Joining a shared Room
Someone invited you to work with them in a Room: a private space for one project, like a season plan, a grant, or a film script. Here’s how to get in and find your way around.
The first time: about a minute
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Open the link you were sent
It starts with ideababydaycare.com/room-join/ or /room-invite/ for one Room, or /group-join/ for a group of Rooms. Tap or click it from the email or message.
iPhone with the app: it opens the app straight to the Room. If a web page opens instead, tap Open in the app.
Anything else: it opens a web page showing who invited you and the Room’s name. Everything works in the browser; you don’t need the app.
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Get in
Invited by email and new here? Type the name you want others to see, tick the box, and tap Join the Room. That’s it.
Otherwise, tap Continue and type your email. We send a link that takes you straight into the Room, so there’s no password. New here? You’ll add your name on the way. It’s free, and you won’t be asked to pay.
If the email link says it has expired, it was probably opened twice. Ask for a new one on the page it shows you. You’ll still come back to the Room afterwards.
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Already signed in?
Tap Join this Room. The Room opens. Invited as a viewer? You can read everything, and Ask to edit if you’d like to help.
For a group, tap Join this group. You become an editor in every Room in the group at once, and in any Rooms it adds later. You’ll get a notification when a new one is added.
Getting back in later
On a computer
Go to the address below, choose Sign in, then Ideas. Every Room you’ve joined is there. To see just one group’s Rooms, choose the group’s name above the canvas.
In the iPhone app
Open the app and tap the Ideas tab at the bottom. Your shared Rooms are listed there. To see just one group’s Rooms, tap Filter and choose the group.
Working in the Room
- Write together. Anyone in the Room can write at any time, and saves merge line by line. If you and someone else changed the same line, you choose: Keep theirs, Keep both, or Keep mine. (The current Android app still takes turns; its next update catches up.)
- Nothing is lost. Every save is kept as a version. In the app, open the Room’s ••• menu, then History; on the website, open Idea versions. Read any earlier version and copy any part of it.
- Plan the next steps together. The Room’s toolbar has next steps and quick polls, so a group can decide without a long email thread.
- You keep credit. Your contributions stay attached to your name, even if you leave the Room later.
What’s free
Editing the Rooms you’re invited to is free for as long as the person who invited you is a member, and for 72 hours after, so nobody loses work mid-project. You don’t need an account of your own beyond signing in.
Starting Rooms of your own needs a membership, with a free trial first. Your Ideas page shows one quiet card about it, like Run your own event like this, which you can put away with Not now. It’s entirely optional, and nothing inside other people’s Rooms ever asks you to pay.
If something isn’t right
- Leave a Room: in the app, ••• then Leave this Room. On the website, use Leave this Room in the People panel.
- Report a person or something posted: ••• then Report a problem in the app, or Report a problem in the People panel on the website. Reports are private; the person isn’t told who sent one.
- Anything else: ask the person who invited you, or visit ideababydaycare.com/support.