Sproglings is a shared organiser for your whole family — tasks, a calendar, shopping lists, notes and a rewards chart for the kids, all in one place.
Most of what you create is shared with your family — though you can also keep your own personal lists and private notes that only you can see. There are two main screens, reached from the bar at the bottom of every page:
See the section for more.
On a wide screen you also get a combined Home view with Lists and Calendar side by side.
The Lists screen has three tabs along the top: Tasks, To-Do and Shopping.
Tasks have a due date and show up on the day they’re due. To-Do items have no date — they’re a running “someday” list you can promote to a real task later.
On the To-Do tab, open the ☰ menu and choose Delete all ticked. It only appears once something is ticked.
It clears the ticked items for the whole family, including any a name-pill filter is currently hiding — and everything it removes is recoverable from Recently deleted. Any stars already earned are kept.
Your Tasks are grouped into two kinds of list:
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.
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.
Whatever you add takes the colour of the first person you pick. Everyone else still shows — their initials sit on the right of the row, and when more than one person is on it their colours stack in a thin band along the bottom.
That means a child’s swimming lesson can stay in the child’s colour even though a grown-up is taking them: pick the child first, then the grown-up.
To change which colour it uses, open it and tap everyone off, then tap them back on starting with the person whose colour you want. A quicker way: tap the current lead person off and straight back on — that sends them to the back and promotes whoever was next.
It works the same for tasks, to-dos and events. Anything already in your calendar keeps the colour it has until you next edit it.
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, from today, 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:
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.
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 follows whoever it belongs to — which is what a connected calendar does until you assign it to someone in Settings → Calendars, after which its events follow them instead. 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.
Out of the day's list and into Previous tasks, a foldaway list at the bottom of the Tasks tab. Tap it to see everything still outstanding from before. Repeating tasks collapse to the most recent one, with the older ones tucked behind it.
Step back to an earlier day and it follows you: you see the backlog as it stood on that day, so anything that only came due later stays out of the way. Deleting All earlier in series from there stops at that day too.
On today, it only appears if you've asked for overdue tasks to be tucked away — Settings → Upcoming tasks → Hide overdue tasks. Leave that off and they stay in the day's list instead.
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 tap ＋ Add item at the bottom of a category and start typing (or use the ＋ on its header).
Adding lots at once? Type an item and press Enter — the box stays open, ready for the next one, so you can reel off a whole list without scrolling. Tap anywhere else when you’re done.
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.
The calendar opens on the current week. Switch between Week and Month with the icons in the top bar.
The first person you pick gives the event its colour. The others still appear — their initials sit on the right of the card, and with more than one person their colours stack along the bottom of it.
So for a child’s appointment a grown-up is driving to, pick the child first and the card stays in the child’s colour.
To change it, edit the event and tap everyone off, then back on in the order you want — or tap the current lead person off and straight back on to move them to the back. Existing events keep the colour they have until you edit them.
When adding or editing an event, turn on Repeats and choose the pattern.
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 which part of it you mean — see below. Deleted events can be restored from Recently deleted.
Choose From today onwards. Deleting a repeating event or task gives you three options, and the panel tells you what each one takes:
“From today onwards” only appears when there's a past to keep — a series that hasn't started yet has nothing to save, so it isn't offered.
All three are undoable from Recently deleted, where the series shows as one entry: restore it and the whole stretch you removed comes back together.
Yes — go to Settings → Calendars. You can connect Google, Apple / iCloud or Microsoft / Outlook by signing in, or subscribe to any other calendar by pasting its link. Their events appear read-only in Sproglings (edit them in their own app).
Going the other way, you can subscribe to a private Sproglings feed (an ICS link) from the same page to see your family events in another calendar app.
Yes. Go to Settings → Calendars → Add external calendar → Any other calendar and paste the link. Look for Subscribe, Add to calendar or iCal / ICS feed on their website — the address usually starts with webcal:// or ends in .ics, and both work.
It has to be a link that anyone holding it can open. A calendar that asks you to sign in first won’t work — look for a public or "secret address" link instead.
Need to change it later? Tap the pencil beside its name in Settings → Calendars. That one screen holds its name, its address and who it’s for, so there’s no need to disconnect and set it up again.
Pasting a different address swaps the old calendar’s events for the new one’s, which takes a moment. Get the address wrong and nothing is saved at all — the name and the people stay as they were, so you can correct it and try again.
Yes, and it’s worth doing. A school calendar is really about one of the children, not about the grown-up who added it. On any connected calendar in Settings → Calendars, tap the pencil, pick the people it’s for, and save.
Pick nobody and the events stay yours, which is how every connected calendar behaved before. Nothing changes until you tap the confirm button, so you can change your mind while you’re choosing.
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.
Two special kinds of calendar entry that span or repeat across the year.
A holiday block is a coloured band drawn along the bottom of every day it covers — great for half-terms, trips or “Dad away” weeks.
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.
Birthdays repeat every year automatically and show as a marker on the day, plus at the top of that day’s agenda.
Turn chores into a star chart. Children earn ⭐ for completing reward-eligible tasks, building towards milestones you set.
Tap the cog beside the Rewards heading and you go straight there — no hunting through Settings. It only shows for adults.
You can also get there the long way: Settings → Rewards. Either route is the same page — milestones, who earns stars, and the reset live there.
Yes. Tap the cog next to the Rewards heading (or go to Settings → Rewards). Every milestone has a row of faces under it — tap a child to set that milestone for them.
Each child’s progress ring counts up to their next milestone, so the same star total can read very differently on two cards. If a child has no milestones of their own, their card says so rather than showing someone else’s target.
Nothing is fixed once it’s set: rename a milestone or change its star count by typing over the boxes, and tap a face on or off whenever you like.
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 (or the cog by the Rewards heading) 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.
A brain-dump space. Each note is private to you unless you choose to share it with the family.
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 pill at the top of the note — it always says who the note reaches. There are three choices:
However you share it, the people it reaches can read, change and delete it — sharing a note hands it over. Private to me takes effect the moment you tap it; changes to the list of names apply when you confirm underneath.
No. Only the person who wrote the note chooses who sees it. If a note is shared with you, you can edit it and you can delete it, but the sharing pill is just a label — you can't add anyone else or hand it to the whole family.
Children aren't offered in the list, because they don't have their own logins.
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.
Stay on top of what’s due, by email and with the in-app bell.
Yes. Open it and switch Remind me off. The switch is yours alone — a weekly event you don’t need nudging about stays silent for you, while anyone else on it keeps their own reminder.
For a repeating event or task, choose whole series when it asks, and the switch covers every occurrence, including ones that haven’t appeared yet. Choose just this one and it only silences that date.
It only quietens the advance reminder. The item still shows in your calendar and still appears in your daily digest.
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.
Your family is your private space — only people you invite can see your lists and calendar.
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.
Open ☰ Menu → Settings. It’s organised into sections down the left (or a dropdown on mobile).
Theme lives under Settings → Appearance. Tap any of the theme tiles — Sproglings, Dark, Erin, Homely, Modern or Colourful — and it’s applied straight away.
Sproglings and Dark are the same design in light and dark. The other four are alternative palettes — Erin is the warm cream and sage look the app wore before.
Your personal colour (the one used on your tasks and events) is separate — that’s under Settings → Profile.
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.
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.
Deleting isn’t permanent straight away — tasks, lists, events and notes go to a recoverable bin first.
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.
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.
Subscribed by link? Check the message on the calendar's card in Settings → Calendars — it says what went wrong. Links do get retired, so if the address no longer works, remove the subscription and paste the current one.
Set your preferred maps provider (Google, Apple or Waze) at the top of Settings → Places; event location links then open there. It’s your own setting, so everyone in the family can pick a different one for the same event.
Pasted a link instead of an address? That link is used as-is and your preference is ignored — someone sent that exact spot, and it may be a dropped pin or one particular branch that searching for the name would never find. Apple, Google, Waze, what3words, OpenStreetMap, Bing, HERE and Citymapper links are all recognised.
You can type a name in front of it (Buckmore Park — https://maps.apple/p/…) and the event shows the name rather than the raw link. Paste the link on its own and it just says which app it opens.
Email us at phil@buckmore.co.uk and we’ll help.