If someone in your family is already on Haklo and they want you in, they'll send you an invite — usually as an email with a link. Tap the link, set up an account (or sign into one you already have), and you're in. The whole thing takes a couple of minutes.
This page is for the person being invited. If you're the one sending an invite, see Setting up your family.
Getting in
What does the invite look like?
You'll get an email from the family member who added you. Inside is a link — tap it on the phone where you want Haklo installed.
If you don't have the app yet, the link will take you to the App Store or Google Play first. Install Haklo, then tap the link again from your email — it'll open the app the second time.
What does the screen look like when the link works?
The app opens to a confirmation screen showing two things:
- The name your family member used for you — for example, "Hey Maya!"
- The name of the family you've been invited to
If both look right, you're in the right place. If either is wrong, stop here and check with the person who invited you before continuing.
What if the link doesn't open the app?
Sometimes deep links don't fire — usually because the app wasn't installed when you first tapped the link, or your email client opened it in a browser instead of the app. The fix is the paste route: open Haklo manually, tap Join a family on the sign-in screen, and paste the invite code from the email link into the Invite Code field.
The invite code is the long string after ?token= in the link. Copy that part, paste it in, tap Continue, and you'll land on the same confirmation screen.
What if the code says it's not valid?
Three common reasons:
- The code was already used. Each invite link is a one-time door — once an account has accepted it, the link can't be reused.
- The code expired. Invites time out after a while if they're never used.
- You typed or pasted it wrong. The code is long. Copy-paste rather than type it.
In any of these cases, ask the person who invited you to send a new invite. They can do that from Settings → Family Members in their app.
Setting up your account
Do I need a Haklo account already?
No. The join screen lets you do either path:
- New Account — most common. Pick an email and a password (at least 6 characters, confirmed twice). Tap Create Account & Join and you're in.
- Sign In — for people who already have a Haklo account from another time. Use your existing email and password, then tap Sign In & Join.
What if I already have a Haklo account from a different family?
Right now Haklo accounts belong to one family at a time. If you're already in a different family and want to join a new one, the cleanest path is to set up a new account with a different email address. (We know this is something blended families and split households eventually need handled better; it's tracked but not yet shipped.)
Do I need to use the email the invite was sent to?
No — you can sign up with any email you want. The invite is keyed to the link, not the email address. So if your family member sent the invite to your work email but you'd rather sign up with your personal one, that's fine. Just sign up with whichever email you actually want to use, and the invite will accept it.
What happens right after you join
Where do I land?
The home screen of your family. You'll see who else is in the family, when the next gathering is scheduled, and a short welcome-style panel introducing what to expect — including a mention of who created the family.
What am I supposed to do first?
Nothing, really. There's no homework. Haklo is built around the weekly gathering — a 15-minute thing your family does together — and you'll participate when it happens. If your family runs gatherings synchronously (everyone in the same room or on a call together), you just show up at the agreed time. If they run gatherings asynchronously, you'll get a notice when it's your turn to add your input.
If you want a sense of what a gathering actually involves, see The weekly gathering.
Will my family see what I share?
Inside a gathering, yes — that's the point of the ritual. Heard notes are private to the recipient (see Heard). Coaching messages addressed to you are private to you (see AI Coaching).
Can I leave a family later?
Yes. Settings has a Leave family option. Leaving removes you from the family's roster going forward; gatherings you've already participated in remain in the family's record (the family relies on them as shared memory).
A few things people ask
Why does the invite say a different name than I'd use for myself?
The person who set up your family chose a name when they added you — often a nickname, a short version, or just their default for you in conversation. That's the name that shows on the confirmation screen. Once you're in, you can change your display name in Settings → Profile.
Can I see what was discussed in past gatherings before I joined?
Yes. The family record includes everyone's input from every gathering. As a member of the family, you have access to that history.
Do I have to subscribe to Plus?
No. Plus is a family-level subscription, set up by a parent or guardian. If your family is on Plus, you get the AI coaching layer automatically. If they're not, you have full access to gatherings, Heard, and the family record — Plus is only the AI layer on top.
Missing something or got a question this page didn't answer? Let us know — we update this page from real questions.