Start here, your first ten minutes

One grown-up starts the family account, and it really is quick. Pick a name, an email and a password, and Qbit’s ready to meet you.

1. Tap “Sign in” in the top right, or open the menu (the three stacked lines) and tap “Sign in / Sign up”.
2. Landed on the sign-in card? Tap “Need a Qbit? Create one” at the bottom to switch over to signing up.
3. Tick the box saying you’re at least 18 and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Those two are links, so tap them if you’d like a read first.
4. Tap “Sign up with Email” to open the form.
5. Type a display name (that’s what Qbit will call you), then your email and a password of at least 8 characters.
6. Want to check what you typed? Tap the little eye icon in the password box.
7. Tap “Launch Qbit!”

• Your display name is just what she’ll call you, so a first name or a nickname is perfect.
• Tapping the ask box on the home page while signed out jumps you straight to this card and saves a step.

Good to know: Your account comes to life the moment you tap the link in your confirmation email. You’ll add your kids later from My Kids, and they sign in with a code, so this card is all yours.

Qbit sends you one email, and the button inside it is where your account comes to life. Tap it and you’re back in Qbit, already signed in.

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1. Finish the email signup form. The card switches to “Check your email” and shows the address Qbit just wrote to.
2. Open your inbox and tap the button in the Qbit email.
3. You land back in Qbit, signed in, with a short welcome celebration.
4. Email taking its time? Tap “Resend email” on the card.
5. Spotted a typo in the address? Tap “Use a different email” and start again.

• Peek in your spam or promotions folder before you resend. Emails do love to wander.
• You can open the link on a different device from the one you signed up on, and you’ll be signed in there.

Good to know: Tap the link before you try signing in, since that’s the moment your account starts. If a link’s gone stale, signing up again sends you a fresh one.

Skip inventing yet another password. One tap with your Google or Apple account creates your Qbit account, or signs you right back in.

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1. Open the sign-in card.
2. Tick the 18+ and Terms box first. If you forget, the buttons will remind you.
3. Tap “Continue with Google” or “Continue with Apple”.
4. Finish the sign-in screen Google or Apple shows you.
5. You land back in Qbit, signed in.

• Both buttons do double duty. The first tap creates your account, and every one after that just signs you in.
• Stick with the same one each time and you’ll never need a Qbit password at all.

Good to know: On the sign-in card there’s no box to tick, so you’ll be asked to agree along the way instead. Want a Qbit password as well? The Change password screen shows a “set a password” version for you.

Welcome back. Signing in takes a few seconds and picks up right where you left off, with your folders, your history and everything Qbit knows about you.

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1. Tap “Sign in” in the header, or open the menu and tap “Sign in / Sign up”. Both land you on the sign-in card.
2. Looking at the signup card? Tap “Sign in” at the bottom, under “Already have a Qbit?”
3. If the form’s folded up, tap “Sign in with Email” to open it.
4. Type your email and password.
5. Tap “Sign in”.

• Add Qbit to your home screen and most phones keep you signed in, so you’ll rarely need to do this at all.

Good to know: Had your account scheduled for deletion? Signing in within the 30-day window cancels it, and you’ll get a “Welcome back” with everything still there.

Happens to everyone. Qbit emails you a link, you pick a new password right in the app, and you’re back in within a minute.

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1. On the sign-in card, tap “Sign in with Email” to open the form, then tap “Forgot password?”
2. Type the email you signed up with (it’s already filled in if you’d started typing it), then tap “Send reset link”.
3. Open the Qbit email and tap its button.
4. Qbit reopens with a “Choose a new password” card.
5. Type your new password twice, at least 8 characters, and tap “Set new password”.
6. Tap “Back to sign in” and sign in with your new one.

• The link’s good for an hour, so it’s worth doing while it’s on your mind.
• Tap the eye icon as you type so you know both boxes match.

Good to know: Email not turning up? Double-check the address, since Qbit gives the same friendly answer either way to keep accounts private. A child’s password gets reset by a parent from Child Settings.

One small icon, far fewer sign-in hiccups. Every password box in Qbit has a little eye that shows you exactly what you typed.

1. Tap into any password box, whether you’re signing up, signing in, resetting or changing a password.
2. Tap the eye icon at the right-hand edge of the box.
3. Your password shows as plain text. Tap the crossed-out eye to hide it again.

• Handy on a phone keyboard, where one wrong letter loves to hide.
• Give it a quick glance before you tap the button and you’ll rarely see a wrong password message.

That’s Qbit saying hello. She likes to know who she’s talking to before she answers, so tapping the ask box while signed out opens a sign-in card first, and your first question gets a real answer.

1. Tap the ask box on the home page while signed out.
2. Sign in, or create an account, in the card that opens.
3. Your ask box is live and ready for your first question.

• The “+” attach button does the same thing, for the same reason.
• It’s quicker than it looks. Signing up from here saves you a couple of taps.

Good to know: The Voice Mode button shows up once you’re signed in, too.

Two taps and you’re out, on this device only. Your other phones, tablets and computers stay signed in.

1. Tap your picture, or your initial, in the top right.
2. Tap “Sign out” at the bottom of the menu.

• There’s a second “Sign out” on the Metrics & Advanced Settings page under Account, if that’s where you happen to be.

Good to know: Kids sign back in with a code from a parent, so it’s good to know before a child taps “Sign out”.

A photo makes Qbit feel like yours, and it shows up in your little circle everywhere you go. Until you add one, Qbit shows the first letter of your name.

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1. Tap your avatar in the top right to open the profile menu.
2. Tap the large circle at the top of the menu, the one with the small camera badge.
3. Pick a photo from your device.
4. The circle updates straight away, and the photo follows you to your other devices.

• Any picture works, so a pet or a favourite view is fair game.
• Qbit resizes it for you, so you can skip the cropping.

Good to know: Any image under 12MB works. Fancy a new look later? Pick another photo and it takes the old one’s place.

This is the best five minutes you can spend in the app. Once she knows your name, your town and a little about your life, her answers go from generic to genuinely about you.

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1. Tap your avatar and choose “My Profile”.
2. Open the “Profile” section. It’s already open the first time you visit.
3. Fill in “My name”, then City, State and Country.
4. Write a few lines in “A bit about you”: your work, your hobbies, your family, anything you’d like her to keep in mind.
5. Tap “Save Changes” and you land back on Home.

• Your city is what lets her nail weather and directions questions.
• There’s no right amount to write. Even two sentences makes a real difference to her answers.
• Everything saves as you type and syncs to your other devices, so “Save Changes” is really just a nice full stop.
• Come back and add to it whenever life changes.

Your birthday does two lovely things. Qbit celebrates with you when it comes around, and for grown-ups it’s the age check that unlocks the SafeSearch switch in Settings.

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1. Open “My Profile” and expand “My Important Dates”.
2. Under “My Birthday!”, pick the month, day and year from the three dropdowns.
3. It saves the moment you pick. Head to Settings and you’ll find the SafeSearch switch unlocked if you’re 18 or over.

• The dropdowns follow the date order your language uses, so it reads the way you’d expect.
• While you’re there, it’s a good moment to add the other dates that matter to you.

Good to know: SafeSearch stays locked on, with a little padlock, until a birthday shows you’re 18 or over. Change a birthday back to under 18 and the lock comes right back.

That little circle in the top right is the one menu worth remembering. Everything about your account lives right behind it.

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1. Tap your avatar in the top right.
2. Tap wherever you’d like to go. Your name and email sit at the top, then Settings, My Profile, Knowledge Base, View Support Tickets and Sign out.
3. The menu closes when you pick something, tap outside it, or press Escape.

• It’s on every screen, so it’s always one tap away.
• Tapping the big circle at the top of the menu is how you set your photo.

Good to know: “View Support Tickets” shows up once you have a ticket. Looking for My Documents or My Photos? They live in your folders now.

Love a good list? This one’s five short steps with a progress bar, and by the end Qbit knows enough about you to be genuinely useful.

1. Open “Support & Setup”.
2. Tap any row that isn’t ticked yet. Qbit takes you to the right page and scrolls to the right spot for you.
3. Set your name, your birthday and your city on My Profile.
4. Ask your first question on Home. The box is already waiting for you.
5. Tap “Add Qbit to your home screen” to start the install.
6. When all five are done, the card folds down into a green celebration line.

• Every row is a shortcut straight to the right page.
• Do them in any order, and stop and come back whenever you like.
• Tap the celebration line anytime to look back over the list.

Blank box, blank mind. Happens to the best of us. Qbit keeps six ready-made questions on tappable cards, so you can see what she does before you’ve thought of a thing.

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1. Open “Support & Setup” and scroll down to “Try These Queries”.
2. Tap a card, for example “What can I make for dinner with what’s in my fridge?”
3. Qbit takes you Home and answers it right away.

• The six cover Everyday, Productivity, Sleep, Family, Writing and Learn, so there’s a little of everything.
• Once you’ve seen an answer, ask her a follow-up in your own words. That’s where it gets good.

Qbit’s at her best as an icon on your home screen. She opens full screen with no browser bars in the way, and on iPhone and iPad it’s what switches on notifications.

1. Tap the “Add Qbit to your homescreen” banner on the Home page.
2. On Android or Chrome, confirm your browser’s own one-tap install box.
3. On iPhone or iPad, follow the three steps shown: tap the Share button in Safari, scroll down to “Add to Home Screen”, then tap “Add”.
4. Open Qbit from the new icon.

• This is the step people say they wish they’d done on day one.
• It also tends to keep you signed in, so you can retire the password typing.

Good to know: The banner shows on phones and tablets until you install or dismiss it, and the same option lives in Support & Setup too. On a phone with parental controls, the “Trouble installing?” link on the banner explains what’s going on, and Qbit works fully in your browser either way.

Qbit can move out of the browser tab and onto your computer. Chrome and Edge install her as a proper desktop app, with her own window and her own icon.

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1. Start the install flow, for example from the “Add to home screen” item on Support & Setup.
2. If your browser offers its own install prompt, confirm it.
3. Otherwise, follow the two steps shown: find the install icon in the address bar, then click “Install”.

• In her own window she’s lovely company for a long piece of writing.
• The install icon usually sits at the right-hand end of the address bar.

Good to know: On a computer, the install button lives in your browser, which is why the home screen banner stays on phones and tablets.