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How do I invite a keyholder?

Updated September 2026

Open the Circle tab, tap Add a keyholder, type their first name, and share the link the app mints for you. The link is signed and lives 72 hours, and Fold'em never emails it for you: it goes to your own share sheet, so you send it through Messages, WhatsApp or anything else on the phone. Until they accept, you are still solo and the Circle shows their name with an Invite waiting row under it. You can hold one keyholder at a time, so the app refuses a second keyholder invite while one is open.

What the invite actually is

Tapping Share asks the server for a link. createInvite writes a partner row for the person, signs a token for it and stamps the row with an expiry 72 hours ahead. That 72 hours is the link's own life and has nothing to do with any of the waits an early exit runs.

The token carries two display claims and nothing else: your first name and theirs. That is why the page they land on can greet them by name and say who asked. Everything the product actually routes on is the link id, never a name, so a name in the token cannot authorise anything.

Fold'em sends no invite email. The link goes to the iOS share sheet and you choose the channel, which is why the invite screen shows Copy, Messages, Instagram, WhatsApp and More rather than an address field. The person you send it to types their own email address on the page where they accept, and proves it with a six digit code before the link goes live.

Sharing it again

Every share checks the link's remaining life before handing it over. Above 24 hours left, you get the same link and nothing is written. Below that floor, the server signs a fresh 72 hour token and keeps the displaced one acceptable until its own expiry, so a copy you already sent is never silently killed. Nothing caps how often you share, so an invite can be kept alive by sending it again.

That is why the row on their page is called Share the invite link rather than anything resembling send. Nothing is sent to anybody by the server: the row hands you a URL to pass on however you like.

Inviting a keyholder, from their name to their first status Five steps down the page. You type their first name. You share a link, which lives 72 hours. They open it and enter the six digit code. The pass lands in their Wallet. The card shows its first status, Setting up, and reads Protected once you seal. INVITING A KEYHOLDER Maria Type a name their first name only Share the link it lives 72 hours 4 8 2 9 1 7 Maria accepts with the six digit code A pass in Wallet their one artefact Setting up The first status Protected once you seal
You type a first name and share a link that lives 72 hours. They accept with the six digit code, the pass lands in their Wallet, and its first status is on the card itself.

Sending one

  1. Open the Circle tab

    The Circle has two places: one keyholder, and up to three witnesses. With nobody in either, both read Add. The witness card carries the line that separates the roles: they see status but never hold the key.

    The Circle tab, solo: a Keyholder card reading Add a keyholder, and a Witnesses card reading Add witnesses, they see status but never hold the key.

    The Circle, solo

  2. Name them and share

    Add a keyholder asks for one thing, their name, and the foot button stays inert until you type it. The share row underneath opens your own channels. You can set a picture for them here too; it stays on your phone and is never uploaded.

    The Add a keyholder screen with a Their name field and the Copy, Messages, Instagram and WhatsApp share channels.

    Add a keyholder

  3. Wait for them to accept

    While the invite is out, the keyholder place shows the person with an Invite waiting row under it. You are still solo until they accept, because the server flips your mode only at acceptance. Tapping through opens their page, where you can share the same link again or cancel the invite.

    The Circle tab showing Maria in the keyholder place with an Invite waiting row, and one witness of three.

    An invite waiting

When the app refuses to mint one

Three refusals are possible and each names its own reason. An open early exit blocks a new invite, with the line "Not while an early exit is running. Cancel the exit to add one." An existing keyholder or an open keyholder invite blocks a second one. A fourth witness is refused because three is the cap. The first two lift as soon as you take the act they name; the third does not.

Their phone number

The person's page carries an optional phone field with a contacts button beside it. The picker is Apple's own, runs outside Fold'em, needs no Contacts permission, and is configured to hand back a single number rather than a whole contact card. The number is stored on your phone only, never in any request body, and it powers a Call and a Message button you press yourself. Fold'em never sends anyone a text message.

What this does not do

Sharing a link does not give anybody the key: only their acceptance does that, and until then you are solo and an early exit runs on the solo road. It does not email them, so no invite can go missing in a spam folder that Fold'em could resend. It does not upload your contacts, and it does not let you invite a keyholder while an exit request is open or while a handover is in flight. A keyholder cannot approve an exit from wherever they are; that decision is made in person, and inviting one changes nothing about which apps are sealed on this phone.

Still stuck? Email support@foldem.app and we answer within two working days.