Beacon BabyBefore baby
The baby tracker you set up before baby.
Add your due date, invite each other, and decide how you'll feed — on a quiet weekend, not at 3am. Then every feed, diaper and nap is one tap on whichever phone is closest.
The plan
Ready in three steps — two of them before she's born.
No migration, no import, no setup call. Do the first two on a quiet weekend; the third is the only one that happens at 3am.
- 01
Set it up this weekend
Install it and add your due date — or her birthday, if she's already here. Then pick how you'll feed in Settings. Two minutes, and no account needed.
- 02
Invite each other
One of you signs in and sets up sharing on the Family tab, then sends an invite code. Partner, grandparent, nanny — everyone sees the same log, with who logged what.
- 03
Tap from day one
Every feed, diaper and nap is one tap — or one sentence, once you switch voice on — on whichever phone is closest.
What it looks like
Two weeks in, nobody is the memory.
It's on both phones before the car seat is in
Set up on a quiet weekend, so the first entry is a tap rather than an install.
Whoever's awake taps once
A feed, a change, a nap — one tap on the nearest phone, and everyone's screen has it.
The first visit is a hand-over, not a quiz
Hand over the phone, or the one-page visit report of the last two weeks.
Handoffs take seconds
No debrief, no “wait, did you?” — the day is on the screen, and so is who logged it.
From nervous first-timers hoping to remember it all to a team that came home ready.
The setup checklist
Eight things to do before the bag is by the door.
All of them are in the app today. Most take under a minute; the whole list is a weekend afternoon with time to spare.
Install it on both phones
No account needed to log. iPhone, iOS 26 or later.
Add your due date
The first screen asks who you're tracking. Not here yet? Choose the due date — the name is optional. Until then Today counts down (“Due in 6 weeks”), and on the day you change it to her birthday in Family → Children.
Choose how you'll feed
Settings — the gear on Today — then Today screen → How you feed: bottle, nursing, or both. Today rearranges to match, and you can change it any time.
Switch on voice, and let the speech model download
Voice is off by default. Turn it on in Settings → Voice and reminders, then tap Download the speech model — a one-time download from Apple that voice needs before it works.
Check it's on your Apple Watch
If you wear one. The Watch logs three things in one tap: a bottle, a wet diaper, and the start or end of a nap.
Set up sharing on the Family tab
One of you taps Set up sharing and signs in with Apple or an email. Then Invite someone and choose a role — Can manage family, Can log care, or Can view. The six-character code works once and ends in 24 hours.
Decide on reminders
Feed reminders and Change reminders, in Settings → Voice and reminders. Off until you turn them on, timed from your own recent pattern, and never while the baby is asleep.
Learn the Siri phrases
They're built in, so there is nothing to set up: “Log a bottle in Beacon Baby”, “Log a diaper in Beacon Baby”, “Start sleep in Beacon Baby”. Siri is the route from a locked phone.
Free printable
Bring the baby home with a plan, not a pile of apps.
Three printable pages for the week before and the week after: somewhere to write down the first days, a setup checklist for both your phones, and a plan for who covers which night. Free, and yours to keep whether or not you ever use the app.
- The first-week log: a page a day for feeds, diapers and sleep — the things you'll commonly be asked about at the first checkups.
- The before-baby setup checklist: what to put where, and which phone does what, before the bag is by the door.
- The partner handoff plan: who covers which night, and what the person coming on shift needs to know.
The Day-One Kit
What the first few days look like
What you'll be asked, and what's worth writing down.
So nothing on night three is a surprise. General information from parents who have done it — not medical advice.
Night one
You won't remember much of it
Not because you're failing. Because you've been awake for thirty hours and the days have stopped having edges. It's the most convincing argument for writing things down, and it arrives before anyone has told you to.
Night three
The tracking starts to feel like a second job
By now there's a notes app, a piece of paper on the counter, and maybe a form with twelve fields. It's the point where plenty of people let logging slide — which is why it's worth making it one tap before you get here.
Day three to five
Someone asks a question you can't answer
The first checkup, often a few days after you get home. “How often is she feeding? How many wet diapers?” Without a log, the honest answer is a guess — and that feels much worse than it should.
Day seven
A shape appears
Seven days is enough for a pattern. Not a schedule — nothing about this is a schedule yet — but a shape: roughly when she feeds, roughly how much, roughly how long the longest stretch is. That shape is the first genuinely useful thing tracking gives you.
- Bottle feeds, with the amount — the most-asked number
- Diaper changes, and whether they were wet, poopy, or both
- Sleep, as down and up, not as a precise duration
- Nursing sessions, as length and side, if you're nursing
This is general information from parents who have done it, not medical advice. Your pediatrician, nurse or midwife is the authority on your baby — and if anything worries you, call them rather than reading another website at 3am. The whole first week →
Straight answers
What expecting parents ask.
When should we set it up?
Before you need it — a quiet weekend in the last few weeks is plenty. Install it and add your due date (the first screen says “Not here yet? Choose the due date.”), pick how you'll feed in Settings, and set up sharing if you want it. It takes about two minutes. On the day, change the date to her birthday in Family → Children.
Can my partner use it on their phone?
Yes, for free. One of you signs in — with Apple, or with an email that sends a link and an 8-digit code — sets up sharing on the Family tab and invites the other with a six-character code that works once and ends in 24 hours. After that every phone you invite sees the same log as it happens, and each entry says who logged it. A grandparent or a nanny can join the same way, set to log care or only to view.
Is it really free?
Yes, and the free tier never expires. Logging feeds, nursing, diapers, sleep, growth and solids, voice, Siri, the Apple Watch, reminders, the care summary, the last seven days of trends, and sharing with everyone who helps are all free. Plus is optional: it adds longer trends, more than one child and extra trackers such as medicines and photos, and starts with a 7-day free trial if your Apple ID hasn't had one.
Will it tell us if something's wrong?
No. Beacon Baby is a log, not a monitor: it records what you tell it and never labels a number low, high or concerning. If anything about your baby worries you, call your pediatrician rather than waiting on an app.
Does it work for nursing?
Yes. Choose nursing, or both, in Settings → Today screen → How you feed, and Today shows a timer and which side instead of an amount. Nursing is free. Log it with a tap or through Siri; the in-app voice logs bottles, diapers and sleep rather than nursing.
Twins, or a second child?
A second child is part of Plus. One child is free; with Plus you add more from the Family tab, each with their own name and their own log. Children sync over sharing, so everyone you share the log with sees them. If Plus lapses, children you have added stay and can still be logged, and adding another one needs Plus again.
Set it up before you need it.
Two minutes now is two minutes you don't spend at 3am.
Free to log, forever. No account needed to log. iPhone, iOS 26 or later.
Not ready to install anything?
Get the free Day-One Kit →