Kunbaa is for families whose best photos and stories are buried in a WhatsApp group. It is a private space with a real family tree, a wall where each photo keeps its names and its date, and calls that only a relative can place.
WhatsApp is the family's daily conversation: free, end-to-end encrypted, and already on everyone's phone. Kunbaa is where the family is kept: a private, invite-only space with a family tree, a wall where every photo carries the names and the date, events with reminders, and chat and calls that only a relative can start. Most families keep the WhatsApp group for the chatter and move the keeping, and the calls, to Kunbaa.
At a glance, as of September 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release; WhatsApp facts are quoted from its own site.
Yes: YesPartly: Partly, or with a conditionNo: No
| Compared | Kunbaa | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Keeping: a family tree with everyone's place and birthday on it, a wall for the photos and stories worth keeping, and calls only family can place | Talking: the daily conversation, the group, the forwards, the good-morning messages |
| Who is in it | Yes:Only the relatives you invite, each an adult with their own account | No:Anyone with your phone number; groups and communities can hold thousands |
| Photos and videos | Yes:Kept in the family's own archive with the names, the place and roughly when written in the caption. Room to begin on the free plan; room for the whole archive on Kunbaa Plus | Partly:Compressed to send quickly, and stored on WhatsApp's servers for a limited period, so an old photo can fail to re-download once the sender no longer has it |
| Who sees a post | Yes:On Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, your choice each time: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household; on Free, everyone in the family | Partly:Everyone in the group you posted it to |
| Family tree | Yes:The centre of the product: who everyone is and how they are related, both sides | No:None; organised around chats and groups |
| Birthdays and events | Yes:Events with reminders, and the photos attach to the event afterwards so the day is kept | No:Whoever remembers posts in the group |
| Polls and family votes | Family votes on the Wall, on a moment and in chat, free for everyone: one tap, results after you vote, closes at the time you set, private by default, and the time in every home beside a date option | Free polls in group and one-to-one chats: more than one answer allowed, an end time that locks voting, and voter names shown or hidden |
| Chat | Yes:Group and one-to-one chat in the Kunbaa app; photos sent in chat are kept for a year on the free plan, and for as long as the family is on Kunbaa Plus | Yes:Excellent. Groups, communities, voice notes, disappearing messages, on phone, desktop and web |
| Calls | Yes:One-to-one voice and video, and group calls of up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, which anyone in the family can join, started from a relative's page on the tree. Only your family can ring you. In the app | Yes:End-to-end encrypted voice and video, WhatsApp group calls of up to 32 people, from a phone number anyone who has it can ring |
| Privacy model | Invite-only family space: nobody's data sold, everything shared only with the family. Not end-to-end encrypted. We say that plainly | Personal messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted; ads appear in the Updates tab, and WhatsApp says personal messages are not used to choose them |
| Price | Free to start: the tree, the wall, chat, calls and events. Kunbaa Plus is $9.99/mo or $99.99/yr for the whole family's archive; one person pays | Free |
Source: WhatsApp facts from whatsapp.com, faq.whatsapp.com and blog.whatsapp.com, read on 18 September 2026; WhatsApp poll facts re-read on 8 October 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release. Details change; check WhatsApp’s site for today’s plans and prices.
WhatsApp is good at its job. This is the plain list of what changes if your family moves this part of its life to Kunbaa.
Every photo, video, story or voice note goes up with a caption that says who, where and roughly when, and lands beside the person on the tree. Moments gathers the whole archive into a timeline the family can scroll back through together. On Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, choose who each post reaches: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household.
The wall and Moments →
WhatsApp polls are free and already in the chat, and since August 2026 they can close at an end time and hide who voted. A Kunbaa family vote sits on the Wall post or the moment it is about, so the answer stays beside the question instead of scrolling away. Results show after you vote, so the first answers don't steer the rest, and every date option carries the time in each home. Keep the WhatsApp poll for the quick question in the group; use the family vote for the date, the dish or the place the family will live with.
Kunbaa family polls →WhatsApp knows a phone number. Kunbaa knows that Priya is your mother's youngest sister. Everyone you invite gets their own place on the tree with their birthday on it, relatives add their own branches, and the photos they share sit on their profile instead of scattering across chats.
The Kunbaa family tree →
A Kunbaa call starts from a relative's page on the tree, so nobody hands out a phone number and no stranger can ring your mother. Voice and video are one-to-one, and a group call holds up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, and anyone in the family can join one. Calls are in the Kunbaa app; the bigger Sunday call can stay on WhatsApp.
Kunbaa vs WhatsApp for family calls →
Birthdays come from the tree, so nobody is forgotten. Plan the reunion as an event with reminders and a to-do list, and afterwards the photos attach to it. The day is kept as a day, not as a run of messages.
Events and reminders →
Only the relatives you invite can enter the space, and nobody's data is sold. Kunbaa is not end-to-end encrypted like WhatsApp; the privacy help page explains exactly what is encrypted where, and an admin sets per-member permissions for posting, adding to the tree and messaging.
How private is Kunbaa? →More questions? Read the full FAQ or what private means in Kunbaa.
No, and it is not trying to. The group is where the day's chatter lives. Kunbaa keeps the things the chat loses (the photos, stories and voice notes, with the names and the date written down) on a wall beside a real family tree. One thing does move: the call. A Kunbaa call can only come from a relative in your family space, so nobody hands out a phone number.
Put carefully: WhatsApp compresses photos and videos to send them quickly, and stores media on its servers for a limited period, so an old photo can fail to re-download if the sender no longer has the original. Usually the original is still in someone's camera roll, so it is rarely lost, but it is rarely findable either. Kunbaa keeps each photo in the family's own archive with the names in the caption, next to the person on the tree.
They are private in different ways. WhatsApp end-to-end encrypts personal messages and calls. Kunbaa is not end-to-end encrypted: private in Kunbaa means invite-only, nobody's data sold, and everything shared only with the family. The privacy help page explains what is encrypted where.
On Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, yes: each post on the wall goes to the audience you pick, everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household (your parents, partner and children), and the default is everyone, which you can change post by post. On Free, every post goes to everyone in the family.
Yes, small ones. A Kunbaa group call holds up to 6 people including you on Kunbaa Plus and Ultra, and anyone in the family can join one, voice or video, and only relatives in your family space can join. WhatsApp carries up to 32 on one call, so a whole-family call is still WhatsApp's job.
Yes. Chat and calls are in the Kunbaa mobile app, and the family tree, the wall, events, member permissions and the WhatsApp group importer also work on kunbaa.com, free.
You may not need to. Kunbaa's free plan includes the tree, the wall, chat, calls, events, Family Safety and room to start the photos. Kunbaa Plus, at $9.99 a month or $99.99 a year (17% less, about $8.33 a month for the payer's household), keeps the rest: longer videos in the family archive, room for the whole archive, and the photos and videos from the family chat kept while you are on Plus, where the free plan keeps them for a year. One person pays, on kunbaa.com or in the app; everyone else in the family joins free.
Yes, one at a time, as posts on the wall with a caption. There is no bulk import from WhatsApp. Families usually start with the twenty photos that matter and add as they go. A photo that only exists in the group can be saved to the phone first and then posted. The people in the group are a different story: export the group from WhatsApp and import it on kunbaa.com, or under Members → Import in the app, and Kunbaa places everyone on your tree in relation to you. Not one message is read or kept. See how the WhatsApp group import works.
