How can we help?

It takes about two minutes. On their phone:

1. Open the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android), search for Funstead, and buy it. It's $14.99, once.
2. Open Funstead. At "Hi! Who's playing?", type their first name and tap Continue.
3. Tap Choose photos and pick lots of family photos at once. Blurry shots, copies and screenshots are skipped by themselves. (No photos handy? Use sample pictures for now, and add photos later in Settings.)
4. On iPhone, you'll be asked whether the family shares an album with them. Choose it now, or tap Not now (see "The shared family album" below).
5. Tap Start playing, and hand them the phone.

Then check the text size together: Settings › Text size.

iPhones with iOS 15 or later, and Android phones with Android 7.0 or later. Once it's installed, it works without Wi-Fi or a data connection.

iPhone: yes. In the App Store, open Funstead, tap the Share button, then Gift App. They get an email and tap to download it.

Android: Google Play doesn't offer gifting for single apps. Buy it on their phone when you set it up, or send them a Google Play gift card.

Same family? With Apple Family Sharing or Google Play Family Library, one purchase covers everyone in your family group, up to six people.

No. You pay once and every game and every level is included. There are no ads, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions and nothing for them to sign up for.

Open Settings › Family photos and tap Add photos. Pick as many as you like. The app keeps its own copies inside the app, so the originals in the phone's photo library aren't changed.

If some photos were skipped, it's because they looked blurry or dark, were copies of photos already added, or looked like screenshots or documents.

A shared album lets the whole family add photos from anywhere, and they appear in Mom's games by themselves.

1. On your iPhone, open Photos, make a new Shared Album (say, "For Mom") and invite Mom and the family.
2. On Mom's iPhone, open Photos and accept the invitation (it's under Shared Albums). If you can't see Shared Albums, turn it on in Settings › [her name] › iCloud › Photos.
3. In Funstead on her phone, open Settings › Family album › Choose an album and pick it. When asked, allow Full Access to photos, so Funstead can see new photos as they arrive.

New photos show up the next time she opens Funstead. The shared album works on iPhone only for now. On Android, add photos in Settings › Family photos, or use Family Connect when it arrives in December.

Open Settings › Family photos, tap the photo, then Remove from the app. It's removed from Funstead only; the phone's photo library isn't touched. If the photo has a story, the app asks first, because the story goes with it.

To stop using a shared album: Settings › Family album › Turn off.

No. The photos you pick are copied into the app on that phone and never uploaded by the app. Funstead has no ads and no tracking. On Android, Google's photo tool (which finds faces on the phone, so photos are framed nicely) sends Google basic diagnostics, never photos. The privacy policy has the details.

Settings › Text size: Standard, Large, Larger or Largest. Funstead starts at the phone's own text size.

Also in Settings: Appearance (Auto, Light or Dark), Sound and Vibration, and under More settings, High contrast and Animations.

Every game has Easy, Medium and Hard. Tap the level shown at the top of the game to change it. Every game also has a short "How to play" (the question-mark button), hints, and Undo wherever it makes sense.

When looking at a family photo, tap Add a story, then talk or type: who's in it, where it was, what happened. To record, tap Record your voice, talk, and tap Stop (up to 3 minutes).

The first time, the phone asks to use the microphone. Funstead uses it only while recording, and stories stay on the phone until she taps Share. If the microphone was turned off: on iPhone, Settings › Funstead › Microphone; on Android, Settings › Apps › Funstead › Permissions › Microphone. Stories can always be written instead.

No. Sign in with the same Apple Account or Google account, and download Funstead again for free:

• iPhone: in the App Store, tap your picture, then Apps (or Purchased), and download Funstead. Searching for it also works: it shows a download button instead of the price.
• Android: in Google Play, search for Funstead. It shows Install instead of the price.

Photos and game progress are kept on the old phone, so you'll pick photos again on the new one. (Moving to a new iPhone from a backup or with Quick Start usually brings them along.)

Refunds are handled by the store you bought from:

• App Store: go to reportaproblem.apple.com, sign in, and choose Request a refund. Apple decides, usually within a couple of days.
• Google Play: within 48 hours of buying, request a refund in Google Play (your order history). After that, email us your Google Play order number (it starts with "GPA.") and we'll help.

Delete the app from the phone. Funstead keeps your photos, names, stories and progress only on the phone, so there's nothing left on our side. To clear just scores: Settings › More settings › Reset all progress (photos and stories stay).

Family Connect arrives in a free update in December. Up to six family members will be able to send photos with captions to Mom's games from their own phones or computers, and choose which games show first on her home screen. Her phone joins the family once, with a code, and gets new photos whenever she opens Funstead.

Up to six family members can send photos with captions to Mom's games from their own phones or computers, at family.funsteadgames.com, and choose which games show first on her home screen. Her phone joins the family once, with a code, and gets new photos whenever she opens Funstead. Step-by-step help is on the Family Connect help page.

No. It's included with Funstead. There's nothing to buy and no subscription.

Only the people in your family, and Mom on her phone. Photos are never public, location details are removed before they're sent, and faces are only ever found on Mom's phone. Mom can hide or report any photo, and the person who set up the family can remove photos and people. Read how Family Connect handles photos.

Our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use are written in plain English. For any privacy question or request, including asking us to remove a photo of you or your child from Family Connect, email support@funsteadgames.com.