Getting started
Create your account and name your family. No passwords, ever.
Create your account
Tap Get started and enter your email. We send you a 6-digit code. Type it in, or paste it and it fills itself in. That’s how you sign in every time, so there’s nothing to remember.
Name your family
The first time you sign in, you name your family (like “The Parkers”) and check your time zone. Scribbles uses your time zone for awake hours, daily limits and summary emails, so make sure it’s right. You can also tell us what to call you. Your kids and other parents see that name in chats.
Add your first kid
Setup ends with adding your first kid. That’s the next section.
Kids and their codes
Add each kid, pick their character, and give them a 4-digit code.
Add a kidNeeds email sign-in
On Home, tap Add a kid. Enter their first name, pick a character from the Scribbles cast and a disc color, then choose a 4-digit code and enter it twice. Kids never need an email, a phone number or an app store account.
Their code
Your kid taps their avatar on the family tablet and types their code to open their chats. On a shared tablet, the code keeps siblings out of each other’s chats. After ten minutes without activity, the tablet goes back to the kid picker.
Changing details or the codeNeeds email sign-in
Open your kid’s page from Home to change their name or avatar, or tap Edit code to give them a new code. Changing the code needs your email sign-in.
Setting up your kid’s tablet
Two minutes, with your phone in one hand and the tablet in the other.
Scribbles works in the web browser on any tablet, Chromebook, laptop or old Wi-Fi phone. There’s nothing to download.
Scan the code
- On the kid’s device, open ScribblesTap This is my kid’s device. It shows a QR code and a short code like KITE-4273.
- Scan it with your own phoneOr, on your computer, go to Devices, tap Add a device and type the code. Sign in if you’re asked.
- Check it and name itYou’ll see what’s asking to join (for example “an iPad using Safari”). Give it a name.
- Choose who uses itShared by the family, or Just one kid and pick them.
- ApproveLeave Notifications on if you want the tablet to show when a new message arrives, then tap Approve.
If the code on the tablet isn’t the one you meant to approve, tap Not mine instead of Approve. Nothing is created.
“Is that your family?”
After you approve, the tablet asks whoever is holding it to confirm. Tap Yes, that’s us and it opens to the kid picker, or straight to your kid’s code screen if the device is just for them. If you see a family name that isn’t yours, tap Not my family and the device is removed on the spot.
The “device added” email
Every parent in your family gets an email whenever a device is set up, so a device you don’t expect never goes unnoticed.
Shared or one kid
A shared device opens to “Who’s scribbling?” with every kid’s avatar. A device for one kid skips that and opens to their own code screen (“Hi Ava!”). You can change this any time: open Devices, tap the device, and pick Shared or a kid. It takes effect without interrupting anyone already chatting.
The older way: sign in on the tabletNeeds email sign-in
If the tablet can’t show a code to scan, sign in on the tablet itself, open Devices and use Set up this device at the bottom. You’ll name it, and you can set a parent PIN at the same time.
Removing a deviceNeeds email sign-in
Removing signs everyone out. Anyone signed in on that device, kid or grown-up, is signed out right away.
On Devices, tap the device and choose Remove device. To use it again, set it up from the start.
Your parent PIN and PIN mode
Skip the email code on a family tablet. Your PIN opens the dashboard, but some actions still need your email code.
Set a PINNeeds email sign-in
Go to SettingsParent PIN and tap Set a PIN. It’s 4 digits, entered twice, and it can’t match any of your kids’ codes.
Getting to the dashboard from the tablet
On the kid picker, tap Grown-ups in the corner. If you’ve set a PIN, enter it to open the dashboard. If you haven’t, you’ll sign in with an email code. Use email instead is always available.
What PIN mode can and can’t do
A PIN opens a limited session, since your kids use the family tablet too. It’s enough to check in and make things stricter, but not to loosen anything.
Works with your PIN
- See everything
- Pause a kid or a friendship
- Lower the daily limit or shorten awake hours
- End a friendship
- Decline a friend request
- Rename a device or change who uses it
- Turn off an invite
Needs your email code
- Dismiss or delete flags, and delete messages
- Unpause a kid, raise or remove the daily limit, widen awake hours
- Approve or send friend requests, and resume a paused friendship
- Send or accept invites, and disconnect a family
- Your own Messages and chat profile
- Any change in Settings
- Remove a device or phone notifications
- Add a kid or change a kid’s code
- Change your PIN, or set up a device
- Delete your family
When you try one of these in PIN mode, Scribbles shows a Sign in with email sheet. Sign in, then try again. Throughout this guide, those actions are marked Needs email sign-in.
When PIN mode ends
Tap Back to kids to return to the kid picker. PIN mode also ends after 15 minutes without activity, or whenever the tablet goes back to the picker.
Seeing what was done with a PIN
Your next summary email lists anything done in PIN mode, so you can see what happened on a shared tablet.
Connecting with other families
Link up with other families by invite. Nobody can find your kid by searching.
Before two kids can be friends, their families have to connect. Connected families see each other’s kids’ first names and avatars, nothing more.
Send an inviteNeeds email sign-in
On Friends, tap Invite a family.
- Email: type the other parent’s address and we send them an invite link. Emailed invites last 30 days. Each family can send up to 10 invite emails a day.
- Link or code: share the six-character code or the link however you like. It works for 7 days.
Turning an invite off
Open invites are listed on Friends under Open invites. Tap Turn it off to stop one working early.
Accepting an inviteNeeds email sign-in
Open the link, then sign in, or create your account and family. The two families connect right away and you land on Friends. The invite page shows only the inviting family’s name, never their kids.
Disconnecting a familyNeeds email sign-in
On Friends, tap Disconnect on the family. This ends your kids’ friendships with theirs, and your chat with their parents. You can also tick Block this family so they can’t reconnect through any invite.
Disconnecting ends every friendship between the two families at once. If you reconnect later, you’ll need to approve each friendship again.
Friend requests
Every friendship needs a yes from both families.
Send a requestNeeds email sign-in
On Friends, tap Add a friend. Choose one of your kids, then a kid from a connected family. The other family sees the request in their Needs you area.
Approve or decline
Requests waiting on you appear at the top of Home under Needs you: “Leo and Zara want to be friends.” Tap Approve Needs email sign-in, or Not now to decline. Once both families have said yes, the kids see each other and can start chatting.
Siblings
Your own kids can be friends with each other. Set it up from Add a friend. No second approval is needed.
Pause or end a friendship
From Friends or your kid’s page, you can pause a friendship any time. While it’s paused, neither kid can send messages or reactions in that chat. Only the family that paused it can resume it Needs email sign-in.
Ending a friendship closes the chat for both kids. You can still read the history.
Awake hours, daily limits and pausing
You decide when Scribbles is awake, and for how long.
Scribbles is awake for a kid only when all three of these allow it: awake hours, the daily limit and the pause switch. Manage them on Time or on your kid’s page.
Awake hours
Each day has its own hours. On the weekly grid, drag to paint the times Scribbles works (in half-hour steps), and drag over painted times to erase them. School days and Weekends give you a quick start. New kids start with weekdays 3:30 to 7:30 pm and weekends 9 am to 8 pm. Changes save as you go and reach your kid’s device right away.
Daily time limit
Choose 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 or 120 minutes of chatting a day, or no limit. Only time spent actually chatting counts, across every device.
Pause right now
The switch on your kid’s card on Home stops Scribbles for them until you turn it back on.
What your kid sees
When Scribbles is asleep, your kid sees a starry night with Scrib asleep on the moon, the reason, and when it wakes up. Five minutes before a limit or the end of their hours, they get a gentle heads-up. Messages from friends still arrive and wait for them.
Tightening and loosening
You can shorten hours, lower the limit or pause from PIN mode. Widening hours, raising or removing the limit, and unpausing need your email sign-in Needs email sign-in.
Reading your kids’ chats
You can read every message, photo and voice note, any time.
Open any chat
Chats lists every conversation your kids are in. Tap one to read it as your kid sees it, with photos and voice messages playing right in the chat. On wide screens, the activity feed on the right shows today’s messages across all your kids.
Your kid knows
We don’t hide this. Your kid’s settings say so plainly:
Deleting a messageNeeds email sign-in
Each message has a small menu with Delete. The message is gone for good, and both kids see “A grown-up removed this message” in its place. Your history keeps a note that it was removed, and by which family.
Ended friendships
When a friendship ends, the chat disappears for the kids but stays readable for both families’ parents.
AI review and flags
An AI reviewer quietly checks your kids’ messages and flags conversations that need you.
What gets flagged
Every text, voice message and photo between kids is checked in the background for things a parent would want to know about:
- Bullying or meanness
- Sharing personal information (an address, phone number, school name or password)
- Talk about meeting up in person
- Scary or adult content
- Signs a kid is upset
It’s tuned to leave normal kid banter alone.
Flags, not filters
A flagged text or voice message is still delivered, and your kid isn’t told it was flagged. You get an email, and the flag appears in Needs you with a plain-language reason. Both families in the chat see the flag, and whichever parent reviews it first resolves it for both.
Photos wait until they’re checked
In a chat between two kids, a photo is held while it’s checked and arrives a few seconds later. If it doesn’t pass, it stays held until a parent looks at it. Until then, the sender sees:
Reviewing a flagNeeds email sign-in
Open the flag to see the message with a few messages on either side, plus the reason. Then choose:
- It’s fine dismisses the flag. A held photo is delivered.
- Delete message removes it for both kids.
- Pause this friendship works from PIN mode too.
What isn’t reviewed
Chats that include a parent, like yours with your kids, skip review. Stickers aren’t checked either. They all come from the Scribbles pack.
No flags means nothing needs a look. All quiet.
Messaging your kids and other parents
You’re on Scribbles too, so you can chat with your kids and with other parents.
Your own chatNeeds email sign-in
Open Messages, or tap Message on a kid’s card. Every kid in your family is automatically friends with you. You show up in their list like any other friend, except you never fall asleep.
Other parents
Once your families connect, you can message the other family’s parents too. They’re listed under Other parents. These chats are private to the two of you. Kids never see them, and they stay outside the dashboard’s oversight.
How you appearNeeds email sign-in
In Messages, tap your own avatar and choose How you appear in chats to set your name (“Mom”, “Dad”) and character.
Notifications and emails
A nudge when it matters, a summary when you want one.
Family devices
A tablet can show a notification when a new message arrives for a kid who uses it. It’s on by default when you approve a device the usual way, and you can switch it on or off in Devices. Once it’s on, the tablet still needs one tap on Turn on notifications on its kid picker. Notifications show who the message is for, never the message, and nothing comes through while Scribbles is sleeping.
Your own phoneNeeds email sign-in
In SettingsNotifications, turn on Messages from your kids and other parents. This alerts this phone or computer when your kids or other parents message you. Every browser you’ve turned it on in is listed there, each with Turn off. It’s never offered on a family tablet.
iPhone and iPad: add to the Home Screen first
Apple allows web notifications only for apps on the Home Screen.
- Open Scribbles in Safari
- Add it to the Home ScreenTap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
- Open it from the Home Screen iconTap Turn on notifications. On your own phone, use the switch in Settings.
Flag alerts
Whenever something is flagged, every parent in each family involved gets an email with the kids’ names, the reason and a link to the flag. Message text and photos are never put in the email.
Summary emails
In Settings, choose a daily or weekly summary, or none. It covers how long each kid chatted, who they talked to most, new friends and any flags, plus anything done in PIN mode. Daily summaries arrive at 6 pm your time, and weekly ones on Sunday.
Privacy and safety
What Scribbles does with your family’s data, and what it never does.
What we never do
- We never sell or share your family’s data.
- No ads, ever.
- Photos and voice notes stay private to the families in the chat.
- Kids never need an email, phone number or app store account.
Who can see what
Kids only see friends both families approved. Parents in both families can read those chats. Connected families see your kids’ first names and avatars, nothing else. Messages, photos and voice messages are kept until a parent deletes them or you delete your family, and photos and voice messages open only through links that expire after an hour.
Which AI checks messages
Text and photos are checked by Google’s Gemini. Voice messages are turned into text by ElevenLabs, then checked the same way. The full explainer is in SettingsHow Scribbles keeps chats safe.
Limits on guessing
Wrong codes lock the keypad for longer and longer: seconds at first, then minutes, hours, up to a day. If someone keeps guessing a parent PIN, your family’s parents get an email about it. Separately, a kid can send up to 30 messages a minute.
Deleting your family
How to remove everything, and what’s left afterwards.
This can’t be undone. Kids, devices, chats, messages, photos and voice messages are deleted for good.
How to deleteNeeds email sign-in
Go to SettingsDelete your family, type your family’s name exactly, and confirm.
What’s removed and what stays
Kids, devices, chats, messages, photos, voice messages, friendships, family connections and invites are all removed. Your sign-in stays, with no family, so you can start fresh or accept an invite from another family.
Troubleshooting
Quick fixes for the things parents ask about most.
My kid forgot their code
Open their page from Home, tap Edit code, and give them a new one. You’ll need your email sign-in.
It says “Too many tries”
Someone typed the wrong code too many times. Wait for the countdown. If it keeps happening, change the code.
It says Scribbles is sleeping and it shouldn’t be
Check three things on your kid’s page: their awake hours for today, whether they’ve used today’s limit, and whether they’re paused. If the times look off, check your family’s time zone in Settings.
The tablet’s code won’t work
Codes last 10 minutes and the tablet replaces them on its own. Use the code on screen right now. Too many wrong codes pause code entry for a little while.
Notifications don’t show on an iPad
Add Scribbles to the Home Screen first, open it from there, then tap Turn on notifications. Also check that Notifications is on for that device in Devices.
The invite email didn’t arrive
Ask them to check spam, or share the link or code from Invite a family instead.
I can’t find my kid’s friend
You need to connect with their family first. Invite them, and once they’ve accepted, the friend shows up in Add a friend.
It keeps asking me to sign in with email
You’re in PIN mode, and that action needs your email code. Sign in on the sheet, then try again.
I don’t recognize a device
Open Devices, check the list, and remove anything you don’t know. Everyone signed in on it is signed out at once.
Still stuck? Ask another Scribbles parent, or check the FAQ on the homepage.