tribes

tribes is a private Circle Chat for families who already know each other.

Parents set it up. An adult installs tribes, chooses Home, confirms they are an adult, accepts the terms, and creates a parent PIN. A child's phone is a Guest. It is linked to the family. It is not a second Home.

HOW A CHILD JOINS
On the child's phone, install tribes and choose Guest. A QR code appears. On either parent's phone, tap Add a Guest and scan that code. Mom or Dad can do it. Keep both phones open for a minute while they link.

FRIENDS
Each person has a QR code. Scan the other person's code to ask. A parent approves before a child is connected. A child does not get a new friend until a parent says yes.

CIRCLE CHAT
There is one Circle Chat, like a group thread. People you are connected with send messages in that same thread. There is no chat for each person, and no way to open someone else's chat. Each person also has a private Diary on their own phone. New messages wait until you tap New messages. The thread is a fixed list, with no endless scroll.

PRIVATE AND SHARE WITH MY CIRCLE
A new message starts as Private. Private is a diary on that phone. It is never sent. A parent cannot read a child's private diary, and there is no setting to turn the diary off.
Share with my circle saves the same diary entry and also sends it in Circle Chat. Your own copy stays on your phone. The sender chooses whether other phones delete their copy after 7 days. That switch starts on.

NO COUNTS
There are no like, reaction, or comment counts. Everyone sees the reaction emojis, never a number. Only the person who posted can see who reacted.

REFRESH
Tap Refresh at the top of Circle Chat to check for new messages right now. tribes also checks about every 90 seconds on its own.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Share messages, photos, short videos, and comments with the people you are connected with
• React to a message
• Set a profile picture
• Start a tribe, or join one with a QR code
• Follow a school, club, or team page that an adult runs

PARENTS IN CHARGE
• A parent PIN protects approvals, adding a child, joining or leaving a tribe, and erasing a phone
• Choose for each child: approve each Share with my circle message first, or let messages through
• Report, hide, or block from the menu on a message, comment, or person
• Kids see a short safety reminder when they start, and every couple of weeks

PRIVACY
• No ads
• No tracking and no analytics
• No screenshots or screen recording
• The developer does not receive messages, photos, or names
• No company server: phones talk only to each other, encrypted, over Tor
• No accounts
• Photos and videos are re-encoded on the phone. Location and camera details are removed before sharing
• Erase a phone in Settings at any time

PRICING
Every phone gets a 5 Day evaluation period, starting when tribes is set up on that phone.
One one-time purchase unlocks up to 5 family phones, across Android, iPhone, Windows and Mac, through the purchase serial. Google Play shows your local price. It is bought once, on a parent phone, with the parent PIN. There is no subscription.
The child never pays and never sees a payment screen. The unlock stays with the family and can be moved to a replacement phone. Organizations pay nothing.
When the 5 Day evaluation period ends without an unlock, the Google Play version becomes read-only. Nothing is deleted. Report, Hide, Block, and Erase still work.

Open How it works from the first screen, from Help at the top of Circle Chat, or from Settings.

Because there is no server, the developer cannot see, recover, or moderate your messages. Parents and each tribe's Head do that.

Questions: support@appdevelopmentforyou.com
Privacy policy: https://appdevelopmentforyou.com/tribes/privacy.html

Recent changes:
Startup stability improvements.