How to Use Guardian

Three things to do first. Family Home shows the same steps as a list and ticks each one off as you go.

The first screen you see: who is where, what needs your attention, and what is on today.

• Each person has a card with where they were last seen, when, and their phone's battery.
• Anything that needs you is at the top: a request for help, someone outside a safe zone, a document about to expire.
• Check In marks someone as safe. The SOS button asks the family for help and shares where that person is.
• Today's events from the Family Calendar are listed, with a link to the full calendar.
• A new family sees a short getting-started list here until the steps are done. You can hide it at any time.

Everyone in your family and the people you trust, each with their own profile.

• Press Add Person and choose how they are related to you: spouse, child, parent, friend, caregiver and so on.
• A profile holds what someone would need in an emergency: emergency contacts, blood type, allergies, medications, conditions, doctor and insurance.
• Add a recent photo and a description. Both go on the Missing Person Report.
• Circles group people, for example Family, School or Trusted Contacts. Open a circle to see just those people on a map.
• Invite someone to give them their own login. Parents and guardians see everything; everyone else sees their own profile and what the family shares with them.
• Location sharing is set up on each profile. A person's location is only shown after they agree on their own phone.

A private page with one person's medical details and emergency contacts, for a paramedic or a trusted helper to open without logging in.

• Open a profile, go to the Emergency Vault tab and turn it on. Guardian makes a private link for that person.
• Anyone who has the link sees that person's medical details, emergency contacts and the documents you put in the vault. No login is needed, so keep the link to people you trust.
• Every time the link is opened by someone who is not signed in to your family, the parents and guardians and the person themselves get an email, and it is written in the Account Record.
• The link is long and cannot be guessed. After five wrong tries the page locks for 15 minutes; the correct link still works.
• Turn the vault off on the profile and the link stops working.
• This page does not call anyone. In an emergency, call 911.

Where everyone is right now, where they have been, and the places and safe zones around them.

• People, vehicles, saved places and safe zones are drawn on one map. Use the buttons above the map to show or hide each kind.
• Press a person to see when they were last seen, how accurate the position is, and their phone's battery.
• Parents and guardians can press Where they have been to draw a person's recent movement.
• The list beside the map shows arrivals, departures and warnings from the last 24 hours.
• The map shows what each phone last reported. If a phone is off or has no signal, the person stays where they were last seen, and the time tells you how old that is.
• Out of the ordinary: Guardian compares each person with their own last 60 days of location history. It warns when someone is somewhere new and much farther from home than at any time in those 60 days, or has stopped somewhere new late at night (11 pm to 5 am).
• That warning starts after 14 days of history and comes at most once every 12 hours for each person. It is a comparison with the past, not a prediction. Turn it off in Settings, under Live Map warnings.

Where someone stopped during a day, and the trips in between.

• Pick a person (or a tracked vehicle) and a day. The day is shown as numbered stops with the trips between them, and drawn on a map.
• A stop at a safe zone or a saved place shows that place's name. For any other stop, press Show address, or Save as a place to give it a name for next time.
• Each trip shows its distance, how long it took and the top speed in miles per hour. A gap with no location is shown as a gap, not guessed.
• The timeline needs location sharing to be on for that person. It only knows what the phone reported.
• The timeline goes back 90 days. Older location history is deleted.

Circles on the map that tell you when someone leaves a place they should be, or goes into one they should stay out of.

• Press New zone, give it a name, and find the place by its address, by where you are now, or by a saved place.
• Choose Stay inside to be alerted when someone leaves, or Stay out to be alerted when someone goes in.
• Choose how big the circle is and who it is for.
• A person with several stay-inside zones is fine while they are in any one of them. You get one alert when they are outside all of them.
• Pause a zone to stop its alerts without losing it.
• A zone only works for a person who is sharing their location. The page tells you if someone in a zone is not.
• Saved places such as school or work are different: they name where someone is and record arrivals and departures, but do not raise alerts.

What needs your attention right now, with requests for help at the top.

• Alerts cover SOS, leaving a safe zone, missed check-ins, a phone that has gone quiet, low battery, fast driving, movement that is out of the ordinary, a stolen item on the move, devices and expiring documents.
• Press I've seen it to show the family you know about an alert. Press Mark resolved when it has been dealt with.
• Resolving an SOS asks what happened, keeps your note with the alert, and clears the SOS shown on the person's profile and on the map.
• Low battery, quiet phone and missed check-in alerts clear by themselves when the cause goes away.
• Resolved alerts are kept under the Resolved tab, with who resolved them and when.

The record of everything that has happened, newest first, a day at a time.

• Arrivals and departures, warnings, check-ins, device events and reminders are all kept here.
• Filter by person or by kind, or search. Load older activity to go further back.
• Anything that still needs something done is marked, and is handled on the Alerts screen.

Keep your family's important files in one private place, and get reminded before anything expires.

• Press Add files to choose as many documents, photos and videos as you like, or drag them onto the page. On a phone you can use the camera.
• Size limits: videos and audio up to 100 MB each, photos up to 40 MB, and PDFs and other files up to 10 MB. A file that is too large is refused with the reason before anything is uploaded.
• Photos and videos show a small preview. Press one to open it full size; videos play in the page.
• Give anything an expiry date and it appears under Expiring, with reminders 90, 60 and 30 days before.
• Use Edit to rename an item, change its details or replace its file, and Delete to remove it.
• Files are stored privately. Parents and guardians see all of them; other family members see only the ones that belong to them.

What everyone has on, in one place.

• Press Add event, give it a name and a day, and choose who it is for: everyone, one person, or a circle.
• An event for one person is seen by that person and by parents and guardians. Tick "Show this to the whole family" to put it on everyone's calendar.
• Events can last several days, or repeat every day, week or month. Give a repeat a last date, or leave it empty to keep it going.
• Pick a saved place for an event, or type an address. During the event, parents and guardians see whether that person's phone is at the place.
• In Month view, press a day to see everything on it. List view shows what is coming up. Press a name at the top to see one person's calendar; each person has their own color.
• Parents and guardians can change any event. Everyone else can add and change their own.
• Google Calendar is optional. Connecting it copies your Google events into this calendar under your name; you and the parents and guardians can see them. Nothing is changed in Google.

What your cars and your valuables look like, where they are, and what to do if one goes missing.

• On the Vehicles page, add each car with its make, model, color, plate and VIN, and a photo. Those are the first things the police ask for.
• Add the dates the registration, the insurance and the inspection run out. A date turns amber 30 days before, and red once it has passed.
• Save the insurance company, policy number and claims phone so they are at hand after an accident.
• On the Valuables page, add laptops, phones, bikes, jewelry and tools with a serial number, a photo and what they are worth.
• Open a vehicle or item to put it on the Live Map, see where it has been, and keep its papers and photos together.
• If one goes missing, press "Report it lost or stolen". "Copy the description" then gives you everything in one piece of text for the police or your insurer.
• Marking it lost or stolen turns on theft mode. If it has a tracker, Guardian alerts your family as soon as the tracker reports and again each time it moves, and keeps a trail of where it goes every minute.
• "Police report (PDF)" makes a one-page report with the description, plate or serial number, what happened and where its tracker has reported. Add the police report number once you have it. Do not go after stolen property yourself.
• Only parents and guardians can see vehicles and valuables.

One list of your home's cameras, doorbell, sensors and alarms: where each one is, how to open it, and who to call.

• Press Add a device and say what it is and where it is. Add the web address of its own app to get an Open button.
• Guardian does not connect to cameras and does not show video. Open takes you to the device's own app or website.
• For an alarm system, save the monitoring company and its phone number so you can call with one press.
• Note when a battery was last changed. A smoke alarm whose battery is over a year old is marked.
• A device can send alerts to Guardian if something that controls it can open a web address: a smart-home hub or a service such as Home Assistant or IFTTT, or some cameras' own settings. Open the device, press Create the alert link, and copy each address into that hub or app.
• The addresses are shown only once. Create a new link if you lose them; the old ones stop working.
• Alerts go to parents and guardians by email, according to each person's choices in Settings. Use Send a test alert to see one.
• Only parents and guardians can see this page.

Guardian runs in a web browser. Here is what it can and cannot see.

• Each person has a sharing link, created on their profile. They open it on their own phone and agree before anything is shared.
• The sharing page sends the phone's location only while that page is open on the screen.
• For all-day sharing, the page gives steps to set up a free app called OwnTracks, which reports in the background on iPhone and Android.
• A vehicle can be followed by the driver's phone, by a spare phone left in the car, or by a GPS tracker that can send its position to a web address. Set it up on the vehicle's page.
• Guardian cannot read Apple AirTag, Tile or Samsung SmartTag locations. Those companies do not share them with other apps.
• Anyone can stop sharing from their own phone, and a parent or guardian can turn a link off at any time.

Everything the police will ask for about one person, in one PDF.

• Choose a person and press Download PDF.
• The report has their photo and description, emergency contacts, family and closest friends, the places they go, their routine, medical details, vehicles, and where their phone was last.
• It is built from what is in Guardian when you press the button, so keep photos and descriptions up to date.
• Guardian does not send the report to anyone. If someone is missing, call 911 first and give the report to the officer.

When something happens, keep the whole story in one place until it is closed.

• Open Incidents from the menu and press Record an incident. Say what happened, when and where, and choose the people, vehicles and valuables involved.
• Add photos and files to the incident: the damage, the police report, receipts, screenshots. They are also listed under Documents.
• Add a note each time something happens: a phone call, what the officer said, what the insurer asked for. Each note keeps who wrote it and when, and cannot be changed or removed afterwards.
• Press We are dealing with it, then Close it when it is over, and write how it ended. A closed incident can be reopened.
• Set a day to look at it again and Guardian marks the incident when that day comes.
• Report (PDF) puts the incident, its history and its list of files in one document for an insurer, a school or the police.
• Guardian keeps the record. It does not contact the police or anyone else. In an emergency, call 911 first.

What happened over a period, and your records as files you can keep.

• Open Reports from the menu and choose the last 7, 30 or 90 days.
• The summary counts alerts by kind, requests for help, incidents, anything lost or stolen, and what comes due in the next 30 days. Summary (PDF) saves it as a document.
• Download your records saves alerts, incidents, the Account Record and location history as spreadsheet files that open in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
• In Settings, A copy of your records saves everything your family has in Guardian as one file. Photos, documents and videos stay in Guardian; the file lists them.
• Every download is written in the Account Record. The files hold private information, so keep them somewhere safe.

A simple way for someone to say they are fine, and for you to be told when they have not.

• On Family Home, press Check In to mark someone as safe. Parents and guardians can check in for anyone; everyone else for themselves.
• To be told when a check-in is missed, open the person's profile, press Edit Profile, and set how many hours may pass between check-ins. Leave it empty for no alerts.
• When that time passes with no check-in, Guardian raises a Check-in missed alert. It clears by itself when the person checks in.

Every new family gets 14 days free, with no card needed. After that, one monthly plan covers the whole family.

• Family Home shows how many days of the free trial are left.
• To keep using Guardian after the trial, a parent or guardian opens Plans and chooses one. The checkout is run by Base44 Payments; Guardian never sees your card number.
• One subscription covers everyone in the family. Nobody else needs to pay.
• Essential and Individual Protect are for one person. Family Protect and Senior Protect include up to 4 people.
• If no plan is chosen when the trial ends, the app stops opening. Nothing is deleted, and emergency information links and location sharing links keep working.
• The person who pays can cancel on the Plans page, and keeps access until the end of the billing cycle they paid for. To change plans, cancel first and then choose the new one.
• You get an email receipt each time you are billed.

Two optional connections to your Google account.

• Google Calendar: connect it from the Family Calendar page to copy your Google events in. You and your family's parents and guardians can see the copies. Nothing is changed in Google.
• Google Contacts: on a profile's friends list, import a contact instead of typing their details.
• Google asks you to approve each connection. You can disconnect at any time.

Who did what in your family's account, and when. Only parents and guardians can see it.

• Open Account Record from the menu. The newest entries are at the top, a day at a time.
• It records sign-ins, invites, role changes and removed logins; SOS, check-ins and resolved alerts; location sharing being agreed to or turned off; emergency information being opened; and profiles, documents, vehicles and other records being opened, added, changed or deleted.
• Guardian writes the record itself. Nobody in the family can add to it, change it or remove from it.
• Filter by person or by kind, or search. Entries worth a second look, such as a deletion, a download of your records or an emergency link being opened, are marked.
• If VantageIQ staff make a backup copy that includes your family's records, that is written here too.
• Entries for things done on a screen are made by the app as you use it. Entries for sign-ins, invites, roles, SOS, emergency links and payments are made by the server.

Who can see what, in plain terms.

• Each family's information is kept separate. Only people signed in to your family can see it.
• Parents and guardians see everything. Other family members see their own profile and what is shared with the whole family.
• A person's location is shown only after they agree on their own phone, and they can stop at any time.
• Location history is deleted after 90 days. A person's latest position stays on their profile while they share it.
• Documents, photos and videos are stored privately and opened through links that expire after a short time.
• Emergency information can be opened without a login by anyone who has that person's private link, and the family is told each time. Turn it off on the profile to stop the link working.
• The Account Record shows parents and guardians who signed in and what was opened, added, changed or deleted.
• You can ask us to delete your account and your information from Settings. A person on our team carries it out and confirms by email, and any subscription you pay for is cancelled at once.
• The full details are in the Privacy Policy.