Messages: completely new!

Communication with the childcare organisation now feels like an actual conversation. We rebuilt Messages from the ground up. Keep reading to find out all the new things about the new and improved Messages.

One conversation per child, and per group
No more one-off messages, but ongoing conversations. Every child gets a personal conversation with the staff, plus a conversation with the group your child belongs to. These are there by default, so a conversation may well be empty at first. As soon as a staff member sends something, or you ask the first question yourself, the conversation gets going. You see who's writing, with name and photo, exactly like you'd expect from a chat.

The organisation can also send you messages about specific topics, for example about your contract or about invoices and payments. You'll recognise those by the topic shown at the top of the conversation. You can't reply to those just yet, that's coming in a future update.

Find the right conversation fast
Filter your overview by All, My children, Childcare groups or Organisation. Unread messages show up right away as a badge on the Messages tab.

📎 New: send attachments yourself
This is one of the biggest changes: you can now send photos and documents yourself. A photo of a filled-in form, the doctor's note, the birthday party invite. Tap the Paperclip icon button, pick from your camera, your photo library or your files, and your attachment goes along in the conversation. Everything stays together in one place, so you'll never have to work out where you sent that photo again.

Settings per conversation
Inside a conversation, tap the name at the top to open the "Conversation Info" screen. There you'll find the participants, and there you can switch off notifications with a single tap when you'd rather not get push messages for that conversation. Notifications off? You'll see it in your message overview, with its own icon, just like the second parent one. So you always know where you stand without opening the conversation.

Second parent reads along
Per chat you decide whether the second parent reads along. The icon in your overview shows the status at a glance.

Please note: By default, both parents are part of all conversations. The first parent must explicitly set in the Octopus Parent App, for each conversation, that the second parent is not part of that conversation. This applies to both Backoffice messages and conversations with the Group.

📣 Announcements
Messages from the organisation now have a place of their own, all in one list. Handy for closing days, newsletters and other notices.

🔔 A dedicated inbox for your requests 
Was your extra care request approved or declined? You'll find it here, with the child, the status and any note from a staff member. No more digging through your messages.

📷 The timeline stays the timeline
The timeline now pulls daily activities and photos from the new system, and loads noticeably faster.

📦 Archive
Your old messages are still there. You'll find them under "Archive", where you can read everything back at your leisure. Replying happens in the new conversations from now on.

Over to you 💜 This is only the first step. We'll keep building on it, and we'd much rather do that with your experience to guide us. What works well? What's still missing? What would you like to see next? Let us know via your Profile → Feedback. We read everything, and your message helps decide what we pick up next. Thanks for all your feedback!

In this update you can view and edit your emergency phone number on your profile page. We've also made photo albums easier to browse, made invoices clearer, and fixed a few issues along the way.

New features

• The "Emergency phone number" is now shown on the parent profile page and can also be edited there.

Fixed bugs

• Photo album: the album header showed a misleading date. It now shows the number of items available in the album instead.
• Photo album: photos and videos are now grouped under date labels, making large albums easier to browse.
• Timeline: Opening media from a timeline item now shows only the media from that item, instead of the child's entire album.
• Invoices: the invoice card no longer suggests a period that could differ from the invoice itself. It now shows the invoice amount.
• Fixed an issue where an expired or revoked session could leave the app in an error state. You are now signed out cleanly and can log back in.

Version 26.7.0 makes the information around child care considerably more complete. Planner comments can now be found directly on the day they relate to, a child's school details can be updated independently, and changes made by the back office to consent surveys are transparently visible. In addition, a number of reported issues have been resolved and the app has become more stable in several areas.

New features

• Planner comments in the day details: When the planner has left a comment on a care day, it is now shown in the details of that day. A marker in the calendar makes it immediately clear which days carry a comment, so important information about the care is not missed.
• Editing school, level and class in the child profile: A child's school details can now be updated directly from the child profile. The same form is used as when requesting a new traject or placement, which makes for a consistent experience.
• Insight into consent survey answers changed by the organisation: Back-office employees can change answers to consent surveys. The answer history now shows that an answer was changed, by whom and when. Deleted answers are reflected as well, so the status of every consent survey remains traceable. 
• More detail on requests for a new placement (contract): Request overviews now also show the request date and the reason given, making the request history easier to follow.

Fixed bugs

• School selection when requesting a new placement (contract): When requesting a new traject, the list of schools is matched to the city that was entered, making the right school easier to find.
• Notice period when terminating a placement (contract): The notice period configured by the organisation was not taken into account when cancelling a traject. The earliest possible end date is now calculated based on this setting.
• Consent surveys after an answer has been deleted: When the back office removed a previously given answer entirely, this could result in an error. This situation is now handled correctly and the question can be answered again.
• Loading of the timeline: In certain cases the timeline could not be loaded due to incomplete data on photos and albums. The timeline is now resilient to this.
• Notification permission on Android: On Android devices the notification permission was in some cases denied without ever having been requested. Permission is now requested at the appropriate moment.

UI/UX

• Attention for urgent consent surveys: When consent surveys marked as urgent are still unanswered, an informative message on app start-up draws attention to them. The app remains fully usable throughout. The popup message will be shown again however, until the consent surveys are answered.

Improvements and technical updates

• Mandatory updates: From this version onwards it can be determined per release whether an update is mandatory. This helps ensure everyone is on a recent version, which matters for new functionality such as the renewed chat.
• Stability and logging behind the scenes: The handling of data from KIS has been made more robust in several places, and logging around sign-in and session renewal has been improved, which simplifies troubleshooting.

This release brings significant improvements with improvements to the calendar view, better placements management, and improved media handling. Users will experience a more intuitive interface with clearer day event type distinctions and a budget overview feature.

New features

• Budget Overview: A comprehensive budget hours overview showing available hours, usage, and expiration dates is now available in the app. The Budgets screen can be found under the three dots menu on the top right corner of the Planning tab. 
• Request new placements (contracts): Until now it was possible to see the placements for each child in the app, request changes to a placement, view the attached contracts, cancel the requested changes and eventually terminate a placement (contract). Starting with this version it's also possible to request a new placement, for instance when wishing to switch from one type of childcare to another (KDV to BSO). This can be done in the app and it still needs to be reviewed and approved by the childcare organisation.

Fixed bugs

• Whenever there was a planning day event such as "closed location" that was only applicable for part of the day, this was not displayed correctly on the calendar day details. This is now fixed.
• There was a small bug which caused newly received media items to not appear on the All Media page immediately. Also only a small number of items was retrieved each time when scrolling. These issues have been solved so that the media page behaves smoothly.

UI/UX

• Fixed SafeArea layout issues on iOS across multiple screens (including Placements screen) for better visual presentation.
• Improved the text and buttons on the "Review the app" card on the Home page to make it more clear.

Improvements and technical updates

• We have done some technical improvements to an area of the code that was causing some issues resulting in users being occasionally logged out.

Version 26.5.0 brings a range of improvements to the OuderApp that make your daily use more enjoyable and reliable. This release includes a major new feature around consent/permissions, various UI improvements, and a number of bug fixes. Under the hood, improvements have also been made to make the app faster and more stable.

New features

• Consent Surveys: Parents can now view and respond to consent requests from the organisation directly within the app, such as permission forms for outings, photos, and other activities. On the Information page, under Contact persons, you will find a button to open the list of consent questions. On that page, you can see the date by which the question must be answered or what the answer is if one has already been provided. Each item can also be opened to view all its details.
• Video playback via new video service: Videos in the app (e.g. in messages and the timeline) are now loaded via an improved, more modern video service, resulting in more reliable playback and better quality.
• Request care for multiple day parts at once: It is now possible to request extra care for multiple day parts simultaneously, rather than one at a time. If there are extra costs associated with the request, this information is presented in a dialog together with the available budget and type of budget. You may then choose to confirm this request with extra costs and send it to the planner or cancel.
• Add care request button always visible: The button to request care on the Calendar tab is now always visible, even when no day parts have been scheduled yet, making it easy to always submit a request.
• Retry button on empty screens: When data cannot be loaded, a "Try again" button will now appear, allowing you to reload the page without having to restart the app. This applies to screens like Messages and Contracts.

Fixed bugs

• Creating a contact person without a phone number: It was possible to save a contact as an emergency contact without filling in a phone number. This is no longer allowed, a phone number is now required for emergency contacts.

UI/UX

• Improvements to the Planning calendar tab and Timeline cards: The layout of cards in the planning view and timeline has been refined for a cleaner and more organised experience.

Improvements and technical updates

• More stable API communication: Timeout errors when communicating with the backend are now handled correctly, leading to fewer unexpected loading issues.
• Security improvements: Security-related improvements have been applied to the app's infrastructure.

🎉 A fresh update is ready!

This release focuses on making the app smoother and more reliable, so you can stay connected to your child’s day without interruptions.

🐛 Bug fix: switching between multiple accounts
We fixed a bug where parents who were logged in with multiple accounts were sent back to the email screen when one account expired. From now on, the app correctly shows the list of accounts that are still logged in.

🐛 Bug fix: conversation screen glitch
We resolved a minor glitch on the conversation screen to make messaging feel more stable and pleasant.

⚡ Technical improvements
Behind the scenes, we improved performance and security by removing an unnecessary third‑party dependency from the app’s underlying frameworks.

We’ve made a few small improvements in this update to make the app clearer and more stable:

• Smoother review experience

We’ve improved when and how the review prompt is shown, so it appears at more appropriate moments and doesn’t interrupt your experience.

• Bug fix when switching accounts

We fixed an issue on the account switching screen where the app could show a black screen after tapping Add account and going back. You can now switch accounts smoothly without having to restart the app.

• Clearer vacation planning text

The text around vacation planning has been improved to better clarify that you’re reporting your vacation (doorgeven), not requesting extra childcare.

We’ve been working behind the scenes to make the Octopus OuderApp just a little more convenient and enjoyable to use. This update introduces an often‑requested improvement for parents with multiple accounts, along with a few practical refinements and bug fixes. Read on to see what’s new!

NEw features

• Easily switch between multiple accounts

  Do you use multiple accounts to log in to your childcare organisation? Or do you have accounts at more than one childcare organisation?

  With this release, switching between accounts has become much easier. Depending on the software used by your childcare organisation, you can now add multiple logged‑in accounts to the app and switch between them without having to log out and go through the onboarding process each time.

  For security reasons, you will still be asked to enter your PIN code or authenticate using biometrics when logging in and each time you switch to another account.

  You can find the option to add and switch accounts on the Profile page, just above the Log out button.

• Faster access to the latest timeline updates
  When you are on the Home tab, tapping the Home tab again will now refresh the timeline and automatically scroll back to the top. This makes it easier to quickly see the latest updates about your child.

Solved Bugs

• The confirmation screen shown after requesting extra care incorrectly referred to a preferred day request. This text has now been corrected.
• The names of days on the same confirmation screen were displayed based on the device language instead of the app language, which could result in a mix of languages. This has now been fixed.
• It is now possible again to enter a child’s BSN. Please note: once a BSN has been added in the app, it cannot be edited or removed. A BSN can only be entered if the field is still empty.

🌙 Dark Mode is here! 🎉

You asked — we delivered. The app now supports Dark Mode, so you can choose what feels best for your eyes.
You can switch between:
☀️ Light
🌙 Dark
📱 System (follows your phone settings)

NEW features

• It is now possible to filter messages by sender type: administration, group or parent. This way you can quickly find the conversations that matter most.
• Your newest contracts now appear at the top, no more scrolling to find the latest one.
• You can now request absence for just part of a day. Of course, requesting a full day is still possible.
• If your child has multiple mentors, you’ll now see all of them in the app.
• You can now easily share documents and media in the app. The existing download option remains available.

Fixed Bugs

• Resolved visual issues on some devices running on Android 16 and no more black status bar on Samsung devices with Android 15.

🛠  General performance and stability improvements to keep everything running smoothly.

With the start of the new year behind us, we finally settle back into the rhythm of every day. In the mean time, we worked diligently behind the scenes to bring you this latest update to the OuderApp! In this update we worked on performance improvements, bug fixes and small add-on functionalities. So read on if you want to know what's new and exciting in this version!

New features

Login

• To better support the new login flow, a popup message is now shown when an incorrect email address is entered on the start screen, instead of navigating directly to the organization code screen. This allows users to quickly check for typos and try again.
  

Planning

• In the placements list, a button is now shown to open the contract associated with a placement, when available.
• The placement vacation budget is now displayed in days instead of hours.
• Extra information is shown when requesting extra care for hours that would overlap an existing planning.

Messages

• In the conversations list, the reactions label is now hidden when a message cannot be replied to by the parent, as the number of reactions is always 0 in this case.

Push notifications

• Push notifications are now also shown when the app is already open and will navigate directly to the relevant conversation.
• On Android devices, a local notification is now shown during batch media downloads to indicate download progress.

Solved Bugs

• Fixed an issue where invoices could no longer be downloaded.
• Improved the UI on the contact person details page when no profile image is available, ensuring the initials are displayed correctly.
• When filling in the form to add a new child and tapping the back button, a confirmation dialog is now shown to prevent accidental loss of entered information.
• Improved error handling when requesting extra care. A bug that caused the loading indicator on the button to remain visible indefinitely has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue where the loading indicator on the Planning tab continued to show even after data had finished loading.
• Fixed a layout issue where long child names caused the three-dots menu on the planning card and the date on the timeline to be pushed too far to the right.
• Fixed a layout issue on the placements screen where long budget names or vacation days could extend beyond the border of the screen.
• Improved how the app handles media downloads when navigating to a different screen while downloading.