sotto.

Support

Email support@createful.com and a person will reply. Below are the questions worth answering before you write.

Setting up

How do I link my child's phone?

On your phone: Family → Add a child, then Link phone. Read the six-digit code to your child; they install Sotto, choose “Mine — I'll be checking in”, and type it in. Their phone then appears on your screen for you to approve. The code lasts ten minutes, and the code alone is never enough — you have to approve that specific phone. Only the guardian who set the child up can link or unlink their phone — other guardians receive check-ins but don't control the device.

I forgot my password

On the sign-in screen, tap Forgot your password? with your email filled in. If that address has a Sotto account, a reset link arrives by email — open it on your iPhone and Sotto opens ready for a new password. The link works once and expires after 30 minutes, and using it signs out every phone that was signed in. Changing your password while signed in lives in Settings → Change password.

I have to verify my email first?

Yes. Email is how Sotto reaches you if a notification doesn't get through, so an address that doesn't work is a hole in the safety net. Adding a child unlocks once it's confirmed. Settings can send the link again.

How do I add another guardian?

Family → Invite a guardian. Either read them a six-digit code (they install Sotto, make an account, type it in, and you approve them), or send an email invite. Either way you choose which children they'll receive check-ins from — the whole family, or only some. Only the guardian who set a child up can add or remove others for that child.

Someone joined by code but hasn't verified their email

They'll receive notifications, but Sotto won't email them until the address is confirmed — an unverified address might be a typo, and a typo must never be told a child has checked in. (The email itself never carries their location: coordinates are only ever shown inside the app.) Their own Settings will nudge them.

When something doesn't arrive

A check-in didn't reach me

Work down this list:

  • Send a test notification — Settings → Notifications. It goes through exactly the same path a real check-in uses. If it doesn't arrive, the problem is notification permission or connectivity, not the check-in.
  • Check iPhone Settings → Notifications → Sotto is allowed, and that a Focus mode isn't holding it back. The two urgent tiers — “call me with an excuse” and “come and get me” — are marked Time Sensitive and come through most Focus modes on their own; the routine tiers respect your Focus, by design.
  • Check your email, including spam. Sotto emails you when a notification goes unanswered.
  • Look at the child's phone: their card says honestly whether it sent, delivered, was seen, or reached nobody.

My child says it wouldn't send

A tap is saved to their phone before anything else happens, so it isn't lost — it goes as soon as there's signal. If their card still shows a problem after they're back online, email us with roughly when it happened.

Nobody answered a “come and get me”

The child's own screen shows a call button for every guardian who has added a phone number, and a Remind them again button that fires a fresh alert to everyone. Sotto is not monitored by anyone at Createful — no one here is watching for unanswered check-ins, which is why the app puts the phone numbers in the child's hand.

My child has no button to call me

Add your number: Settings → Phone, including the country code. That button is the last rung of the ladder — when a check-in has gone unanswered, it's how your child reaches you directly. Until a guardian adds one, their row on the child's Family screen says so plainly. Sotto never sends anything to the number, and your child is never shown the digits; it only powers the button.

Everyday questions

Can I see where my child is right now?

No, and that's deliberate. Sotto only shows where they were at the moment they chose to send a check-in. A child who believes an app is watching them stops carrying it, and then it isn't there when it matters.

My child has gone quiet — can I ask them to check in?

Yes. Family → tap the child → Ask how they're doing sends them a gentle nudge. They answer only if they want to, and your app tells you one thing: that you asked. It will never tell you whether it reached them, whether they looked, or whether they decided not to reply — Sotto doesn't record any of that, so nobody can be told it.

You can send three a day at most, half an hour apart, and that gap doesn't shrink if they stay quiet. Past that, the honest thing is to ring them. If something is actually wrong, this app is not the tool — call them, and call the emergency services if you need to.

My child says they never see the nudge

By default a nudge waits inside Sotto rather than appearing on their lock screen — a check-in app announcing itself in front of their friends is the thing this product exists to avoid. They can change that themselves in Your Sotto → When someone asks how you are, and their phone will ask permission the first time. They can also go quiet for a few hours. You won't be able to tell which way they have it set, and that's deliberate: a setting you can see is a setting they can be argued out of.

Can my child choose who gets a check-in?

Yes — they tick and untick guardians at the top of their screen, and it's remembered. “Come and get me” always goes to everyone regardless; when a child wants out, everyone who can help is told.

Can we practise?

Yes, and you should. On the child's phone: Your Sotto → Try a practice run. It sends a real check-in marked clearly as practice on your screen. Nothing escalates and nobody is asked to come. A child who has pressed the button once presses it faster when it counts.

How do I stop old check-ins piling up?

Both apps have a Clear old check-ins setting — after a day, up to three months, or never. Anything still waiting for a reply is never hidden, however old it is. There's also a one-off “Clear history”, and it only affects your own list.

How do I remove a child, or delete my account?

Family → tap the child → Remove … from Sotto. Their profile, devices, check-ins and every location go, and their phone tells them plainly that it's been deactivated. To delete your whole account, use Settings on your own phone.

Emergencies

Sotto is not an emergency service. It reaches your family and nothing more. If someone is hurt or in danger, call the emergency services — the child's app has an Emergency tab that shows their local number and dials it with a press-and-hold, and teaches iPhone's own Emergency SOS gesture.

That call never tells you by itself. As it's placed, your child chooses whether you're told too; if they say yes, you get a “come and get me” with their location and their words: I'm calling the emergency services.

Still stuck?

Email support@createful.com. Tell us what happened, roughly when, and which phone — it helps to know whether it was the child's or a guardian's. Please don't send passwords.