🎁

Sinterklaas came by to see
what gift for parents there might be.
No chocolate treats or sweets this time,
but a refreshed app — both subtle and sublime.

With improvements layered front and rear,
to make the experience better this year.

Features

In this update, we’ve made it easier to stay informed, manage planning, communicate with the team, and access important documents — all from one place. Here’s what you can now do in the app:

🕒 Timeline (on the Home screen)

• Get a clear, chronological view of important updates related to your child(ren). For now, this timeline highlights message-based events, so you can immediately see what’s new or recently shared.
• The planning card at the top of the Home tab contains at a glance information about the children’s planning for today. Shortcuts for planning requests are available under the 3 dots menu button.

📅 Planning

• See your child’s schedule and upcoming daycare days and times.
• Filter the calendar by child, so you can focus on one child or view everything together.
• Report your child’s absence easily, whether they’re sick, on holiday, or simply not attending that day.
• Report absence for multiple children at once, saving time for families with siblings.
• Request additional childcare, if you need extra hours outside the regular schedule.
• Confirm or request flexible planning, giving you more room to adjust schedules.
• See available hours and budget information directly while making requests, so you always know where you stand before submitting.

📄 Contracts & Placements

• See the status of placement updates, so you always know whether something is pending, approved or processed.
• Submit changes to an existing placement, or cancel the request if plans have changed.
• Fully cancel a placement, when no longer relevant.

💬 Messages

• Browse and read all past and current conversations with the childcare location.
• Start a new message thread when you need to reach out.
• Reply within existing message threads to keep communication consistent and connected.
• Delete individual messages if you want to clean up your inbox.
• Easily spot unread messages with a clear badge indicator.
• Open attachments such as documents and photos, and go directly to the image or document for easier viewing.

🖼️ Media

• Browse photos of your child, grouped in albums or individually.
• Save media to your device, so you can keep memories and share them privately with friends and family.

👤 Parent & Child Profiles

• Review and edit parent and child information, ensuring everything is correct and up to date.
• Update profile photos for easier recognition.
• Find details about your childcare locations directly in the app.

• Access and download:

  • parent-specific documents
  • general documents
  • contracts
  • invoices
  • annual statements
• Everything neatly in one place — no more searching through emails.

👶 Child Profile

• Update your child’s medical information, so caregivers have the right details to keep them safe.
• Register a new child, making onboarding smoother for growing families.

🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Contact Persons

• Add, edit, and remove contacts, such as grandparents, babysitters or emergency contacts.
• Update their profile picture, so staff can immediately see who’s who.

If you have thoughts, suggestions, or encounter something that’s unclear — please let us know via the feedback screen in the app. We’re continuously improving the experience with your help ❤️

🎁

Sinterklaas came by to see
what gift for parents there might be.
No chocolate treats or sweets this time,
but a refreshed app — both subtle and sublime.

With improvements layered front and rear,
to make the experience better this year.

NEw Features

• Saving multiple media items at once
  You can now download up to 20 photos and/or videos at the same time to your device.This works from the All media tab or inside an album via the button in the top-right corner. Once tapped, you can select multiple items. Use the download button at the bottom to start saving, and a progress bar will show how many items have completed.

Fixed bugs

• When requesting irregular care, the remaining available hours are now correctly displayed in the budget overview.
• When requesting extra care, the note you enter is now properly included and sent along with the request.

UI/UX

• The planning tiles on the Home tab have been combined into a single, clear planning card at the top of the screen. This provides an at-a-glance overview of children’s planning for today. The planning shortcuts are still available via the three-dot menu.
• The list of children is now directly visible on the Profile screen, making it easier and faster to view and edit information about the children.
• The app’s color theme has been updated to align with Material Design guidelines, improving contrast and accessibility.

Feedback: If you have suggestions or comments, please share them with us via the feedback screen in the app — we really appreciate it!

A little upgrade with lots of care
We’ve been working on small fixes and subtle improvements to make your experience smoother and more enjoyable. You might spot some small changes in the app’s design — just part of our plan to keep things fresh and easy to use! 

NEW Features

• Send us your feedback — directly from the app!
  You can now easily share your thoughts about the app. A new card appears on the Home tab — tap it to open the Feedback screen. There, you can tell us how you feel about the app and let us know if we may contact you using your login email address.
  Once feedback is sent, the card will disappear (or you can close it manually). Want to share more? The feedback screen is always available via your Profile details.
• Approve contracts directly in the app
  If your childcare organisation doesn't use CM Sign, you can approve contracts directly from the app.
• Contracts are now shown in a more logical order
  Current and upcoming contracts are listed first, so you can quickly find what’s most relevant.
• Vacation budget now visible
  When requesting irregular childcare with a vacation package, your available vacation budget is now clearly shown.
• Swap full days at once
  If your child’s schedule includes multiple time blocks in a day, you can now swap the whole day in one go — no need to swap each block separately.
• Enter your IBAN just once
  You can now add your IBAN to your Profile details — and you only need to do it once.

SOLVED Bugs

• Study day cancellations and validations improved
  You can now cancel a study day request. Also, it’s no longer possible to confirm a study day if registration isn’t allowed in the system — ensuring better consistency.
• Only valid study day requests are shown
  A bug caused incorrect study day requests to appear under the All tab on the Requests page. This is now fixed — only requests actually made by the user will be shown.
• Groups shown when composing a message are now more accurate
  When sending a new message, only groups your child is currently part of (based on the current contract) are shown. Future groups for upcoming contracts are hidden to avoid confusion and ensure messages go to the right group.
• Image preview on the timeline now works correctly
  Previously, opening a photo from the timeline could show the wrong image. This issue is resolved — the correct image now opens, and if the message includes multiple images, the full album opens for easy viewing.
• Album titles now display properly
  Long album names no longer overlap, and when opening the album, the full title is clearly displayed at the top of the screen, along with the creation date.
• All images in large albums are now accessible
  Albums with many images were previously not scrollable to the end. This has now been fixed — you can scroll through and view all photos.

Look & feel

• Friendlier icons in the navigation bar
  The icons at the bottom of the screen have been refreshed — they now look friendlier and more in line with the overall style of the app.
• Avatar updates
  Your profile picture (if available) now appears in the top-right corner of the Home screen. On the Profile page, the orange border has been removed, and the avatar appears larger and cleaner.
• Clearer message dates
  The creation date shown in the Messages list now uses a clearer format, making it easier to see the day and month at a glance.
• Consistent child filter styling
  The filter for selecting a child on the Messages tab now matches the style used throughout the rest of the app, making things feel more familiar and consistent.
• Smarter placeholders for empty screens
  When there’s no content yet, you’ll now see helpful and visually friendly placeholders instead of empty screens — because blank pages are just awkward.
• Improved feedback messages
  Red error messages and green confirmation messages now have better contrast, a refreshed design, and stay on screen a little longer so you can read them fully. They can also be dismissed manually via a close button or with a swipe down gesture.

And last but not least, we’ve also done a lot of behind-the-scenes maintenance to bring the app up to the latest standards. As a result, you may notice small performance improvements, for example, the Home screen now loads a bit faster.

Note: Due to circumstances beyond our control, iOS users may need to log in again. We're truly sorry, if we could have avoided it, we would have.

That's it for this update, brought to you with care and dedication by The SDB Octopus: OuderApp team! 

We look forward to your feedback 💖 

🍂 🐛 

With autumn around the corner, we put the beach balls away and prepare ourselves for the colder seasons. At Octopus we have not been sitting still either. So we bring this release with a small new feature and a lot of bug fixes. In addition, we have again made sure that the underlying software on which the app is built is also neatly up to date. You can continue to enjoy a great working app! ✨ 

NEw Features

• When measurements of type glucose are available in the client agenda planning, the label is now also shown in the app for more clarity. SDB ECD 

Solved Bugs

• A small bug on the Agenda day view caused the data to not refresh when swiping down (pull to refresh) if there was no data on that day. This has now been fixed. 
• We also fixed a small bug related to the "Standard transportation" tile on the Start page. This is now visible again on the Start page if it is not filled in, and also visible again on the Profile page if it is filled in. SDB Planning 
• Sometimes the names of plan units and functions are a bit longer and they were not fully displayed on the screen, especially with (open) duty details. We have made sure that these names are always fully visible to avoid confusion. Thanks to the person who submitted this in UserVoice as a wish, the ticket is available here.
• In a USER agenda appointment, if the address also contains a house number, this is now also correctly displayed in the app, and also when opening the navigation function. [AV2407 0788] SDB EPD USER/REFLEX 

Vacation is over 😭 ... but fortunately, it's time for a new Octopus app release! 🎉  Keep reading to find out about all the things we've done on the app in the last period. 

New Features

• When receiving a match or a swap request, it's now possible to tap on the duty and navigate to the duty details page. This way you can read all the information about that duty, as requested in this UserVoice ticket. SDB Planning 
• Some performance improvements have also been done on the duty details page to make it faster (for loading the information and doing a specific action such as making a swap request).  SDB Planning 
• When taking a photo via the app, the selfie camera can now also be used. Furthermore, the popup that is shown for choosing the photo source has been updated to conform to the new design style. 
• On the 'Start' tab there is a widget indicating whether the user already has a profile picture. Its behaviour has been updated so that it always indicates this correctly. 
• The environment where the user is logging in is now clearly indicated on the 'Start' page. [19710]
• From the day agenda page, the appointments can now also be registered individually. SDB EPD USER/REFLEX 
• When declaring travel expenses via SDB Planning, it is now possible to use a toggle for subtracting the commute costs. SDB Planning 
• Working Hours Act signaling is available in the app. An employee is informed on a self-match duty whether the acceptance of this duty will result in an WHA excess for the following rules:
  • Maximum number of hours per week
  • Maximum number of consecutive night duties
  • Minimum rest between duties
  • Minimum rest between night duties

SOLVED BUGS

• Night reports are now shown on the correct day instead of on the day before. [19920] SDB ECD 
• When making a USER EPD appointment, the Contact type field is prefilled correctly with the default value. SDB EPD USER/REFLEX 

* And last but not least, as usual, we have been hard at work implementing code and performance improvements.  💪

Now including... Release notes! No, that's not a spelling mistake, you can now read these release notes directly in the app. We've added this to make it even easier for you to stay up to date with the latest changes in Octopus. So keep reading (here or switch to the app and open this post if you haven't already) to find out about all the other things we've included in this release. To give you a couple of clues: 🏠 , 🐛 🐛 🐛 ...

New features

• Release notes are now available in the app and can be accessed from the Profile page. Furthermore, the Profile page itself has received a style update. This is a sneak peak into what is coming next for the Octopus app.
• One of the first things you see when opening the app is the upcoming events in your agenda. We took this card back to the drawing board and gave it an update. Now you can see a little bit more information and in a nicer way about your current and upcoming events.
• We know Octopus is a complex app and we hear you when you say you want more information and help with finding things in the app. This is why we added tooltips! This way you get some extra insights into the app's features and how you can use them. You can check out the new tooltips by checking the "Show introduction" box on the Profile page.
• For those making use of the USER EPD, when looking at a client page, the More tab now shows the client's relations instead of an empty planning page. SDB EPD USER/REFLEX 
• Alongside open duties, period assignments are now also available for self match in the app. SDB Planning 

Solved Bugs

• While creating a new appointment, if there was an error when trying to save it, some gibberish text was shown in the notification instead of a useful message. This has been fixed now.
• The logged in user switch functionality had a small bug which sometimes caused the users overview screen to be shown again after filling in the email address while adding a new user.
• When creating a duty, if you only have one employment, this is already taken into account so you don't have to explicitly select it anymore. SDB Planning 
• Marking a client as favourite (or unfavourite) is shown correctly again in the clients list without having to close the app and open it again.
• There lived a very annoying bug in the app for a while, which caused the selected departments to be "forgotten" for some users. That meant they had to apply the department filters again and again on the Team page. We are happy to report that this is now fixed and the selected departments are "remembered" correctly.
• A small bug was also present on the Agenda tab, causing the swiping between months to misbehave. We fixed that as well!
• While creating a new appointment for the USER EPD, it was possible to select a client's relation that had already been closed. This has been fixed so it's no longer possible. SDB EPD USER/REFLEX 
• When using the Okkie Assistant on android, sometimes the microphone would stay ON while the input was not being used. We now made sure the microphone is only ON while using the Assistant.
• The hours shown on a self-match duty card are displayed correctly instead of being rounded down. [16348]
• Also, when swiping through the self-match cards and the last card was reached, the stack would reset immediately to the first card. The reset now only happens when the last card is also swiped away.
• There was some trouble with uploading client moments pictures, that is now fixed. We also took this opportunity to update the picture placeholder to make it look less menacing. 
• The explanation text on the page where a client can be searched for to request temporary access has been updated with the exact date format expected when searching by date of birth. 
• The options to set an appointment as executed or not executed are no longer shown for appointments where these actions are not possible. This keeps the process clean and avoids confusion.
• When creating measurements with type "breathing", if the entered value is higher than 150, a message is now shown to make this clear. SDB ECD 

✨  And last but not least, since we were busy with housekeeping anyway by squashing all those pesky bugs, we also looked at performance improvements. For those of you enjoying the SDB HR module, you will notice the Work tab is now significantly faster and it shows the information correctly according to which role is currently selected. 💪

This is the release that has a little bit of something for everyone!

Do you use SDB ECD? You can now add and update glucose measurements! 🍫 📐 

Do you use the USER EPD? You now get more insight into the availability of both clients and colleagues when creating an appointment! And you can also remove appointments! 📆 

Do you use HR and Planning? You can now set your default transportation mode for work related travels. 🚙 

And this is not all of course, keep reading to discover all the new features and bug fixes included in this release. 🚀

New features

• It is now possible to add and update glucose measurements from the app. SDB ECD 
• If you don't use SDB HR but you do use SDB Planning, you can now also declare your travel costs. SDB Planning 
• When creating an appointment for the USER EPD, it's possible to see client and colleague availabilities. Some information is shown about overlapping appointments to help you with your planning. USER 
• It is now also possible to remove USER appointments from within the app. USER 
• You can now set your default transportation mode for work related travels. SDB Planning SDB HR 
• When submitting a leave request, there is now an indication in the app which shows if the manager has already seen it or not. 
• The department name is also shown along with the room number on the client information page. SDB ECD UserVoice wish
• The department selection screen properly displays departments which have a longer name, so that their name can be seen entirely. UserVoice wish

Fixed Bugs

• When writing a report as a reaction to a report associated to a goal, the new report will also be associated to that goal. SDB ECD 
• There was a small bug causing the colleague routes to not be visible, this has been resolved. SDB ECD 
• The client photo is updated properly when setting a new one. SDB ECD 
• Client agenda activities are once again correctly ordered according to the time when they are supposed to take place. SDB ECD 
• The difference between visible but not yet published and published duties is made clear in the team agenda. SDB Planning 
• It is again possible to update the indirect time in an appointment. 
• The report text fields have received a small visual improvement to make the content easier to read.
• The client's address now also includes the house number on the client information page. [AV2406 0324] USER 

* And last but not least, we are slowly saying goodbye to old Okkie, so some users will notice a new look on the splash screen.

The wait is over, Octopus Release 1.8.0 is here and it's an exciting one!

Spotlight

This release brings a serious line-up in terms of new features (and of course bug fixes), but the one that is most expected can be easily summed up in two words: MAGIC WAND! ✨

New features

• After being a teaser for a while now, the Magic Wand feature is now available for everybody (with the option to be disabled upon request). This new feature is a real aid in writing reports with the help of AI, offering the possibility to improve, shorten or even translate the report text from a foreign language to Dutch. SDB ECD 

• It is now possible to add fluid balance measurements and view and add defecation measurements in the app. SDB ECD 
• Furthermore, it's now possible to edit measurements. So if a measurement was created with a mistake, this can now easily be corrected. SDB ECD 
• When adding a measurement for Blood pressure, the validation in the app now allows the upper number to be lower than the lower number and a warning is shown to the user, to make them aware of this. SDB ECD  
• It's now possible to open the contact details of a colleague from the client planning page SDB ECD 
• The client team members are now sorted in a more logical way in the app, according to their role [1385] SDB ECD 
• When adding client moments, it's now possible to select photos from the device gallery. This screen also got a fashion update so it's now more intuitive and easy on the eyes. SDB ECD 
• Colleagues profile pictures are now shown correctly everywhere in the app.
• The planning entity department value is now pre-filled in a smarter way when creating duties. You can find the original UserVoice feature request here.  SDB Planning 
• When looking at self match duties it is now possible to see how many hours are still left to fill in that month. Furthermore, the filters for self match duties now also show how many hours have already been worked in a specific period of time. And the open duty details page contains extra status information to help the user decide if they want to work that duty or not. SDB Planning 

• Creating an appointment is now easier by using the available pre-fill information, according to the appointment type. USER 

Fixed Bugs

• When creating a report, not all goals were selectable. This is now fixed. [4357] SDB ECD 
• There was a small bug causing an issue with swapping duties. [1492] SDB Planning 
• Switching the user (environment) in combination with using biometrics for the pin code, resulted in showing a wrong screen. This was due to a caching issue which is now resolved. 
• Switching the user would sometimes also cause an issue with showing the active state when creating a report using voice input. This now correctly indicates again when the microphone is active. 
• A small bug was causing an incorrect role to be displayed on their details page. This is now also fixed.
• The care plan actions are now displayed in a way that makes it easier to differentiate. [6548]
• The colleague details page would sometimes show incorrect details, this is no longer an issue. [1336]
• The client agenda would take a very long time to load, the underlying issue has been fixed and an improvement has been made to ensure that the correct status is shown on the screen. [1712]
• Teams tab filtering button is not shown when there's only one option to filter on. 
• Night duties were shown incorrectly on the Colleagues Today page, this is now solved.
• Users who didn't have the permission to create duties but were able to create appointments, couldn't do so because the button was not visible for them on the agenda. This has been corrected. 
• A small bug was causing a black screen to appear when tapping the system back button while on the Start page. This was an android specific issue and is now resolved. [10740] 
• 🎉 And a bug that has been controversial for quite some time and the subject of numerous discussions: the selected month in the agenda would always jump back to the current month when doing an action or opening a detail screen. This is no longer the case! The agenda will stay open on the month that has been scrolled to. 🎉

And last but not least, the new Okkie has been chosen with more than 6,000 votes from a total of over 13,500. We would like to thank everyone very much for voting! Before he starts his job, the new Okkie will first go on holiday for a while, but he will return in the autumn. Keep an eye on the release notes to find out what he has in store!