Collections

Relationships

Connect people into a family tree and map how everyone fits together.

Why relationships?

Tagging tells lovd who's in a photo. Relationships tell lovd how they're connected, powering the family tree, the relationship graph, and the connection lines on your timeline.

You can connect yourself to other users, yourself to Lovd Ones you've created, or two Lovd Ones to each other.

Adding a relationship

Open the People page

Open the People page from the top navigation.

Find the person

Scroll the list or search by name.

Set their relationship to you

Use the relationship selector on their card and pick a type. It saves immediately, and the opposite side is set automatically.

One relationship per pair. Only one type can exist between any two people. Picking a new type for someone you're already connected to replaces the previous one.

Auto-inverse

Mark someone as your parent and lovd marks you as their child, so you never set both sides. The same runs for every asymmetric pair (grandparent ↔ grandchild, aunt/uncle ↔ niece/nephew, and so on). Symmetric types like sibling, partner, or friend are recorded the same way on both sides.

Relationship requests

You can set a relationship directly on anyone you already share a collection or post with, and on any Lovd One you own. These save instantly, since only you can see and edit your Lovd Ones.

For other lovd users you haven't shared with yet, send a request first. It only applies to user-to-user connections.

Pick the person and a type

Search from the People page and choose the relationship to propose.

Send the request

They receive an email and an in-app notification (in Notifications).

Wait for acceptance

Once they accept, the relationship is created in both directions.

Either side can cancel or reject before acceptance. You can't send a second request to someone with a pending request or an existing connection.

Relationship types

lovd supports 31 types, grouped so the picker stays easy to navigate.

Immediate family

Parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, sibling.

Step, foster & guardian

Step-parent, step-child, foster parent, foster child, guardian, ward.

Extended family

Aunt/uncle, niece/nephew, cousin, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law.

Partners

Spouse, partner, ex-spouse, ex-partner.

Social & care

Friend, best friend, roommate, caregiver, godparent, godchild.

Pets

Owner and pet, plus pet parent and pet offspring. A Lovd One can be a pet, and you can be their owner.

The relationship graph

Once you've added a few relationships, the graph view on the People page draws them out. Switch to it with the Graph toggle in the toolbar.

Layered by generation where lovd can work it out: parents above children, grandparents above parents.
Orientation. Lay the tree out top-to-bottom or left-to-right.
Spacing. Tune sibling spacing and generation spacing independently to spread the tree out or tighten it up.
Connections. Use the Connections control to show or hide line types — disconnected people, sibling and extended-family lines, partner lines, friend lines, and pet lines.
Filter by person to isolate one family branch.
Click a node to open the profile, edit the relationship, or jump to the photos that person is tagged in.
Lovd Ones and users sit side by side in the same graph, so you can mix both.
Lifespans (1945 – 2023) appear on a node when both a birthday and a date passed are set.

Relationships on the timeline

When two connected people both have a birthday set, the timeline draws a connection line between them: parents lifting into children, siblings stacking side by side, partners converging.

Friends aren't drawn. Friend and best-friend connections are saved but stay off the timeline to keep it readable. Relationships without a birthday on both people don't appear either, since there's no anchor date. Add a birthday to bring the line in.

Deleting a relationship

Either party can remove a relationship at any time, from the graph or the other person's card.

Deletion is bilateral. Removing a relationship from your side removes it from theirs, and it disappears from their graph automatically.

Edge cases & FAQ

Can I set multiple types between the same two people?

No, just one type per pair. A second pick replaces the first, keeping the graph clean and conflict-free (e.g. no "sibling" and "cousin" on the same pair at once).

What if the type I need isn't listed?

Pick the closest match. The list covers the most common family and social structures, and we add more over time.

Relationships to deceased Lovd Ones

You can connect relatives, ancestors, and anyone else you've created as a Lovd One, with or without a date passed.

Can a relationship span multiple collections?

Relationships are global: they don't belong to one collection. They surface everywhere the person does: graph, timeline, card, and profile.

What about pet parents and siblings?

Use pet parent / pet offspring for a pet's lineage, or the standard parent, child, and sibling types for the humans and other pets in the household.

People & Lovd Ones

Add users and Lovd Ones, and tag them in photos.

Life Events

Record birthdays, birthplaces, and dates passed.