ChoreKey ties a child's app access to chores — enforced by Apple's Family Controls — but only inside your home geofence. Leave home (school, practice, a friend's) and apps work normally. She photographs the finished chore; parent approves in one tap; the shield lifts. Calls, Messages, and Maps are never blocked. No accounts, no cloud, no subscription — it all stays on the device. $2.99 once; $4.99 Plus adds a parent phone for remote approval.
Hey PH!
Builder-parent here. My two, W and J, are the reason this exists.
The daily fight was never really about chores it was the negotiation. "did you do your chores?" / "i'll do them later" / five hours later the phone's still in their hand and nothing got done. and enforcement fell entirely on me: take the phone, hand it back, be the bad guy every single time.
So i built ChoreKey. it uses Apple's Family Controls to keep the apps you pick locked until a chore gets photographed and approved. kid snaps a photo of the finished thing, i get a ping, approve in one tap behind a PIN, shield lifts.
She part that took the most iteration: the shield only applies inside the home geofence. the moment they leave school, practice, a friend's apps work normally. Shat was the line between a tool and a leash. calls, Messages, and Maps are never blocked regardless; a 12-year-old should always be able to call you when their ride falls through.
what's deliberately NOT in here: no accounts, no email, no servers, no analytics, no ads, no subscription. chore photos auto-delete 7 days after approval. everything lives on-device. setup's about 90 seconds.
Price: $2.99 once for the kid app; $4.99 once for Plus, which pairs a parent's phone so you can assign + approve remotely instead of grabbing the kid's device. no recurring anything. KyrosWorks LLC independent, not VC. it's been on the App Store since May; bringing it to PH because this is where it belongs.
Would love to hear what's actually worked (or hasn't) in your house. The chore systems and screen-time rules that finally stuck! Genuinely curious.
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Love the no-account, no-subscription angle and the thoughtful carve-out for calls and maps. One thing I'd want: a simple weekly summary view for parents showing which chores got approved fastest, which got skipped, and how screen time unlocked per kid. Would help spot patterns without having to dig through approvals one by one.
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Photo approval flow is genuinely faster than I expected, and not having to set up yet another family account is a huge plus.
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Love the no-account, no-subscription angle and the thoughtful carve-out for calls and maps. One thing I'd want: a simple weekly summary view for parents showing which chores got approved fastest, which got skipped, and how screen time unlocked per kid. Would help spot patterns without having to dig through approvals one by one.
Photo approval flow is genuinely faster than I expected, and not having to set up yet another family account is a huge plus.