Emberstead Support
Emberstead
A shared family calendar that keeps everyone in sync, from school runs to holidays. One household, live on iPhone, Android and the web.
Something not working, or not sure where to find it? Start here. Most of what people write in about is answered below, and if it is not, we would genuinely like to hear from you.
Contact us
Email us about anything to do with Emberstead: a problem, a question, your account, or your data. A real person reads every message and we aim to reply within two working days.
If the button does not open your mail app, copy the address above. There is no form to fill in, no account needed, and no login between you and a reply.
Please do not send passwords, invite codes for a household you are still using, or anything about your children beyond what the problem needs. We never ask for a password.
Getting started
When you first open Emberstead you sign in, then pick one of two doors. Start a new household creates a fresh calendar with you as the first member, which is what you want if nobody in your family uses Emberstead yet. Join with an invite code connects you to a household somebody has already made.
Invite codes look like EMBER-XXXX. The EMBER- part is already typed for you, so you only enter the tail. If a code is rejected, the household it belongs to may have been closed, or a character may have been misread. Codes never contain the digit zero or the letter O together, but it is still worth checking the sender's message rather than retyping from memory.
Once you are in a household, the app asks which member card is you. Picking your card is what lets greetings, reminders and "who is going" know who you are.
Inviting the rest of the family
Open the Family tab and share your household's invite code, or let someone scan the QR code on screen. Scanning needs camera access, which iOS and Android ask for the first time you open the scanner. If you said no and changed your mind, turn it back on in your phone's Settings under Emberstead. You can always type the code by hand instead, so the camera is never required.
A plan is not showing on somebody else's phone
Work through these in order. It is nearly always the first one.
- Check both phones are in the same household. Compare the invite code on the Family tab on each device. Two people can be using Emberstead happily and still be in two separate households, which looks exactly like sync being broken.
- Check the connection. You can add and edit plans offline and they are kept safely on the device, but they only reach anybody else once you are back online.
- Give it a moment, then reopen the app. Changes normally appear within seconds. Closing and reopening forces a fresh check.
- Check the date you are looking at. A plan added for next Tuesday will not appear on today.
If all four are fine and the plan still has not travelled, write in with the household name and roughly when the change was made, and we will look at it from our side.
Reminders are not arriving
Emberstead sends reminders from the device itself, so they need notification permission. Check your phone's Settings under Emberstead first, then the app's own Settings, where reminders and the morning summary can each be switched off independently. A phone in Focus, Do Not Disturb or a battery saving mode will also hold notifications back, and that is the phone's decision rather than the app's.
Showing your own calendar alongside the family plan
Emberstead can display the events already on your phone next to the family ones, so you are not checking two places. It reads them only, never writes to them, never changes them, and never shares them with your household. That view is per device: turning it on for your phone does nothing to anybody else's.
Profile photos
Adding a photo to a member card needs access to your photo library. Photos live with your household like the rest of your plan. If you would rather not use one, the app falls back to a coloured initial, and nothing else changes.
Leaving a household, and account deletion
Leaving a household removes your card from it and disconnects your device from that shared plan. The rest of the family keeps theirs. Your account stays, so you can start or join another household afterwards.
Deleting your account is in the app's Settings and is permanent. It removes your account and your member card. Where you were the last person in a household, that household and its plan go with it. There is no undo, and we cannot recover a deleted household afterwards, so export or note anything you want to keep first.
You can also ask us to do either of these by email, from the address on the account. See the Privacy Policy for the full list of what you can ask for, including a copy of your data.
What you need to run Emberstead
- iPhone: iOS 16.4 or later.
- Android: a current version of Android, on a phone or tablet.
- Web: a recent version of Chrome, Safari, Edge or Firefox.
One household works across all three at once, so nobody has to switch phones to stay in the loop.
Reporting a bug, or asking for something
Both go to alfredulu3328@gmail.com. Emberstead is small and new, and feature requests from real families have already changed what we built. If you tell us what you were trying to do rather than only what you wanted the app to have, we can usually help sooner and build the right thing later.
Not in yet?
Emberstead is finishing its App Store and Google Play listings. Join the waitlist and you will hear from us the moment it opens. Nothing to install today, and nothing to pay.
The legal pages
Privacy Policy covers what we hold, why, for how long, and your rights over it. Terms of Use covers the rules of using the app. Both are written to be read rather than skimmed past.