How to use Bubbles

Put it on your phone

Bubbles runs in your browser, so there’s nothing to download from a store. Add it to your home screen and it opens like any other app.

On a computer, open Bubbles in Chrome or Edge and choose the install icon at the end of the address bar.

Ways to start

A name is enough to start a Bubble. Or begin from one of these, which opens with a few useful things already in it. You can change or remove any of it.

Start from A trip

• Going somewhere togetherTrips, festivals, visits and the long way round.

  • A big trip abroadPassports, jabs, a flight nobody wants to book first. The one where somebody always pays for everyone and then never says.
  • Visiting family abroadLong flights, relatives with opinions, and a schedule that belongs to three households at once.
  • A festivalTickets in a lottery, tents, who's driving, and a meeting point for when the phones die.
  • Going somewhere togetherAny group journey — a weekend away, a pilgrimage, a family visit across borders, a stag do, a school trip, moving a relative's belongings across a country. Generalises the Porto shape without assuming a holiday.
  • Being far apartVisits, trains, the calendar and the cost of both. Two people planning one thing from two places.
  • Moving someone's thingsA van, some stairs, and more boxes than anyone admitted to. Often across a border.
  • A pilgrimage or long walkDays on foot, beds booked ahead, and feet that decide the pace whatever the plan said.
  • A reunionPeople who were close ten years ago, scattered across time zones, trying to be in one place for two days.
  • A road tripOne car, several drivers, and a route that gets argued about at every petrol stop.
  • A school or club tripForms, consent, a coach, and thirty people who must all be in the same place at 6am.
  • A stag or a hen doSomeone is organising a surprise for a person who is in most of the group chats. Kept out of sight until it isn't.
  • A weekend awayThree or thirty people, two nights, one argument about the dates. Ideas go in, everyone votes, and the answer stops moving.
• Living togetherFlatshares, families, and everything a household argues about.

  • An allotment or shared gardenWatering rotas in August, a shed with everyone's tools in it, and a glut of courgettes.
  • Whose turn with the binsThe smallest possible shared arrangement, and the one that causes the most resentment.
  • Deciding one thingWhere to eat, which flat, which name, which day. One choice, several people, and a way to stop going round.
  • Keeping the family house goingGrown children, an ageing house, and jobs that fall to whoever lives nearest.
  • Running a householdThe standing arrangements of a family — shopping, lifts, bins, who's in for dinner.
  • A flatshareRent, bins, the boiler, and the passive-aggressive note on the fridge that this exists to replace.
  • A place you all shareA caravan, a family cottage, a boat — booked by whoever asks first and paid for by everyone.
  • A household that keeps goingAny home shared by more than one adult — flatmates, a multigenerational house, a co-living floor, a couple with lodgers. The jobs come round again, the bills recur, and people move in and out.
  • Sharing with people you don't knowA room in someone's flat. The rules matter more when you didn't choose each other.
  • Moving in togetherTwo lots of furniture, one flat, and a set of small agreements nobody has ever had to say out loud before.
  • A shared drive or pathTwo or six households, one bit of ground, and a hedge that belongs to nobody.
  • A pet between youWalks, vet bills, and who has them at Christmas.
  • A student houseSix people, one landlord, a deposit everyone wants back, and a heating argument that runs from October to March.
• Money between peopleKitties, splits, presents and lending — without anyone keeping score.

  • Chipping in for something bigA shed, a minibus, a memorial bench. Small amounts from a lot of people.
  • A present from all of usA leaving present, a wedding gift, a big birthday. Someone pays up front and hopes.
  • A kittyOne pot everyone pays into, spent from, and squared up at the end — so nobody owes anybody.
  • Lending between friendsThe thing people do badly and never write down, which is why friendships end over forty pounds.
  • Saving for something togetherA deposit, a trip, a car. Months long, and it needs to survive somebody's bad month.
  • Secret santaA budget, names out of a hat, and one person who always forgets.
  • Shared subscriptionsStreaming, storage, a gym family plan. Small, endless, and always one person's card.
  • Splitting the billsBroadband, energy, the licence — different names on different accounts, all of it shared.
• Looking after someoneWhen several people share the care of one person, and nobody is in charge.

  • After an operationSix weeks of not lifting anything, and a rota of people who each think someone else has it covered.
  • Looking after someone togetherSeveral people sharing the care of one person — an ageing parent, a disabled adult, a friend after surgery, a new baby. The people caring are often tired, often not in the same city, and often not on the same terms with each other.
  • When someone can't look after their petIllness, a hospital stay, a trip. Someone's animal needs a plan.
  • Regular support for someoneOngoing, planned, and needing to work when a person is unwell rather than only when they're organised.
  • An ageing parentAppointments, medication, the difficult conversation about driving, and siblings who disagree.
  • Someone in hospitalVisiting hours, parking, a phone that needs charging, and news that needs passing on once.
  • Standing by someoneQuiet, unglamorous, long. Check-ins that don't feel like surveillance.
  • A new babyMeals, visits that need spacing out, and a household that has stopped sleeping.
  • Recovery at homeWeeks of small help — a lift, a shop, a bin put out — from people who all want to know what's useful.
  • Giving a carer a breakThe person who does everything needs a fortnight off and won't ask for it.
• Keeping each other goingGym buddies, a walking group, a challenge with a pot, someone in therapy.

  • A challenge with a potEverybody puts in, everybody tries, and at the end the pot goes somewhere agreed. The money is what makes it stick; it must not become what it is about.
  • Keeping each other at itTwo or five people who have agreed to turn up, and the week one of you does not want to. The point is the turning up, not the numbers.
  • Support around someone in therapyThe people around one person, keeping the ordinary week going while the hard work happens elsewhere. Nobody here is the therapist.
  • A standing wellness groupA group that meets to keep each other well — walking, sitting, talking, whatever it is. Somebody has to hold the time and nobody wants to be the one always holding it.
• Family and big daysWeddings, Christmas, birthdays, and the two-sides negotiation.

  • An anniversaryUsually organised by children for parents, which means a group chat with everyone except two people.
  • A baby shower or blessingSmall, quick, and organised behind someone's back.
  • A big birthdayA surprise, or not. Either way it involves people who don't know each other.
  • ChristmasWho hosts, who travels, what time dinner is, and the presents nobody wants to duplicate.
  • Co-parenting week to weekHandovers, kit that lives at two houses, and a calendar that has to be right.
  • Separating a householdThe practical half of a separation — things, dates, children, addresses. Kept civil by being written down.
  • After a death, the paperworkAccounts to close, forms in triplicate, and a family doing it while grieving.
  • A family reunionFour generations, one field, and a spreadsheet that should never have been a spreadsheet.
  • A gathering of two sidesA wedding, a naming, a big anniversary, a coming-of-age — anything where two families or two friendship groups who barely know each other have to plan one day together, often across languages, budgets and expectations.
  • A graduationLimited tickets, relatives travelling, and a meal booked for a number that keeps changing.
  • A naming or baptismGodparents, a venue, and two families with different expectations of the same afternoon.
  • A school parent groupPickups, kit, cake sales and the WhatsApp group nobody can leave. Mostly it is who is getting them on Thursday.
  • A weddingTwo families who barely know each other, one day, and a guest list that is a negotiation.
• Studying and working togetherCoursework, societies, side projects and handing a job on.

  • A club seasonFixtures, kit, subs, and a minibus that needs a driver every Saturday.
  • A dissertation or thesisMostly alone, occasionally needing three people to read a chapter by Friday.
  • Group courseworkA shared mark, unequal effort, and a deadline that arrives faster than the group chat.
  • Two households, one childSeparated or divorced parents, or any two homes a child moves between — including kinship carers and foster arrangements. The adults may not be on good terms. The record has to work anyway.
  • Handing over a jobLeaving well — the passwords, the half-finished things, and the person who inherits them.
  • A mentoring circleA few people further along and a few people earlier on, meeting on purpose. Works when it is a circle rather than a queue.
  • An online study groupPeople in four time zones getting through the same material. The hard part is not the material.
  • A revision groupSessions, past papers, and the discipline of actually turning up.
  • A side projectTwo or three people, evenings and weekends, and the thing that kills it is nobody knowing what's next.
  • Running a societyEvents, a small budget, and a committee that turns over every year.
  • Organising at workColleagues working out where they stand and what they want, at their own pace. What is written here is between the people who wrote it.
• Neighbours and communityStreets, gardens, rotas and taking something up together.

  • A local campaignA crossing, a tree, a closure. Deadlines set by someone else and a lot of letters.
  • Handing a committee onThe annual moment where everything one person knew leaves the building with them.
  • A cleanup or a green dayA Saturday, some gloves, and more people than you expected. Getting the tools back afterwards is the part everyone forgets.
  • A community gardenBeds, tools, watering in August, and a committee everyone wanted until it existed.
  • Ready for somethingA flood, a power cut, a week of snow. Written down before it happens, because nobody plans well at two in the morning.
  • A meal rotaAfter a birth, a bereavement, an operation. Meals that need spacing out and not duplicating.
  • A fundraiserA run, a bake sale, a quiz. Money in, money out, and a total everyone wants to see.
  • Sharing liftsSchool run, work, a weekly class. Small, repeated, and dependent on people turning up.
  • Neighbours helping neighboursNeighbours helping neighbours, informal by design, ruined by anything that feels like a rota with a manager.
  • A mutual aid roundNeighbours moving things to people who need them — food parcels, school uniform, fuel top-ups, medicine runs. Volunteers change week to week and the people receiving must never be on display.
  • Looking out for each otherQuiet, occasional, and mostly about knowing who to call.
  • A petition or a driveNames, a deadline, and somebody who has to hand it in. The counting is the easy part.
  • A residents' groupService charges, a managing agent, and letters that need to come from everyone at once.
  • A street partyA road closure, insurance, tables, and eighty households who mostly haven't met.
  • A study or reflection circleA group that reads and talks, week after week. The reading changes; the turning up is the thing.
  • Lending things aroundA ladder, a carpet cleaner, a tent. Things that leave and need to come back.
  • A volunteer rotaA food bank, a helpline, a stall. People who mean well and lead busy lives.
  • Someone new joiningA new housemate, a new member, a new colleague. What they need to know that everyone else absorbed slowly.
• EndingsDeaths, breakups, clearing a house, winding something up. Slow on purpose.

  • After a deathThe practical week. Who is telling whom, what the funeral needs, who is dealing with the house and the paperwork — shared out among people who are grieving and not at their best.
  • Untangling a lifeBills in one name, furniture in another, and a shared address to leave.
  • Clearing a houseEvery object is a decision and some of them are arguments. Best done slowly, in company.
  • Winding something upA club, a house, a project. Ending it properly so nobody is left holding it.
  • A funeralDays, not weeks. Readings, flowers, travel, and a room booked for afterwards.
  • When a pet diesSmall and enormous. Somewhere to put the photos and the things people want to say.
  • A memorialA year later, a bench, a tree, a gathering. Made by the people who remember.
  • After losing a jobPractical help from people who want to do something and don't know what.
• For the fun of itLeagues, clubs, gigs, games and the photos afterwards.

  • A band or ensembleRehearsals, gigs, gear that lives in someone's car, and money split four ways.
  • A regular games nightWhose house, what we're playing, and who's bringing what.
  • A book clubA book, a date, and the honest fact that half the group hasn't finished it.
  • Making something togetherA carnival float, a panto set, a costume for six. Hands, materials and a date.
  • An online communityA room that exists whether or not anybody is in it. It stays good because a few people quietly keep it good.
  • A long gameA campaign, a season, a shared story that runs for months and needs everyone in the room.
  • A fantasy leagueRules, a pot, deadlines, and one person who administers it every year.
  • A regular gameTen people, a pitch booked weekly, and subs that need collecting.
  • Going to a gigTickets in a queue, a meeting point, and getting home.
  • Watching something togetherA series, a match, a final. Same time, different sofas.
  • The photos afterwardsEveryone took some, nobody shared them, and in a year they'll be gone.
  • Making a podcast togetherEpisodes, guests, edits, and the week nobody can record. Three people with three different ideas of what it is.
  • A remote team socialThe bit that does not happen on its own when nobody shares a kitchen. Somebody has to make it happen, and it should not always be the same person.
  • Training togetherA race in twelve weeks and a plan that only works if people show up.
  • A supper clubWhose house, what they are cooking, and who cannot eat what. It runs on somebody remembering all three.
  • A writing circlePeople who have agreed to read each other's work and say something useful about it. The deadline is the whole mechanism.
• Moving and paperworkMoving house, visas, claims and the things institutions make you prove.

  • Buying somewhereMonths long, mostly waiting, and dependent on people who don't answer.
  • Taking something up with a companyA refund, a fault, a bill that's wrong. Records win these.
  • An insurance claimPhotos, receipts, dates, and a form that asks for all of it at once.
  • Getting repairs doneA landlord, a leak, and a paper trail that matters later.
  • Moving houseDates, a van, keys, and forty small jobs that all belong to somebody.
  • Renting a place togetherReferences, a deposit, and a contract everyone signs and nobody reads.
  • Getting something fixedTenants keeping a record of a repair that is not happening — damp, heating, a door that does not lock — and asking together rather than one at a time. Also works for a leaseholders' block or a body corporate.
  • Sharing a carInsurance, fuel, servicing, and who has it this weekend.
  • Starting something with someoneTwo people, an idea, and the agreements that are easy now and impossible later.
  • Moving abroad to studyA year in another country — accommodation, a bank account, a phone, and a family who want to know she's fine.
  • A visa or residency applicationDocuments from several countries, a deadline, and consequences for getting it wrong.
  • Setting a house upBroadband, energy, water, council tax — done once, in whoever's name, and remembered later.

Or start with just a name.