Kunbaa is for families whose best photos and stories are buried in a WhatsApp group — a private space with a real family tree, a wall where each photo keeps its names and its date, and calls that only a relative can place.
WhatsApp is the family's daily conversation: free, end-to-end encrypted, and already on everyone's phone. Kunbaa is where the family is kept: a private, invite-only space with a family tree, a wall where every photo carries the names and the date, events with reminders, and chat and calls that only a relative can start. Most families keep the WhatsApp group for the chatter and move the keeping, and the calls, to Kunbaa.
At a glance, as of September 2026. Kunbaa facts describe the current release; WhatsApp facts are quoted from its own site.
| Compared | Kunbaa | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is for | Keeping: a family tree with everyone's place and birthday on it, a wall for the photos and stories worth keeping, and calls only family can place | Talking: the daily conversation, the group, the forwards, the good-morning messages |
| Who is in it | Only the relatives you invite, each an adult with their own account | Anyone with your phone number; groups and communities can hold thousands |
| Photos and videos | Kept in the family's own archive with the names, the place and roughly when written in the caption. Room to begin on the free plan; room for the whole archive on Kunbaa Plus | Compressed to send quickly, and stored on WhatsApp's servers for a limited period, so an old photo can fail to re-download once the sender no longer has it |
| Who sees a post | Your choice each time: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household | Everyone in the group you posted it to |
| Family tree | The centre of the product: who everyone is and how they are related, both sides, all the branches | None; organised around chats and groups |
| Birthdays and events | Events with reminders, and the photos attach to the event afterwards so the day is kept | Whoever remembers posts in the group |
| Chat | Coming soonGroup and one-to-one chat in the Kunbaa app, coming soon to the stores; photos sent in chat are kept for a year on the free plan and move into the archive on Kunbaa Plus | Excellent. Groups, communities, voice notes, disappearing messages, on phone, desktop and web |
| Calls | Coming soonOne-to-one voice and video, and group calls of up to 4 people including you free (up to 6 on Kunbaa Plus), started from a relative's page on the tree. Only your family can ring you. In the app, coming soon | End-to-end encrypted voice and video, WhatsApp group calls of up to 32 people, from a phone number anyone who has it can ring |
| Privacy model | Invite-only family space: no ads, nobody's data sold, nobody outside the family sees anything. Not end-to-end encrypted — we say that plainly | Personal messages and calls are end-to-end encrypted; ads appear in the Updates tab, and WhatsApp says personal messages are not used to choose them |
| Price | Free to start — the tree, the wall, chat, calls and events. Kunbaa Plus is $15.99/mo or $159.99/yr for the whole family's archive; one person pays | Free |
The Sydney cousins post at breakfast, the Delhi aunties reply at dinner, and the photo of Nani's ninetieth is somewhere in eleven thousand messages. On Kunbaa it is on the wall, captioned, under her name on the tree, where the next generation can find it.
Your parents are on WhatsApp because everyone is. Kunbaa gives them one quiet space with only family in it: the grandchildren's photos, the birthdays, and a call that only a relative can start, so nobody has to teach them to ignore a stranger's ring.
A chat can show you what was said in March. It cannot tell you who is in the photo. Kunbaa writes the names, the place and roughly when into the caption, and puts the photo next to the person on the tree.
WhatsApp is good at its job. This is the plain list of what changes if your family moves this part of its life to Kunbaa.
Every photo, video, story or voice note goes up with a caption that says who, where and roughly when, and lands beside the person on the tree. Memory Lane runs the whole archive as a timeline the family can scroll back through together. Choose who each post reaches: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household.
The wall and Memory Lane →
WhatsApp knows a phone number. Kunbaa knows that Priya is your mother's youngest sister. Everyone you invite gets their own place on the tree with their birthday on it, relatives add their own branches, and the photos they share sit on their profile instead of scattering across chats.
The Kunbaa family tree →
A Kunbaa call starts from a relative's page on the tree, so nobody hands out a phone number and no stranger can ring your mother. Voice and video are one-to-one, and a group call holds up to 4 people including you free — up to 6 on Kunbaa Plus. Calls arrive with the Kunbaa app, coming soon to the App Store and Google Play; the bigger Sunday call can stay on WhatsApp.
Kunbaa vs WhatsApp for family calls →
Birthdays come from the tree, so nobody is forgotten. Plan the reunion as an event with reminders and a to-do list, and afterwards the photos attach to it — the day is kept as a day, not as a run of messages.
Events and reminders →
Only the relatives you invite can enter the space, there are no ads, and nobody's data is sold. Kunbaa is not end-to-end encrypted like WhatsApp; the privacy help page explains exactly what is encrypted where, and an admin sets per-member permissions for posting, adding to the tree and messaging.
How private is Kunbaa? →No, and it is not trying to. The group is where the day's chatter lives. Kunbaa keeps the things the chat loses — the photos, stories and voice notes, with the names and the date written down — on a wall beside a real family tree. One thing does move: the call. A Kunbaa call can only come from a relative in your family space, so nobody hands out a phone number.
Put carefully: WhatsApp compresses photos and videos to send them quickly, and stores media on its servers for a limited period, so an old photo can fail to re-download if the sender no longer has the original. Usually the original is still in someone's camera roll, so it is rarely lost — but it is rarely findable either. Kunbaa keeps each photo in the family's own archive with the names in the caption, next to the person on the tree.
They are private in different ways. WhatsApp end-to-end encrypts personal messages and calls. Kunbaa is not end-to-end encrypted: private in Kunbaa means invite-only, no ads, nobody's data sold, and nobody outside the family able to see anything. The privacy help page explains what is encrypted where.
Yes. Each post on the wall goes to the audience you pick: everyone in the family, the extended family, or just your household — your parents, partner and children. The default is everyone, and you can change it post by post.
Yes, small ones. A Kunbaa group call holds up to 4 people including you free — up to 6 on Kunbaa Plus — voice or video, and only relatives in your family space can join. WhatsApp carries up to 32 on one call, so a whole-family call is still WhatsApp's job.
Chat and calls arrive with the Kunbaa mobile app, which is coming soon to the App Store and Google Play; join the waitlist below and we will email you when it is out. The family tree, the wall, events, member permissions and the WhatsApp group importer already work on kunbaa.com, free.
You may not need to. Kunbaa's free plan includes the tree, the wall, chat, calls, events, Family Safety and room to start the photos. Kunbaa Plus, at $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year (17% less, about $13 a month for the whole family), keeps the rest: longer videos in the family archive, room for the whole archive, and the photos and videos from the family chat kept while you are on Plus, where the free plan keeps them for a year. One person pays, on kunbaa.com; everyone else in the family joins free.
Yes, one at a time, as posts on the wall with a caption — there is no bulk import from WhatsApp. Families usually start with the twenty photos that matter and add as they go. A photo that only exists in the group can be saved to the phone first and then posted. The people in the group are a different story: export the group from WhatsApp and import it on kunbaa.com, or under Members → Import in the app, and Kunbaa places everyone on your tree in relation to you. Not one message is read or kept. See how the WhatsApp group import works.
More questions? Read the full FAQ or what private means in Kunbaa.
Start the tree, invite the family, and put the twenty photos that matter on the wall with the names written down. The chat and the calls join it in the Kunbaa app.
Everyone in the family joins free. When you want room for the whole archive, one person takes Kunbaa Plus at $15.99 a month or $159.99 a year — about $13 a month for the whole family.
Coming soonChat and calls arrive with the Kunbaa app, coming soon to the App Store and Google Play.