Welcome to KinLink

A few years ago, I was a parent trying to figure out the right family tracking app.

The options were fine, technically. They showed me a dot on a map. That dot was my kid. I could watch it move around all day if I wanted to.

I did not want to.

What I actually wanted was simple: I wanted to know when my kid got to school. When they left practice. When they made it home. I didn't need to watch a dot. I needed the app to tell me when something happened, and then stay quiet until the next time something happened.

No app I could find was built around that idea. They were all built around the dot.

So I built KinLink.

What KinLink is

KinLink is a family safety app built around something we call the Places Mesh.

Instead of showing you a live tracking screen you feel obligated to watch, KinLink builds a growing network of named, meaningful locations. Home. School. Grandma's house. The soccer field. The mall. As your family moves through their world, KinLink reports arrivals and departures in terms of these named places. You get a notification when something changes. The app stays quiet when nothing does.

When you want more than an alert, you can request a check-in with one tap. Your family member taps once to send back their location, an optional note, and an optional photo. And when a check-in comes in from somewhere new, you can turn that location into a saved Place in one more tap. The mesh grows naturally as part of how you use the app.

Why we built it differently

The existing family tracking apps are surveillance tools. That's not a criticism; it's a description. They're built around the assumption that the most valuable thing the app can show you is a live location, always available, always refreshing.

That assumption creates a dynamic that a lot of families feel but don't talk about. Teenagers who know they're on a live tracking screen feel watched, not trusted. Parents who use live tracking end up checking the app constantly, which isn't the peace of mind they were looking for.

KinLink is built around a different assumption: most of the time, you don't need to know exactly where your family member is. You need to know they arrived safely. You need to know they got home. You need to be able to ask how they are with one tap. The app should help with those things, and then get out of the way.

Free at launch

KinLink launches free on July 1, 2026. No credit card. No trial period. The full core experience, including the Places Mesh, arrival and departure alerts, check-ins, live map, and activity log, costs nothing.

We plan to introduce an optional premium tier later for users who want more. But the feature that gives you peace of mind will always be free.

Who it's for

KinLink is for any family where one person wants peace of mind and another person is willing to share their location. That's it. Parents and teenagers. Adult children and aging parents. Caregivers and the people they look after. Families on vacation who want to stay connected without constant group texts.

If that's you, we built this for you. Join the waitlist and we'll let you know the moment it launches.

Stay close. Stay safe.

— Bonn Lahouti, Founder