Help & Guide

1. Open ☰ Menu → Settings → Family.
2. Add each family member. Adults get their own login (invite them by email); children are added as non-login profiles you manage for them.
3. Give everyone a colour — it’s used across tasks and the calendar so you can see at a glance who’s who.

See the Family & members section for more.

On a wide screen you also get a combined Home view with Lists and Calendar side by side.

Your Tasks are grouped into two kinds of list:

• Shared lists — everyone in the family can see them (for example Household or School Work). Only admins create these.
• Personal lists — only you can see these; they never show on anyone else’s screen. Use them for your own reminders.

Create a Personal list from Settings → Lists → + New personal list, or on the fly while adding a task. Admins create Shared lists in the same place, and can turn one of their own personal lists into a shared one with the Make shared button.

1. On the Tasks tab, tap + Task (at the bottom of a list).
2. Give it a title, pick a list, a due date and time, and who it’s for.
3. Tap Add Task.

On a day with nothing scheduled, a shortcut + Add a task button appears right in the empty space — tap it to jump straight into a new task dated for that day.

Tap the checkbox on the task's row, or open the task and tap the big Mark done button. Inside an open task you can also tick individual subtasks one by one.

If the task still has unfinished subtasks, Sproglings checks first — marking the main task done ticks all of its subtasks off too (and each earns its reward star as normal).

Changed your mind? Open the completed task and tap Not done after all — that reopens the main task only; its subtasks stay as they are.

On a phone or tablet, swipe a row to the left — it slides across to reveal a red trash can so you can see what’s about to happen, then a Delete confirmation appears. On a computer, hover over the row and click the trash icon.

It works on tasks, subtasks, to-dos, shopping items, overdue “previous” tasks, and the event cards under the calendar. For a repeating task you’re asked whether to delete just this one or the whole series (older overdue ones show Just this one / All earlier in series).

Changed your mind? Let go before the red zone appears, or tap Cancel. Anything deleted can be brought back from ☰ Menu → Recently deleted.

Open a task, then under Subtasks type a line and press Enter to add it. Add as many as you like — subtasks can each have their own due date and can earn their own reward stars.

By default, whoever the main task is assigned to — a subtask follows its parent, so you don’t have to assign every step. Its row is tinted in that person’s colour, and opening it shows their name marked from the parent task.

When the main task is assigned to more than one person, you can split the work up. Editing the task shows a row of faces under each subtask — just the people the task itself is assigned to. Tap one to leave them off that subtask:

• All lit — the subtask is for everyone the task is for.
• Some dimmed — the subtask is for the lit ones only.

Turning everyone back on returns it to following the task. If you later remove someone from the main task, any subtask that was theirs alone simply goes back to following the task again.

1. Open the parent task to see its subtasks.
2. Tap the subtask’s text to rename it inline, or tap it to open its own details (date, reminder, reward).
3. Tick the circle to complete it, or use the trash icon to remove it.

Any row that has things nested under it — a task with subtasks, or a shopping category like Tesco — can be folded up to keep the list short.

Tap either the count (“4 items”) or the arrow beside it. They’re one control, so anywhere in that area works. Tap again to open it back up.

The count only appears while a row is folded, so it doubles as a reminder of what’s tucked away. Sproglings remembers which rows you folded on that device, so they stay that way next time you open the app.

The row of name pills filters by person. Tap a name to show just their things; tap more names to include several at once. Tap a name again to switch it off, or use Clear to go back to everyone.

It filters the calendar as well as the lists, and it’s one setting shared between them — pick a name on the Lists screen and the Calendar screen is filtered to match, and the same on the home screen where both are side by side. The pills appear above whichever of the two you’re looking at.

An event follows the people it’s assigned to. One that isn’t assigned to anyone — including anything pulled in from a connected Google, Outlook or Apple calendar — follows whoever it belongs to. Birthdays, holidays and bank holidays are never hidden, since they belong to the whole family rather than one person.

With no names selected you’re seeing the whole family — that’s the normal view.

Yes. Press and hold a name for a moment, then drag it left or right and let go. A quick tap still filters as usual — it’s only the hold that picks the pill up. You can do this from the Lists screen, the Calendar screen or the home screen; the order you set applies to all of them.

The order is yours alone: putting the children first on your phone doesn’t change the order anyone else sees. It’s saved to your account, so it follows you to any device you sign in on.

It’s used everywhere the family appears together — including the row of faces you tap to assign a task, event or to-do — so the same person is always in the same place.

Anyone who joins the family later is added at the end of your row, so a new arrival never quietly disappears from the list.

Overdue tasks show a small day box + Snooze control. Type the number of days and tap Snooze — the due date (and any dated subtasks) shift forward together.

A shared, tickable shopping checklist. Organise it into categories — for example Tesco, Fridge/Freezer or Cold. Add a category with ＋ New shopping list in the ☰ menu, then use the ＋ on a category to add items to it.

Tick things off as you shop, and use Remove ticked in the ☰ menu to clear everything you’ve picked up. The Shopping tab has no separate list title — the tab itself tells you where you are.

Swipe the category’s header row to the left (or hover it on a computer and click the trash icon), then confirm. Deleting a category also removes the items inside it — all recoverable from Recently deleted.

Open the ☰ menu on the Lists card and choose Reorder, then drag items by the handle. Drag a list’s header to reorder whole lists.

1. Tap + Event under the day’s agenda, or the + on any day in week view.
2. Add a title, date, start/end time (or tick All day), and who it’s for.
3. Optionally add a location — it becomes a tappable map link.
4. Tap Save.

When adding or editing an event, turn on Repeats and choose the pattern.

• Weekly — pick which days it lands on.
• Monthly — by date (e.g. the 15th) or by weekday (e.g. 2nd Tuesday).
• Set an end date if it shouldn’t run forever.

When you edit a repeating event, Sproglings asks whether to change just this occurrence or the whole series. Pick one — “this occurrence” leaves the rest of the series untouched.

Open the event and tap Delete, or from the day’s agenda under the calendar swipe the event card left (on a computer, hover and click the trash icon). A repeating event asks whether to remove just this one or the whole series. Deleted events can be restored from Recently deleted.

Yes — go to Settings → Calendars and connect Google or Microsoft. Their events appear read-only in Sproglings (edit them in their own app). You can also subscribe to a private Sproglings feed (an ICS link) from the same page to see your family events in another calendar app.

Yes. In Settings → Places you can save the addresses your family uses often — School, Grandma’s, the football pitch. When you set an event’s location, tap a saved place to fill the address in one tap instead of retyping it.

• Any grown-up can add or edit places, and they’re shared with the whole family.
• Typed an address you’ll reuse? Tap + Save as a place right under the location box to keep it.
• Editing a place’s address updates it on upcoming events that use it; past events keep the address they had.
• Deleting a place never breaks an event — the event keeps the location text it was saved with.

1. Tap the + on a day in week view and choose Holiday block.
2. Give it a title, pick a colour, and set the start and end dates.
3. Add Notes for anything worth keeping to hand — ferry times, packing lists, the address you're staying at.

You can name what each colour means in Settings → (Holiday colours) so the whole family reads them the same way.

Yes. Go to Settings → Calendars → Bank holidays and pick England & Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. They then appear on your calendar as a green pill on the day.

This is a personal setting, not a family one — everyone chooses their own nation, or leaves it off. The dates come from the official gov.uk list and refresh automatically, so you never have to add them yourself.

School holidays aren't included — there's no national list, as every council and school sets its own term dates. Add those as holiday blocks.

1. Tap the + on a day and choose Birthday.
2. Enter the name and the day/month. The year is optional — add it and Sproglings shows the age each year.
3. Add Notes to stash present ideas or party plans against the birthday.

• Each eligible task is worth 1 star when completed; subtasks can each earn their own.
• Stars add up on the child’s progress ring on the Rewards screen — filled in their own colour, showing how close the next milestone is.
• Set milestones (e.g. 20 ⭐ = movie night) in Settings → Rewards.

On the Rewards screen, use the + / − on a child’s card to adjust stars manually. Tap the ring, or any of the Today / Week / Month totals, to see a breakdown of where the stars came from.

Yes — drag a card by the handle (≡) at the top-left, the same way you reorder notes.

The arrangement is yours alone, so putting your youngest first doesn’t change the order anyone else sees. A child who starts earning stars later joins the end rather than jumping the queue.

In Settings → Rewards there’s a master switch to turn the whole system on/off, per-child toggles, and a reset that wipes the star ledger and starts everyone from zero.

Tap New note, then tap the card to expand it and start typing. Notes save automatically as you write — there’s no Save button. The card grows to fit a long note.

Tap the 🔒 Private / 👪 Shared pill at the top of the note to switch it. Shared notes are visible to everyone in the family; private ones only to you.

Expand the note and pick one of the colour dots in the Colour row — default, yellow, mint or rose. The card tints to match so you can group notes by colour.

Tap a note to open it, then drag it by the handle (≡) at the top-left of its card to reposition it.

The arrangement is yours alone — tidying your board doesn’t rearrange it for anyone else in the family. A new note still appears at the top, above whatever you’ve arranged, so you can’t lose one you’ve just written.

• Task due reminders — a set number of minutes before a task’s due time.
• Per-item reminders — switch a reminder on for an individual task or event.
• Daily digest — a morning summary of today (and optionally tomorrow).
• Upcoming birthdays — advance notice of a family birthday (7 days by default).
• Upcoming holidays — advance notice before a holiday period begins (7 days by default).
• The 🔔 bell in the app collects the same alerts.

Go to Settings → Notifications. Set your time zone, how far ahead task reminders fire, and whether you want the daily digest. Reminders use your time zone, so each family member gets them at the right local time.

Yes. Children don’t log in, so an adult “follows” them. Admins follow all children by default; in Settings → Notifications you can choose exactly which children you want to receive reminders for.

In Settings → Family, send an email invitation. They create their own login and join your family with full access to shared items.

Add a child as a non-login profile — you manage their tasks and rewards for them; they don’t sign in. Give them a colour and, if you like, mark them as earning rewards.

Admins can manage family-wide settings and, by default, follow all children for reminders. Other adults have full access to shared lists and the calendar but don’t auto-follow the children.

In Settings → Family, tap a member to manage them. For a child, choose Upgrade to adult and enter their email — they’ll get a link to set their own password, and keep all their tasks, events and rewards. For an adult, Change to child turns them back into a non-login profile (removing their login, email and any two-factor set-up). The account creator and you yourself can’t be changed this way.

If you created the family, Settings → Activity shows a feed of what’s happened across your family over the last 10 days — newest first, 20 at a time with a Load more button.

Theme lives under Settings → Appearance. Tap any of the theme tiles — Default, Colourful, Homely, Modern or Dark — and it’s applied straight away. The last tile, Custom, lets you build your own.

Your personal colour (the one used on your tasks and events) is separate — that’s under Settings → Profile.

In Settings → Appearance, tap the Custom tile. That opens the theme editor — it doesn’t change the app yet.

1. The Preview box shows a miniature of the app — a header, a week strip, a task card, chips and buttons — in the colours you’re choosing. Only this box changes as you experiment.
2. Start from a ready-made palette if you like — Sunset, Lagoon, Forest, Midnight and more. Picking one sets all six colours at once, and it’s the quickest way to get a good result.
3. Open Fine-tune each colour to adjust any individual part: background, cards, chips & toggles, buttons, accent and text.
4. Press Save theme to apply it to the whole app. Discard throws your changes away and puts the colours back to your last saved theme.

If your text would be hard to read against the background or cards, a warning appears with a Fix text button that swaps it to whichever of black or white reads best.

Custom colours are only applied when you press Save theme. Until then they show in the Preview box alone, so you can try a colour out without having to live with it — and so a hard-to-read choice can never leave you stuck in a screen you can’t use.

Look for Not applied yet or Unsaved changes beside the preview: either means there’s something waiting for you to save. Leaving the page without saving simply discards it.

For security, a new email has to be confirmed before it takes effect. We send a confirmation link to the new address, and a heads-up to your current one in case the change wasn't you. Your sign-in email keeps working as normal until you click the link — so a typo just means trying again, not being locked out. You can resend or cancel a pending change from Settings → Profile.

Under Settings → Appearance, use Allow animations for completed tasks. When it’s on, ticking a task throws a little celebration — a burst of confetti, or a shooting star if the task earns a reward star. There’s also an optional fanfare sound. Turn the toggle off for a calmer, still screen (this also respects your device’s “reduce motion” setting).

On a shared or wall screen the dashboard quietly refreshes itself so it always shows the latest. Under Settings → Appearance → Screen sleep you choose how long it keeps refreshing after someone last touches it — 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours or 3 hours — after which it goes quiet to save power until the next tap. Three hours is the maximum.

Go to Settings → Security, enter your current password and the new one, then tap Change Password.

Two-factor adds a second step at login — a 6-digit code from an authenticator app — so your family’s information is safe even if your password is guessed. It’s optional and set up per person.

1. Go to Settings → Security and tap Enable 2FA.
2. Open an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Authy, 1Password…) and scan the QR code — or type the setup key by hand.
3. Enter the 6-digit code the app shows and tap Verify & turn on.
4. Save your recovery codes somewhere safe (a password manager) — they let you back in if you lose your phone.

From then on you’ll enter a code from the app each time you sign in. Children don’t sign in, so 2FA only applies to adult accounts.

On the login code screen, choose use a recovery code and enter one of the codes you saved when you turned on 2FA (each works once). Once back in, go to Settings → Security to regenerate codes or turn 2FA off and set it up again on your new device.

Go to Settings → Security, tap Turn off 2FA and confirm. Your account will then be protected by your password alone.

Yes. Look for Recently deleted and tap Restore. If you deleted something with its contents (e.g. a list and its tasks), restoring brings the whole group back together.

1. Check Settings → Notifications is switched on and your time zone is right.
2. Confirm reminders are enabled on the task/event itself.
3. Check your spam folder and that your email address is verified.

No — you can start using Sproglings the moment you sign up. We email you a confirmation link, and you have 48 hours to click it (with a reminder along the way). A banner at the top shows the deadline and lets you resend the link. After 48 hours you’ll be asked to confirm before carrying on — nothing is lost, and you can confirm at any time to get straight back in. Can’t find the email? Check your spam folder.

External calendars sync periodically and are read-only here. Edit those events in Google/Outlook; changes appear after the next sync. You can re-connect from Settings → Calendars if it stops.

Set your preferred maps provider (Google, Apple or Waze) in Settings → Profile; event location links then open there.

Email us at phil@buckmore.co.uk and we’ll help.