Question 1

We already have a family WhatsApp group. Why would we need Kunbaa?

Accepted Answer

Keep the group — that's where the day's chatter lives. Kunbaa does the two jobs a chat is not built for: it keeps, and it takes the calls. Worth knowing: WhatsApp compresses photos and videos substantially, and media on its servers can expire after a limited period — so an old photo can fail to re-download if the sender no longer has the original. Kunbaa stores the full-quality file in your family's own archive, with the names, dates and story kept beside it, so in forty years it still opens.

Question 2

How is Kunbaa different from Google Photos or iCloud?

Accepted Answer

Google Photos knows a face keeps showing up; it doesn't know she's your mother. Kunbaa keeps the family itself — a tree that records who everyone is to each other — right beside the photos, stories, recipes and dates. A camera roll gives you pictures with nobody left to explain them; Kunbaa keeps the explanation in the same private place, where only your family can open it.

Question 3

How is Kunbaa different from Ancestry or MyHeritage?

Accepted Answer

They do a different job, and they do it well: records, DNA and ancestors — research about the past. Kunbaa is a private home for the family that's alive right now. Ancestry hides living people by design, and there's no family calendar, chat or video calling there. If you love the research, use both: keep the records over there and the living family here. On price, as of mid-2026 Ancestry's plans run from $229 to $479 per year; Kunbaa Plus is $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year for the whole family.

Question 4

What does Kunbaa cost?

Accepted Answer

Everyone in the family joins free — the tree, the wall, chat, voice and video calls, events and Family Safety, with room to build the tree and start the photos. There is one paid plan: Kunbaa Plus, $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year (17% less, about $13 a month for the whole family). One person pays, on kunbaa.com; everyone else in the family is covered by that one subscription. A first subscription bought on kunbaa.com starts with a 30-day free trial — a card is required, and the charge for the interval you chose is taken when the trial ends unless you cancel first. While an early-bird offer is running, families who join early can take a discounted first year instead of the trial, renewing at $159.99 a year.

Question 5

What does the money actually buy?

Accepted Answer

Keeping — and we'd rather say that plainly than dress it up. Free is enough to build the tree, talk, call and add the first photos, honestly not enough to hold a real family archive. Kunbaa Plus is what keeps it: longer videos in the family archive where free keeps to short clips, room for the whole family's archive rather than enough to begin, and the photos and videos shared in chat kept for as long as the family is on Plus — the free plan keeps those for a year, then lets them go. One purchase covers every relative.

Question 6

Will my elderly parents actually use it?

Accepted Answer

They mostly don't have to. Someone installs the app for them once, and after that looking is one tap — your side posts, and they see the grandchildren. Contribution is optional; receiving is easy. Kunbaa is built so a handful of keepers do the adding and everyone else simply enjoys what arrives.

Question 7

Can my kids have their own accounts?

Accepted Answer

No — Kunbaa accounts are 18+, on purpose. Adults keep it, kids are in it: your children appear in the tree and throughout the photos, added by you, which at eleven is what you'd want anyway. Adults-only means no stranger can ever be inside your family's space, and Kunbaa is not collecting data on children.

Question 8

How private is Kunbaa? Is it encrypted?

Accepted Answer

Private means exactly this: invite-only, no ads, nobody's data sold, and nobody outside your family can see anything. To be straight about what it does not mean: Kunbaa is not end-to-end encrypted — server-side features like search and the family digests couldn't work if it were. Your data travels encrypted between your device and our servers, and private family spaces are never ad inventory. The help page 'How private is Kunbaa' has the full detail.

Question 9

What happens if I stop paying?

Accepted Answer

Your family's archive is never deleted and stays readable to everyone in the family, and anything kept under Plus stays kept. Adding is limited to the free allowance until you renew, videos in the archive go back to short clips, and photos and videos sent in chat after that follow the free plan's one-year window.

Question 10

How long are photos and videos sent in chat kept?

Accepted Answer

On the free plan, photos and videos sent in chat are kept for a year from sending, and then let go — a placeholder says so, and in the last month anyone who runs the family can tap Keep this to move one into the family archive for good. On Kunbaa Plus they are kept in the archive for as long as the family is on Plus, and anything kept under Plus is never deleted afterwards. On either plan, sending is never blocked by the archive being full.

Question 11

Can I get my photos and data back out?

Accepted Answer

Yes — though today it goes through us, and we'd rather tell you that plainly. A self-serve 'download everything' export — full-resolution photos and videos, voice notes, and the tree — is being built. Until it ships, contact support and we'll prepare your complete archive for you. You should never feel locked in.

Question 12

Can I import our existing tree from Ancestry or MyHeritage?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Export it as a GEDCOM file — MyHeritage, Ancestry, Family Tree Maker, Gramps and most genealogy programs can — then open kunbaa.com in a browser and go to Tools → Import a GEDCOM. Kunbaa reads the file in your browser, matches it against the people already on your tree, and shows you exactly what it will write before it writes anything; the people appear in the app straight away. There is a WhatsApp route too: export your family's WhatsApp group, say who each person is to you, and they join the tree — no message is read or kept. If you only have a list or a photo of a handwritten tree, send it to support and we'll build the tree for you while Kunbaa is new.

Question 13

Can we make calls?

Accepted Answer

Soon — private voice and video calls, free for everyone, inside the Kunbaa mobile app (coming soon to the App Store and Google Play), right beside chat. One-to-one from the top of any chat, or a group of up to 4 people including you free — up to 6 on Kunbaa Plus — started from a family group chat or by tapping Add during a call. Only the relatives in your family space can ring you — there is no phone number to hand out — and the call starts from their page on the family tree, beside the photos you are about to ask about.

Question 14

What works on the website versus the mobile app?

Accepted Answer

The mobile app, coming soon to the App Store and Google Play, is the daily surface: chat and family groups, calls, and the opt-in Family Safety features live there. The website has the tree, the wall with the same choice of who sees each post, the photo library, events, member permissions, and the two importers — a GEDCOM file from another family-tree program, or a WhatsApp group — and it is where a plan bought on kunbaa.com is managed. What you post in one place is what the family sees in the other.

Question 15

Does Kunbaa help with family safety?

Accepted Answer

Yes, with an opt-in Family Safety feature: location sharing and a shared Live Map that stay off until someone turns them on. Share for a set time — 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours — or until you stop, with everyone in the family or only the relatives you pick; on iPhone you can also choose Always for roughly hourly updates when the app is closed. Any of it can be stopped at any time, and nothing is tracked until you enable it. It is free for the whole family, and it is not an emergency or monitoring service.

Question 16

What is the best way to get my family started?

Accepted Answer

Start small. Create your space, add yourself, connect your parents and siblings, and invite a handful of people first. Then add twenty photos you actually care about — the moment the tree holds your real people and real photos is the moment the family understands what it's for.

Question 17

How do I build the family tree?

Accepted Answer

Open the Tree tab, tap your own card, then Add — pick the relationship (mother, father, spouse, daughter, son, and so on) and give them a name. Grow outwards from each card: open your mother's card to add her parents and siblings, your partner's card for their side. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, step-parents and in-laws are all there, and a relative who has passed can be marked so, with or without a date. Press and hold anyone for a ring of actions, including viewing the tree from their place. The step-by-step guide is in Help.

Question 18

Do relatives need an account to be on the tree?

Accepted Answer

No. Anyone can be a person on the tree — grandparents, children, relatives who have passed. An account is only for someone who will open Kunbaa themselves; when you invite them, their account links to the place you already made for them.

Question 19

What goes on the wall?

Accepted Answer

Photos, videos, voice notes and stories, seen only by the people in your family space — and, if you choose, only by your extended family or your household. A post with a photo or video is a memory drop, and the Moments tab gathers them day by day. Large photos are resized to upload quickly and kept at a size that prints well.

Question 20

Can I choose who sees a post?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every post is private to your family space; when you post you can narrow it further to Extended family (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) or Household (your parents, partner and children), worked out from the family tree. The choice is applied on our servers to the wall, the library and comments alike, so a relative outside the circle never receives it.

Question 21

Can I control what a relative can do?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Whoever runs the family sets each member's level — Admin, Can post, or View only — and three switches per person: post on the wall, add people to the tree, message family members. You pick them when you send the invite and can change them later from the member's profile; a relative who wants more can tap Request access.

Question 22

Why did my posts show two different names?

Accepted Answer

Signing in with email one day and Google the next used to carry a different name each time. Now one account has one name: set a Preferred name under Profile (tap your photo at the top of the app to open the menu) and it is shown on every post, chat and tree card, whichever way you sign in — including the old ones.

Question 23

How do calls work?

Accepted Answer

From the top of any direct line, tap the handset for voice or the camera for video; from a family group chat, pick up to three relatives for a group call on the free plan, or up to five relatives on Kunbaa Plus, or tap Add during a call. Calls are free and ring on every device your relative is signed in on — including the lock screen when the app is closed for a one-to-one call. Every call leaves one line in the thread, so a missed call is never lost.

Question 24

Can I plan an event and split up the jobs?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Kunbaa tab → Events → +. Name it, set the date and place, choose who's invited. Underneath every event is a to-do list — book the table, bring the cake — with an owner for each job. Birthdays from the tree appear on the family calendar on their own.

Question 25

Does Family Safety track me?

Accepted Answer

Only as much as you choose. Location sharing is off until you turn it on and shares only with the people you pick. A timed share — 15 minutes, 1 hour or 8 hours — keeps updating in the background and stops by itself; While using shares while the app is open; Always, on iPhone only, which you enable separately after an in-app explanation and your phone's own permission prompt, also sends your position about once an hour when the app is closed. Saved places (home, school, care, work) can send arrival and departure alerts to the family members you choose.

Question 26

How do I sign in? Is there a password?

Accepted Answer

No password. Enter your email and Kunbaa sends a six-digit code; or use Sign in with Apple or Google. After the first sign-in on a device, Face ID or your fingerprint gets you back in. If a code doesn't arrive, check spam and tap Resend — codes expire after a few minutes.

Question 27

Can I use Kunbaa on more than one device?

Accepted Answer

Yes — phone, tablet and the website, with the same email. Everything is the same everywhere, and calls ring wherever you're signed in.