Across your Apple devices

CareHaven does not stay locked inside one app icon. It meets you where your hands already are — on the Lock Screen during a seizure, on your wrist while you are holding your person, in the car with Siri, and on the other devices you already use.

Everything here works with the tools Apple built into your iPhone. You do not set up accounts or wire anything together. The pieces that matter most show up on their own when the moment calls for them.

This page is a tour. Each item links to a fuller walkthrough where one exists.

The seizure timer on your Lock Screen

Available

When you start the seizure timer — Main Menu -> Medical -> Seizures, then tap the stopwatch button — the count appears right on your Lock Screen as a Live Activity — and on the Dynamic Island if your iPhone has one. The elapsed time refreshes every second, and you can glance at it without unlocking the phone.

This matters in a real seizure. You may need to swipe over to dial for help or photograph what is happening. The timer keeps running on the Lock Screen the whole time, so you never lose the count. You can stop the timer right from the Lock Screen with a long-press — and from the Dynamic Island the same way — without opening the app.

The card turns a coral tint when the timer crosses five minutes — the point where current guidance is to call for emergency help, since after that a seizure is less likely to stop on its own. You see that warning whether the phone is in your hand or face-up on the table.

What lives on the card is deliberately simple:

• The live elapsed time, refreshed by the system every second
• A coral background tint once you cross the five-minute "call EMS" threshold
• A stop button, on the expanded Lock Screen and on a Dynamic Island long-press

A common way to use it: start the timer on the Watch or the iPhone, then put the phone down. The Live Activity tells you the elapsed time, so you do not have to wake the phone every fifteen seconds to check.

See Walkthrough: Log a seizure with the timer. For what to watch for during and after, see Medical.

Apple Watch

Available

The Watch app is for the moments your hands are busy — feeding, holding your person, driving. It carries a few simple pages:

• Now — a glance at what the iPhone last sent over: the last feeding, the latest mood, today's counts, and the next appointment. A coral No food or drink banner shows while a fasting window is running, and a small line at the top says when logs are still syncing or the phone cannot be reached.
• Log — one tap logs it. The rows are Feed (Bottle, Snack), Mood (Calm, Mixed, Crisis), Behavior (Positive, Stim, Spiral), Potty (Wet, BM, Both), Sleep (Start nap, then End nap), Dementia (Agitation, Sundowning, Wandering, and More…), and Dictate for a voice note. A header at the top says Logging for and the person's name. Every successful log gives you a small buzz so you can tap without looking and still feel that it landed.
• Next — the next upcoming appointment, with the day and the time.
• Seizure — a stopwatch built for the wrist. It keeps the screen lit while it runs, captures heart rate, and buzzes you at the clinical thresholds — 30 seconds, 1 minute, 2 minutes, and 5 minutes — so you do not have to watch the clock. When you stop it, it logs a seizure event for you.

You can also dictate a note with your voice straight from your wrist. If the iPhone is out of range, your taps queue up on the Watch and sync the moment the two reconnect — and each entry is matched up individually as it syncs, so nothing is lost and nothing is logged twice.

The seizure timer is the page caregivers lean on most. With a phone stopwatch it is easy to lose track of the five-minute "call for help" mark when adrenaline is high — the buzz at five minutes does not depend on you watching the clock.

See Walkthrough: Using the Apple Watch app.

CarPlay, through Siri

Available

In the car, CareHaven works hands-free through Siri. You keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel, and just say what you need:

• "Hey Siri, log a feeding in CareHaven"
• "Hey Siri, log a meltdown in CareHaven"
• "Hey Siri, quick note in CareHaven: she napped the whole drive"
• "Hey Siri, what's next in CareHaven"
• "Hey Siri, ask CareHaven what helps with sensory overload"

Siri speaks the result back to you and logs against the person you have open in the app. Behaviors often happen in the car — a stressful transition, sensory overload from the trip, friction between siblings — and this lets you capture the moment without stopping.

The first time you use a phrase, Siri may ask you to unlock the phone once to confirm. After that it runs entirely in audio.

Siri and Shortcuts

Available

The same voice commands work anywhere, not just in the car. CareHaven opens up the events you log most often as hands-free commands, so you can capture them without opening the app:

• "Log a feeding" or "log a bottle"
• "Log a behavior" — you can say the type
• "Log mood," "log her mood," "log his mood," or "regulation check-in"
• "Quick note" or "log a note"
• "What's next," "what's on the schedule," "what's coming up," or "read me the schedule"
• "Ask CareHaven about [topic]"
• A potty entry and a fall have no ready-made Siri phrase. They are the Shortcuts-app actions Log a potty entry and Log a fall, and they work while CareHaven is locked. Add them to one of your own shortcuts or automations there, or record your own phrase.

Because these are built as Shortcuts, you can also fold them into your own routines and automations on the iPhone. Pair them with Focus and automation triggers — for example, log a feeding automatically when you press the shortcut on your AirPods Pro, or start a behavior log when a specific contact texts you.

A small tip: add a Lock Screen widget for your three most-used Shortcuts. That is faster than even unlocking the phone, and it keeps your hands free.

What the Siri & Shortcuts switches do. Tap the menu icon (top left), then go to Settings -> Privacy and scroll to Siri & Shortcuts. There are four switches, all on by default: People, Medications, Appointments and Care events. Today the switches control the Last care event action in the Shortcuts app. With People off, you cannot pick a person in that action. With People or Care events off, that action does not tell you the care event. If it runs while CareHaven is unlocked, it says that access is turned off. Medications and Appointments have no effect you can see in Siri or the Shortcuts app. The note under the switches says that turning one off keeps it out of Siri and Shortcuts entirely. Do not rely on that. Even with every switch off, Siri can still say the person's name, their medicines and doses, and which medicines are running low. It can also say up to five saved cues (what to watch for and what to do) and the next appointment (what it is, who it is with and when). And it can say your emergency contacts with their roles and phone numbers, and your pharmacy's name, address, phone number and any notes you saved for it. Siri can say all of this even while your iPhone is locked, with or without a CareHaven PIN. To keep Siri quiet while your iPhone is locked: open your iPhone's Settings app, tap Face ID & Passcode (or Touch ID & Passcode on an iPhone with a Home button), enter your passcode, and turn off Siri under Allow Access When Locked. The label may differ on your screen; look for Siri in that list. This turns off Siri for every app while your iPhone is locked, so you may need to unlock your iPhone before you log by voice. It may not cover Siri in your car through CarPlay, on an Apple Watch or on a HomePod. It also may not stop a shortcut you start from the Lock Screen, Control Center or the Action button. If you put shortcuts there, such as the Lock Screen widget in the tip above, pick ones that log, not ones that read medicines, cues, the next appointment, emergency contacts, your pharmacy or the last care event.

If you use an unlock PIN. A CareHaven PIN may not stop Siri while your iPhone is locked. Anyone holding your locked iPhone can ask Siri for the things it can still say with every switch off (listed above), and Siri may answer. To stop Siri from answering, turn off Siri under Allow Access When Locked (the steps are just above). A shortcut that runs while your iPhone is locked may still get them. While CareHaven itself is locked with your PIN, Siri and Shortcuts can still add things for you, so you can log hands-free without unlocking: a quick note, a feeding, a behavior, or a regulation level. You can also log a potty entry, a fall, or a distress episode from the Shortcuts app while CareHaven is locked. They have no ready-made Siri phrase, so add each one to one of your own shortcuts or automations there, or record your own phrase. Asking CareHaven a question, hearing your emergency contacts, and hearing your pharmacy's name, address, phone number and any notes you saved for it also still work. Sometimes Siri asks you to unlock CareHaven first instead of reading the medications, your saved cues, what is next on the schedule, or the last care event, for example "Unlock CareHaven first — medication details stay private while the app is locked." Do not count on that. To set a PIN, see Privacy & security (in depth).

Ask by voice. Say "Ask CareHaven", "Ask CareHaven about" followed by a topic, or "CareHaven help". See AI features for more on Ask.

Spotlight search

Available

Your CareHaven records show up in your iPhone's own search. Swipe down on the Home Screen, type a name, a phrase, or a word from one of your notes, and matching items appear right alongside your apps and contacts. Tap one and it opens straight to the right place in CareHaven.

Some things are kept out of Spotlight on purpose. Sensitive plans — like your crisis plans and your Letter of Intent — never surface in the phone's system search, and even for the items that do, the phone shows only a title, a person, and a date. The note bodies, the clinical detail, and the step-by-step text stay inside the app, where a glance over your shoulder on a shared device can't read them.

For searching inside the app itself, see Search & Ask CareHaven.

Translation

Available

A handoff brief or a doctor-visit recap can be translated on the spot using Apple's built-in Translation. If the person stepping in for you — a sitter, a relief caregiver, a school aide — reads another language, you can hand them the same brief in their own words without retyping anything. Open the handoff at Main Menu -> Team -> Handoff, or a visit at Main Menu -> Medical -> Doctor visits, and look for the translate option inside the share flow.

See Sharing & reports.

Image Playground

Available

When you build a cue card (Main Menu -> Care Plan -> Cues, then tap + at the top right to add a cue, or tap a cue and then Edit), CareHaven can open Apple's Image Playground so you can make a simple, AAC-style illustration for it: in the cue's Photo section, tap Generate with Image Playground. That button only shows on a phone where Apple's Image Playground is available. Apple's Image Playground makes the picture, not CareHaven, and Apple decides where: on iOS 27 Apple makes it on its own servers (Apple says what you type is never stored or shared, even with Apple); before iOS 27, Apple's own styles were made on your device. Apple's sheet may also offer a style that uses an outside provider; if you pick one of those, what you type is sent to that provider. CareHaven gives the sheet the text you typed under The Cue as its starting description (or "child waving hand" if that box is empty), so that text goes to Apple's sheet and is handled as described above. You choose the style inside Apple's own sheet, so it's always your call. It gives a picture-based cue a clear, friendly image without you having to find or draw one.

See Advocacy & goals.

Genmoji

Available

Anywhere you type in CareHaven, you can use the system keyboard's Genmoji to drop in a custom emoji — a small, human touch for a note or a label.

StandBy widgets

Available

Set your iPhone on its side in a charger and CareHaven can show your day at a glance from across the room. The Day Shape view gives you a quiet read on how the day is going — what's been eaten, the behavior count, the mood trend, and the next appointment — and it includes a quick-note button you can tap right from StandBy to jot a note or log something without picking the phone up. A wall-display view turns the phone into an ambient screen. It is a calm way for the next caregiver to catch up without having to ask.

It comes in three sizes, so you can pick how much detail you want from across the room:

• Small — the day shape: a ring per metric, each one filling up as the day moves against a typical day
• Medium — adds the next appointment and a one-line summary of behavior
• Large — the full day overview, with a mood line and feeding times

It is the same readout in three places: this StandBy widget, a Lock Screen widget, and a Home Screen widget — same data, same look, your choice of where it lives. Parking the phone on the kitchen counter during meals is a common way to use it, so the next caregiver sees the day without having to ask.

See The Home screen (Day Shape).

Quick log widget

Available

The Quick log widget puts one-tap logging on your Lock Screen or Home Screen, so you can record something without opening CareHaven. Each tap is saved safely on the phone and filed into the care log the next time you open CareHaven. While a tap is waiting, the Home Screen version says so with a small line such as "1 saved — files when CareHaven opens".

It logs for the person CareHaven was showing the last time you opened it, and it shows that person's first name on the widget. These buttons can appear:

• Log a quick note — files a short "Checked in" note with the time. This is handy for night shifts. It is always the first button, so it is the one on the Lock Screen version.
• Log a bottle — files a bottle feeding.
• Agitation — files an agitation episode at a middle intensity. This button only appears for a person whose profile has a memory or thinking condition, such as dementia. On the Home Screen version it takes the place of Log a bottle.

The Lock Screen shape shows one button. The small and medium Home Screen shapes show up to two buttons. The buttons stay live for about two hours after CareHaven last refreshed the widget, which happens each time you open the app. After that, or if the widget does not know who the person is yet, the buttons turn into a plain Open CareHaven button. That way a tap is never filed for the wrong person. The one-tap buttons are part of CareHaven Plus and CareHaven Family. On the free plan, the widget only shows Open CareHaven.

To add it. This is done in iOS, the same way you add any widget, not inside CareHaven:

1. For the Home Screen: touch and hold an empty spot on the Home Screen, tap the + at the top, find CareHaven, choose Quick log, pick a size, and tap Add Widget.
2. For the Lock Screen: touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, then Lock Screen, tap a widget slot below the clock, find CareHaven, and choose Quick log.

While the phone is locked, iOS may hide the person's name and the button labels on the Lock Screen version until you unlock the phone.

Wall Display (always-on ambient mode)

Available

Wall Display is an always-on ambient mode for an old iPhone or iPad you mount somewhere the whole household passes by — a kitchen counter, the fridge, the care recipient's room. It shows today's most relevant facts large enough to read from across the room: the time, the next event, who is currently with the person, and the current mood.

What's on screen:

• A big clock and date
• The current person and their mood or regulation level
• The next appointment or scheduled event
• Rotating tips from the Caregiver Tips collection
• A screen that auto-dims after a stretch of no use, brightens when you tap it, and switches to a calm red-on-black night palette when the room goes dark

Wall Display is the one screen in CareHaven that is allowed to rotate to landscape, so a phone mounted sideways on a counter still reads correctly.

To turn it on. Wall Display is part of CareHaven Plus. Tap the menu icon (top left), then go to Settings -> Appearance, scroll to the Wall Display section, and tap Open Wall Display. The three settings right under that button shape how it behaves:

• Auto-Dim After — Never, 30 Seconds, 1 Minute, 2 Minutes or 5 Minutes. Choose Never to keep the screen fully lit. It starts on 30 Seconds. Auto-dim is skipped while the phone is charging.
• Red Night Palette — a switch that starts on. When it is on, the screen turns red on black by itself when the phone's screen brightness drops or CareHaven is showing in its dark look, so a bedside view does not blind you in the dark. A small moon button in the top-left corner of Wall Display turns the night look on by hand, even when this switch is off. Tap it again to take that back. It resets when you close Wall Display.
• Auto-Launch When Idle — Off, or After 5, 10, 15 or 30 Minutes. When the phone is plugged in and nobody has touched CareHaven for that long, it switches into Wall Display on its own. It is off by default, and it never starts while the phone is unplugged, so it will not take over your pocket.

To leave it. Swipe a good distance across the screen in any direction. A short tap only wakes the screen. If you have set an unlock PIN, an Exit Wall Display screen opens first. It says "Enter your PIN to leave the ambient view." Enter your PIN on the keypad, or tap Cancel at the top left to stay in Wall Display. This way, someone walking past a counter-mounted phone cannot get into the rest of the app.

On an iPad, Wall Display shows every profile on screen at once as a grid. On an iPhone it shows one person's card at a time and rotates through the household.

A common way to use it: mount an old iPhone with a magnet on the fridge and leave Wall Display running. A substitute caregiver, family, and the care recipient all see the same shared "current state" without anyone having to ask.

The Emergency Lock Screen widget

Available

You can place a small Emergency widget on your iPhone's Lock Screen that shows the most critical facts about your person — name, age, a primary diagnosis, an allergy — so that a paramedic, a school nurse, or anyone holding the phone in an emergency sees what matters first, without unlocking it.

It comes in three shapes, from a fuller rectangular card down to a single glyph or one line above the clock. It shows only those few first-responder details on purpose; the rest of the record stays private inside the app.

See Walkthrough: Set up the Emergency Lock Screen widget.

The handoff App Clip, and nearby handoff

Available

There are two different ways to get a handoff briefing onto a sitter's iPhone:

• A link, a QR code, or an NFC sticker opens the App Clip. The sitter does not have to install anything. The briefing opens as a read-only copy in the App Clip on their own phone, so they get a clean copy of the key details, and nothing of yours is left behind on it.
• Nearby handoff is phone to phone, and it needs the full CareHaven app on both iPhones. Sending this way is part of CareHaven Plus; without it, the same Send handoff button opens the share sheet directly instead. With Plus, the sitter opens CareHaven, taps Receive a nearby briefing on their Handoff screen, sees your device in their nearby list, and taps it (Tap to accept) — only then do you confirm their device by name on yours. It works with no internet at all. If no nearby phone answers, the same Send handoff button falls back to the share sheet.

See Walkthrough: Create a handoff for a sitter.

NFC sticker — tap to read the latest handoff

Available

An NFC sticker holds your latest Handoff briefing link. Anyone who taps an iPhone to the sticker sees a read-only copy of the briefing in the App Clip — no install required. It is the same read-only packet as a nearby handoff, just parked on a sticker so it is always there to tap.

Where it helps to place one:

• On the fridge — for emergencies at home, so EMS, a neighbor, or family can read the basics
• Inside the diaper bag or wheelchair pouch — where a first responder can find it
• At school, the day program, or a respite facility — for when staff change
• In custody-shared homes — write one sticker per household, and re-write it whenever things change

How to write one:

1. Buy NTAG215 or NTAG216 stickers — they run about $10 for ten.
2. Open Handoff from the menu and generate today's briefing.
3. Tap Write to fridge sticker (NFC).
4. Hold your iPhone over the sticker — CareHaven writes the link. Each write replaces the last one, so an old sticker simply stops working.

One thing to keep in mind: the link embeds a snapshot of the briefing that does not update on its own. Re-write the sticker whenever the person's medications, diagnoses, or contacts change in a meaningful way, so a tap never pulls up stale facts.

Apple Health

Available

CareHaven only reads from Apple Health, for vitals, sleep, and cycle. It never writes anything back, so what you log in CareHaven stays in CareHaven. What it can read:

• Vitals — heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, temperature, and weight
• Sleep — in-bed time, and sleep stages when your devices capture them
• Cycle — flow, for menstruation tracking

There is one firm rule: this only happens for the profile you have marked as yourself — the phone's owner. A child's or care-recipient's profile never touches Apple Health, and CareHaven refuses to touch the Health store at all unless the profile is flagged as the device owner. You also approve each kind of data separately when the phone asks, the same per-type permissions Apple Health uses everywhere else.

On your own profile, a read-only Health Signals readout is inside Main Menu -> Medical — it shows the deeper numbers Apple Health already holds for you — last night's sleep stages, heart rate variability, resting heart rate, blood oxygen, breathing rate, and your cycle day if you track it — with one honest, plain-language note. CareHaven keeps no copy of any of it; the data stays on your phone.

If you want longer trends, Apple Health's own Trends layer adds 6-month and 1-year views on top of what CareHaven shows — handy for a clinician visit where they would rather see Apple's standard charts.

For how CareHaven protects everything else, see Privacy & security (in depth).

What's still coming

A few Apple-ecosystem touches are built or planned as fast-follows rather than shipping in today's beta:

• A Lock Screen and Control Center shortcut, plus a Siri "I need a minute" command, for the in-the-moment breathing and grounding reset. The reset itself works inside the app today. Coming soon
• Putting your crisis plans onto the Lock Screen, the Dynamic Island, the Watch, and Siri. Today, only the seizure timer reaches the Lock Screen. Coming soon

To see how every feature fits together, browse the Full feature catalog. For what landed in the latest build, see What's new.