Getting started

Sovela has no passwords. You sign in with a six-digit code sent to your email, and then confirm it’s you with a second factor once you’ve set one up. Once you’ve added a passkey, you can use it instead of the code.

Signing in for the first time

1. Open Sovela and enter your email.
2. Under Where does your family live?, choose your country (the United States or Canada) and your state or province. This decides which country your records are kept in.
3. If someone gave you a referral code, tap Have a referral code? and enter it. It only tells us how you heard about Sovela; nobody learns that you signed up.
4. Tap Email me a code, then enter the code from the email. It expires in 10 minutes.

Signing up and signing in are the same steps: the first time you enter a code, Sovela creates your account.

Setup

After you sign in, Sovela walks you through a short setup. You can stop at any point and pick up where you left off. Each step has a Why this step? note.

• Your name, as your family will see it.
• Your children: add each child’s name, and if you like their birth year.
• About each child: a few words that describe them, and what you hope for them.
• Your values and words to come back to: these are private. Only you will ever see them.
• A picture of the future and one good thing about the other parent. You can skip that one if it isn’t safe or true for you.
• Your parenting plan: upload it as a PDF or text file, and Sovela reads it. If the other parent has already added it, you see its name and where reading has got to. You can add it later instead.
• Ground rules: what Sovela’s private check on your messages looks for, in plain words: a tone that isn’t calm (name-calling, contempt or absolutes, a verdict on the other parent, blame or mind-reading, a threat, a hate statement, sarcasm, profanity, all caps, or repeated punctuation), and asking a child to pass something on. Only you ever see a flag. The other parent never does, and a flag never stops a message from being sent.
• Your team: invite your attorney privately (the other parent can’t see this), or propose a neutral such as a mediator. A neutral needs both parents, so it’s offered once the other parent has joined. Both are off until you choose. See working with professionals.
• How to reach you: allow notifications, verify a phone number so an important message can reach you by text if a notification doesn’t, and set quiet hours or digests. Notifications and texts never mention Sovela or show what a message says.

From the children onwards, every step can be left for later: Continue always works.

Setup ends with Start using Sovela, and a chance to invite the other parent.

Using Sovela on your own

Everything in Sovela works for you alone. Until the other parent joins, schedules apply straight away. A few things need them to be on Sovela: swapping nights, and sending an emergency alert.