gathr

Five minutes, in the right order.

Gathr is a household, not a pile of accounts, so setup goes parent-first, and everyone else joins yours. Do it in this order and it just works.

This page is the whole setup. Bookmark it for the rest of the family's devices.

THE DOORS

iPhones and iPads from the App Store, desks straight from us.

iPhone & iPad Parents and kids. Free on the App Store: two taps. Get it on the App Store → Mac A quiet menu-bar app. Plays through whatever the kid's hearing. Download for Mac → Windows Same quiet tray app, for the gaming PC. Download for Windows →

THE ORDER THAT WORKS

  1. One parent goes first. Install on your phone (App Store door above), open Gathr, sign in with Apple or Google, and whichever you pick is your account forever, so pick once. Tap Start our family.
  2. Say yes to notifications. Replies and calls arrive as notifications; decline, and they arrive invisibly. If someone taps "Don't Allow" by reflex, the app shows a fix-it banner; it's Settings → Gathr → Notifications → Allow.
  3. The other parent joins your family, from anywhere. On their phone: same App Store door, then Join an existing family. In the same room? They scan the QR from your Settings → Invite a parent. Apart? Read them the code under that QR; there's a "type the code" door on their scanner. Then they sign in, and they land in your household, not a new one.
  4. Kids' iPhones show a QR: you scan it. Install on the kid's phone (same App Store door), open Gathr, tap the kid door; their screen shows a QR. On your phone: Settings → Add a device, scan it, name it, pick whose it is. No kid accounts, no kid passwords; that's on purpose.
    Heads up: a child Apple ID may need a parent's Ask to Buy approval even for a free app (Apple's rule, not ours). Approve it from your phone and carry on.
  5. Desks pair the same way. Install on the Mac or PC; the little tray window shows a QR. Settings → Add a device, scan, name it ("Kitchen", "Jack's PC"), pick who it plays for: one kid, or the whole house.
  6. Make it yours. Settings → What your family hears you as: "Mom", "Dad", "Papa", your call. Kids pick their own chime and write their own reply buttons. That's theirs; we don't touch it.
  7. Tell us everything. Settings → Email the Gathr team, or hello@gathr.family: gripes, ideas, love. A human (and their robot) reads every one; half this app shipped because a family said something.

STAY IN THE LOOP

Build notes and the launch heads-up. No feeds here either.