KinPing
Why long distance family apps usually fail
Most long distance family apps promise to keep everyone close. In practice you end up with a group chat full of forwarded videos, a shared calendar nobody updates, and a photo album that stalls after the first month. The thing you actually wanted, a small daily sign that your people are fine, gets lost in the noise.
KinPing takes the opposite approach. It is a family check-in app that does one thing: one question a day, answered with one tap. No feed. No scrolling. No pressure to post.
What staying connected looks like with KinPing
Imagine your son Jack moved to a city several hours ahead. You want to know he reached home after work, not because you think something is wrong, but because knowing lets you stop wondering.
In KinPing you set up a question for Jack: "Reached home?" He approves it once. From then on it arrives at the time you chose, in his time zone. He taps Yes, Not yet or Later. If he likes, he adds a line.
On your side you get a screen with his face in the middle, "Jack answered" above the question, and his answer in a soft yellow card: "Yes, 6:40 PM, Traffic was bad". Under it is an "Ask now" button if you want to send another question right away, and "Done" to go back to your Today screen.
That one line, "Traffic was bad", is the sort of thing you would hear across the kitchen table if you lived in the same house. Each person's page keeps up to 14 days of these.
Time zones handled for you
This is where many apps to stay connected with family fall down. Something set for the evening in your city can land in the middle of the night in theirs. KinPing works the other way. A question set for 1:00 PM arrives at 1:00 PM where they are. You never have to do the math, and nobody gets woken up.
It works both ways
Anyone can ask, and anyone can answer. A daughter can ask her mom "Did you eat?" A mom can ask her daughter "Reached home safely?" There are ready-made questions for mom, dad, son, daughter, wife, husband, friend or staff, and you can write your own. Both people choose to connect, and the person answering approves each question once. Either side can pause, leave, report or block at any time.
No app needed on the other side
A common problem with apps to stay in touch with family is getting everyone to install the same thing. With KinPing, the person answering does not need the app at all. The question can arrive as a link in WhatsApp or SMS and opens in the browser. They tap their answer and you see it in KinPing. You can start with one relative today, without a family-wide rollout.
What KinPing leaves out on purpose
- No GPS tracking. No map and no location sharing. Many searches for family apps lead to tracking tools. KinPing is not one.
- No alarms. A missed answer shows as "No answer yet". There is no siren and no automatic alert.
- No "I'm OK" button to forget. The question comes from a real person, with their name and face, at the time you chose. If it is still waiting, they see a reminder for it.
- No hidden mode. Everything is visible to both sides.
KinPing is not an emergency service. A missing answer may just mean a phone is off, or that someone is on a plane. If you are worried, call.
Free, and private between you
KinPing is free with a small Google banner ad. Nothing is paid. Sign in with Google or Apple. Your email is never shown to the people you connect with, and you can delete your account from Settings. Ages 13 and up.
Android is in closed testing on Google Play. Open the tester link on an Android phone and tap "Become a tester". iPhone is coming soon.
See how it works, or read about KinPing for parents with kids abroad and aging parents.
Updated 2026-11-05.