new calendar. Name it (for example, Family) and create it.
3. Open its settings, and under Share with specific people add each adult's email with Make changes to events.
4. In Calandrea, connect that Google account (Settings > Calendars, or the setup guide's Calendars step) and choose the new calendar as the Family calendar.

Outlook and iCloud work the same way: make a calendar, share it with the other adults, then connect the account that holds it.

See also:What is the Family calendar?

It's where events for the whole family go, and the calendar the wall saves new events to. Choose it in Settings > Calendars: a calendar on a shared family account, or one an adult already shares with the others from their own Google, iCloud or Outlook.

1. Check the calendar is ticked in Settings > Calendars and that the person's chip isn't hidden on screen (tap a chip to show or hide them).
2. Tap Sync now on the Calendars page. It re-checks every calendar and tells you which ones changed, failed or need reconnecting.
3. Each calendar shows when it last synced, so a stuck one is easy to spot.

On the wall, Sync now is also on the Settings screen, under “Events missing or out of date?”.

See also:An account needs reconnecting

The account's permission ran out or was removed (for example after changing your Google password). Open Settings > Calendars and tap Reconnect on that account, then sign in to the same account. Your calendars and who they belong to are kept.

Events with a lock come from a calendar Calandrea can only read: a school or sport link, or an event someone else organised whose calendar isn't connected. Change those where they came from, or ask the organiser.

Yes. On your own calendars, open the event, then More options > Visibility, and choose Busy or Hidden. When the wall PIN is on, private events need the PIN to be seen on the wall.

Settings > Reminders sets a reminder for every event, from at the time to 4 weeks before, or none. Any event can have its own reminder instead (Reminder on the event). When one is due the wall rings until someone taps Stop, and adults can get it on their phone too.

See also:Getting notifications on your phone

If you don't have a spare tablet, phone or laptop, an Android tablet of 11 inches or more is the best value. It runs the Calandrea app with everything: tap to talk, timer sounds, night dimming and App pinning to keep it on screen, and its battery keeps the wall going through a power cut.

• Best value: an 11-inch Android tablet, such as one from Samsung's Galaxy Tab A range. They're often on sale for well under their usual price.
• Bigger and still simple: a 12- or 13-inch Android tablet, such as the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro, or an iPad if your family uses Apple.
• A big kitchen screen, for families happy to tinker: a small computer behind a touch screen monitor of 15 inches or more, showing calandrea.app/pair full screen in a browser. It takes some setting up and can't dim the screen at night. Tap to talk needs Google Chrome, Safari or Microsoft Edge and a microphone, so it doesn't work on a Raspberry Pi.

Whatever you choose, look for a touch screen, Wi-Fi and speakers. To keep a tablet charged without wearing out its battery, turn on its charging limit if it has one (on Samsung tablets, Settings > Battery > Battery protection), or put the charger on a smart plug that turns off for a few hours at a time. A wall holder and a right-angle charging cable keep it tidy.

Small screens without a full web browser, such as ESP32 displays, can't run Calandrea.

See also:The full screen guideSetting up the wallRecommended settings for the wall

On an iPad or iPhone:

• Settings > Display & Brightness > Auto-Lock: Never.
• Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size: Auto-Brightness off, so night mode can dim the screen.
• Settings > Accessibility > Guided Access: on, then triple-click the top button in Calandrea to keep the wall in the app.
• Volume all the way up, so you hear timers and reminders.
• Turn off notifications from other apps, and automatic software updates (a restart closes the app).
• Leave rotation unlocked if you'd like the wall to work upright too.

On an Android tablet or phone, use the longest screen timeout, turn off adaptive brightness, and use App pinning to keep Calandrea on screen.

On a laptop or computer, open calandrea.app/pair in a browser, go full screen, and set the computer not to sleep while it's plugged in. Calandrea keeps the screen awake while it's open, where the browser allows it.

1. On your phone, open Settings > Wall display.
2. Tap Settings next to that display, then Reconnect at the bottom to get a new 6-digit code.
3. Enter the code on the wall.

Reconnecting keeps the display's name and settings, so it doesn't turn up as a new wall. This happens after a reinstall or when the device clears the app's storage.

Yes. In Settings > Wall display, tap Settings next to a display. There you can rename it, and give it its own location (for the weather), time zone, theme, 12- or 24-hour clock, night mode hours and whose reminders ring. Each one follows the household's until you change it, and saves as you go, the name too once you stop typing. Handy for a wall in another home.

1. On your phone, open Settings > Wall display.
2. Tap Settings next to that display.
3. At the bottom, tap Remove display, then Remove.

The display goes back to the pairing screen and its own settings are deleted. To use it again, pair it as a new display with Add wall display. If it only lost its connection, use Reconnect instead, which keeps its name and settings.

A wall shows Offline when it hasn't checked in for 15 minutes. Check the device is on, on Wi-Fi and has Calandrea open (a restart or update closes it). While offline the wall keeps showing what it last had, with a small offline badge, and catches up when it's back.

The wall PIN is optional. Turn it on in Settings > Wall display > Wall PIN on your phone. With it on, changing events, ticking chores and redeeming rewards on the wall need the PIN, and private events stay hidden. With it off, anyone at the wall can make changes.

Too many wrong tries lock the PIN pad for a few minutes. Tap Unlock on that display in Settings > Wall display to let it try again straight away.

Use Guest mode. On the wall, tap Guest mode (above Settings) and choose Photos or Clock, and the calendar, notes and lists are covered straight away. To end it, enter the PIN on the wall, or turn it off from a phone in Settings > Wall display. You can also turn it on from a phone there.

At night the wall dims to a clock (set the hours in Settings > Wall display > Night mode); a tap wakes it for a minute. It never rings at night: a reminder that comes due shows as a dim line above the clock until you tap it away or the event starts. The night and Guest mode clocks can be 12- or 24-hour: Settings > Wall display > Clock (Automatic follows each display's own setting), or one display's own Settings. During the day, after a few idle minutes it shows a slideshow of your photos. Add them in Settings > Wall display > Photo screensaver, from Google Photos or uploaded from your phone or computer (up to 500).

Yes. While the wall is ringing, anyone with Calandrea open on their phone or the web sees “Ringing on the wall” at the top of the screen with a Stop button.

Yes. On a laptop, a computer or any device with a modern browser, open calandrea.app/pair and enter the code. On an iPad or iPhone, open calandrea.app in Safari, choose Share > Add to Home Screen, then open Calandrea from the Home Screen and choose Set up this wall display there. Pair inside the Home Screen app, not in Safari: iPadOS and iOS keep their storage separate.

On a tablet or phone the app is better on a wall: it controls brightness and plays timers without a tap first.

Tap the tick again. The chore is due again and its stars are taken back.

Yes. In the chore's editor, set Stars count to After a grown-up's OK. A tick on the wall then waits in the Waiting for OK card at the top of Chores, where an adult taps OK or Not done. An adult's own tick counts straight away.

Add rewards on the Rewards screen (Edit rewards). Each child saves their stars towards a goal and sees how many to go. Once they have enough they can redeem it, or Save for later to set the stars aside (for movie night on Saturday, say) without spending them on anything else.

On a phone or the web, open Rewards and use Adjust stars on the child's card to add or take away stars with a note. To undo a redeem, tap Undo on it in recent activity within 24 hours. Neither is available on the wall.

Settings > Chores and stars shows each child's week: chores done and missed, their streak, stars earned and spent, and the last 8 weeks. Tap a child to go through a week chore by chore.

• Google Tasks, through a Google account connected to Calandrea.
• Microsoft To Do, through an Outlook or Microsoft account connected to Calandrea.
• Apple Reminders, through the Calandrea app on your iPhone.
• To-do lists on Fastmail, Nextcloud and other CalDAV services, through the account connected in Settings > Calendars.

Each Calandrea list can sync with one list in one of these apps. Your lists still work on every phone and the wall without another app.

See also:Sync a listSync with Apple Reminders

1. On your phone or the web, open Lists, tap Edit lists and choose the list.
2. Tap Sync with… and choose the account: a Google account for Google Tasks, an Outlook account for Microsoft To Do, or a Fastmail or other CalDAV account. If the account only syncs calendars so far, Google or Microsoft asks you to let Calandrea use your task lists too (for Microsoft, tap Allow To Do first). No account yet? Connect one in Settings > Calendars.
3. Choose one of that account's lists, or a new list with the same name, and tap Sync.

From then on the two lists stay the same. Items on both are joined (an item with the same text on both shows once), and nothing is removed from either. Changes you make in Calandrea go to the other app straight away; changes made there show in Calandrea within 5 minutes. Under the list's name, Calandrea shows when it last synced.

To stop, open the list in Edit lists and tap Stop syncing. Every item stays in both places. To stop Calandrea using an account's Google Tasks or To Do altogether but keep its calendars, tap Remove list access on the account in Settings > Calendars. Linking is done from a phone or the web, not the wall, and you can use your own account or the family's. Calandrea only reads and writes the one list you choose.

See also:What syncs and what doesn'tSync with Apple RemindersA synced list needs attention

1. On your iPhone, open Lists in the Calandrea app, tap Edit lists and choose the list.
2. Tap Sync with…, then Apple Reminders under On this iPhone.
3. Tap Allow Reminders and let Calandrea use Reminders when your iPhone asks.
4. Choose one of your Reminders lists, or a new list with the same name.

Apple doesn't let other services reach Reminders, so your iPhone carries the changes both ways: when you open Calandrea, while it's open, and every so often in the background. Under the list's name, Calandrea shows “Syncs through” your iPhone and when it last did. Only the iPhone that linked the list syncs it, and it only sends that list to Calandrea.

Apple Reminders is offered in the app on iPhone only, not on the web, Android or the wall. An iCloud account connected for calendars doesn't sync Reminders itself: use this instead.

See also:What syncs and what doesn'tA synced list needs attention

• Adding, renaming, ticking and deleting items, both ways.
• Notes, both ways.
• Due dates, both ways. In Microsoft To Do, a due time in Calandrea is the task's reminder on that day; Apple Reminders and CalDAV lists keep the time as it is. Google Tasks keeps only the date, so a time stays in Calandrea.
• Who an item is for stays in Calandrea only, and so does the order of the list. Items added in the other app arrive as Anyone, at the bottom.
• Ticked items still clear from Calandrea after 24 hours (or with Clear ticked), but they stay completed in the other app and don't come back.
• Repeating tasks and reminders stay in the other app; Calandrea lists don't repeat.
• Deleting a list in Calandrea leaves its list in the other app.

• Needs reconnecting: reconnect the account in Settings > Calendars, then open the list in Edit lists and tap Sync with… again if it asks you to allow task lists.
• Paused: the list was deleted in the other app. Tap Stop syncing, then sync it with another list.
• Waiting for an iPhone (Apple Reminders): the iPhone that linked the list hasn't synced for a day. Open the Calandrea app on that iPhone.
• Reminders access is off: on that iPhone, open the list in Edit lists and tap Allow Reminders, or turn it on in Settings > Apps > Calandrea > Reminders.

See also:An account needs reconnecting

Add a note to the message board on Today. Notes show in your colour and disappear at the end of the day, after 3 days or after a week, as you choose, or when someone takes them down.

Yes. Open the Board on the wall to write and draw with a finger or an Apple Pencil. It shows live on phones and as a preview on Today.

On iPhone and iPad, say “Hey Siri, tell Calandrea”, wait for Siri to ask what to do, then say it; Siri checks with you before changing anything. On Android, long-press the Calandrea icon on your home screen and tap Add by voice.

Tap + and choose Announce, type your message (up to 140 characters) and tap Send. Every wall shows it full screen with your picture and name until someone taps Got it there, and the other adults get a notification on their phones. At a wall, choose who it's from, or send it as the wall itself. Announcements disappear after 12 hours. While a wall is in Guest mode and your household uses a PIN, it shows only “New announcement” until someone enters the PIN, so visitors can't read it. To stop the notifications on your phone, turn off Announcements in Settings > Notifications.

Say it in two steps. First “Hey Siri, tell Calandrea” (or “add to Calandrea”), then wait for Siri to ask “What would you like to do?” and say the event. Saying it all in one go, like “Hey Siri, add swimming to Calandrea”, doesn't reach Calandrea, so Siri answers that it can't.

If Siri still doesn't know Calandrea, open the app once and make sure you're signed in, then check Settings > Apps > Calandrea > Siri on your iPhone or iPad and turn on its switches. In the Shortcuts app, Calandrea's action is “Add to Calandrea”.

Yes. Tap + and choose Take a photo, Photos or PDF (or Paste text on the web), or on iPhone share a photo or PDF to Calandrea from any app. Calandrea reads the dates and shows each event for you to check before anything is added. This uses AI reading, which you turn on the first time.

See also:What AI reading sends

AI reading is off until an adult agrees. When it's on, Claude by Anthropic reads only what you choose to send (the words you say, or the text, photos and PDFs you import), along with family members' names, list names, school term dates, the time zone and today's date so it can match them. Children's names are only sent if you turn that on; otherwise they're sent as “Child 1”, “Child 2”. Anthropic is in the United States and doesn't train on it. Calendar data and your photos and PDFs are never stored.

Turn it off any time in Settings > AI reading. Voice then still adds simple events without AI.

See also:Privacy and security in plain EnglishPrivacy policy

Reading photos and PDFs needs AI reading. It may be off (Settings > AI reading), not agreed to yet, or the family may have used today's AI allowance; it resets the next day. New events can always be added by hand or by voice.

• Settings > Notifications in Calandrea: this phone is turned on, and the kinds you want are on.
• Your phone's own settings allow notifications from Calandrea, and Focus or Do Not Disturb isn't hiding them.
• On iPhone with the web app, notifications only work once Calandrea is added to the Home Screen and opened from there.
• Event reminders need a reminder set, in Settings > Reminders or on the event.

Only the adults in your family and your paired walls. Every family's data is kept apart, and Calandrea's support team can't see your events, lists, chores, notes, photos or pictures. Calendar connections are encrypted and only Calandrea's servers talk to Google, Microsoft and Apple.

See also:Privacy policy

Open Settings > You and tap Leave this family. Your calendar accounts are disconnected from it, and you can start a new family afterwards. If you're the only owner, make another adult an owner first in Settings > People.

Open Settings > You and tap Delete my account. Your sign-in and calendar connections are removed. If you're the last adult, the whole family's data is deleted too, after you type “delete” to confirm.

See also:What's deleted, and disconnecting each calendar

One subscription covers the whole family: every adult's phone, the children and the wall. It's monthly or yearly, and a new family gets a 2-week free trial first. Families who were using Calandrea before subscriptions began keep using it free. Subscribe in the Calandrea app on iPhone, iPad or Android, or on the web; the price is shown before you buy.

Settings > Subscription shows your plan, when it renews and who pays. Cancel where you subscribed: your App Store or Google Play subscriptions, or Settings > Subscription on the web. If a subscription ends, you can still sign in, see your family's data and delete it, but nothing can be changed and the wall shows a notice until someone subscribes again.

See also:Terms: subscriptions

Open Settings > Calendars and remove the account. Calandrea stops reading it straight away and deletes its saved access. For iCloud, also revoke the app-specific password at account.apple.com.

Changes normally show within a second or two. If the wall seems behind, tap Reload wall displays in Settings > Wall display on your phone. If events are wrong, use Sync now.

See also:Events missing or out of date

Open Settings > Household. Check the time zone (Calandrea always uses your family's, not the device's) and your home location for the weather. Units sets °C or °F and the date order: Automatic follows your country, or choose Metric or US.

Open Settings > School and holidays. Choose your country and state or region for public holidays, and your school dates: a state's public school dates, or add your own school's terms (you can fill them from the school's letter or website). Each child can have their own school dates in Settings > People.