How to Set Up Your Family in Degchi

One kitchen, many phones

In most homes the person who cooks is not the only person who knows what is in the kitchen. A parent checks the fridge, a son brings milk home, a daughter-in-law adds something to the list, and a grandmother asks for biryani on Friday. Everyone has an opinion and nobody has the full picture.

The Family tab in Degchi is where those people meet. It gives the household one pantry, one shopping list and one dinner vote, so the whole house is looking at the same thing.

Create your family

Open the Family tab. If you do not have one yet, you will see "Cook together". Type a name, such as "Khan Family" (or leave the suggested name), and tap Create family. You become the Owner.

To share your pantry, list and votes across different phones, sign in with Google first, using the Sign in with Google button on the Me tab. Without sign-in, the family stays on your own phone.

Invite people the easy way

Tap Invite and you get three options:

• Share on WhatsApp. Degchi writes the message for you, with a link in it.
• Copy code. Every family has a short 8-character code, handy for reading out over the phone.
• QR code. Someone sitting next to you can scan it with Scan to join.

You can also turn on Require approval to join, so new requests wait for you to approve them. If a link ends up somewhere it should not, Revoke & get new code cancels the old one. Invite codes expire after seven days, in any case.

What the other person sees

Nobody is added to a family by accident. Whether they open the link, type the code under Join a family with a code instead, or scan the QR, they first land on a screen titled Join this family? It shows the family's name and how many members it has, and says "You'll share the pantry, shopping list and dinner polls". They can tap Join or Not now.

Joining a family when you already track a pantry? Degchi asks whether to Bring my pantry into the family or start with the family's own. A person can belong to up to three families, for example their own home and their parents' home, and switch between them.

Roles: who can do what

Not everyone should be able to change everything. Each member has a role, and the Owner can change it:

• Owner: manages the family, invites and roles.
• Cook: starts polls, closes votes, plans meals.
• Member: votes, sends requests, edits the pantry.
• Child: votes and sends dish requests.
• Helper: sees the pantry and today's dish, but cannot vote. This suits a cook or house help who needs to know what is for dinner.

Someone without a smartphone, such as an elder, can still be listed by name through Add member. If you ever need to step away as Owner, you must Transfer ownership to another adult first, so a family is never left without one.

What a shared kitchen changes

• Everyone sees the same pantry. No more buying a third bag of rice because nobody knew.
• One list, many shoppers. Items are added by whoever notices.
• A say for everyone. Children and elders can vote and make requests without being given control of the whole app. See How to Settle "What's for Dinner?" with a Family Vote.
• Safe joining. Confirmation screens, expiring codes and optional approval keep strangers out.

It is especially useful for big gatherings, where dishes like lamb kabsa, chicken mandi or hyderabadi biryani need many hands and a long shopping list.

Try it

Degchi is in free beta, and families are what it is built around. Join the Degchi beta with a Gmail address, then invite the people you cook for.