The owner's manual.

1A name is the whole sign-up.

There is no email, password or verification step. You enter the name your people know you by, and that's an account.

1.1Start on the iPhone

Open the app, enter a name, done. The app has three tabs: Status (everyone who shares with you), People (invites and sharing), and Me (your devices and your own status).

1.2Or start on the Mac

The Mac companion can create the account too. No phone needed to begin; pair the phone later and it joins the same account.

1.3Place the widget

Home screen and lock screen (circular, rectangular, or inline), each configurable to spotlight one person. On recent iOS the widgets update in near-real time; older versions refresh on a timeline.

2Pair a work computer.

The companion is what turns a computer into a reporter. Pairing takes one code and about thirty seconds.

2.1Get a pairing code

On the phone: Me → Pair a work computer. A short code appears, valid for ten minutes.

2.2Enter it in the companion

The Mac menu bar app or the Windows tray app asks for the code on first launch. From then on the computer reports call or free on its own.

The menu bar or tray slot shows one chosen person's live dot; the full feed is one click away. Windows adds an optional toast when your person's call starts or ends.

2.3Set and forget

Both companions offer start-at-login. No admin rights are needed at any point, on either platform.

3Invite your person.

Sharing is built on invite codes, and every connection carries its own permissions.

3.1Create a code

In People, create an eight-character invite code and send it any way you like. You pick the direction when you create it: both ways, they see me, or I see them.

3.2They accept

The other person enters the code in their app and the connection is live. There are no friend requests, and Doorby never searches for people or reads your address book.

3.3Each person, their own deal

What your partner sees and what a parent sees are separate decisions. Pause or revoke any single connection without touching the others.

4Pausing, revoking, leaving.

The controls that matter are the ones for saying no.

4.1One tap to go dark

Pause sharing per person or globally. To the other side, paused is indistinguishable from offline: nobody can tell "hidden from me" apart from "laptop is asleep".

4.2Honest quiet hours

When a computer stops reporting, the status shows a time-aware offline label (evening, night, weekend) instead of pretending to know.

4.3Remove a device

Every device has its own token. Swipe it away in Me and the companion sees the rejected token and permanently stops itself. That's a kill switch, not a hint.

4.4Leave cleanly

Mac: quit the menu bar app and move it to the Trash. Windows: run the provided uninstaller. Nothing survives except what you delete last: the account itself, from the phone.