Setting up for the first time
Opening CareHaven the first time should feel calm, not like homework. You add one person, answer as little or as much as you want, and the app shows you the rest as you go. You can start small today and fill in the details over time. Nothing here is permanent, and nothing is required except a name.
On this page
The welcome
When you open CareHaven for the very first time, a welcome card greets you on the Home screen. From here you can begin setting up the person you care for, or, if you'd rather look around first, tap to try with a demo profile and explore a fully-filled-in example with no setup at all. See Exploring with demo data for more on that. Available
Adding the first person
A person in CareHaven is the loved one you're caring for — your child, your parent, whoever you look after. Each person gets their own separate space: their own day, their own logs, their own everything.
Setup is one calm screen at a time, and only the name is required. Available You can stop right there and start using the app. The other details — a birthday, sex, any diagnoses — are offered along the way, and every one of them is skippable. Add what you know now; come back for the rest whenever it's convenient.
A few of the optional details quietly shape the app to fit your person:
- Name and color — the color becomes that person's identifier throughout the app, on the profile pill and across their screens.
- Date of birth — their age is then worked out for you and shown on their profile. It also helps the app suggest the right kinds of checks and ranges later on.
- Sex — used only to show or hide a couple of features that depend on it (for example, the cycle log is hidden for male profiles).
- Diagnoses or conditions — when you add a condition (autism, epilepsy, a feeding issue, and so on), CareHaven reshapes itself to fit. It brings forward the tools and tips that match, and keeps the rest out of your way. You'll never wade through features meant for someone else's loved one.
If you skip something during setup, it isn't lost. CareHaven puts a gentle reminder card on your Home screen so you can finish the skipped items later, in your own time. Available
The guided walkthrough (choose your path)
After you've added your first person, CareHaven offers a guided walkthrough so you don't have to hunt for anything. Available At the start there's a choose-your-path fork — a simple pick that points you toward the parts of the app most useful for your situation, so you see what matters to you first.
The walkthrough is a self-teaching coach tour. Instead of a wall of instructions up front, it gently spotlights things the first time they actually matter — the + button for quick logging, the menus, and search — and then ends back on your Home screen, ready to use. It's calm and skippable; if you'd rather explore on your own, you can.
For more on the buttons and menus it points out, see Finding your way around and The Home screen.
Replaying the walkthrough later
If you want a refresher, you can replay the whole walkthrough any time from Settings → Help → Walkthrough. Available You can re-run the live coach tour, re-watch the basics in a read-only way, or step through the interactive choose-your-path again. Replaying never changes your saved data — it's just for learning.
Adding more people later
You're not limited to one person. CareHaven holds up to 12 people on a device, each with a completely separate profile. Available
To add another person, tap the colored profile pill in the top-right of the screen to open the person switcher, then add a new person there. Setup works the same way — only a name is required, and you can fill in the rest over time.
Switching between people
Tap the colored pill in the top-right of any screen to open the person switcher, then tap a name to switch. Available The entire app changes context to that person — everything you see, every log and list, belongs to whoever is selected. Each person's color helps you tell at a glance whose space you're in.
You can start small
You don't need a finished profile to get value from CareHaven. Add a name, jot down one thing you want to remember, and you've started. The app is built to carry the weight for you, not add to it — so fill in the rest at your own pace, a little at a time.
When you're ready to add your wider circle — doctors, therapists, teachers, family — you can build out Your team and contacts and bring people in to share the care (see Sharing care with others). And if you'd like to see what a fully-set-up profile looks like before committing, Exploring with demo data is the easiest way.