Managing your family and taking care of everyone’s need can get a little hectic. You need to ensure your family is safe, their basic needs are being fulfilled, they are taking care of their chores in time and a healthy relation is maintained among all family members. All of this can be a little overwhelming and sometimes even impossible to do without any help. Thus, if you are having a hard time managing your family, then it might be a good idea to get some help from family management apps.
There are various family apps available that will make sure your family is safe while taking care of their things and staying in sync. To help you manage your family, we are going to list down 7 apps that you can use on your smartphone to manage your family:
1. Cozi Family Organizer
Cozi is an all in one family organizer that keeps your family’s activities in sync and allows them to complete tasks remotely. It has a family calendar that your whole family can fill and sync appointments. You can see schedules of all your family members, assign appointments, add reminders (perfect for family meetings) and create appointments for the whole family. On top of a synced calendar, family members can create To-Do lists for themselves and others as well, and a To-Do reminder ensures everyone remembers to take care of their tasks.
Shopping is another big conflict where someone always adds a late item for which you need to go to the grocery store again. With Cozi’s family shopping list, anyone in the family can add items. Plus, one can simply cross the item from the list to tell everyone that the item has been bought.
Cozi’s free version is ad supported, but you can upgrade to premium version ($19.99/year) via an in-app purchase to remove ads and get address book syncing, birthday tracking and the ability to customize app’s look.
Install: Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Web
2. OurHome
If To-Do lists offered by Cozi aren’t enough to keep your family motivated and working on the tasks at hand, then OurHome should be able to handle it. OurHome comes with a reward based system where individuals can be rewarded for tasks completed, perfect for motivating children to complete their chores. You can fix points for completing specific tasks, and once enough points are earned, they can be exchange for a reward. The reward is set by you and it could be anything that interests your family, it could be money, a trip or just a visit to the near ice cream shop. Although the app works best for motivating children, I am sure it will work fine with adults as well (if you play your cards right).
This little bribery feature is complimented by the ability to “Like” and comment on the activity or even send a personal message. Furthermore, it also comes with a shared shopping list feature that lets anyone add items to the shopping list and check the ones that are already bought.
Best of all, this app is completely free to use and doesn’t includes any ads as well.
3. Keepy
Keepy is actually an app for organizing and saving family memories in a single place. It lets family members upload photos and videos that can be seen and accessed by all the family members. The uploader can add text, voice and video based stories about the photo/video they are uploading to give more details about the memory. Other family members can also add text, voice and video based comments to spice things up.
Every family member has a separate timeline where all of their memories are saved and can be seen by any other family member or the person you share with. This allows anyone to learn more about how things are going in another family member’s life and keep in touch with latest updates. Keepy can be the perfect app for families that live apart and want to make sure they all stay connected and updated.
Keepy has a free version without any ads, but it only allows you to upload 5 photos and videos per month. You can opt for a $2.99/month or $9.99/year subscription to get unlimited photos and videos uploads.
4. Life360
If you are concerned about the safety of your family, then Life360 is definitely worth a look. Life360 is basically a tracking and communication app for your family that allows anyone to see the current location of any other family member using GPS and also communicate with them. It creates a personal family map on which it shows exact location of all family members so you won’t have to text anyone to ask their location. You can also set up location boundaries that when crossed will send a notification to you, like you can create a boundary around your kids’ school to know when they arrive and leave.
You can also send private messages or broadcast messages to the whole family, perfect for arranging family gatherings. The above are the free version features, but you can also opt for the paid version ($4.99/month) to get some handy extra features.
Premium features include Live Advisor, which will immediately to provide a call to you for assistance (like give directions or aid in emergency), keep track of recent places visited by family members, track stolen phone or get $100 if Life360 fails to recover it and a 1 month activity history of all family members. To top it off, Life360 is also about to launch a “Driver Protect” feature to protect young drivers in the family (best for teenagers). It will report the top speed, rapid acceleration, use of phone while driving and hard braking. You can sign-up to be notified when this feature releases.
Install: Android, iOS, Windows Phone
5. ChoreMonster
ChoreMonster is similar to OurHome as it also comes with a reward system to get the chores done. However, it is specifically created for kids with a handy monster rewarding system that will open up new monsters (over 250 available) as kids get their chores done. If you need a to-do list app just for your kids under 14 years, then there is no better option than ChoreMonster.
Your kids will gain points for completing different chores and you can specify custom rewards when enough points are earned. When kids complete a chore, they will also get a ticket that can be exchanged for cute collectible monsters. When both of these reward systems are combined, your kids will surely love to complete their chores.
Both parents and kids have to create a separate account and it is completely free to use ChoreMonster.
6. CareZone
CareZone is a medication journal for your whole family where you can enter all medicine dosages, prescriptions and refill information of all your family members and manage them. You can set up reminders for you and your family to ensure no one misses their medication. It also lets you share your details with other members to inform them what you need. Furthermore, it has a contacts manager, which ensures you have all your medical related contacts in your reach and a to-do list manager, so that everyone knows what tasks need to be done.
Anyone can upload photos of their current situation and also take down notes to keep every family member updated. Overall, CareZone is your family’s unified place to take care of medical & prescription needs and access the information from anywhere.
CareZone is free to use, but you will have to create an account using your email.
7. FamilyWall
FamilyWall is a social network app just for families that also focuses on family safety and working together. It has all the basic features of a social network app, including ability to upload photos and videos, share statuses, send messages and comment on other family member’s posts. Apart from these regular features, it also lets you see real-time location of all your family members on a private map to ensure they are safe. Additionally, you can also setup geo-boundaries to know when a family member enters or leaves a location. Members can also ask for help with an SOS button that will send alert to all family members.
Furthermore, it comes with a family calendar where you can track the schedule of your family members, a To-do list is available as well, so that one can assign tasks and get a notification when it’s completed. FamilyWall comes with a 30 days free trial, after which you will have to pay $4.99/month to keep using the service.
SEE ALSO: 6 Ways to Share Your Location With Friends and Family
Connect and Manage your Family better with these Family Apps
Being head of the family, it is your responsibility to ensure your family is safe and connected. You can use the above mentioned apps to manage your family and stay connected with them from anywhere in the world. If you are looking for an app to connect all your family members, then FamilyWall is a great choice. However, if you want something that can keep your family organized and more productive, then give Cozi a try.
Is there any app you use to manage your family? Share with us in the comments below.
