Household sharing
Household sharing
Share your pets with the people you live with, or with a sitter, through iCloud sharing. Everyone sees the same page, every entry carries the name of the person who logged it, and the others can hear about it when someone logs. Nobody needs an account with us.
Household sharing and household notifications are included at launch, at no extra cost, in the free version and in Paw Crew Pro.
How it works
Invite, accept, log together
Invite
In Paw Crew, go to Settings > Household and choose Share All Pets, or share one pet. Send the invitation from Apple's sharing screen, through Messages, Mail, AirDrop or a link.
Accept
The person opens it on their iPhone, with Paw Crew installed and iCloud signed in, and accepts. There is no sign-up and no password to make.
Log together
From then on, the pets you share are on their Today page too. Whoever taps Fed, everyone sees it, and the others can get a quiet notification.
What everyone sees
Who did what, and when
- The pets you share, with their logs, Observations, reminder schedules, supplies and records.
- The name on each entry, taken from that person's iCloud name, such as Anna fed Miso at 7:42. The owner can change how a name shows in the household.
- A gentle check if two people log the same feeding within 30 minutes, such as Biscuit was already fed by Anna at 6:02. Keep both?
- Changes from everyone, synced through iCloud, usually within moments when phones are online.
- Nothing you have not shared: your other pets and your own settings stay yours.
Who controls what
The owner decides who is in
If you share
You own the household. You see who is in, can invite people, make someone view only so they can see but not log, remove a person, or stop sharing altogether. The data stays in your iCloud.
If you were invited
You see the shared pets and can log for them, unless the owner made you view only. Then you cannot log for them anywhere: in the app or with Siri, Shortcuts, widgets, notification actions or the Apple Watch. Leave at any time: the shared pets and logs leave your iPhone and the owner keeps them.
For a sitter
With Paw Crew Pro, invite the sitter from Sitter handoff, through Apple's sharing screen, and set their last day. After it, Paw Crew removes them from the share. Or hand over the sitter sheet as a PDF, for a sitter who does not use iCloud.
Household notifications
Hear about it without asking
When someone logs
Choose to get a quiet notification when someone else logs, such as Anna fed Miso. Pick it per person and per care type. Everything is off at first except meds.
Not logged yet
If a routine item is not logged by its time plus a short grace period, everyone in the household gets one nudge, such as Dinner for Miso isn't logged yet.
Cleared for everyone
As soon as one person logs it, the nudge is cancelled on every iPhone, so nobody acts on a job that is already done.
No server of ours
Apple's iCloud tells each iPhone that something changed, with a silent push from Apple. Paw Crew fetches the change and shows a local notification. Your choices stay on your iPhone.
Not the same thing
Household sharing and Apple Family Sharing
Household sharing lets anyone you invite see and log for your pets. Apple Family Sharing is how Apple shares a Paw Crew Pro purchase with your Family Sharing group. They work separately, and you can use either one without the other.
Privacy
Shared through your iCloud, not our servers
Paw Crew has no servers and no accounts. A shared household lives in the owner's iCloud and is shared with Apple's iCloud sharing, so only the people you invite can see it. Household notifications travel the same way, through Apple. We never see any of it.
Questions about sharing
The questions and answers cover invites that do not arrive, view-only people, household notifications, sitter invites that end, leaving a household and what happens to shared pets when someone deletes their data.