Getting started
Your first ten minutes with Brim
You don't need to set everything up at once. Do the first three steps today — that's enough to feel the difference. Come back for the rest whenever you have a quiet minute.
1. Create your account
1 minSign up with your email and a password. You'll pick monthly or annual and start a 7-day free trial — nothing is charged until day 8, and you can cancel any time before then from Account settings.
- Didn't get the confirmation email? Check spam, then try again — it comes from Brim.
- Forgot your password later? Use "Reset password" on the sign-in screen.
2. Add your family
2 minAdd anyone whose schedule lives in your head — kids, partner, yourself. Each person gets a color and an optional emoji so the calendar reads at a glance.
- You can edit or add people any time from the menu → Household.
- Ages are optional; they only help with school-year sorting.
3. Add your first thing
1 minTap the + button on Today. Give it a title, a date, who it's for, and a category (school, medical, activities, social, household). That's the whole flow.
- Repeating? Choose how often and, if it should stop, set an end date.
- Anything without a time shows as an all-day item at the top of the day.
4. Scan a paper
2 minThis is the part that saves the most time. Tap Scan, photograph the school flyer, appointment card, sports schedule, or birthday invite, and Brim reads the title, date, time, location, and notes straight off the page. You review a checklist and edit anything before it saves — nothing is added behind your back.
- Lay the paper flat, fill the frame, and use good light.
- Portrait, landscape, and phone screenshots all work — Brim straightens it for you.
- Multi-page? Add several photos at once and Brim merges them into one list.
- Every photo is read twice and the results compared. If the two reads disagree, that row gets flagged for you to check instead of quietly guessing.
- If a date is cut off or blurry, Brim leaves it blank rather than inventing one.
5. Talk instead of typing
1 minAnywhere you see the microphone — quick-add, to-dos, shopping, notes — hold it, say the thing out loud, and Brim writes it down. Made for hands full of groceries and a kid on your hip.
- On the shopping list, one breath becomes many items: "milk, eggs, two loaves of bread, paper towels" adds four lines.
- In quick-add, say the date out loud ("dentist Thursday at 3") and it fills the fields.
- You can always edit the text afterwards — nothing saves without you.
6. Turn on reminders
1 minMenu → Sharing & alerts. Allow notifications and pick your default lead time (a day before, an hour before, or both). Reminders arrive even when the app is closed.
- Quiet hours pause alerts overnight — set the window that fits your house.
- Per-event lead times override the default when something needs extra warning.
7. Bring in your partner
2 minMenu → Household → create an invite code. They sign up, enter the code, and you're both on the same calendar and lists. One subscription covers the whole household.
- Kids can have their own login: they can add items and tick off their own.
- Removing someone later doesn't delete the family's shared history.
8. Connect your other calendars
2 minMenu → Connected calendars. Link Google for two-way sync, or paste the secret iCal link from Outlook or Apple Calendar to pull events in.
- Two-way means an event added in Brim shows up in Google, and the reverse.
- Syncs run automatically every 15 minutes.
The parts people don't expect
Four things Brim does that a normal shared calendar can't. Each one is worth the five minutes it takes to set up.
Scan-to-calendar
The one that sells it
Paper is where the mental load hides: the flyer in the backpack, the appointment card in your purse, the season schedule taped to the fridge. Photograph it and Brim pulls every date off it into an editable checklist.
How it works
- 1Tap Scan, then take a photo or pick one from your camera roll.
- 2Add more photos if the schedule runs several pages.
- 3Wait a few seconds while Brim reads it — twice, and compares.
- 4Review the checklist: uncheck anything you don't want, fix a time, assign a kid.
- 5Save. Everything lands on the calendar at once.
- Handles month-grid wall calendars, bulleted school newsletters, appointment cards, and invites.
- Reads a time range ("5:30–7:00") as start and end, not one blurry blob.
- Anything the two reads disagreed on is flagged in orange so you look before you save.
Shift rotations
For 24/48 and A/B/C houses
If someone in your family works a rotation — firefighter, nurse, police, plant shift — you already know regular calendar apps can't express it. Brim can. Set the pattern once and it fills in twelve months.
How it works
- 1Menu → Shift rotation.
- 2Pick who works it, name the crews (A, B, C or your own labels), and set the cycle.
- 3Enter one known date and which crew was on that day — that anchors the whole rotation.
- 4Brim projects the next twelve months onto the family calendar, color-coded.
- Supports 24/48, Kelly, Panama, and other repeating multi-crew patterns.
- Shift days show alongside school and appointments, so trade decisions are obvious.
- Change the pattern later and the projection rebuilds — no re-entering months of days.
Voice capture
Hands full? Just talk
Every place you add something has a microphone. Hold it, speak normally, and Brim writes it down and files it — no keyboard, no stopping what you're doing.
How it works
- 1Hold the mic on quick-add, to-dos, shopping, or notes.
- 2Say it the way you'd say it to a person.
- 3Let go — the text appears, already sorted into fields or list items.
- 4Glance, tweak if needed, save.
- Shopping understands lists and quantities in one go: "two gallons of milk, bananas, dish soap."
- Quick-add picks up days and times from plain speech.
- Great for the school pickup line, the driveway, and 10pm on the couch.
Recipe links → shopping list
Dinner solved
Found a recipe online? Paste the link. Brim reads the page, saves the recipe with its ingredients, and can push every ingredient onto your shopping list in one tap.
How it works
- 1Menu → Recipes → paste the recipe URL.
- 2Brim extracts the title, ingredients, and steps into a clean card.
- 3Drop the recipe onto a night in the Meal plan.
- 4Tap "Add ingredients to shopping list" — the whole list goes over, quantities included.
- Duplicates merge instead of stacking, so you don't buy three cartons of eggs.
- Save a week of meals you liked as a template and reuse it whenever the week gets away from you.
- Ingredients arrive grouped, so the store trip runs in one loop.
When you're ready for more
None of this is required. Add a piece whenever the need shows up.
To-dos and stars
Anything that isn't tied to a time lives in To-dos. Kids earn stars for finishing theirs, with a milestone ladder and rewards you choose — it turns nagging into a game.
Shopping list
A shared running list everyone in the household can add to, by voice or typing. Meal-plan ingredients land here automatically, grouped so you're not zig-zagging the store.
Notes
The scraps that don't fit anywhere else — the sitter's number, the teacher's request, the thing you'll forget by dinner. Dictate them and move on.
Templates
For the things you set up over and over — swim practice, library day, packing lists. Build it once, drop it on any date in two taps, with an end date if it should stop.
Share a read-only calendar
Send grandma, a sitter, or a co-parent a link that shows the schedule without giving them an account or edit access.
Billing and cancelling
Account settings → Subscription shows your plan, renewal date, and a cancel button. Cancel before day 8 of the trial and you're never charged. There's a 14-day money-back guarantee after that.
Common questions
Do I have to enter a card to try it?
Yes — the card is saved at signup so nothing interrupts you on day 8, but you're not charged during the 7-day trial. Cancel before it ends and the card is never billed.
Does my partner need to pay too?
No. One subscription covers your whole household, however many people you add.
A scan got a date wrong. What do I do?
Fix it right on the review screen before saving — Brim never saves a scan without your confirmation. If a date was cut off or blurry in the photo, Brim leaves it blank rather than guessing. Retake with the whole page in frame and it'll usually catch it.
My reminders aren't arriving.
Check three things: notifications are enabled in Sharing & alerts, your phone allows notifications for Brim, and the reminder time isn't inside your quiet hours.
Can Brim handle my 24/48 or A/B/C work shift?
Yes. Menu → Shift rotation: name your crews, set the cycle, and anchor it with one date you know. Brim projects the next twelve months onto the family calendar and rebuilds it if the pattern changes.
Do I have to type everything?
No. Every add screen has a microphone — quick-add, to-dos, shopping, and notes. Say it out loud and Brim writes it down. On the shopping list you can rattle off several items in one breath.
Can I add a recipe from a website?
Paste the link in Recipes. Brim saves the recipe with its ingredients and steps, and one tap sends every ingredient to your shopping list, quantities merged.
Can I use Brim on my computer?
Yes. Brim runs in any browser. On a phone you can also add it to your home screen from the browser menu, and it behaves like an installed app.
What happens to my family's stuff if I delete my account?
Everything tied only to you is removed. If other people are still in your household, the shared calendar and lists stay so they aren't left stranded.
Is my family's information private?
Your data is only visible to people in your household. We don't sell it or use it for advertising — see the Privacy Policy for the full detail.