Is Kid Pickup 2.0 free?

Yes. It’s a free update on the App Store for everyone who has Kid Pickup.

Does Kid Pickup work with Google Calendar?

Yes, from 2.0. Under Settings → Google Calendar, connect your Google account and choose, for each calendar, whether it counts only as busy time or shows on the family calendar for the kids you pick. Google Tasks lists can go into To do. Kid Pickup reads them every 15 minutes and never changes anything in Google.

Is there a Kid Pickup widget?

Yes, from 2.0. The small widget shows the next pickup and who has it, and the medium one shows up to three. Open Kid Pickup once after updating, then touch and hold your Home Screen, tap Edit, then Add Widget, and search for Kid Pickup.

Can I use Kid Pickup on a computer?

Yes. From 2.0, your family’s calendar, feed and chat open in a web browser at app.kidpickup.com, on the same account. Plans are still bought on iPhone.

What’s New in Kid Pickup 2.0: Google Calendar, Widget, Who’s Free?

Q: What’s new in Kid Pickup 2.0?

Google Calendar and Google Tasks brought in, a Home Screen widget, Who’s free? for an open pickup, Kid Pickup in a web browser, search, a filter by child, undo and Recently Deleted, photos and PDFs on events, public holidays and school days off, a partner’s work hours, a 7 p.m. summary of tomorrow, and a switch for each kind of notification.

Quick answer: Kid Pickup 2.0 is a free iPhone update, out since October 27. It brings in Google Calendar and Google Tasks, adds a Home Screen widget with today’s pickups, shows who’s free to take an open pickup and lets you ask them, and opens your family’s calendar in a web browser. It also adds search, a filter by child, undo and Recently Deleted, files on events, holidays and school days off, and a 7 p.m. summary of tomorrow.

Kid Pickup 2.0 is on the App Store now, a free update for everyone on iPhone. It's the biggest update since the app launched: your Google Calendar comes in, there's a widget for your Home Screen, the app can tell you who's free to take an open pickup, and your family's calendar now opens in a web browser too.

Below is everything that changed, roughly in the order you'll notice it.

Today's pickups on your Home Screen

There's a Kid Pickup widget now. The small one shows the next pickup and who has it; the medium one shows up to three. You see who's doing the school run without opening anything.

To add it, open Kid Pickup once after updating. Then touch and hold your Home Screen, tap Edit, then Add Widget, and search for Kid Pickup.

Your Google Calendar, brought in

Most parents already keep a calendar, and it's usually Google's. Under Settings → Google Calendar you can connect it and choose, calendar by calendar, what Kid Pickup does with it:

Busy time only. Your work calendar can count as busy, so a pickup that clashes says you have something on, without telling the family what it is.
On the family calendar, for the kids you choose. The swim club's calendar can show up for the child who swims.
Google Tasks lists go into To do.

Kid Pickup reads them every 15 minutes and whenever you open the app. It never changes anything in Google. Each parent or guardian connects their own.

Who's free?

An open pickup used to mean a group text: can anyone do Thursday? Now, open a pickup nobody has yet and tap Who's free? It lists everyone who could take it, and why or why not: at work, has something on, already has a pickup then, said they can't make it, or free.

Tap Ask beside someone who's free and the app sends them a notification asking them to do it. Parents and guardians see this list; grandparents and sitters don't.

It uses work hours, so 2.0 lets a parent or guardian add a partner's hours as well as their own, under Settings → Work Schedule. Everyone's hours show on the Calendar for parents and guardians, as a band on the Day view and an At work line on the Week view.

Adding something starts with what it is

The + now asks first: is it an Event, an Activity, a Reminder or a To do? For an event or an activity, you then say whether somebody drives: drop-off, pick-up, both, or no ride. A school meeting needs nobody to drive; soccer every Tuesday probably does.

Got it wrong? Edit it and make it the other kind, or turn a To do into an event and back. A reminder can go off right at its time.

Finding things

Search with the magnifier at the top of the Events tab. Type an activity, a child, a place, a note or a person, and To do items turn up too.
Only drive one of the kids? The filter button on the Calendar hides the others' events. It only changes your phone, not anyone else's.
Holidays and days off. Choose your province or state under Settings → Public Holidays and they show on the Calendar. Add Pro-D days, spring break and other days off school under Settings → School Days Off. If you follow a school calendar link, its days off come in on their own.

Things you can now take back

Delete a pickup or an event and Undo shows for a few seconds. Missed it? Anything deleted in the last 30 days is under Settings → Recently Deleted, where a parent or guardian can put it back.

The permission slip, on the event

You can add a photo or a PDF to an event from its screen: the permission slip, the tournament schedule, the map to the away field. Up to five on each. Everyone who can see the event can open them, and whoever is doing the pickup can add one too.

One notification the night before

At 7 p.m., if there's anything on tomorrow, Kid Pickup sends one notification with tomorrow's pickups and events and who has each. Tap it to open the Calendar.

And if that, or anything else, is one notification too many, Settings → Choose Notifications now has a switch for each kind: being asked to do a pickup, pickups nobody has yet, changes, reminders, the evening summary, To do reminders and chat. They all start on.

Kid Pickup on a computer

Your family's calendar, feed and chat now open in a web browser, at app.kidpickup.com, on the same account. On a computer you can drag a pickup up or down the Day view to change its time, or drag it from one day of the Month view to another. Plans are still bought on iPhone, and count in both places.

Smaller changes

An event's screen says how it repeats and when it ends. Every date of a new repeating event is saved at once, so later dates can't go missing partway.
Apple and Google, one account. Signed in with Google and want Apple too, or the other way round? Add it under Settings → Account.
New events, typed events and To do all have Cancel at the top, and Back now takes you back to the tab you came from.
New accounts give a first and a last name.
The Terms of Service are updated. You'll be asked to agree once when you open 2.0, and to confirm you're 18 or older.
Health appointments like the dentist or therapy ask for your OK once before they're saved.
App analytics are off unless you turn on Share app usage under Settings → Privacy.
Paid on this iPhone? Settings → Subscription now has Cancel or change subscription and Request a refund, which open Apple's own pages.

Getting it

Open the App Store, tap your profile picture, and find Kid Pickup under available updates. Everyone in the family updates on their own phone, in their own time. The widget only appears on a phone that has 2.0.

If you're new here: Kid Pickup is a shared calendar for the people who get your kids where they need to be. Every pickup gets a name, and grandparents and sitters say "I'll do it" with one tap. One subscription covers your whole circle, and grandparents and sitters never pay.

The last update, 1.6.2, added the To do list, "I'm here" and "Picked up", and team calendars that keep themselves up to date. All of that is still here.