Homent
Guide
Coordinate helper pickup without another WhatsApp group
How Hong Kong families keep helper pickups, shopping, and clinic visits on one board instead of chasing a chat. The Homent family app is free forever.
Coordinate with a helper without another WhatsApp group
Hong Kong households already have a chat. Adding a second one for pickups, shopping, and “have you left yet?” does not fix the problem. The helper still has to hunt. You still have to ask.
Homent puts the helper’s own to-dos and pickups in the Family App. You update once. Phones stay in sync. An optional wall tablet in the kitchen shows the same board. Elders who will not open the app get an A4 on the fridge.
This is not a new group. It is one board with roles. Households describing this: Stories.
What actually breaks in WhatsApp
- Pickup lives in a voice note, a photo of the school circular, and three follow-ups.
- Shopping lives in a different thread.
- Clinic visits for an elder land in a family group the helper is not in, or is in and should not be.
- Status is a question: “你到未？” Nobody can see it without asking.
Cozi and TimeTree can hold the event. They do not give the helper a live pickup/drop-off status. Helpy is strong on meals, receipts, and salary slips. Use Helpy for those. Use a household board for the run itself. See Homent vs Cozi vs TimeTree vs Helpy.
How a day looks on Homent
- Create a family at homent.app. No credit card.
- Invite the helper, spouse, and whoever does pickup, with a link or QR. You approve each new phone once. The helper is a caregiver, not a second admin.
- Put the run on the board. School, class, clinic. Name who is on pickup, and where.
- Assign shopping as to-dos. When it is done, the household sees the status. No extra “買咗未.”
- Dinner and notices sit on the same board. You do not open a fourth chat for “今晚煮咩.”
- Optional kitchen tablet. Display app, or a browser, on an idle iPad. See tablet.
- Optional paper. Export A4 for the elder who will not open anything. See print for the fridge.
Paste a school chat or a week of plans into the AI wizard, review, then create them. Or import only the Google Calendar days you choose so work stays off the board. Details: Google Calendar and helper privacy.
What the helper sees vs what you see
The helper sees her pickups and her to-dos. She does not need your work calendar. You see the whole board, including elders’ clinic visits on the same day as the school run. You can ask dad to do pickup and the status updates live.
That split is the product. A shared WhatsApp group cannot do it, because everyone sees everything, or someone is left out.
What this is not
- Not a helper-agency tool and not a salary-slip app. Helpy does salary slips.
- Not Tagalog-first yet. The Family App is EN / 繁 / 简. If your helper works in Tagalog or Bahasa, we will not pretend the UI is already there.
- Not a GPS tracker of the helper. Pickup status is what the household marks, not a map of anyone’s phone.
Start: homent.app → invite → first pickup on the board today. The family app is free forever.
FAQ
Do I delete the existing WhatsApp with the helper?
No. Keep it for things that are actually a conversation. Stop using it as a database for pickup.
Can the helper join without an Apple ID email dance?
They join in the Family App with your invite link or QR. iPhone and Android.
What if the helper prefers paper?
Print her to-dos and pickups as A4. Same data as the app.