How to invite your family

How invites work

From your family space, send an invite to a relative. Each invite is personal. It lets that one person claim their own place in the family tree, the spot you (or someone else) already made for them. When they accept, they see the same tree, the same photos, the same family, because it's one shared space, not a copy.

Send the invite however you'd normally reach them. A WhatsApp message is fine. Just send it privately, to the person it's for, not into a big group.

Check the address before you send

An invite emailed to an address is for whoever signs in with that address, and they will see your family's tree and posts. So the invite form on the website shows the address back before it goes, and asks about a likely typo (gmial.com for gmail.com) without changing anything you typed. A link shared without an address is not tied to anyone, so whoever opens it has to ask first. See below.

What happens when they join

An invite sent to an address. Your relative signs in with that same address and is in straight away. You get a notice saying who joined from your invite. If it isn't who you expected, tap Not them? Remove on that notice and they lose access at once.

A link shared without an address. Anyone holding the link could open it, so nobody gets in on the link alone. The person signs in and sees Asked … to let you in. You and your family's admins see them under Asking to join, with the address they signed in with. Tap Let in if you know them, or Not them if you don't. That also retires the link, so it can't be used again.

Both live in your notifications, on the website and in the app from version 5.5.1. On the website, Asking to join is also on your family page.

Everyone gets in free

This is worth saying clearly, because it's the thing people worry about when they invite thirty relatives: nobody you invite pays anything. Free accounts include the tree, the wall, chat,voice and video calls, events and Family Safety. If your family ever takes Kunbaa Plus so the archive is kept, one person pays and their household is covered. See plans, storage and billing.

Choose what they can do before you send

Every invite has a short before we send step: pick whether the person can post and add to the tree, or just look, and switch posting, adding people and messaging on or off for them. A grandparent who only wants the photos to arrive can be View only from the first minute; a sibling who has the scanned albums can be Can post. You can change any of it later. See member permissions and access levels.

Who to invite first

Don't blast all thirty at once. Start with the three or four relatives who actually send photos: a sibling, a cousin, the aunt who has the scanned albums. Once there's something worth looking at, invite the rest. Most of the family will mostly look rather than post, and that's exactly how a family space is supposed to work.

Inviting older relatives

For a parent or grandparent who doesn't install apps themselves, the kindest path is to set it up with them, on a visit or over a call. There's a step-by-step guide: set up Kunbaa for a parent or grandparent.

Common questions