Same Age

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What Same Age is

On each birthday, a child's page can show photos of the family at that age, with their stories in their own voices if they like. A parent or guardian turns it on for each child and can turn it off any time. Nobody is told when it is turned off.

When Ella turns 7, Ella's page shows a short row headed The family at 7: perhaps Sarah at 7, added by Rose, and Joe at 7, told by Joe. For the first year it reads The family as babies. It works for every birthday up to 18.

Everything you add this way is kept in the family archive (the part of FutureRoots this Help Center calls the Legacy archive), where your family keeps stories, recipes and photos to pass down. The row on a child's page is just one way of showing it. Adding a photo here never costs anything, on any plan.

During the birthday week, the child's page shows For Ella's birthday: the family at 7. with a See them button, and the family gets a notification on FutureRoots that says New on Ella's page: the family at 7. It never comes by email or as a phone alert.

Adding a photo from when you were young

You can start from the yearly note, from a child's page, or from the family archive (each is explained below). Wherever you start, the steps are the same.

1. Choose Take a picture of the photo to photograph an old print with your phone or tablet, or Choose one you already have to pick a photo that's already on your device. On a computer, only the second one appears.
2. Look at the photo under Is this the one? Choose Turn the photo if it's sideways, or Take it again if there's a shine on it. Tilting the phone a little usually helps. When it looks right, choose Looks good.
3. Say who it's a photo of. Me is already chosen, so a photo of yourself needs nothing here. For anyone else, choose A different person, then pick a name, or Someone else to type the name the family uses (for example, Great-Grandma Edith).
4. Choose about how old the person was: A baby, a number from 1 to 18, Older than 18, or I don't know. A close guess is fine.
5. If there's a story behind it, choose Tell it in your own voice and say it out loud. This is optional.
6. Choose Save.

Pick one person for each photo, even if several people are in it. As the screen says, "Anyone else in the photo can be named in the story." The person you choose must be a grown-up now, or someone who has died. Children are never offered, and a photo of a child in the family can't be added this way.

After you save, FutureRoots tells you what happens next:

• Thank you. It's on Ella's page now, with the family at 7. Ella is already that age or older, so it shows right away.
• Thank you. It will be on Ella's page when Ella turns 7. It appears on that birthday.
• Thank you. It's saved in the family archive. Sarah and Mark will see it first, and can put it on Ella's page. The child's parents and guardians look at it first (see the parents' first look).
• Thank you. It's saved in the family archive. You chose Older than 18 or I don't know, so it's kept in the archive and isn't placed at an age.

Then choose Add another of me (or Add another of the same person) to keep going with the next photo, Add a photo of someone else, or Done. If saving doesn't work, you'll see "We couldn't save that just now. Please try again. Your photo is still here." Nothing is lost, so choose Save again.

Starting from the yearly note

About ten days before a child's birthday, you may get a note titled Ella's birthday is coming up (see the yearly note).

1. Choose Add a photo from age 7 (or Add a photo of me at 7, if you're the child's parent or guardian).
2. Sign in if you're asked to. You'll land straight on the first step.
3. Follow the steps above. Me and the age are already chosen for you, and you can change either one.

The link in the note keeps working, so it's fine to open it weeks later, sitting with the photo album.

Starting from a child's page

1. Open the child's page.
2. Choose Add a photo from when you were young.
3. Follow the steps above.

The button is there whenever Same Age is on for that child. A parent or guardian also sees it before anyone has decided, and after saving is asked whether to turn Same Age on for the child (choose Yes or Not for Ella). You can always add a photo from the family archive instead.

In the app: Open the child's page and tap Add a photo from when you were young.

Starting from the family archive

1. Open your family's archive.
2. Next to "Add a photo from when you were young, and say how old you were.", choose Add a photo.
3. Follow the steps above.

Starting here names no child, so when you save you'll see, for example, Thank you. It's saved in the family archive, as Sarah at 7. It appears on each child's page at that age, for every child Same Age is on for, including grandchildren not born yet.

A photo already in the archive? Open it and choose Say who and how old. The person who added it, or a parent or guardian, can do this. It's also how to fix a mistake, like the wrong age.

Adding a memory in your own voice, without a photo

No photos from when you were young? A memory told in your own voice takes a full place in the row, the same size as a photo.

1. Choose Talk about what you remember (or Talk about being 7 in the yearly note).
2. Under Tell it in your own voice, say what you remember out loud.
3. Say who it's about and about how old they were, as for a photo.
4. Add a photo too, if you have one. This is optional.
5. Choose Save.

Is someone else speaking, like a parent telling a story at dinner? When the memory is about someone other than you, choose whose voice it is under Whose voice is this?: Mine, theirs, or Someone else's.

Turning Same Age on or off for a child

Same Age is off for every child until a parent or guardian turns it on. About two weeks before a birthday, the child's parents and guardians are asked, at the top of the child's page, Ella turns 7 soon. The question ends Would you like this for Ella? Choose Yes or Not for Ella. If nobody answers, it's asked once more before the next birthday. The email and the phone alert only bring you to the question. Your answer counts when you choose it on FutureRoots.

After you choose Yes, FutureRoots asks about each of your other children in turn: Would you like this for Max too? Then, until the birthday, the page offers Add yours now? Choose Add a photo of me at 7, or Not now to put it away.

After a death in the family, a child's page may say For now, we are not asking the family for photos for Max. Nothing on Max's page changes. Choose Start asking again in Max's Same Age settings whenever you are ready.

To change it later:

1. Open the child's page on the website.
2. Choose Settings and privacy, then Same Age.
3. Choose Turn on or Turn off.

In the app: Open the child's page and tap Same Age.

Turning it off takes the family's photos off the child's page and stops the yearly note about that child, for everyone. The photos stay in the family archive. Nobody is told.

With two parents or guardians, off wins. If one of you turns Same Age off, it stays off until that same person turns it back on. Everyone else sees Off. A parent or guardian turned this off for Ella.

When a child is about to turn 13

If Same Age is on, the child's parents and guardians are asked one more time before the 13th birthday: Ella turns 13 soon. "Photos of the family at Ella's age will keep appearing on Ella's page, through 18. Some teenagers love that, and some would rather not. Ella may want a say."

• Keep showing them leaves everything as it is.
• Turn off for Ella turns Same Age off for Ella. Nobody is told you turned it off, and the photos stay in the family archive.

This question comes once, by email and on FutureRoots, never as a phone alert. You can change your answer any time in the child's settings, as above.

When a child turns 18

The row runs through the 18th birthday, and no note asks the family for photos after that. From 18, a parent or guardian can still turn Same Age off for the child, but can't turn it on.

Once a grown child has their own account and the memories have been handed over to them, the choice is theirs alone. The photos are off their page until they choose to show them, under Photos of the family at your age, on your page in their own settings: "Your family added these. You decide whether they show here. Turning this off leaves them in the family archive."

The parents' first look

Some photos go to a child's parents and guardians first, before anyone else sees them on the child's page. That happens when someone who isn't the child's parent or guardian adds a photo of someone in the family who has died, or a photo of someone they typed in by name. A photo you add of yourself never waits for anyone.

Parents and guardians find these on the child's page, under Added for Ella's page: "Only Ella's parents and guardians can see these for now. Either way, each one stays in the family archive."

1. Choose Look at it to open the photo.
2. Choose Show on Ella's page to put it in the row, or Not on Ella's page to leave it in the family archive only.

A photo shows here as soon as it's added if the child is already that age, and otherwise about two weeks before that birthday. A parent or guardian who adds one of these photos themselves doesn't need to look again: it goes on the child's page like any other.

Whose photos appear on a child's page

• Only grown-ups: people who are 18 or older now, or who have died. Never a child, and never a brother or sister.
• Only photos placed at an age the child has already reached. A photo at 9 waits for the 9th birthday.
• Only photos from your own family's archive. Nothing from a child's own memories is ever part of the row.

The row shows up to four photos, then Show all. Choose any photo to open it, with its story and who added it.

Choosing whose photos appear (parents and guardians). In the child's Same Age settings, under Whose photos appear on Ella's page, each person shown on the page has their own switch. "Switching a name off takes that person's photos off Ella's page. Nobody is told you switched it off, and the photos stay in the family archive." The same rule applies as for the main switch: only the person who switched a name off can switch it back on.

One photo, one child. To take a single photo off one child's page, open the photo and choose Not on Ella's page. It stays in the family archive.

Taking yourself off a child's page

When someone else adds a photo or memory of you, you get a notification on FutureRoots: Rose added a photo of you. Open the notification to go straight to the photo. If Rose adds several in one day, it is still one notification, and it says how many. On that photo, you can:

• Choose Don't show this on any child's page, then Take it off. It stays in the family archive, but it can't go back on a child's page. Nobody is told you took it off.
• Choose Keep this in our family so nobody can copy it into another family (more in Keeping an entry in your family).
• Choose Ask us to take this down to write to our privacy team, who will help.

Taking yourself off every child's page

1. On the website, open your account menu (your picture or initials, in the top corner) and choose My profile.
2. Under How you appear to your family, turn on Don't show photos of me on any child's page.

"Photos of you stay in each family's archive. They stop showing on children's pages. Nobody is told you turned this on." This covers every photo of you, in every family you belong to, including ones added later. Turn it off again to let them show.

In the app: Tap Menu, then Your profile, and turn on Don't show photos of me on any child's page.

What stays in the family archive

Every photo and memory added through Same Age stays in the family archive, whatever happens to the row. That includes when:

• A parent or guardian turns Same Age off for a child.
• A parent or guardian takes one photo, or one person's photos, off a child's page.
• You take yourself off one child's page, or every child's page.
• The age was Older than 18 or I don't know.

The family can still find each one in the archive. To remove a photo from the archive altogether, see the Legacy archive.

The yearly note

When Same Age is on for a child, FutureRoots sends a note about ten days before each birthday, from the 1st to the 18th, to the child's parents, guardians, grandparents and great-grandparents. It comes by email, as a phone alert if you use the app, and in your notifications on FutureRoots. It's titled Ella's birthday is coming up and asks "Do you have a photo of yourself from when you were young?"

It has two buttons: one to add a photo, and Talk about being 7 to add a memory in your own voice instead. Aunts, uncles, cousins and others in the family don't get the note, and can add a photo any time from a child's page or the family archive.

If two notes in a row go by and you haven't added anything, we stop sending them. Adding a photo any time starts them again.

Stopping the yearly note

1. On the website, open your account menu (your picture or initials, in the top corner) and choose Notification settings.
2. Under Reminders, find "A note once a year, before a child's birthday, asking for a photo of you at the same age."
3. Turn off its Email switch, its Push switch, or both.

This stops the note for you only. The photos already added stay where they are. A parent or guardian who turns Same Age off for a child stops the note about that child for everyone.

In the app: Tap Menu, then Alert settings, and find the same line under Reminders.

Why photos are made smaller and lose their location

Before a Same Age photo leaves your phone or computer, FutureRoots does two things to it:

• Makes it smaller. A photo of an old print straight from a phone can be very large. A smaller copy, still sharp on any screen, sends much faster on a slow connection and opens faster for the family.
• Takes out where it was taken. Phones quietly save extra details inside every photo, including the place it was taken, which for a photo of a print is usually your home. FutureRoots sends a fresh copy with none of those details, so your address never travels with the picture.

If your device can't get a photo ready this way, nothing is sent, and you'll see "We couldn't get this photo ready on this device. Please try a different one." Your photo stays on screen. Choosing a different copy of the photo, or trying on another device, usually works.