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If a judge, a lawyer or a mediator has told you to use a co-parenting app for court, the app has one job above the others: keep a record that nobody can tidy up afterwards. This is what that means when you are choosing one.
Because the alternative is a folder of screenshots. Text messages can be deleted, cropped and shown out of order, and each parent arrives with a different version. An order or a parenting plan sometimes says that the parents are to communicate through an app, and lawyers and mediators often suggest one for the same reason: one place, one record, the same for both of you.
Four things. It is complete: every message, not a selection. It cannot have been changed: nobody, including the person who wrote it, can edit or delete a message after it is sent. It is attributed: each entry shows who wrote it and when. And it is legible: someone who has never seen the app can read the export from the first page to the last without help.
Ask whether a sent message can be edited or deleted, and whether that rule is enforced in the app’s database or only hidden in its screens. Look at a sample export before you pay, because that page is what a lawyer will actually read. Check whether the export says how many messages it contains, so that a partial record shows as partial. Find out what happens to your record if the other parent stops paying or closes their account. And check the price per parent, since most of these apps charge each of you separately.
Use the one it names. A different app, however good, is not what was ordered. If the wording is general, such as a co-parenting app agreed between the parents, you have a choice: put it in writing to the other parent, and tell your lawyer which one you are using.
Guarantee that a court accepts the record: that is always the court’s decision. Make the other parent reply. Or make a hostile message read well. A record shows what was said, including what you said, so the most useful thing you can do for it is to write each message for the handover and not for the judge.
Keep everything about the children in the one place, and keep everything else out of it. Do not move a conversation back to text messages when it gets difficult, because the gap is what gets noticed. Do not export a selection. Short, dated, practical messages are what a calm record is made of.
In Manon a sent message cannot be edited or deleted by either parent, and the rule is enforced in the database itself. The export is a dated, sequentially numbered PDF with a chain-of-custody header, the author and time of every entry, and a count such as 214 of 214, so that a partial record is visible as one. You choose which sections go in: messages, logbook, expenses, journal. If one of you ever leaves, the other keeps the record. Each parent has their own subscription, so your access never depends on the other parent paying.
Are co-parenting app records accepted in court? →
Often, as evidence of what was said and when, but no app can guarantee it. Whether a record is accepted is always the court’s decision, and rules of evidence vary by court and country.
Use that app. If the order or the parenting plan only says to use a co-parenting app, the choice is yours to agree between you.
In Manon you export it as a PDF and send it. There is no separate login for lawyers, and many prefer a single document to app access anyway.
You can still keep your own side in order: the calendar, the health record and a private logbook work for one parent. Messages need both of you. If an order requires the app and the other parent will not use it, that is a question for your lawyer.
Most charge each parent separately. Manon is A$99 a year per parent, or US$69, £49, €59 or CA$99 depending on where you live, and the first month is free with no card.
General information, not legal advice. Rules of evidence vary by court and jurisdiction, and whether a record is accepted is always the court’s decision.