Family Connect — Support
Contact
Email nettrash@nettrash.me. I read everything and normally reply within a few days. It is one person, not a support desk, so please include:
- the platform and version (iPhone, iPad, Mac or Android, and the version shown at the bottom of Settings),
- whether you use the default server or your own,
- and what you expected to happen instead.
If you are reporting abuse or a safety problem, say so in the subject line and I will look at it first. See “Reporting somebody” below for what the app itself can do, which is usually faster.
What Family Connect is
A messenger for one family: group chat, one-to-one chats, photos, videos, voice notes, files, shared locations, polls, a shared sticker board, birthdays, and voice and video calls. There is no public directory and no way to be contacted by a stranger — you join a family with an invite code, and by default the family's owner has to approve you.
It is self-hosted. The apps ship pointed at a server I run, and you can change that address to your own before you sign in. The server is open source: github.com/nettrash/family.connect.
Reporting somebody, and blocking them
Both are built into the apps and neither needs the family owner's cooperation to start:
- From a message — press and hold the message, choose Safety, then Report… or Block.
- From a person — open Family Members from Settings and use the Safety item on their row.
Blocking hides that person's messages, notes and reactions from you, removes your one-to-one chat with them, and stops their calls reaching you. It is silent: they are not told. Any member can block any other member, including the family owner. You can unblock at any time and everything comes back.
Reporting sends the report to your family's owner, who can see who reported whom and the text of the reported message. A report about the owner is never shown to that owner — in that case, contact the person who runs your server, whose address the app shows on the reporting screen, or email me if that is the default server.
Frequently asked questions
Can you read my messages?
If you use the default server, yes — technically I can. Family Connect is not end-to-end encrypted, and messages are stored in plain text on the server. If you run your own server, I receive nothing whatsoever. This is set out in full in the Privacy Policy.
How do I use my own server?
Tap the server address on the sign-in screen before you log in and enter your own. The server is a single Rust binary plus PostgreSQL; the repository has the deployment notes. Everything then stays on your machine.
How do I join a family?
Ask the family's owner for the invite code and enter it after signing in. Depending on how the owner set things up you either join immediately or wait for their approval. An owner can also close the family so that the code stops working, and can set a maximum number of members.
How long are messages kept?
On the default server, about 100 days, after which a message and anything attached to it is deleted automatically. If you run your own server you choose the period, including keeping everything forever. Note that board notes and moderation reports are not covered by that sweep.
I forgot my password.
There is no e-mail address on the account, so there is no self-service reset. Ask your family's owner — they can set a new password for any member from Family Members. If you are the owner and you are locked out, email me.
Calls do not connect, or connect and stay silent.
Usually one of three things. Check that the microphone (and camera, for video) permission is granted. On Apple platforms, check the Local Network permission — without it, calls between two devices on the same Wi-Fi are silently dropped, which looks like “works when I am away from home, fails at home”. Otherwise the two devices may need a relay, which the server operator configures.
Notifications are not arriving.
Check the system notification permission, then sign out and back in so the app registers a fresh token. On Android, a self-built copy of the app has no notification support at all — only the Play build does.
What happens if I delete my account?
Your name, password, picture, birthday and devices are erased and you are signed out everywhere. Your messages in the family chat stay, shown as coming from a “Deleted account”, so that the rest of your family does not lose their conversation. Your one-to-one chats are deleted in full. The Privacy Policy spells this out.
Which languages does it speak?
English, German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Russian, Serbian (Cyrillic and Latin) and Simplified Chinese. It follows your device's language.
Reporting a bug
Open an issue at github.com/nettrash/family.connect/issues, or email me if you would rather not use GitHub. Please do not paste other people's message content into a public issue.
Feature requests
Welcome, same address. It is a family product built for my own household first, so the bar is “would a family actually use this” rather than feature count.