Help & Support
Everything below is how SFamily is meant to work. If something is not working that way, the troubleshooting section near the bottom covers the usual causes — and if it does not, write to us.
Getting started
- Signing in. Enter your phone number and we send you a six-digit code by SMS. There is no password to forget. If the code does not arrive, wait a minute and ask again — check your signal, and that the number you typed is the one in the phone.
- Your profile. Add a photo and a name the people who know you will recognise. Blood group and emergency details are optional, and worth filling in — they are what somebody sees on your emergency card.
Family and friends
- Finding someone. Search by name or username.
- Following is the first step and is one-sided. Adding somebody to your family circle is mutual, needs them to accept, and is what unlocks location and safety features between you.
- Removing somebody takes them out of your circle in both directions, immediately.
- Blocking hides you from them completely: they cannot search for you, message you or see your location.
Location sharing
- Sharing is off until you turn it on, and you choose whether it runs for a set time or until you stop it.
- The map shows the people currently sharing with you, when their position was last updated, and their battery level.
- Stopping is one tap and takes effect at once. Nobody is notified that you stopped.
- Saved places — home, school, work — can tell your family when you arrive and when you leave.
- Arrival alerts let somebody be told the moment you reach where you are going, without watching the map the whole way.
Safety check-in
A daily "I'm fine" for the people who worry. Set a time, and if you have not checked in by then your chosen contacts are told. Answering takes one tap.
Safety alarm
For a walk home, a meeting with somebody you do not know, a late journey. You set a countdown; if you do not answer when it ends, your family is told.
- Choose who to tell when you arm it, in the order you want them contacted.
- Record a voice note if you want them to hear something in your own voice rather than read a notification.
- The ring. If you do not answer, the first person is asked to check on you. If they do not respond within the wait you set, it moves to the next, and so on. As soon as somebody says "I've got this", everybody else is stood down.
- If you are fine, answer the alarm and everything stops. No message goes out.
SOS
Immediate, with no countdown. It alerts your family with your position and your emergency message. Your SOS PIN cancels a false alarm — set one, and do not share it.
SOS does not call the police or an ambulance. In a real emergency, dial 112 first.
Nearby help
Lets you ask people near you for help, and be asked. It is off until you turn it on, you are never shown at an exact address, and you can pause it at any time.
Reminders
Medicine, appointments, school runs. Reminders can be for you or for somebody in your family, and they ring on the phone rather than only appearing in a list.
Current mode
Driving, studying, sleeping, travelling — tap the floating circle on the home screen and pick one. It shows on your photo wherever your family sees you, so they know whether now is a good moment to call. It stays until you change it.
Chat
One-to-one and group chats, with photos, files, voice notes and shared locations. You can star messages, reply to one in particular, forward, and delete for everyone.
When something is not working
Alarms or reminders are not ringing on time
This is almost always one of two phone settings, not the app:
- Alarms & reminders. Android requires explicit permission to ring at an exact moment. Go to Settings → Apps → SFamily → Alarms & reminders and allow it. Without it, SFamily will not let you arm a safety alarm at all — an alarm that rings twenty minutes late is worse than none, because your family would be told before your phone ever rang.
- Battery optimisation. Many phones — Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Samsung and others — aggressively stop background apps. Find SFamily in your battery settings and set it to unrestricted, or allow autostart.
Notifications are not arriving
- Check notifications are allowed for SFamily in your phone's settings.
- Check the conversation or person is not muted in the app.
- Check battery optimisation, as above.
The map is blank, or somebody's position is old
- They may have stopped sharing — the app shows when a position was last updated.
- Location may be switched off on their phone, or their battery may have died. The battery figure on the map is there to tell those two apart.
- Indoors and underground, positions are less accurate.
I am not receiving the sign-in code
- Check your signal and that the number is right, including the country code.
- Wait a minute before asking again — repeated requests are rate limited.
- Still nothing? Write to us with the number you are using.
Privacy and your data
What we collect and why is set out in full in our Privacy Policy. The short version: no advertising, no tracking libraries, nothing sold, and your location goes only to people you chose.
Deleting your account
Menu → Settings → Delete account. It is permanent — read Delete Your Account first, which explains exactly what is removed and what is kept.
Still stuck?
Write to ownerabhi@sfamily.co. Tell us your phone number, your phone model, and what you expected to happen — it saves a round trip and gets you a real answer faster.