Last updated: August 23, 2026
On first launch the app asks seven screens of questions: your baby's date of birth and the state the birth was registered in, the state you live in and the parents' situation, how the family is covered, and then one screen each for parental leave, the newborn account, a 529 and a passport. Every one of those answers changes what ends up in the plan, which is why it does not ask for anything else. Where an answer is not known yet, "not sure" and "prefer not to say" are real choices: the plan says what is pending rather than guessing.
When you finish, the Plan tab shows the tasks that apply to you, soonest deadline first.
Tap it. The first thing on the detail screen is one sentence about why it applies to your household, and at the bottom is a link to the government page the rule came from, with the date that page was last read. If a task does not apply to you, tap Does not apply to us and it stays off the list even when the plan is rebuilt.
A job-based health plan must offer at least 30 days after a birth to add the baby. Marketplace coverage is generally 60. Those are the only two the app will send you a notification about, deliberately: an app that pings you about everything is an app you turn notifications off for.
Your own plan may allow longer. It may not allow less. Check the plan documents if the date is close.
Birth certificates are issued by state or local offices, and the rules differ everywhere. Where we have read a state's own page and can say something specific, the task links straight to that office and Settings lists the state as verified. Everywhere else it links to the federal directory, which has a state-by-state picker. We would rather send you somewhere general and correct than somewhere specific and guessed.
On the Plan tab, tap the … button and choose Send this plan to the other parent. They tap the link and their phone builds the same plan: the same tasks, the same dates, and reminders of their own. It is free, and neither of you needs an account, because there are no accounts.
The link carries your household answers and nothing else. It does not carry what either of you has done, so the two plans run independently from that point — ticking something off on one phone does not tick it on the other. That is a real limitation and it is worth knowing about rather than discovering.
If the link does not open, some message apps cut long links in half. Send it again, or answer the questions directly: it takes about a minute.
The Documents tab holds photographs of the birth certificate, the Social Security card, the insurance card and anything else you add, so you have them at a counter without going home. They are stored on that iPhone only, unreadable while the phone is locked, and deliberately excluded from every iCloud and computer backup.
That last part has a consequence worth stating plainly: a new iPhone will not restore them. Keep the original documents where you always kept them. What is in the app is a convenience copy, never the record.
Check iPhone Settings → Notifications → Baby Docs, and check Settings inside the app. The two hard-deadline warnings are free. Plus can also schedule suggested dates, a Sunday digest and reminders you set yourself. All are scheduled on your own phone and need notification permission, but not a Baby Docs server.
Follow-up tracking is part of Baby Docs Plus. On a task you have posted off, turn on Sent it and enter the date the office told you to expect it. When that date passes, the task moves to the top of the plan and says so. No turnaround time is guessed on your behalf: processing times differ by county and change constantly, so the only figure worth acting on is the one you were actually given.
Settings → Restore purchases brings back a purchase on a new phone or after a reinstall. Purchases and subscriptions are handled by Apple, so refunds are requested through Apple, not through us.
Archive a child or dismiss a task to remove it from the active plan. Its record stays on this phone so you can restore it without losing work. Removing a document from the vault deletes the photograph from the phone immediately. Deleting the app removes the household data stored on that phone; purchase records held by Apple and RevenueCat are separate.
Anything else, including a rule you think is wrong or out of date:
jackwallner+babydocs@gmail.com
Reports of a stale or incorrect rule are the most useful mail we get. Please include your state.