If you have followed Mudpie Fridays for a while then you will know that we love to travel. This year we have visited Spain, Switzerland, Italy, France and Croatia and we still have plans for October half term and Christmas. When we are not travelling we try and see the boy’s grandparents as much as possible. However with the boys club commitments during the week and grandparents not living in the same town. It can be difficult to keep them up to date with the boy’s milestones and our adventures. That was until I discovered Famileo, the family gazette which is a personalised newspaper. It is a great way to keep in touch and would make a wonderful magazine subscription for grandparents, this grandparents’ day.
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What is Famileo?
Famileo originated in France and was the brainchild of a grandson, Tanguy. He was struggling to keep in touch with his grandma, Elisabeth. Starting in French care homes it is now available in every home and has become a household name. With around 200,000 family users and it regularly tops lists of the most popular Christmas presents for grandparents. And now it is available in the UK. I am not surprised by its popularity considering what we have all experienced over the last couple of years. The pandemic has highlighted the need for families to stay connected. As well as the mental health benefits of helping to combat loneliness and isolation through a social network.
Famileo is an easy-to-use digital app which allows members of a family to share photos and messages through print. Each family member can upload photos and messages that are then formatted into a personalised newspaper that is posted out to a relative on a weekly or monthly basis. Each newspaper, or gazette, includes as many as 30 messages and can be delivered around the world. The idea of Famileo’s newspapers is to help families, no matter where they live, stay in touch with each other.
Yes you can have a family WhatsApp group but there is something special about having printed photos of your grandchildren and great grandchildren. Especially as we are a generation of parents that hardly print any photos at all. Whereas the grandparents are of a generation where old photos are still very much looked back on and remembered. It is also perfect for those older people who are not as technically savvy as the younger generations.
How does it work?
The Famileo gazette is very simple to set up. It is all done by the Famileo application which is available on both apple and android. Once you have set up an account you can start loading pictures and messages straight away. Don’t forget to add pictures of yourself, your kids and the other members of your family. You can even add birthdays so no one forgets those special occasions.
Then you can add details of the people you want to send it to. You will need to add a new subscription for each address or set of grandparents you would like to send it to. You can even add a photo of them and their date of birth. So that if they add new messages they will appear on the front cover. It is easy to invite the rest of the family to the personalised newspaper. All you need to do is give them a code which appears in your account along with a family link. This code will then let them have access to the family wall within the mobile application, so they can create with you and leave family comments. There is no limit on the number of people you can invite. The whole family can join in if you would like.
Entries are shown in date order on the screen so you can see what your Famelio gazette will look like in the final version. If you want an entry to appear before another. Then you can change the date or time to make this happen. You can add one photo or up to three photos per message. If you want to add multiples then you can choose from some preformatted automatic layout options. Photos are taken directly from your phone and do not need to be uploaded into a separate folder. Which makes it so easy and quick. I managed to fill a 30 message Famelio gazette about our holiday in just over an hour. So as a busy working parent I know I can fit this into our hectic lives without any great time commitment and will be updating on a daily basis.
Once you have created your personalized newspaper you can select the publication date from a drop-down list. This will be when the newspaper will be printed and sent out to the recipients.
How much does it cost?
Pricing varies depending on how often you would like the personalised newspaper sent. A monthly family subscription costs only £5.99. If you would like Famelio twice a month then it is £9.99 and if you would like it weekly then it is £17.99. Including postage.
Remember other family members can add messages to the Famileo gazette too. So you could get siblings and their children involved and the grandparents can also add messages and pictures. This is particularly attractive for us, as my brother lives in Canada. So being able to add pictures and messages from his children as well brings us all together as a family.
What did we think?
The app is easy to use. I created our own personalised newsletter on my phone which means that I can create it on the go. Ideal if we are travelling or running from one after-school club to another. During the process, it is possible to select how many photos you would like to include with each message. You can select up to three photos in a collage. No matter the number of photos you choose the picture(s) take up a quarter of an A4 page, with the other quarter being the message. With two entries on a page. I really like how large the photos are and the print quality is really good. It also uses a large format font which is good for older people.
It is possible to upload a message without a photo. If you choose to do this then the word count increases from 300 to 900. Great if the kids want to get involved and write a poem or a short story to their relatives.
We have added more than one set of grandparents to our account. Yet you can tailor the messages to each of them within the same Famileo gazette. So if we had a day out with one of them we can include different pictures and messages. Likewise, if there is a specific interest that one grandparent has and another doesn’t then it allows content to reflect this. Those photos and messages which are universal can be copied across to multiple personalised newspapers.
Being a busy working parent, I am impressed by the ease of creating a Famileo gazette. It is easy to fit into my schedule and as I can update it as little and often as I want it makes it extremely flexible. It is such an effective way of keeping our own family in contact with each other.
What did the grandparents think?
So it is easy for me and the kids. But what about our family, what did they think about the magazine subscriptions for grandparents? I didn’t tell either that they were going to be the happy recipients of their very own magazine for grandparents. I wanted to see what their genuine reaction would be. And they both loved it. Unsurprisingly really, as who doesn’t like receiving photos and messages from their grandkids?
They have really enjoyed reading the family newspaper about our adventures at their own pace. It has given them an insight into the kid’s Summer holidays and everything they got up to. I have noticed that it has helped to make phone calls with the boys more meaningful. It is an effective two-way communication tool. As they can ask questions about what we have got up and the boys are generally much more engaged. It will also give them the opportunity to talk through the Famileo gazette when we next see them. The boys love seeing photos of themselves and often ask for me to show them when I take a photo leading to all sorts of conversations.
We all know that grandparents also like to show off their grandkids. The personalised newsletter allows them to show friends and neighbours how the kids are growing and what they have been up to. Plus they can keep the Famileo gazette and come back to it time and time again. Seeing how the kids have grown over time, they make a wonderful keepsake. A form of a personalized paper journal.
Discount Code for Famileo Personalised Magazine
Overall I really like Famileo it is such an easy way to keep in touch, and I know that the grandparents are already waiting eagerly for the next printed issue. I can’t wait to see our adventures in our new personalised newsletter. Full Disclosure – although we were given a six-month trial as part of this review, we will be continuing as the grandparents have loved receiving it so much. And although the personalized paper gazette included our holiday photos, we will be sharing images of recent family visits, family life and day-to-day activities.
If you would like to try out Famileo as a personalised newspaper or as a magazine for grandparents, if you used the code MUDPIE at checkout then you will get one month free on your Famileo subscription. Give this shared gift today. A magazine subscription for grandparents would make a wonderful gift this Grandparents Day.
Have you tried out Famelio the personalised newspaper before? Do you have a magazine subscription for grandparents set up? I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.
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One Response
This sounds like a lovely idea. I would certainly appreciate updates from my family, particularly about the progress of Arlo, my great grandson.