Walkthrough: Invite a co-caregiver

Caring for someone is rarely a solo job. A partner, a grandparent, a paid caregiver, or a weekend sitter often needs to see what's happening too. CareHaven lets you share a specific person with another caregiver, so they see your updates on their own iPhone — without you texting recaps back and forth.

This is opt-in. Sharing is off until you turn on sync and send an invite. Until then, everything stays on your device alone. Available

Sharing happens through iCloud and Apple's private sharing, and you can revoke it at any time. You and the person you invite each need to be signed into your own Apple Account — the same Apple Account on both phones will not work.

Before you start

• You're signed into your account on your iPhone, with a working network connection.
• The person you want to invite is also signed into their own (different) account on their own iPhone.
• You have their phone number or email handy, so you can send them the invite by Messages or Mail.

Step 1 — Turn on sync

Sync is optional and off by default until you choose to turn it on.

1. Open the hamburger menu (top left) → Settings → Sync & Backup.
2. Under the Sync section, turn on Sync via iCloud.

With sync on, your care log stays in sync across your own devices, when they're signed into the same account. This same switch is what makes sharing with another caregiver possible.

Every record is encrypted in transit and at rest, and CareHaven can't read your data — not us, not anyone else. Today that rides through your own private iCloud (fully end-to-end if you turn on Apple's Advanced Data Protection). For the full picture, see Sharing care with others (sync) and Privacy & security (in depth).

Step 2 — Invite a co-caregiver

You share one person at a time. The person you invite sees only the person you grant — never anyone else in your app.

1. Open the Main menu (bottom left) and choose Team from the hub list.
2. Tap Shared with — this opens the Profile access screen.
3. Tap Invite someone.
4. Pick a role for them (for example, Grandparent) — CareHaven sets sensible defaults you can adjust.
5. Choose the sections you want to share — for example Feedings, Behaviors, Sleep. Anything you don't pick stays private.
6. Give the invite a name and send it by Messages or Mail to the person's account.

CareHaven starts a hand-built invite with nothing shared — you choose what to include, and the Send button stays off until you pick at least one section. If you grant the widest access (every section, can edit, no end date), CareHaven asks you to confirm with a Share full access? prompt first, so the most open share is never one accidental tap away.

Tip: start narrow. Share just a couple of sections at first, and add more later as the working relationship settles. You can always widen what they see.

The Shared with row in the Team hub can be hidden per person. If you don't see it, tap the name pill (top center) to confirm you have the right person selected, then check that the row hasn't been hidden in the hub's visibility settings.

Step 3 — They accept on their iPhone

1. On their iPhone, they open your message and tap the share link.
2. They tap Accept.
3. CareHaven opens and the shared person appears, already filled in with your existing history for the sections you shared.

That first sync brings over what you've logged so far, so they aren't starting from a blank slate.

What a co-caregiver can see and do

Once they've accepted, the co-caregiver sees the person you shared, with the sections you granted, on their own iPhone.

When you log something new, it reaches their phone through sync. They don't have to keep the app open — their iPhone can pick up your updates quietly in the background, so the latest is waiting for them when they next look. (Apple decides exactly when background updates run, so it can take anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes.)

From Build 77, if you gave them edit permission, it goes both ways. What they log on their phone flows back to you, and out to everyone else you've invited — typically within seconds when everyone's online. Your device relays between the co-caregivers you share with. If you gave them view-only access instead, that's now genuinely enforced: they can see everything you've granted but can't add or change a thing, on their device or in Apple's private sharing. Available

This applies to invites accepted on Build 77 or later. If you invited someone before Build 77, see If you shared before Build 77 below.

For shift-style handoffs in the meantime, see Walkthrough: Create a handoff for a sitter — a clean snapshot of today you can hand to whoever's next.

If you shared before Build 77

If you invited a co-caregiver before Build 77, nothing changes on its own for a full-access share — it keeps working exactly as it did: your records flow out to them, but their own additions don't sync back yet.

Full access. Look for a gentle Enable two-way updates: re-send invite row under their name (Main menu → Team → Shared with) whenever you're ready. Tap it, send the new invite the same way you did the first time, and once they accept, edit permission starts flowing both ways.

Limited to specific sections. If you'd shared only some sections with someone — say, just Feedings and Sleep, not everything — CareHaven tightens how that's enforced behind the scenes, and you may see a one-time "Privacy update: re-send invite to [name]" card. Re-send as soon as you see it so their access keeps working without a gap — it takes a few seconds and doesn't change what you've shared with them.

See recent activity across everyone you share

CareHaven keeps a single feed of recent sync activity, gathered across every person you share — so you have one place to glance at what's changed lately.

1. Open the Main menu (bottom left) → Team.
2. Tap Shared with. The Profile access screen lists everyone you've shared with and their current sync status, and Activity across all profiles gathers recent changes in one place.

Each entry shows the person it relates to and is sorted with the newest at the top. If you have nothing shared yet, the screen simply says there's no activity to show. If a sync ever runs into trouble, it shows up right there on the Profile access screen instead of failing quietly. Available

How to remove access

You stay in control. You can stop sharing at any time, and it takes effect right away — and it's safe per person: removing one co-caregiver never touches anyone else's access. Available

1. Open the Main menu (bottom left) → Team → Shared with.
2. Swipe their row in the list, or tap their name and use Revoke Access.

Their app stops showing the shared person immediately, and the local copy on their device is cleared the next time they open CareHaven. Everyone else you've shared with keeps working exactly as before.

From Build 78, this takes their access away without erasing the record of it. Their name stays on the Profile access list, marked Revoked with the date, so weeks later you can still see who had access and when you ended it. Seeing the name still sitting there doesn't mean the revoke failed — that row is the record of what you did, not a way back in. Available

If you want to share with that person again later, send them a new invite exactly the way you sent the first one. Re-inviting builds a completely fresh invitation — the old one isn't revived — so you choose the sections and the permission again. Nothing you'd granted before comes back on its own. Available

To see it confirmed from iCloud's side rather than from this phone's record, use Who has access below.

Check who has access right now

Sometimes you want the whole picture, not just the invitations this iPhone remembers. CareHaven can ask iCloud directly.

1. Open the Main menu (bottom left) → Team → Shared with.
2. Tap Who has access.

The list that comes back is read from iCloud itself, so it can include access this phone has no local record of. That happens for ordinary reasons — you reinstalled CareHaven, or you moved to a new iPhone, and the local notes about older invitations didn't travel with you even though the sharing did. When CareHaven finds an entry it can't line up with anything on this phone, it says so plainly — "CareHaven can't match this access on this iPhone" — and leaves the call to you, because you're the one who knows who was invited.

If you'd rather not keep something on that list, you can remove it from this screen. It's one person at a time, and CareHaven names that person in the confirmation before anything changes. Available

If something doesn't work

• The invite link does nothing. Check that you and the person you invited are on two different accounts, and that you both have a working network connection.
• The shared person appears but stays empty. Give it a little time after you log something — updates are sent shortly after you make a change, not the instant you tap save. Make sure both phones have a network connection.
• Background updates feel slow. This is normal. Apple budgets background updates, and Low Power Mode can delay them. Opening the app pulls the latest right away.

More fixes live in Troubleshooting. For the bigger picture of how sharing works and what's coming, see Sharing care with others (sync) and Known limitations & what's coming.