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Getting started
Do I need to create an account to use WhoseNight?
No. WhoseNight works completely without signing up or signing in anywhere. Open the app, answer a few quick questions about your households and your kids, and you're using it right away. Your schedule and kids' names only ever leave your phone if you choose to turn on the paid Live Shared Calendar feature. This Help section checks in with our server to load these questions, and sending us a message does too, but neither one ever asks you to create an account either.
How long does setup take?
About a minute. The wizard asks who the two homes are, who the kids are, which schedule pattern you follow (or a custom one you paint in yourself), when it starts, and your usual handoff time. Answer those and you land straight on Today with your schedule already built.
What if my family doesn't look like a Mom and a Dad?
WhoseNight is built to work the same for every family shape. Household labels are free text, so Mom and Mom, Dad and Dad, two Moms with the same name, or any other setup all work exactly the same way. If two households pick the same label, WhoseNight tells them apart by color everywhere, and the wizard will gently suggest adding a first name (like Mom S and Mom J) if that would help.
Schedules and patterns
Which custody patterns can I choose from?
Week on/week off, 2-2-3, 2-2-5-5, 3-4-4-3, every other weekend, or a fully custom pattern you paint in yourself over a 14 night cycle. Whichever you pick, WhoseNight builds your calendar automatically from that point forward.
What if my schedule doesn't match any of the presets?
Choose Custom in the pattern picker and paint in your own rotation across a 14 night cycle. It works exactly like the built-in presets everywhere else in the app: Today, the month calendar, the widget, and the shared calendar all read from it the same way.
How do I handle a one-off change or a swap without messing up my regular schedule?
From any day, tap it and choose Change this day for a one-off reassignment, or Swap days to trade specific dates with the other household. Either way, your underlying pattern keeps running untouched underneath. Changed days just get a subtle marker so you can still see what the regular schedule would have been, and removing an override always restores the original pattern for that day.
Will WhoseNight remind me the night before a handoff?
Yes. By default you'll get a reminder the evening before a handoff day (7:00 PM, and you can change that time in Settings, Notifications), so there's time to pack. WhoseNight rechecks and reschedules all of your reminders every time you open the app, so a missed notification because of a phone restart or a schedule change fixes itself automatically the next time you open WhoseNight.
Kids and per-kid schedules
Can my kids follow different schedules from each other?
Yes. During setup, if you have two or more kids, WhoseNight asks whether they all follow the same rhythm. If not, you pick one schedule as the family default and then give any kid who's different their own pattern, built the same quick way. You can always change this later in Settings under each kid.
How do I add an event for one of my kids, like a game or a doctor's appointment?
From Today, the calendar, or a kid's own page, tap add event. Give it a title, a date and time, and which household is covering it, and pick a reminder if you want one. It shows up on Today, the calendar, and the agenda automatically.
Can I get reminded about events on the other parent's night too?
That's opt-in and off by default, since most parents only want reminders for their own time. Turn on Events on the other household's time in Settings, Notifications if you'd like a gentle nudge about things you might want to attend even when it isn't your night.
Holidays and events
How do holidays work?
Set them up once, either during the wizard or later in Settings, Holidays. For each holiday, you decide whose home it is: alternating by year, the same home every year, or skip it. Holidays show up on Today, the calendar, and the agenda with the holiday's name and the assigned household's color, and they take precedence over your regular pattern (a one-off override you make yourself takes precedence over a holiday, if the two ever land on the same day).
What if a holiday we celebrate isn't in the built-in list?
Tap Add your own in Settings, Holidays. Give it a name and a date, either a fixed date, a date range, or something like the fourth Thursday of November, and answer the same whose-home question. This is exactly how religious and cultural holidays that aren't preloaded, like Hanukkah, Eid, or Diwali, get set up, and it works identically to the built-in ones everywhere in the app.
Can I skip setting up holidays for now?
Yes. The wizard's holiday step has a later option that costs one tap, and it leaves a gentle reminder card in Settings so you can come back to it whenever you're ready. Your regular pattern works completely fine with zero holidays configured.
Widgets and Watch
What does the home screen widget show?
The small widget shows who has the kids tonight and the next handoff, like With Mom tonight and Handoff Friday 5:00 PM. The medium widget adds a 7 day color strip so you can see the week at a glance, or a per-kid list with each kid's own color dot on days where kids' schedules diverge.
Does the widget need an internet connection, and how often does it update?
No internet needed. The widget reads your schedule directly from the data already stored on your phone, so it can never get stuck showing a stale loading state. It refreshes itself automatically at midnight and around each handoff time, and it also updates the moment you make a change in the app, like a swap.
What can I see on Apple Watch?
The Watch app shows the same whose-night-is-it answer, the next handoff, and a 7 day color strip. You can also add WhoseNight as a watch face complication (corner, circular, rectangular, or inline) for an at-a-glance answer without opening anything. Your schedule reaches the Watch automatically from your iPhone; there's nothing extra to set up.
WhoseNight Family
What does WhoseNight Family cost?
$19.99 a year, or $2.99 a month if you'd rather pay monthly. The price is shown up front on the paywall before you buy anything, and it's billed through your phone's own app store (the App Store on iPhone; Google Play on Android), the same as any other subscription on your phone.
What does WhoseNight Family actually unlock?
The rest of the app is free forever: the pattern wizard, Today, the month calendar, agenda, swaps and overrides, kid events, reminders, the widget, and free calendar backup export. WhoseNight Family unlocks the Live Shared Calendar, the always-up-to-date feed and web page that puts your schedule inside the other parent's own calendar app.
Does the other parent have to pay too?
No. One subscription, purchased by either parent, covers the whole family. The parent who subscribes gets the Live Shared Calendar feature turned on; the other parent just needs the link they're sent and never has to pay anything or install anything.
How do I cancel, and what happens if I reinstall the app or restore purchases?
Cancel anytime from your phone's own subscription settings (on iPhone, Settings, your name, Subscriptions; on Android, the Play Store app), no need to contact us. Canceling never touches your schedule; the free tier keeps working exactly as before. If you ever reinstall WhoseNight or set up a new phone, open the paywall and look for a Restore Purchases option; it checks with your phone's app store and unlocks Family again automatically, with nothing to buy twice.
Live shared calendar
How does the other parent see my schedule without installing WhoseNight?
Turn on Live Shared Calendar in Settings (part of WhoseNight Family) and you get two private links: a subscribe link and a view link. Send either one however you'd normally reach the other parent, text or email both work fine. They don't need the app, an account, or anything installed to use either one.
What's the difference between the subscribe link and the view link?
The subscribe link is a calendar feed you add to Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook; once it's added it keeps itself up to date automatically whenever your schedule changes. The view link opens a simple read-only web page showing the schedule, no calendar app needed at all, just a browser.
How do I add the subscribe link to Google Calendar or Apple Calendar?
On Google Calendar on the web, click the plus next to Other calendars, choose From URL, and paste the link. On iPhone, the easiest way is to tap the link itself and iOS will offer to add it for you (or in the Calendar app, choose Add Calendar, then Add Subscription Calendar, and paste it). Either way, the calendar updates itself automatically after that; there's nothing to re-import.
What happens if I turn off Live Shared Calendar?
Both links stop working immediately. The other parent's calendar app stops receiving updates, and the view link switches to a simple this link is no longer shared page. Nothing about your schedule is deleted from your own phone; only the shared copy on WhoseNight's server goes away.
Privacy and your data
Where does my family's data actually live?
On your phone, inside your own device backup (iCloud or Google, whichever your phone already uses). WhoseNight has no accounts and no database of its own for your schedule, your kids' names, or your events. Two things you do on purpose send data to our server: turning on the Live Shared Calendar, which sends the schedule days, household labels, kid first names, and event titles you're choosing to share, and sending us a message from Help and Support, which sends whatever you type plus your email only if you choose to add it. Nothing else ever leaves your phone, and neither of those needs an account.
What happens if I lose my phone?
Restoring your new phone from your iCloud or Google backup brings back your schedule, kids, and events the same way any other app's data comes back from a phone backup, and on iPhone your Live Shared Calendar setup typically comes back with it too. If you ever set up as a brand new phone without restoring from a backup, you go through the wizard again and re-enter your schedule; WhoseNight doesn't yet import a schedule from anywhere else.
Can I get my data out if I want to?
Yes, anytime, free, no subscription required. Settings, Back up my data creates a standard .ics calendar file with your custody nights and kid events that you fully control: keep it, import it elsewhere, or delete it. There's no lock-in.
Android specifics
Is there an Android version of WhoseNight?
Not yet, but it is on the way. Android is built on the same schedule engine as iPhone, so patterns, swaps, holidays, the home screen widget, and reminders will all work the same way. It is not on the Play Store yet. Join the tester list for early access and a heads-up the day it launches.
If I'm on Android and the other parent shares their calendar with me, do I need the app?
No. The subscribe and view links work the same for anyone, on any phone. Add the subscribe link to Google Calendar's app or website the same way you would on any other device, and it stays up to date automatically. You don't need WhoseNight installed just to view a calendar someone shared with you.
Will I be able to buy WhoseNight Family on Android?
Yes, that is the plan. When Android launches it will use Google Play billing the same way the iPhone version uses the App Store, one purchase per family either way. Android is not out yet. In the meantime you can view a calendar someone shares with you on any phone, no app required.
Content last updated 2026-08-18.
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support@whosenight.app