If you participated in earlier testing for Family Group Trees, you may be wondering what is new.
New overview
Family Group Trees now include a brief overview that explains the feature and why you might want to use it.
Set the visibility of memories to the group
The memories page has been updated. It has all the same features that the previous one did. It now also includes the ability to set the visibility of a memory to private, to a group, or public.
Keep your group and tree
During the first phase of testing, we asked participants to delete their groups and their group trees after the test. This is no longer the case. You can now keep both the groups and the trees you create together.
Portrait view
The new Portrait view lets you more easily expand to display all of your and your ancestors’ siblings.
The Portrait view organizes your family vertically. It also lets you:
- Display all of the siblings of an ancestor on the pedigree.
- Open several family lines at once to see more of your tree. This is also helpful to view descendants of an ancestor.
Copy branches of your tree
In the last test, you could choose to pre-populate your tree by copying in just yourself or by copying in your whole list of private persons.
In this preview, you can copy in whole branches of a family line, but you cannot copy in your whole list of private persons.
Add a Family Group Tree to an existing group
Previously, you had to create a new group to participate in the test. Group administrators can now turn on a Family Group Tree for their existing family groups.
This is available on the website only right now, not on the mobile app. You cannot currently edit a family group on iOS and change it to a family group tree.
Changes to group management page
The group management page has some updates. Most notably:
- New tabs. The list of group members is now on a tab. By default, you will see the suggested activities tab. Click Group Members to see and manage group members. Please note that the iOS mobile app doesn’t use tabs.
- Group Chat. The messaging feature has been replaced with a group chat.
The invitation process
The process for inviting people to join a family group has changed. The original invitation process let multiple people use the same link to join the group. A group administrator then had to approve users after they used the link.
The new process requires that each invitee receive a separate invitation link. This change accomplishes two important objectives:
- It increases group security, reducing the risk that a link is misused.
- It allows invited group members to be linked to their record in the Family Group Tree.
Connect with your Family Group
All members of a family group can post in the group family feed and message in the chat tools to keep connected.
Make and see posts in the feed at the bottom of the family group page. Use the chat tool by selecting the Message Group button on the right side of the family group page.
These are great places to share funny or inspiring stories and collaborate together.
Related articles
Future upgrades in Family Group Trees
Family Group Trees: Frequently asked questions