Shared Steps

Terms of use

The agreement between you and Shared Steps.

These terms apply when you use the Shared Steps app or this website. We've kept them as plain as we can. Please read them before you subscribe, and get in touch if anything is unclear.

Last updated 3 October 2026

The short version

  • Shared Steps helps separated parents carry out the arrangements they've agreed. It isn't legal advice, mediation or an emergency service.
  • Your family space is shared. Your co-parent sees what you add there, so please be respectful and only add what you're comfortable with them seeing.
  • New families get 30 days free, with no payment details needed. After that, one subscription covers the family.
  • Subscriptions are billed and renewed by the App Store or Google Play. You can cancel in your store account at any time, and keep access until the end of the period you've paid for.
  • You can delete your account from inside the app whenever you like.

About these terms

These terms are an agreement between you and Shared Steps ("we", "us"). By creating an account or using Shared Steps, you agree to them. If you don't agree, please don't use the service.

Our privacy policy explains how we handle your information and forms part of these terms. If you download the app from the App Store or Google Play, their own terms also apply to that download and to any payment. If anything in theirs conflicts with ours on those points, theirs wins.

You must be 18 or over, and live in the UK, to create an account.

What Shared Steps is, and isn't

Shared Steps is a shared space where parents keep their parenting plan, schedule, messages, proposals, costs and other practical details in one place. It's designed to support the arrangements you reached, often in mediation, after you separated.

  • It isn't legal or professional advice. Nothing in the app, including suggestions on how to word a message, is legal, financial, medical or therapeutic advice. For legal questions, please speak to a family solicitor.
  • It doesn't take sides or make decisions. We don't judge disagreements between parents, and we can't enforce what you agree. A proposal that both of you accept in the app records your agreement. It doesn't make that agreement legally binding, and it doesn't change a court order.
  • It isn't a record-keeping service for court. You can see your family's history in the app, but we don't certify it, and we can't promise it will be accepted as evidence.
  • It isn't an emergency service. Messages and notifications can be delayed or missed. If you or your children are in danger, call 999.

Your account

  • Use your own email address and accurate details. Each parent has their own account.
  • Keep your phone and email secure. You are responsible for what happens on your account unless someone else got into it without your fault.
  • Tell us straight away at hello@sharedsteps.app if you think someone else has access to your account.

Your family space

Each family has one shared space. Either parent can start it and invite the other. Both parents have the same standing: there's no account holder and no primary parent.

  • Everything you add to the family, such as messages, costs, photos, proposals and plan details, can be seen by everyone else in that family, along with who added it.
  • Only invite people who should be in your family's space, and only add details about your children that are needed to look after them.
  • A message you send can't be unsent from your co-parent's view. Please take a moment before sending.

Using Shared Steps fairly

Shared Steps works best when it stays calm and practical. When you use it, you agree not to:

  • harass, threaten, intimidate or abuse anyone, or use it to control or monitor someone against their wishes;
  • add anything unlawful, or anything that you don't have the right to share;
  • pretend to be someone else, or join a family you haven't been invited to;
  • try to get into another person's account or family, or into our systems;
  • copy, resell, reverse engineer or disrupt the service, or use automated tools to access it.

If you're worried about how someone is using Shared Steps, email hello@sharedsteps.app. We don't read families' messages as a matter of course, and we can't act as a referee between parents. But if these terms are broken, we may restrict or close the account involved.

What you add

What you write and upload remains yours. You give us permission to store it, process it and show it to the members of your family, only so that we can run Shared Steps for you. We don't use it for advertising and we don't sell it.

Because a family's record belongs to both parents, it stays in place for your co-parent if you leave. The privacy policy explains exactly what is kept and what is removed.

The app, its design and its name belong to us. You may use them only to use Shared Steps for your own family.

Free trial and subscriptions

Free trial

A new family that starts on its own gets 30 days of full access for free. You don't need to give any payment details, and nothing is charged automatically when the trial ends.

Shared Steps Pro

  • Shared Steps Pro is an auto-renewing subscription, sold monthly or yearly. The prices are shown on our pricing section and in the app before you buy. The store will confirm the price, in pounds and including VAT, before it takes any payment.
  • One subscription covers the whole family. Either parent can pay, and the other parent is covered without paying again.
  • Payment is taken by the App Store or Google Play, through your store account, when you confirm the purchase. We never see your card details.
  • Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each monthly or yearly period, at the price then in force, unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the period ends. The store will remind you about renewals as its own rules require.
  • If we raise the price, we will tell you before it applies to you, and you can cancel before then.

Cancelling and refunds

How to cancel

You can cancel at any time in your App Store or Google Play subscription settings. You can also reach them from the app under More → Shared Steps Pro → Manage subscription. When you cancel, you keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for, and you won't be charged again.

Your right to cancel within 14 days

UK consumer law normally gives you 14 days to change your mind about a purchase of digital content or services. Shared Steps Pro starts as soon as you subscribe, and when you buy, you agree to it starting straight away. For a digital service that has started at your request, you can still cancel within 14 days, but you may be asked to pay for the part of the service you have already used.

Refunds

Because payments go through Apple or Google, refunds are handled by them under their own policies. You can request one at reportaproblem.apple.com or through your Google Play order history. If you're having trouble, email hello@sharedsteps.app and we'll help where we can.

Nothing in these terms affects your legal rights as a consumer, including your right to a service that is provided with reasonable care and skill. Citizens Advice can tell you more about these rights.

Access through a mediator

Some mediation practices include Shared Steps in the service they offer families. If your family's access comes through a mediator:

  • these terms still apply to your use of Shared Steps;
  • the practice decides how long the included access lasts, and the app shows you when it will end;
  • when it ends, you can choose to subscribe and carry on. Your family's records are kept either way;
  • the practice doesn't see your messages, costs or day-to-day plan. It sees only what you choose to send it, such as a request to review an arrangement.

Your mediation itself, and any agreement you made there, is between you and the practice. It isn't covered by these terms.

Leaving, or us ending your account

  • You can leave at any time by deleting your account in the app under More → You, or without the app. Deleting your account doesn't cancel a store subscription, so please cancel that too.
  • If your family's access ends, because a trial or subscription runs out, the app is locked until someone subscribes. Your family's records are kept so that you can pick up where you left off.
  • We may suspend or close an account if it seriously or repeatedly breaks these terms, if we have to by law, or to protect someone from harm. Unless it would be unsafe or unlawful, we'll tell you why first and give you a chance to put it right. If we close an account for no fault of yours, we will refund any part of a subscription you've paid for and can no longer use.
  • If we ever stop offering Shared Steps, we'll give you at least 60 days' notice, help you take a copy of your family's information, and refund any subscription time you've paid for and won't be able to use.

Keeping the service running

We work hard to keep Shared Steps running smoothly and safely, and we keep improving it. Sometimes it may be unavailable, for example during maintenance or because of a problem with our providers or your connection. We may change or remove features over time. If a change takes away something important that you're paying for, we'll tell you, and you can cancel.

Our responsibility to you

We are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss or damage that wasn't foreseeable.

  • Shared Steps is for personal, family use. We aren't responsible for business losses.
  • We aren't responsible for what other people, including your co-parent, add to the app, or for decisions made between parents.
  • We aren't responsible for missed handovers, appointments or payments caused by delayed notifications or reminders. Please don't rely on the app alone for anything time-critical.
  • We aren't responsible for delays or failures caused by events outside our reasonable control.

Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that the law doesn't allow us to limit.

Changes to these terms

We may update these terms, for example when the service or the law changes. We'll change the date at the top of this page. If a change matters, we'll tell you in the app before it takes effect. If you don't agree with it, you can cancel your subscription and delete your account before then.

Disputes and the law that applies

If you have a problem, please tell us first at hello@sharedsteps.app. Most things can be put right quickly.

These terms are governed by the law of the part of the UK where you live: England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland. You can bring a claim in the courts there.

Contact us

For anything about these terms, your account or a subscription, email hello@sharedsteps.app. For anything about your privacy, email privacy@sharedsteps.app.