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How to use Arch-Pet

Last updated: October 7, 2026

This guide walks you through everything Arch-Pet does, screen by screen. Button names are shown in bold, exactly as you see them in the app. Can't find what you need? Write to support@arch-pet.com.

Getting started

Use Arch-Pet on iPhone, Android or in any browser at arch-pet.com/app. Your account works on all of them. Sign in with your email, Google or Apple. You need to be 18 or older and agree to the Terms.

The app has five tabs:

  • Home: today's care for the pet you picked, the checklist and quick actions.
  • Agenda: everything coming up (and done) for all your pets.
  • Vaccines: the pet's vaccination card.
  • Health: weight, reminders, medications, vet records and the full history.
  • Settings: your profile, plan, pets, family, notifications and preferences.

Home, Vaccines and Health always show the pet selected in the pet strip at the top of Home (on a computer, in the My pets list on the left).

Your pets

Add your first pet

  1. On Home, tap Add a pet.
  2. Pick the species. Arch-Pet supports 19 species: dogs, cats, reptiles, amphibians, birds, chickens, small mammals, fish and horses. Not sure? With Pro or Family, tap Identify from a photo and the AI suggests it.
  3. Add the name, a photo, the birthday (or adoption day) and sex.
  4. Check the care plan Arch-Pet prepared (reminders and a daily checklist for that species) and tap Add name.

The All set screen then suggests three next steps: Photograph your vaccine card (Arch-Pet reads it and fills in the past vaccines; free once per account, then part of Pro), creating the free QR tag, and inviting your family or a pet sitter. You can also add vaccines by hand.

Add more pets

Tap Add in the pet strip on Home, or go to Settings, My pets, Add. The free plan covers one pet of your own; more pets need Pro or Family. Pets shared with you by your family don't count.

Edit a pet's profile

Tap the pencil next to the pet's name on Home, or tap the pet in Settings, My pets. Besides the basics, you can add breed, spayed or neutered, lifestyle (indoor, outdoor or both), habitat details for exotic pets and, under More about name, color, food, vet, insurance and temperament.

Archive or delete a pet

In the pet's profile, tap the archive icon at the top. An archived pet is hidden and stops sending reminders. To bring it back or delete it for good, go to Settings, Archived pets, then Restore or Delete. Deleting can't be undone.

Home and the daily checklist

Home shows the selected pet's card (age, latest weight, upcoming birthday and how protected it is by vaccines), Today's care with your streak, the daily checklist right below, the daily check-in, the medications due today and quick actions (View activities, Log care, Prepare for the vet visit and Vets and pet shops nearby). A care tip sits folded at the end and changes every few days.

The streak counts the days the checklist is complete. One missed day a week is a free rest day, so it doesn't reset your streak.

Daily checklist

  • Tap an item when it's done. Tap it again to undo.
  • Want to add a detail, like "ate only half"? Tap the note button next to the item, Add note on the message that shows after ticking, or press and hold the item. The note shows under the item. Notes are optional, so ticking stays one tap.
  • Something to do only today, like "Give bath" or "Buy food"? Tap Add for today. The task shows as Today only and isn't repeated tomorrow. It doesn't count against your streak.
  • Note for today, under the list, is for anything about the whole day.
  • Things done several times a day (like meals) show how many are done, for example 1 of 2 today.
  • Tap Edit to rename, remove, reorder or add tasks, and to set how many times a day. Reset to species defaults brings back the original list.

Daily check-in

Under How is name today?, tap how appetite, energy and stool look. These feed the charts in the activity log, so you and your vet can spot changes.

Birthdays and adoption days

On a pet's birthday or adoption day, Home shows a card and you get a notification. Tap Make a card to share for an image with the pet's photo, name and age, ready for WhatsApp or Instagram.

Home-screen widget (Android)

Add the Arch-Pet Today widget to your phone's home screen: it shows today's checklist and the next dose for your pet, and you can tick tasks straight from the widget. Open Arch-Pet once a day so the widget stays current.

Vets and pet shops nearby

Tap Vets and pet shops nearby on Home, then Use my location. You'll see vets, pet shops, groomers and shelters around you, nearest first, with Call, WhatsApp (when the place has a number) and Directions. Filter by type. Places known to treat exotic pets show an Exotic tag. Places come from OpenStreetMap, the free map made by volunteers, so coverage varies by city and a place may be missing or out of date. Tap Search in Google Maps, at the end of the list, to search the same kind of place around you there. Only an approximate area is used to look up places, never your exact position.

Logging care

Tap Log care on Home (or Log a care event on Health), choose what happened (vaccination, vet visit, medication, weight, grooming, habitat or observation), set the date, add notes, a vet name or a photo (Take a photo or Choose from library), and tap Save. It works offline and syncs when you're back online.

Edit or delete an entry

Made a mistake? On Health, tap any entry in Care history or Vet visits. On Vaccines, tap a vaccine and then a dose under History. Change what you need and tap Save, or tap Delete entry. Deleting can't be undone. Edits and deletions are noted in the activity log.

Observations

Noticed something unusual, like limping or licking a lot? Log it as an observation to see how it develops and share it with your vet. Arch-Pet records; it never diagnoses.

Log an observation

  1. Tap Log care and choose Observation, or tap Anything unusual today? in the daily check-in, or Log on the Observations card in Health.
  2. Pick what you noticed (grouped by movement, skin and coat, digestion, behavior and breathing) or tap Something else and describe it.
  3. Choose How strong? and How often?, and if you like, when in the day and where on the body. Add notes or a photo, and tap Save.

With Pro, you can also just say it: "Luna was limping".

Follow it over time

The Observations card on Health shows each one with how many of the last 14 days it happened, the usual time of day, and whether it's Ongoing or Resolved. Tap one to see its timeline, Log again, or Mark resolved when it stops. If something happens 3 days in a row, or strongly, Arch-Pet suggests talking to your vet. For urgent signs (trouble breathing, a seizure, collapse, a bloated belly) it shows how to find a vet nearby right away.

Share with your vet

Tap Observations report (PDF), choose the period and which observations, and share it. Observations also appear in the care report.

The free plan shows the last 30 days (older ones are kept). Pro shows everything, adds the strength chart and longer report periods.

Vaccines

The Vaccines tab is your pet's vaccination card, with the usual schedule for its species. The schedule follows the country in your profile (Brazil or the US); without a country, it follows the app language. Always confirm the plan with your vet.

Each vaccine shows its status: No record, Given (with the date), Due (with the date) or Overdue. Required marks the core vaccines.

Log a dose

Tap the vaccine, then Log a dose. The matching reminder is settled and the next one is scheduled.

Add, edit or remove vaccines

  • Add one your vet gives: tap Add a vaccine, type the name, choose how often it repeats and add notes.
  • Edit any vaccine, even a required one: tap it, then Edit. You can rename it, set how often it repeats or add notes. Doses already logged still count. Undo my changes brings back the original.
  • Remove a vaccine from this pet's card: tap it, then Remove. Doses already logged stay in the history. Removed vaccines are listed under Removed from the card, with Put back.

Share the card

Tap Export card (PDF / image) and choose Share as PDF or Share as image, for your vet, a boarding place or travel. The PDF lists every dose with its date, the vet and, for each vaccine's latest dose, when the next one is due.

Share a live link

Tap Share link to create a page with the pet's vaccines that always stays up to date as you add doses. Send it with Share on WhatsApp, the share sheet or Copy link. The page shows only the pet's name, species and vaccines (no contact details or other health data). Stop sharing turns the link off. Free.

Health

At the top, a summary shows the next reminder, the medicine doses given today, the latest weight and any ongoing observation. Below it, four tabs keep things short: Today (assistant, reminders, medications), Body (weight, observations, heat cycle and habitat or diet cards), Vet (health profile, vaccines, vet visits, vet records) and History (every care entry by month, and the activity log). Log care is always at the top.

Weight

Tap Log weight. The chart shows 1 month, 3 months, 1 year or everything, with the change and whether the weight is within the typical range for the species.

Reminders

Each reminder shows whether it's current, due soon or overdue. Tap Done, or use the menu to Snooze 1 day, Reschedule or Mark complete. Repeating reminders create the next one by themselves.

Medications

  1. Under Medications, tap Add.
  2. Enter the name, dosage, how often (once or twice a day, weekly, monthly or as needed), the dates and an optional refill reminder.
  3. Turn on Dose time alerts to be reminded at each dose.

Daily doses show on Home. Tap Given after each dose. When the treatment ends, open the menu and tap Stop medication.

The same menu has Edit medication (name, dosage, schedule, refill date), Record refill (sets the next refill reminder) and Undo last dose if you tapped Given by mistake. Weekly and monthly doses also mark their reminder as done.

Prepare for the vet visit

Tap Prepare for the vet visit (on Home, in Health under Vet, or from a vet visit reminder) for a one-page PDF to bring along: observations with their strength and frequency, weight, check-ins, medication doses and vaccines due, plus the questions you want to ask (type them in). With Pro it covers everything since the last vet visit, with trends; the free plan covers the last 30 days.

Import vet records (Pro)

New accounts can read one vaccine card photo for free (offered when you add your first pet). After that, importing is part of Pro and Family.

  1. Under Vet records, tap Import and read the privacy note: the file is read by Google Gemini. You can crop out personal details first.
  2. Choose one or several PDFs or photos (up to 10 at a time), or take a photo of a paper record. Reading takes under a minute; you can leave the screen meanwhile. When you import several, each one shows in Vet records as ready to review.
  3. Review what was found: untick anything wrong, tap the pencil to fix a name or date, and check items marked as unclear.
  4. Tap Add n records. Changed your mind? Remove what was added undoes it. You can delete a document anytime with Delete the document (records already added stay).

Special cards

  • Heat cycle (intact females of some species): log when a heat starts and see when the next one is expected.
  • Habitat (reptiles and amphibians): log temperature and humidity and see if they're in range.
  • Shedding (lizards and snakes): log complete or stuck sheds.
  • Diet this week (birds, chickens, rabbits and guinea pigs): log the food groups offered and see what's missing.

Activity log

In Health, History, tap Activity log (or View activities on Home) to see who did what for the pet, and when.

  • Filters: the period (today, 7 days, 30 days, this month; with Pro also last month, your own dates and everything), Who, What (checklist, medications, vaccinations, observations and more) and a search across notes. With Pro, All pets shows every pet together.
  • Views: Timeline by day, Summary by person and by type, and Charts.
  • Create report: share what you're looking at as a PDF or a spreadsheet (CSV). With Pro or Family, choose a ready set (For the vet, For family and sitters) or Choose sections. Arch-Pet remembers your last choice.

Agenda and calendar

Agenda gathers reminders, care entries and pet sittings for all your pets. Switch between List, Day, Week and Month. In the list, choose Upcoming (overdue first) or Past.

See your pet reminders in Google or Apple Calendar

  1. Tap Add to calendar.
  2. Choose Subscribe (keeps syncing) and Copy subscription link.
  3. Google Calendar: Other calendars, +, From URL. Apple Calendar: File, New Calendar Subscription. Paste the link.

Anyone with the link can see your reminders, so keep it private. If it leaks, reset it there. Prefer a one-time copy? Choose Export once (.ics file).

Reminders and notifications

To get alerts on your phone, go to Settings, Notifications, and tap Turn on. Send test checks that they arrive. On an iPhone using the web app, first add Arch-Pet to your Home Screen.

In Settings, Notification settings, choose:

  • Daily time for your reminders and Quiet hours (nothing is lost: held alerts wait in your notifications list).
  • What to tell me: care reminders, medication times, an evening check if the checklist isn't done, morning and weekly summaries, pet sitting, lost pets nearby, and News and updates (new features and new versions of the app, now and then; on by default, turn it off any time).
  • Household activity: nothing, each activity, or a daily summary.
  • By email: important alerts (like overdue vaccines) and a weekly summary.

Everything Arch-Pet told you is kept in Notifications (the bell on Home).

The Arch-Pet Assistant (Pro)

Quick assistant, by voice or typing

Tap the round button at the bottom of the screen and speak, or tap Type instead. Try things like "fed Luna", "Luna weighs 12 kg", "gave the medicine" or "when was Luna's last bath?". Each action shows Undo. Answers about your records include what you wrote, like the vet and the reason for a visit. Follow up naturally: "and why?" or "and Mochi?" continue your last question for about 10 minutes. Your phone or browser turns speech into text; Arch-Pet never records or keeps your voice.

Assistant chat

On Health, tap Ask the Arch-Pet Assistant. Ask about everyday care: feeding, behavior, training, grooming, exercise and habitat. Answers use your pet's profile and recent records (vet visits with the reason you noted, vaccines and observations), so you can ask things like "when was the last vet visit and why?". It tells you what the records say but never interprets them. Opening the full chat from the quick assistant carries your last exchange, so the conversation goes on. It can turn a tip into a reminder. For anything about health (symptoms, medicines, vaccines) it always sends you to your vet, and in a possible emergency it shows how to find a vet nearby. Chats are saved in your account; you can delete them.

The assistant uses Google Gemini. Every AI feature (the Assistant chat, the voice assistant's AI, identifying a pet from a photo and vet record import) is part of Pro and Family. The one exception: new accounts can read one vaccine card photo for free. Pro users can turn AI off in Settings, Preferences, Use AI features: that turns off the chat, the voice assistant's AI, photo ID and reading vet documents. Spot a bad answer? Tap Report this answer.

Sharing with your family (Family plan)

A household lets up to 6 people share the same pets, checklist, reminders and history.

  1. With the Family plan, go to Settings, Household, and tap Create household.
  2. Send the Invite code with Share invite or Copy code.
  3. Each person goes to Settings, Household, Join with a code. Joining is free.

Only the owner sees the invite code. To stop someone from joining again after you remove them, the code changes by itself; you can also tap New invite code anytime. Under Your pets in the household, each member chooses which of their pets are shared. The owner can Delete household: everyone keeps their own pets.

By default, all of each member's pets are shared. Members can log care, get reminders and edit pet profiles; only the owner can archive their own pets. Plans are personal: members use the free features on shared pets, and anyone who wants Pro features gets their own Pro. Members appear with the name in their profile.

If the Family plan ends, sharing pauses until it's renewed (Renew Family), or until a member with their own Family plan taps Take over with your Family Plan. You can leave anytime with Leave household; your pets stay yours.

Pet sitting

Going away? Invite someone to look after your pets for set dates. Inviting is part of Pro and Family; for the pet sitter, Arch-Pet is free.

Invite a pet sitter

  1. On Home, scroll to the end of the pet's page: Pet sitting, Invite a pet sitter.
  2. Enter their email, choose the pets and the start and end.
  3. Choose what else they can see: medications, weight, health records.
  4. Add care instructions for each pet (saved for next time), house notes and emergency contacts.
  5. Tap Send invitation. They get an email and accept with a free account.

Care sheet (PDF)

At the end of the invitation, under the contacts, Care sheet for name makes a one-page sheet about the pet to print or send, using what you filled in on the screen: photo, temperament, food, daily routine, medications, allergies, vaccines, contacts and the QR code of the ID tag. Part of Pro and Family.

During the sitting

The sitter sees your instructions and the daily checklist, taps I arrived and I'm leaving, ticks what they did and sends photos. You get each activity or a daily summary, and can change the dates or what they see in Settings for this sitting. Access ends by itself on the last day, or when you tap End the pet sitting. At the end, both of you can share the report as a PDF.

For the sitter, while the sitting runs the pets show on Home after their own (or as their pets, if they have none), with a teal ring and 🧳 Sitting in the pet strip. Tap one for its page: a teal banner says whose pet it is and until when, with I arrived, I'm leaving, Instructions, Send a photo and, if the owner left a phone, Call name. Below are the checklist, the check-in, today's doses (if medications are shared), Log care (a weight if shared, and observations) and observations. The Health and Vaccines tabs show only what the owner shared, marked Shared by name; vaccines are read only. Everything is added to the sitting, so the owner hears about it. The pet leaves Home when the sitting ends, and stays in Pets I looked after.

Edit the sitting

Open the sitting and tap Edit sitting, while the invitation waits for an answer or while the sitting runs. The same form as the invitation opens, filled in: pets, dates, what's shared, how you hear about it, each pet's care instructions, house notes and emergency contacts. Tap Save changes.

  • Pets: add or remove them (at least one stays). During the sitting, an added pet is shared with the sitter at once, and a removed one stops being shared at once; what was logged for it stays in the history.
  • Instructions, house notes and contacts: the instructions are also saved on the pet for next time, and the care sheet uses the new ones.
  • The sitter is told when pets, instructions, house notes or contacts change, and sees an Updated tag on those parts for a day.
  • Invitation still waiting: turn on Send the updated invitation by email to send it again with the new details.

Once the sitting ended or was cancelled, it can't be changed: use Invite again for a new one.

Lost pets and ID tags

If your pet is lost

  1. Open the pet's profile and tap name is lost?
  2. Fill in where and when it was last seen, a description, your phone (needed to alert people nearby, so they can call you) and a reward if any.
  3. Share alert sends the flyer to your groups and social media. Alert people nearby notifies Arch-Pet users within about 15 km, or 10 miles (your location is shown only as a rough area). They see the photo, where it was last seen, your phone and the reward.
  4. While the alert is on, Home shows a red banner at the top, name is lost, with since when and the area, for you, your family and a pet sitter. From it: Share alert again (WhatsApp and other apps), and Messages from finders when someone scanned the ID tag and wrote to you. The pet strip marks the pet with a red ring and LOST.
  5. When your pet is back, tap I found name on Home (or name is home: mark found on the alert screen). The alert comes down and your phone number is removed from it.
  6. Everyone who was alerted gets a short notification that your pet was found (no phone or place in it). Home shows name is home! for three days, with a way to share the good news and thank the finder, and a reminder to check the tag and microchip details and consider a vet check. Close it any time.

Help find lost pets near you

In Settings, Lost pets near me, turn on alerts to hear about pets lost in your area. Tap Update my area after you move.

Pet ID tag with QR code (free)

  1. On Home, tap Pet ID tag on the pet's card, then Create pet's tag.
  2. Choose what finders see: your phone (or let them message you without seeing it), allergies and medications, temperament, vaccines, vet and microchip. Your address and email are never shown.
  3. Print tags (PDF) for a collar tag, wallet card or stickers, or share the link.

Anyone who scans the code sees the pet's page in their phone browser, no app needed, and can send you a message with their location. You're notified of each scan and can see recent ones. You can pause or delete a tag anytime.

Reports and your data

  • Care report (PDF) and spreadsheet (CSV): Activity log, Create report.
  • Care sheet (PDF): Home, end of the pet's page, Invite a pet sitter, at the end.
  • Vaccination card (PDF or image): Vaccines, Export card (PDF / image).
  • Pet sitting report (PDF): in the sitting.
  • All your data: Settings, your profile, Download my data.

Plans

  • Free: one pet of your own, vaccines, reminders, the daily checklist, health records, ID tags and lost-pet alerts, 30 days of activity history, and joining a family.
  • Pro: unlimited pets, the full history with charts, reports without the Arch-Pet footer, all AI features (the Assistant by voice and chat, photo ID and vet record import) and inviting pet sitters.
  • Family: everything in Pro for you, plus a household for up to 6 people.

See current prices at arch-pet.com. To subscribe, go to Settings, Your plan, Upgrade to Pro; a free first month is offered when available. Change plan switches between Pro and Family, and Manage subscription lets you change payment or cancel. A subscription bought in the App Store or Google Play is managed there. Bought on another device? Tap Restore purchases.

Deleting your account doesn't cancel a subscription bought in the App Store or Google Play. Cancel it there first.

Settings, privacy and safety

  • Profile: your name (what your family and pet sitters see), phone, country (it also sets the vaccine schedule), city and an emergency contact. Verify your email to recover your account and receive pet sitting invitations.
  • Language: English or Português (Brasil). Units follow the language: English uses lb, inches, gallons and °F; Portuguese uses kg, cm, liters and °C. Your data never changes when you switch.
  • Theme: match your system, light or dark.
  • Care guides: lifespan, diet, habitat and warning signs for each species.
  • Blocked people: people you blocked from lost-pet alerts. Use Report on any alert or message that's spam, offensive or a scam; we review reports within 24 hours.
  • Delete account: removes your account and everything in it, for good. See how to delete your account.

Arch-Pet works with screen readers, large text and reduced motion. See our accessibility statement.

Common questions

Does Arch-Pet work offline?

Yes. You can see your pets and log care without a connection; everything syncs when you're back online. The assistant, vet record import, alerts, calendar links and purchases need a connection.

Can I use it on several devices?

Yes. Sign in with the same account on your phone, tablet or computer.

I'm not getting reminders.

Check Settings, Notifications: notifications must be on, and the reminder type turned on in Notification settings. Also check quiet hours and your phone's notification settings for Arch-Pet.

How do I update Arch-Pet?

When a new version is out, Home shows A new version of Arch-Pet is available: tap Update to open the store (on Android the update can install right from the app). Very old versions may ask you to update before you continue. The web version updates by itself when you reload the page.

Does Arch-Pet replace my vet?

No. Arch-Pet helps you organize care. Schedules and tips are general guidance. In an emergency, contact a vet right away.

Still need help? Email support@arch-pet.com or use Contact support in Settings. Tell us what you were trying to do and which device you use.