Divorce Apps
Most people agree that going through a divorce isn’t easy. Even despite best efforts to work together and remain amicable with a soon-to-be ex-spouse during and following a divorce, doing so sometimes proves trickier than people anticipate. Luckily, there are now have several useful apps that can make interacting with your ex-spouse a little easier as outlined in the USA Today article below:
7 Divorce Apps Help Navigate Life With Your Ex
OurFamilyWizard is an app that many parties with children use. OurFamilyWizard, sometimes referred to as OFW, has several features which parents find useful, the first of which is a secure message board for parents to communicate through. This is helpful if parents find communicating through other methods, such as texting, difficult. Some of the app’s other features include an interactive calendar which parents can use to schedule who has the kids on which days and what upcoming extra-curricular activities the children may be participating in. It also has an expense logto help track the children’s expenses so that one parent can easily reimburse the other. Parents can also upload receipts and invoices for these expenses, and for an added fee, even make payments within OurFamilyWizard. The app also has the ability to store medical history, insurance information, emergency contact information, and school schedules. OurFamilyWizard costs $99 annually.
Similarly, coParenter is used in much the same way that OurFamilyWizard is used. Through the app, parents can send secure notifications to the other parent when picking up or dropping off kids and can also be used to make requests to the other parent, such as swapping visitation days or alternating weekends, or otherwise modifying visitation. If parents are having difficulty coming to an agreement, the app’s “Get Help” option can be used to get live, on-demand mediation. coParenter costs $12.99 per month.
A third option for co-parenting apps is AppClose, which offers similar tools and features to coParenter and OurFamilyWizard. Its features include sending date-stamped real-time messages, the ability to manage kids’ (and parents’) schedules and making pickup/dropoff requests. Unlike the other two apps, though, AppClose is currently free to use, which many parties find helpful.
TalkingParents is also designed to help with co-parenting. Unlike the other apps, though, TalkingParents is aimed at helping ex-spouses who have difficulty communicating with each other communicate more effectively for the sake of their children. The app records messages exchanged between parents, which are time-stamped when sent and when read. If needed, the recorded messages are also admissible in court. TalkingParents also allows parents to keep a confidential personal journal with notes that are not shared with the other parent. While TalkingParents is free, certain features are only available through the app’s premium plan which costs $4.99 per month.
Another app that many parties find helpful is called SupportPay. As the name suggests, this app helps parties manage, track, and pay child and spousal support. Only one party is required to participate in the app, though it is helpful when both do so. An interesting feature of SupportPay is that the parent receiving child support can upload receipts, costs, etc related to the child, meaning the paying parent can see exactly how the child support payments are being used. SupportPay also features notifications and reminders so that payments are made on time. SupportPay does have a free version, however there are restrictions, such as only being able to upload two expenses per month. To upload unlimited expenses and use other features the app costs $19.99 per month per parent, discounted to $14.99 a month if the fee is paid annually.
Divorceify helps people navigate through the divorce process by providing a roadmap for divorce proceedings. The app uses predictive artificial intelligence and a human-like interface (“Sonia”) to match users with attorneys, therapists, and mediators who have all been previously vetted. One of the co-founders acknowledges that divorce is emotionally complex, and that there is value in human wisdom and technology. As such, the co-founders of the app believe that keeping an actual personal involved is essential, even as the divorce process becomes streamlined by the use of technology. The app is currently free, for now.
Finally, for people who just need some emotional support through the divorce process, there’s Mend. Mend is marketed as a “personal coach for the brokenhearted” and helps people recover from the painful ending of a relationship. Users provide a reason for the breakup, indicate the last time they spoke with their ex, along with other information. The founder of the app serves as the narrator through training sessions that cater to each user’s individual circumstances. Though not specifically a divorce app, the founder explains that approximately 20% of the app’s users are divorced. Some of the training sessions include “Rediscovering Yourself After a Divorce,” “Creating a United Front with Your Ex-Spouse”, and “How Do I Tell My Kids?”. The app itself is free and includes one audio training session. Further sessions will require a subscription which costs $19.99 per month.
