Questions families ask

A private place for your family’s photos, videos, stories, chats and video calls, on iPhone and iPad. Every account belongs to a home, homes link to other homes, and every post goes only where you send it. There are no ads, no strangers and nothing public.

An iPhone or iPad and an Apple Account. You sign in with Apple, so there’s no password to remember. There’s no web app or Android app yet.

We’re testing hearth with a small group of families now, and it’s coming to the App Store. If you have questions in the meantime, email us at support@idlefusion.com.

To join someone else’s family, yes: open the invite link they sent you. You can also start a home of your own and invite your family from there. Nobody can find you by searching, because there’s nothing to search.

Not while it’s in testing. There are no ads, and we don’t sell your data or anyone’s attention.

A home is the people under your roof. Everything you share comes from your home, and the name you give it (say, “The Hollis home”) is what family sees on your posts. A kid whose parents live apart can belong to both homes.

They’re who a post goes to. Home is the people you live with. Table is your home plus every linked home you’ve put at your table, the family you’d have over for Sunday dinner. Porch adds the linked homes you’ve put on your porch, the family you love and see at weddings.

No. Table and Porch are your home’s own labels, and they never leave your home. Other homes see the posts you share with them, never the label you picked for them. They make their own private choice about your home, and you never see theirs.

Open Family, tap the home, and change where it sits to Porch. Nobody is told. The change covers older posts too, so from then on that home sees only what you share with Porch.

Open Family, tap the home, then Unlink home. They aren’t told. They stop seeing your posts, old ones included, and their posts leave your feed. To link again, one of you needs to send a new invite.

When a home you’re linked with is also linked with a home you aren’t, hearth may suggest linking yours too (Family, then Requests and suggestions). Nothing links unless both homes say yes, and ignoring a suggestion sends no notice. Your posts never reach a home you haven’t linked.

In Our home, tap Add someone, then Someone who lives here. Send them the invite. Once they accept, a grown-up in your home lets them in, and they see everything shared with Home.

Only the ring you pick when you share it: Home, Table or Porch, or homes you choose one by one with Choose homes. Each post shows you where it went, like “Shared with Table”. Nothing on hearth is public, and there’s no reshare button.

Yes. Tap ••• on your post, then Change who sees this. Narrowing it takes effect right away, because hearth checks who may see a post every time it’s viewed.

Video posts can be up to 1 minute. For anything longer, trim it in Photos first. Story clips can be up to 15 seconds, and video messages in chats up to 1 minute.

So every photo gets the same space in the feed. When you post, drag and pinch to frame it, and use Straighten if it’s a little crooked. Videos keep their own shape.

Only inward. Family can send your post into a chat only if everyone in that chat can already see it. A post can never reach someone you didn’t share it with.

24 hours. After that, a story is gone for everyone and its files are deleted. You can delete one sooner from your story, and replies stay in your chats.

They show how close that person is to you, using your own labels: ember for your home, amber for your table and dusk for your porch. Your phone draws them from your labels, so nobody else sees them.

Only the person who shared it. A reply goes into a private chat with just the two of you, never onto the story.

Yes. Tap Seen by on your story. People from homes linked to yours are named, and anyone else is counted as “a relative”.

On days when your family shared something in earlier years, a card in your feed opens those posts. If the post is yours, you can share it again with the same ring it went to the first time.

No. Every chat, video message and call is end-to-end encrypted. Our servers pass along messages they can’t read, and the people at hearth can’t read them either.

It starts a drop-in video call for a chat. Everyone in it gets a notification and a card on their Lock Screen, and whoever’s free can drop in. The hearth stays lit until the last person leaves.

Yes. In a chat, tap the calendar at the top, then set the day, time and how often it repeats. You can send a reminder before it starts, and turn on Ring like a phone call so everyone’s phone rings when it begins.

Short videos, up to a minute, that you record right in a chat. They play in place, with sound, and they’re encrypted like every other message.

People in your home and in the homes you’ve linked. On the Chats tab, tap + to start a chat and pick who’s in it.

A space for one occasion, like a family trip or a birthday weekend, with its own chat, shared album and map. Only the people invited to it see it, and nothing in it goes to anyone’s feed.

Yes, to that event only. They join the event’s chat, album and map and see nothing else, and no homes get linked.

No. Location is off unless you turn it on, it works only during the event’s dates, and you choose precise or approximate. It’s end-to-end encrypted, so our servers can’t see where anyone is, and it stops on its own when the trip ends. A kid’s location is shared only if a parent turns it on.

The chat closes and location sharing stops. The album stays as a keepsake for everyone who was there, and you can share your favorite photos to your own table or plan next year’s trip with the same people.

Yes, with a kid account you set up. Kid accounts are for children under 13, and they don’t need an email or an Apple Account.

On their iPad, open hearth and tap Setting up a kid’s iPad? A pairing code appears. On your phone, go to Our home, tap Set up a kid’s iPad, type the code, their first name and birth month and year, then tap Create account.

Posts and stories to Home go straight through. Anything for your table waits for a parent’s OK. Kids can’t share with the porch until they turn 13, can’t pick homes one by one, and can’t invite people or link homes.

A kid’s Table post shows up in Our home under Waiting for your OK, with two choices: OK, share it or Keep at home. Keep at home leaves it with your home instead of deleting it. Every grown-up in your home can answer, and whoever answers first decides.

From 8 PM to 7 AM on your kid’s own clock, their notifications wait until morning.

No. Chats are end-to-end encrypted for everyone, kids included. Kids can’t start chats of their own.

Yes, Simple mode. It shows bigger words and fewer buttons: what’s new from the family, a big Love it, a Reply by voice, and one button that calls everyone at your table. Turn it on in Our home, then Settings, then Simple mode. A grown-up can turn it on for anyone in their home.

Tap your initial at the top of the Simple mode screen, then turn Simple mode off.

Yes. On an iPad, go to Our home, then Settings, then hearth Frame. It plays a slideshow of Home and Table photos, never Porch, and shows when someone lights the hearth. Pairing a spare iPad as a frame of its own is on the way.

No. There’s no search, no public profile and no way to browse. The only way in is an invite from someone already in your family, and invites work once and expire in 7 days.

Tap ••• on the post, then Report. Choose what’s wrong and add a note if it helps. The person isn’t told who reported it, and a person on our team looks at every report.

Tap ••• on one of their posts, then Block. Nobody is told. You stop seeing their posts, comments and hearts, and they stop seeing yours. The rest of their home is unaffected. Unblock them in Settings, under Blocked people.

No. Your phone removes location and other details from photos and videos before they’re uploaded.

No. There are no ads, no trackers and no third-party analytics in hearth, we don’t sell data, and we don’t train AI on anything your family shares.

On another device signed in to hearth, go to Our home, then Settings, then Signed-in devices, and sign the lost one out. It can’t open hearth again until someone signs in on it.

In Settings, under Life changes, tap Someone is moving out. They start their own home and take everything they posted and their chats. Both homes are linked at each other’s tables, and either can change that later.

Yes. In Settings, tap Split this home. Every grown-up confirms, each home keeps the links you choose, shared history stays readable in both, and kids can belong to both homes.

A grown-up in their home can go to Settings, then Remember someone. Their posts stay where they were shared, family can add memories to their page, and the account sends no notifications. If it was done by mistake, This was a mistake on the page undoes it.

Go to Our home, then Settings, then Your data. Type delete and tap Delete my account. Your posts, comments and hearts are removed everywhere, and your home stays for the others. If you’re the only grown-up in a home with kid accounts, remove the kid accounts first.