01What you need
- An iPhone. Farekeep doesn’t run on iPad, Mac or Apple Watch.
- An Apple Account signed in to your iPhone. Farekeep has no sign-in of its own — it uses whichever Apple Account is signed in to your phone for everything that syncs or shares.
- Farekeep allowed to use iCloud: on your iPhone, open Settings, tap your name at the top, then iCloud, and make sure Farekeep is switched on there.
A trip works fully on its own before you invite anyone, and you can keep using Farekeep without iCloud for a solo, un-shared trip — you just won’t be able to share it or sync it to another device until you sign in.
02Inviting someone to a trip
Farekeep invites people with a link, not an email address or phone number.
- Open the trip, go to its members list, and tap Invite next to the person you want to add.
- Farekeep prepares a one-time link for that member and opens the share sheet.
- Send the link however you like — Messages, WhatsApp, email, or copy it and paste it yourself.
The link carries no name or account details while it’s waiting to be used. Whoever opens it first joins the trip as that member — so send it only to the person you mean to invite. Once they tap it, they’re asked which existing member they are, so they’re matched to the right seat rather than added as someone new.
If the person doesn’t have Farekeep yet, the link takes them to install it first, then opens the trip once they sign in.
03If an invite link won’t open
This almost always comes down to one of three things. Try them in order:
- Sign in to iCloud. Open Settings on your iPhone and look for “Sign in to your iPhone” at the top. Without an Apple Account signed in, Farekeep can’t open any invite link.
- Update Farekeep. An old build may not understand a newer link. Update from the App Store and try the link again.
- Ask for a new link. A link can be cancelled, already used by someone else, or tied to a seat that’s no longer available. If it still won’t open, ask whoever invited you to send a fresh one.
Already signed in and up to date, and it still fails? Someone else may have opened the link first — each link works for one person, on a first-come basis. Ask for a new one.
04Leaving a trip, deleting a trip, deleting your data
- Leave a trip. From the trip’s menu, tap Leave trip. It’s removed from your phone only — everyone else keeps it, and your past expenses stay attached to your name.
- Delete a trip. An admin (the organiser, or anyone they’ve made an admin) can delete a shared trip for everyone, after a confirmation that says so in words. It disappears from every member’s phone.
- Delete an expense. Removes it and its photos from your device and from iCloud.
- Delete the app. Only removes the copy on your device. Delete your trips in the app first if you also want them gone from iCloud.
For anything you can’t remove yourself this way, contact us and we’ll help.
05What Farekeep can’t do
If the trip’s organiser deletes it, the trip ends for everyone. It disappears from every member’s phone straight away. Because the trip’s data lives in the organiser’s own iCloud account, the underlying data there is only fully cleared out the next time the organiser’s own phone opens Farekeep — until then it still sits in their iCloud storage, though nobody else can see or reach it anymore. This is a limit of how iCloud sharing works, not a bug.
06Contact
Stuck on something above, or need help with your data? Email us.
rufaidah.blw@gmail.comSee also the Farekeep Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.