Everything you need to run your family on mKids

What is mKids?

mKids turns your family's routines into missions that kids complete, parents review, and that earn points kids can save in a Piggy Bank and cash in with your approval.

One parent account holds the whole family. Inside it you create a profile for each child. The app calls them kids and, in some screens, heroes; both words mean the same thing. Everyone in the family can share photos in the Family Gallery and chat.

Where you can use it

Who does what

Quick start checklist

Set up a working family in about ten minutes. Each step links to the detailed instructions.

1. Install the app from Google Play, or open the web app in your browser. How →
2. Create your parent account. On the phone you'll also choose a 4-digit control panel PIN; keep it to yourself. How →
3. Add your kids, one profile each, with an optional 4-digit kid PIN. How →
4. Set your family rules: what one point is worth in KES, and the age the diary opens. How →
5. Plan the first missions: pick a category, assign kids, set points and how often it repeats. How →
6. Hand over the phone. Kids tap their face on the profile picker and get going. How →
7. Review and approve completed missions so points land in their Piggy Bank. How →
8. Before the free trial ends, choose a plan and pay with M-Pesa. How →

Words you will see

Kid / Hero(e)

A child profile in your family. Each has their own missions, points, diary and PIN.

Mission

A task you plan for a kid, such as “Make your bed”, with a category, time, points and a repeat pattern.

Routine mission

A mission you planned. Shown in the Planner's Routine Missions tab.

Extra Mile

Something helpful a kid did without being asked. They log it, you review it, and you can award points. Available on plans that include it.

Blocker

A reason a kid can't finish a mission (“I need help with my homework”). Blocked missions show up for you to help with.

Points

Earned when you approve a completed mission or Extra Mile. You decide what a point is worth in money.

Piggy Bank

Each kid's saved points and their value. Kids send redemption requests; you approve or decline them.

Review Panel

One place for everything waiting on you: completed missions, Extra Mile submissions and redemption requests.

Control panel PIN

Your 4-digit parent PIN. It protects the parent area and plan payments on a shared device.

Kid PIN

An optional 4-digit PIN per kid so siblings can't open each other's profiles.

Account number

Your family's payment account number. It's simply the phone number you registered with (for example 0712345678). Use it as the Account Number when paying through M-Pesa outside the app.

Family Gallery

Shared family photo feed with likes, comments and favourites. A post is also called a Family Moment.

Spark Ideas

Quick photo or activity suggestions from anyone in the family, which a parent reviews.

Plan / package

Your subscription level. It sets how many kids you can add, the daily mission limit, and whether points and Extra Mile are included.

Plans, free trial & payment

Your free trial

Every new family starts with a 2-month free trial with full access. The parent Home screen shows a banner as the end gets close, and we email you a reminder each day during the last 10 days.

Current plans

Choosing a plan and paying with M-Pesa (in the app)

1. Open the menu (☰) in the parent area and tap Packages. If your trial or plan has ended, you'll be taken there automatically after signing in.
2. Pick a plan and, where offered, Monthly or Annual billing. The screen shows whether the plan fits your current number of kids.
3. Tap Continue to secure confirmation, check the summary, and enter your control panel PIN.
4. Tap Confirm subscription. An M-Pesa prompt appears on your registered phone. Enter your M-Pesa PIN to pay.
5. Once the payment is confirmed, your new plan becomes active and you'll see Subscription active. We also email you a confirmation.

What happens when access ends

• Trial ends without a plan: the family app locks. After signing in you're taken straight to Packages, and kid profiles can't be opened until a plan is active. Nothing is deleted: kids, missions, points and history are all kept.
• A paid plan expires: the same lock applies from the end date until you renew. Renewing restores everything straight away.
• Plan limits: a plan that supports fewer kids than you have can't be selected until you remove kids. Daily mission limits apply per kid.

Install & first launch

1. On your Android phone or tablet (Android 8.0 or newer), open Google Play, search for mKids, and tap Install. The download link on our website takes you to the same listing.
2. Open the app. After the splash screen, a short introduction explains planning, daily routines, family progress, live mission status and chat. Swipe through or tap Skip, then tap Get Started.
3. You arrive at the sign-in screen. New families tap New parent? Create account.

Create an account & sign in

Create your parent account (2 steps)

1. Step 1 of 2: your details. Enter your First name and Last name, choose your country code (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa, UK, US or custom), and type your Phone number without the leading zero, for example 724743788. Tap Next.
2. Step 2 of 2: security. Enter your Email, a Password of at least 8 characters, and confirm it.
3. Choose a 4-digit Control panel PIN. You'll use it to open the parent area and to confirm plan payments on this device.
4. Tick I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy (tap either link to read them), then tap Create account.
5. When you see Account created, tap Continue to sign in.

Sign in

1. Enter your email and password and tap Sign in.
2. You'll land on the profile picker. If your trial or plan has ended, you'll see Packages first. See Plans.

Forgot your password?

1. On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot password?, enter your email and tap Send code.
2. Check your email for a 6-digit code, enter it and tap Verify code. If it didn't arrive, tap Resend code and check your spam folder.
3. Choose and confirm a new password (8+ characters) and tap Update password. Then sign in with the new password.

The profile picker: “Who's learning today?”

After signing in, the app opens on the profile picker, the family's front door. From here:

• Kid tiles: each kid taps their own face to open their profile, entering their PIN if one is set. See Opening a kid profile.
• Parent access (the tile with your name or “Administrator”): enter your 4-digit control panel PIN to open the parent dashboard.
• Add a Kid: jumps straight to the new kid form after your PIN.
• Family Moment: Create Family Moment posts photos to the Family Gallery; View Family Gallery opens the feed.
• Spark Ideas: the two most recent ideas are shown at the top. Add an Idea lets anyone suggest one.
• Birthdays: an upcoming birthday banner appears a few days before a kid's birthday.
• Menu (⋮): refresh kids, check for updates, log out, or exit the app.

When you post to the gallery or add an idea from the picker, the app asks “Who's accessing?”. Pick the person, and the photo, comment or idea is posted under their name.

Forgot your control panel PIN?

1. Tap the parent tile, then Forgot PIN?. A 6-digit reset code is sent to your account email.
2. Enter the code, then your new 4-digit PIN twice, and tap Update PIN.
3. Enter the new PIN to open the control panel.

Parent dashboard tour

The parent area has four tabs at the bottom and a menu (☰) at the top left.

Home

• A greeting, today's date and, near the end of your trial or plan, a banner showing how many days are left.
• Shortcuts: Chats, Planner, Reviews, Kids, Piggy Bank, Gallery, plus Add Activity.
• Today at a glance: Completed Pending In progress Blocked counts.
• Today's activity lane: the top priorities for today across all kids. Switch the active kid to focus on one child.

Planner

Week-by-week missions for each kid. See Plan missions.

Kids

Every kid profile with completion, in-progress and blocked counts. See Add & manage kids.

Profile

Your photo, family progress (kids on track, in motion or needing help), family worth (total points and their value), and a card per kid with a quick Open chat button.

The menu (☰)

Add & manage kids

Add a kid

1. Open the Kids tab and tap +, or use Add Kid on Home or Add a Kid on the profile picker.
2. Optionally Upload Photo (recommended, as it makes the picker easy for little ones).
3. Enter the Name and pick the Date of Birth. The age is used for the diary age gate and birthday reminders.
4. Optionally add Gender, Routine Focus (what they're working on, for example “Morning independence”) and Medical / Learning Notes.
5. To protect the profile, turn on Set a PIN for this kid, then enter and confirm a 4-digit PIN.
6. Tap Save Kid Profile.

Edit a kid

In the Kids tab, tap a kid's ⋮ menu → Edit. You can change the photo, details and notes, use Change PIN, and, for older kids, give them an Email and a New Password so they can sign in on their own device. Tap Save Kid Changes.

Remove a kid

Tap ⋮ → Delete and confirm. The profile is archived and removed from your active kids list. If you removed a kid by mistake, contact support, as archived profiles can be restored.

Reading the Kids tab

• Completion: missions done out of missions planned, with the number in progress and blocked.
• Needs attention appears when a kid has a blocked mission. Open a chat or check the Planner.

Plan missions

Create a mission

1. Tap Add Activity on Home, or + in the Planner.
2. Write the Description: clear, helpful notes for the child.
3. Choose a Category. Categories come with suggested points.
4. Under Assign To, pick one or more kids. The same mission is created for each.
5. Pick the Start Date (and time).
6. Optionally type Points to override the category's suggestion.
7. Choose the Frequency: Once, Repeat daily, Mon-Fri, Weekend, or Custom (pick the days).
8. Tap Add Mission.

Using the Planner

• Pick a kid, then move between weeks with Previous week / Next week, or tap Jump to current week.
• Routine Missions lists what you planned; Extra Mile Missions lists what the kid logged themselves, with a Review button.
• Each mission's ⋮ menu lets you Edit (title, description, day, points) or Delete it.

Mission statuses

Not started → In progress → Completed → Pending parent review → approved or declined. A kid can also mark a mission Blocked with a reason. You'll see “Blocked by child: …” in the Planner and on Home.

Deducting points

If a mission wasn't done and there was no valid blocker, open the mission and choose Deduct points. The app asks you to confirm before taking the mission's points off the kid's balance. Use this sparingly. It works best when the family has agreed the rule in advance.

Review & approve

Points only reach a kid's Piggy Bank after you approve. The Review Panel (menu → Review Panel, or Reviews on Home) collects everything waiting on you.

Approve many at once

1. In Completed Missions, tap Select (or Select all).
2. Tick the missions, optionally add one Parent comment for all of them.
3. Tap Approve selected (or Decline selected) and confirm.

Every decision moves to the tab's History, so you can always see what was approved and when.

Points & Piggy Bank

How points work

• Kids earn points when you approve a completed mission or an Extra Mile submission.
• You set what 1 point is worth in Settings → Money value per point (KES 1 by default).
• Kids see their balance and its value, and can send a redemption request with how many points and what it's for.
• Points and the Piggy Bank are included on plans marked “Points & Piggy Bank”. See Plans.

The parent Piggy Bank (menu → Piggy bank)

• Approval queue: pending requests. Expand one to see the points, cash value and the child's note, then Approve or Decline.
• Kids worth: a leaderboard of each kid's saved points and value, plus the family total.
• Processed: every approved and declined request, kept as a family history.

Chats

• Open Chats from Home or Profile to see your family inbox: one conversation per kid, with unread counts.
• Search by child name, sort by Last activity or Child name, or tap New chat and choose a child.
• Messages show Sent, Delivered and Read, and you'll see when your child is typing.
• Kids open the chat from their profile with Chat with parent. It's the quickest way for them to explain a blocker.

Family Gallery & Spark Ideas

Share a photo (Family Moment)

1. Tap Create Family Moment on the profile picker (or Add Family Photo from a profile) and choose who is sharing.
2. Take Photo or Choose from Gallery. You can add up to 10 photos to one post.
3. Add an optional caption and tap Share photo. Everyone in the family can see, like and comment.

Browse the gallery

• Like ❤️ and comment on posts, or tap the bookmark to save a post to Favorites.
• Search photos or people, and load more as you scroll.
• Delete a post or comment from its detail screen. Kids can delete only their own; parents can remove anything in the family's gallery. Deleting can't be undone.

Spark Ideas

1. On the profile picker, tap Add an Idea, choose who is sharing, enter a Title and Description, and tap Submit idea.
2. Everyone can open an idea to comment, reply and react.
3. Parents review ideas from menu → Spark Ideas: filter Pending / Reviewed, tap Mark reviewed once it's acted on, or Remove idea.

Settings & family rules

Opening a kid profile

This part of the guide is written for kids. Parents, it's worth reading through it together the first time.

1. On the “Who's learning today?” screen, tap your picture.
2. If your parent set a PIN for you, type your 4 numbers. If you type the wrong PIN 5 times, you'll have to wait 5 minutes before trying again.
3. You're in! Your home screen says hello and shows how today is going.

Your home screen

• Today's progress: how many of today's missions you've finished, and your points.
• Quick access: Missions (today's plan), Bank (points and rewards), Diary (how you feel), Chats (message your parent), Gallery (family photos).
• The tabs at the bottom are Home, Missions, Diary, Piggy Bank and Profile.

Doing missions

Open the Missions tab. Scheduled shows the missions your parent planned. Tap a day to see its plan, or use the arrows to move between weeks.

Marking a mission complete

1. Tap Complete on the mission.
2. Under What did you do?, tell your parent in your own words (optional, but it helps).
3. Tap Attach a photo → Take photo or Choose photo to show proof. This is optional, but it helps get approved faster.
4. Tap Mark complete. The mission shows Pending parent review until your parent looks at it.

When something is in the way

Tap Block (or Flag issue), write what's stopping you, for example “I can't find my school shoes”, and tap Save. Your parent sees it straight away. When it's sorted, tap Resume. You can change the reason with Update reason.

Extra Mile missions

Did something helpful nobody asked you to do? Log it and your parent can reward you.

1. In Missions, open the Extra Mile tab and tap Add Extra Mile.
2. Pick a Category. It shows the points suggested for it.
3. Describe What did you complete? and optionally attach a photo from the Camera or Gallery.
4. Tap Submit. You'll see “pts pending review” until your parent decides, then the points awarded and any comment they left.

You can also plan your own: on Profile, use Create Extra Mile Mission to add a mission with a title, description and start and end times. It appears in your mission list straight away.

Piggy Bank for kids

• The Piggy Bank tab shows your balance, the points ready to redeem, and the rate (how much one point is worth).
• History shows every time you earned (or lost) points.

Ask to cash in points

1. Tap New request.
2. Enter the Points to redeem and Why do you want to redeem?, for example “Saving for a football”.
3. Tap Send request. While it's pending you can Edit it or Cancel request.
4. When your parent approves, the points come off your balance and they'll give you the money or treat.

The Diary

The diary is your own space to say how your day went. It opens when you reach the age your parent chose (8 by default). Until then you'll see “Diary locked for now”.

1. Open the Diary tab.
2. Answer How do you feel today? by choosing a feeling: happy, calm, proud, worried, sad or frustrated.
3. Tap Add an optional note if you want to remember something about today.
4. Tap Save to Diary. Your entries are listed by date; use the ⋮ menu to edit or delete one.

Profile, chat & settings

• Your stats: missions, done and blocked, plus your profile details and any notes from your parent.
• Edit profile: pick a built-in avatar or upload a picture, and change your name. Once you reach the diary age you can also set your own password.
• Themes & Personalization: choose your own colours. They're saved just for you.
• Chat with parent: send a message any time, especially when you're stuck.
• Add Family Photo: share a photo to the Family Gallery.
• Settings: turn alerts for mission reminders, reward progress and chat updates on or off, and choose English or Swahili.

Web app for parents

The web app works in any modern browser and uses the same account, kids, missions and points as the phone app. Changes made in one appear in the other.

Create an account or log in

• New family: click Create a free account, then enter your name, email, phone number (format 2547XXXXXXXX; add your M-Pesa number so you can pay for plans) and a password of at least 8 characters, and click Create my account.
• Existing family: enter your email and password and click Log in. You can use the same login on the phone and the web.
• Forgot your password: click Forgot password?, enter your email, then type the 6-digit code from the email and choose a new password.

The family home screen

After logging in you see “Who's learning today?”, the web version of the profile picker:

• Kid cards with points and today's progress. Click one to open that kid's view, entering their PIN if they have one.
• Admin Console (🔒 PIN required): enter your control panel PIN to unlock the full parent console for this session.
• Family Moment: Create Family Moment shares photos; Spark Ideas lets anyone submit an idea.

The parent console

Web app for kids

Kids reach their web view when a parent clicks their card on the home screen (or Log in as hero), entering the kid PIN if one is set.

• Dashboard: today's missions, how many are done, and the points balance, with shortcuts to the Piggy Bank and Extra Mile.
• Missions: click Mark done and optionally tell your parent what you did, then Submit for review. Or click I'm stuck, explain what's blocking you, and click Let my parent know.
• Extra Mile: + Log a bonus chore, pick a category, describe it, and Submit for review.
• Rewards: see your points and their value, Request a payout (how many points and what it's for), and follow your requests and points history.
• Diary: choose how you're feeling and, if you like, fill in today's highlight, a challenge, something you're proud of or grateful for, what you need from a parent, and tomorrow's plan. Click Save entry.
• Gallery: the same family photos as the phone app.
• Profile: update your routine focus and set your own password.

The weekly family workflow

Here is how a typical week runs once everything is set up, from the parent's planning to the kid's reward.

A mission from start to finish

Habits that work

• Sunday: 10 minutes in the Planner, ideally with the kids, so they know what's coming.
• Every evening: clear the Review Panel so points arrive the same day.
• Blockers: respond quickly. A blocker means your child did the right thing by telling you.
• Points: keep values consistent, and pay out approved redemptions promptly.
• Diary (8+): make it a calm daily ritual, not a chore, and respect its privacy.

Privacy, PINs & security

Read the full FAQ and our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy, which are linked on the app's sign-up screen.

Deleting your account

1. In the parent area, open the menu (☰) → Danger Zone.
2. Review what will be removed: every kid profile, their missions, rewards and Piggy Bank history, diary entries and gallery posts.
3. Optionally tell us why, tap Request Account Deletion, and confirm.

• Nothing is deleted straight away. Our team reviews every request, and your account keeps working normally in the meantime.
• You can Cancel deletion request at any time before it's reviewed.
• A deletion request does not cancel or refund an active plan. Contact support about your subscription separately.

Troubleshooting & FAQ

Getting help

Still stuck? We're happy to help.

In the app, About app always shows our latest support details.