Koinonia User Guide

Quick Start

1. Download Koinonia from the App Store.
2. Add your first few friends (manual entry or Contacts import).
3. Create circles (for example: Best Friends, Family, Church, Work) and assign colours.
4. Set a realistic catch-up rhythm for each friend.
5. Check Timeline daily for what is due.
6. Log catch-ups when they happen — only logged catch-ups update your rhythm and history.
7. Optional: enable Prayer Points and add a personal prayer point or two.

Navigation

Bottom tabs

• Friends — your home base: the friend grid, search, sorting, and circle filters.
• Prayer Points — appears when Prayer Points are enabled in Settings (About → gear icon).
• About — app purpose, feature overview, feedback, and a link to Settings.

Swipe between Friends, Timeline, and Insights

From the Friends tab, swipe horizontally to move between Insights (left), Friends (centre), and Timeline (right). The app opens on Friends.

Other entry points

• Tap the app logo (top left on Friends) to open Circles management.
• Tap a friend bubble to open their Friend Detail screen.
• Long-press a friend bubble for quick actions (call, message, log, plan, talking point).

Core Workflow

Koinonia is built around a simple loop:

1. Plan a catch-up when one is due (or reschedule an existing plan).
2. Meet — call, coffee, visit, or message.
3. Log the catch-up when it actually happens, with notes and photos if you like.
4. Review — add talking points, prayer points, or post-it notes for next time.

Main Areas

Friends

Add and edit people, filter by circle, sort the grid, and see colour-coded bubbles at a glance. Status rings show whether someone is due, has a catch-up scheduled, or is on track.

Timeline

Everything that needs attention, grouped by urgency: overdue, today, tomorrow, this week, and later. Includes catch-up reminders, planned meetups ready to log, birthdays, milestones, custom reminders, and optional calendar events.

Insights

Reflect on your consistency: catch-up totals and trends, friends who may need reconnecting, most contacted friends, circle distribution, and (in 2.1) a full Catch-up Rhythm breakdown grouping every friend by frequency.

Prayer Points (optional)

Friend-specific prayer lists plus a Personal section for yourself or people not in your friend list. Mark when you have prayed; open items encourage you with “Remember to pray!”

About & Settings

Learn what Koinonia is for, read “The name” explanation, send feedback, and open Settings (gear icon) for sync, notifications, circles, calendar, and more.

Friends List

Adding friends

• Tap + to create a profile manually (name, nickname, birthday, phone, email, photo).
• Use Import from Contacts to add people from Apple Contacts (read-only — Koinonia never edits your phone contacts).
• Free tier: up to 10 friends. Koinonia Unlimited removes the limit.

Colour-coded bubbles

Each friend appears as a bubble with a coloured glow around their photo. Every circle has its own colour. When someone belongs to several circles, up to four colours blend in one ring so you can scan the grid and see context instantly.

Search, filter, and sort

• Search by name.
• Circle chips filter the grid to one circle; you can also prioritise overdue friends in the filter row.
• Sort (toolbar menu): by Circles, First Name, or Last Catch-up.
• Best Friends at Top — when enabled, anyone in a circle named “Best Friends” sorts to the top (alongside your chosen sort).

Quick actions (long-press)

• Call or message (uses the number on the friend profile).
• Log catch-up or plan catch-up.
• Add a talking point.

Pull down on the friend grid to refresh.

Circles

Circles group friends by life context — Family, Church, Work, Best Friends, and any custom groups you create.

• Open Circles from the app logo on the Friends screen.
• Each circle has a name and colour; edit or delete circles you no longer need.
• Pin one circle so it appears first in lists and filters.
• A friend can belong to multiple circles; their bubble shows the combined colours.
• On Friend Detail, assign or remove circles; tags wrap cleanly when someone is in many circles.
• Settings includes Restore default circles to re-add Best Friends, Family, Work, or Church if you deleted them (existing names are not duplicated).

Catch-ups

Catch-up rhythm

Set how often you aim to connect with each friend:

• Weekly, Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly, Biannually, Annually, or Ad-hoc.
• Ad-hoc friends are never marked overdue; other rhythms calculate a next catch-up date from your last logged catch-up.

Status indicators

• Due — time to plan a catch-up.
• Scheduled — you have a planned date (shows on Timeline).
• On track — not yet due based on your rhythm.

Plan a catch-up

• Choose date, time, and mode (in person, phone, video, etc.).
• Optional notes; active talking points can inform what you plan to discuss.
• If calendar integration is on, add an event like “Catch up with [name]” to Apple Calendar.
• Reschedule from Timeline or Friend Detail when plans change.

Log a catch-up

• Record when it happened and how you connected.
• Discussion items — topics you covered; mark items that need a follow-up and optional reminder dates.
• Notes — free-form summary.
• Photos — attach memories from the catch-up (camera or library).
• Prayer points — optionally capture prayer items during the log (when Prayer Points are enabled).
• After logging, you can schedule the next catch-up. Logging from a Timeline reminder dismisses that reminder.

Catch-up history

View, edit, or delete past logs on Friend Detail. History powers Insights, Timeline accuracy, and your sense of how the friendship is going over time.

Friend Detail

Tap any friend bubble for their full profile. The top of the screen is fixed for consistency: Profile, Circles, Catch-up Rhythm, and Contact (call, message, log, plan).

Below that, you can show or hide and reorder these sections in Settings → Friend detail tile order:

• Reminders & Important Dates — birthdays, anniversaries, milestones, and custom reminders.
• Talking Points — prompts for your next conversation; mark complete when discussed.
• Quotes & Memories — memorable things they said or moments worth keeping.
• Gift Ideas — ideas for birthdays and celebrations.
• Prayer Points — when enabled in Settings.
• Post-it Notes — title + body notes for anything that does not fit elsewhere; add, edit, reorder, and delete.

Edit the friend’s core info from the profile area. Deleting a friend removes their history and notes from Koinonia.

Prayer Points

Enable or disable the Prayer Points tab in Settings. When on, you get a dedicated tab and prayer sections on Friend Detail and catch-up logging.

Friend prayer points

• Add points from Friend Detail, the Prayer Points tab, or while logging a catch-up.
• Tap to mark prayed; the app tracks when you last prayed for each point.
• Sort the Prayer Points tab by time since last prayed or first name.

Personal prayer points

• Use the Personal section for yourself, family not in the app, or anyone you do not track as a friend.
• Add via the + menu on the Prayer Points tab.
• Edit or delete personal points from the same screen.

Unprayed items show “Remember to pray!” as a gentle nudge.

Timeline

Swipe right from Friends (or left from Insights) to open Timeline.

• Overdue & due catch-ups — plan or log from each row.
• Planned catch-ups — tap to log when the meetup happens; reschedule or delete if plans change.
• Birthdays & milestones — repeat annually; great prompts to reach out.
• Custom reminders — one-off or recurring prompts you set per friend.
• Calendar events — optional; when enabled in Settings, events from Apple Calendar appear alongside Koinonia items (planned catch-ups are de-duplicated where possible).

Items are grouped so you can focus on today first, then the rest of the week.

Insights

Swipe left from Friends to open Insights.

• Totals — all-time, this month, and this year catch-up counts.
• Longest streak — consecutive catch-ups within a week of each other.
• Chart — catch-ups over the last six months.
• Most connected — friends you have logged the most catch-ups with.
• Needs attention — friends who have gone a while without a logged catch-up.
• Circle distribution — how your friendships spread across circles.
• Catch-up Rhythm (2.1) — every friend listed under their rhythm (weekly through ad-hoc) so you can see the shape of your relational commitments at a glance.

Notifications & Calendar

Smart notifications

Configure in Settings → Notifications. Koinonia can remind you about:

• Catch-ups coming due (time to plan).
• Overdue catch-ups.
• Upcoming birthdays.
• Custom reminders you create.

Notifications respect your iOS permission choices; enable them in iPhone Settings if prompts do not appear.

Calendar integration

• Show catch-ups in Calendar — create Apple Calendar events when you plan catch-ups.
• Show calendar events in Timeline — surface your calendar alongside Koinonia reminders.

Calls

Confirm before dialling — when on, tapping Call asks for confirmation first; when off, Call dials immediately.

Koinonia Unlimited

The free version supports up to 10 friends with full access to features for those friends. Koinonia Unlimited is an optional subscription that unlocks unlimited friends.

• Subscribe from Settings or when you hit the friend limit.
• When active, Settings shows “Koinonia Unlimited Active” and an infinity badge appears in the Friends toolbar.
• Manage or cancel your subscription in the App Store → Apple ID → Subscriptions.
• Promotional offer codes are redeemed through Apple’s redeem flow (not inside the app).

Settings

Open About → gear icon.

• Subscription — status and upgrade to Unlimited.
• iCloud Sync — optional sync across your devices via your Apple account and CloudKit.
• Prayer Points — show or hide the Prayer Points tab and related UI.
• Circles — manage circles and restore defaults.
• Calls — confirm before dialling.
• Notifications — catch-up, overdue, birthday, and custom reminder toggles.
• Calendar — export planned catch-ups and show calendar events in Timeline.
• Friend detail tile order — reorder optional sections on Friend Detail.
• Privacy & Legal — in-app privacy policy.

Privacy and Data

• Data is stored locally on your device by default.
• iCloud sync is optional and uses your Apple account; data stays in your ecosystem, not on third-party ad servers.
• No third-party analytics or ad tracking.
• Contacts, calendar, notifications, and camera/photos are optional — grant only what you need in iOS Settings.
• Avoid storing highly sensitive information you would not want on a personal device.

Read the full Privacy Policy on this site.

Troubleshooting

iCloud sync not updating

• Confirm iCloud sync is enabled in Koinonia Settings.
• Confirm you are signed into iCloud on the device.
• Wait a few minutes for CloudKit to propagate; open the app again after switching devices.

Notifications not arriving

• Check notification permissions for Koinonia in iOS Settings.
• Confirm the relevant toggles are on in Koinonia Settings → Notifications.
• Re-open the app after changing permissions.

Contacts import looks outdated

Update the person in Apple Contacts first, then re-import or refresh in Koinonia.

Post-it notes or lists look empty

Pull to refresh on Friend Detail or restart the app; notes are stored with the friend and should appear in the Post-it Notes section.

App is unresponsive

• Force quit and relaunch Koinonia.
• Restart your iPhone if needed.
• Ensure iOS is up to date.

FAQ

Can I use Koinonia without iCloud?
Yes. The app works offline. iCloud sync is optional.

Does Koinonia share my data with advertisers?
No. Your relationship data is not sold or used for ads.

Can I disable Prayer Points?
Yes. Turn them off in Settings; the tab and prayer UI will hide.

What is the difference between planning and logging a catch-up?
Planning sets a future date and may add a calendar event. Logging records that a catch-up actually happened and updates your rhythm and history.

How many circle colours show on a bubble?
Up to four, blended when a friend is in multiple circles.

Can I use Koinonia on iPad?
Koinonia is designed for iPhone. iPad may run it, but the experience is not optimised for larger screens.

How do I redeem a promo code for Unlimited?
Use Apple’s offer-code redemption (App Store or link from your code). Subscription status updates when Apple confirms the entitlement.

Support

Need help or want to share feedback?

• Email: koinonia@aretix.com.au
• In-app: About → Send feedback
• Download or update on the App Store
• What’s new in 2.1 on the home page

Use Koinonia in a way that is helpful, sustainable, and personal. The goal is meaningful connection, not perfection.