Connections
Why connections?
Tagging tells lovd who's in a photo. Connections tell lovd how they're related, powering the family tree, the graph view, 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 connection
Open the People page
Open the People page from the top navigation.
Find the person
Scroll the list or search by name.
Set their connection to you
Open the connection picker on their card (it reads This is my… until a type is set) and pick a type. It saves immediately, and the opposite side is set automatically.
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.
Connection requests
You can set a connection 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 connection to propose.
Send the request
They receive an email and an in-app notification (in Notifications).
Wait for acceptance
Once they accept, the connection 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.
Connection types
lovd supports 31 types. The picker opens on the most common ones, with Family, Extended, and Partners & friends sections below and a search box at the top. The groups below cover the full list.
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 connections graph
Once you've added a few connections, 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 connection, 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.
Connections 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.
Deleting a connection
Either party can remove a connection at any time, from the graph or from the connection picker on the other person's card, where a Remove connection button appears beside the search box once a type is set.
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.
Connections 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 connection span multiple collections?
Connections 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.