Messaging families on Bornbir

All of your conversations with families live in your Inbox in the provider portal and the Bornbir for Providers iPhone app. On a computer the Inbox is a split view: the conversation list on the left, the open thread on the right.

Inbox basics

The Active tab shows ongoing conversations, including your clients' (marked Client). The Archived tab holds conversations you've archived, and ones that closed along with the family's lead before the two of you had talked (see "When a lead closes").
The All, Unread, and Awaiting reply chips narrow the list, and Search conversations finds a family by name or message text.
Unread conversations are marked with a badge, and the Inbox link in the sidebar shows how many are unread.
Under your latest message you'll see Sent. It changes to Delivered once we've texted or emailed the family about it, and to Read once they open the conversation.
Under the family's name, the thread shows when they were last on Bornbir, such as "Last active 2 hours ago". It says "no messages opened yet" if they haven't logged in or opened a conversation since joining.
Each thread shows the family's request at the top: the care they need, due date, location, and any preferences they shared. In the app it starts folded; tap Show details to open it. A family who messaged you from your profile without posting a request has no request card.

Always reply on Bornbir — not by email

Replying directly to a notification email does not deliver your message to the family. Always use the Reply on Bornbir button in the email, or open the conversation on the website or in the app.

Writing messages

Messages are plain text. You can include links (they'll be clickable for the family), but formatting and attachments aren't supported.

Saved replies

Save the messages you write again and again — your introduction, your rates, how a first call works — and fill them in with one tap. Your saved replies appear as buttons above the message box in every conversation, and in the Connect window on the leads board.

Adding one: tap + Save a reply to reuse above the message box, give it a short name (that's the button label), and write the message. You can keep up to 10. Add, edit, or remove them any time from Account settings → Manage saved replies, or with the Edit link next to the buttons.
Using one: tap the button and the text fills the message box. Read it over, add a line about the family's request, and press Send. Nothing is ever sent for you.
The family's name is added for you. In your first message to a family, "Hi!" becomes "Hi Morgan!", and a saved reply with no greeting gets "Hi Morgan," on its own line. Later messages in the same conversation are filled in exactly as you saved them.
If you've already typed part of a message, tapping a saved reply adds it underneath instead of replacing what you wrote.

Saved replies replaced the automatic reply that was retired in September 2026; see "Matched conversations: how new leads reach your Inbox".

Scheduling an interview

Click Schedule interview above the message box to offer a family up to 3 times (Premium and Business). Choose Video call, Phone call, or In person, a length from 15 to 60 minutes, and times from the next two weeks in your time zone; add an optional note and click Send. The family picks one and it's confirmed, or suggests other times. When you first reply to a lead from the leads board, you can tick Offer interview times to include times with your message — families most often hire the provider who's easiest to meet. If you've connected your calendar on the Availability page, times it shows you as busy are struck through: you can still offer them, but families can't pick them when they suggest times (see "Setting your availability").

Families can propose times to you too: a card in the conversation lets you Confirm this time or Suggest other times. Your Inbox rows show Interview · pick a time when the family is waiting for you to choose, Interview · waiting on them when you've sent times, or the day and time once it's confirmed. Once confirmed, paste your Zoom or Meet link into the card so the family gets a Join video call button, and add it to your calendar (Google, Apple, or Outlook). Reschedule or Cancel from the card — the family is notified right away.

We email and text both of you when times are proposed, confirmed, or cancelled, remind you the day before, and a couple of hours after the interview ask how it went: Hired me adds the family to your Clients, Not a fit archives the conversation, and Still talking leaves it as it is. New times reach the other person about two minutes after they're sent, so if you spot a mistake, Withdraw and send corrected times straight away and the family gets one alert, not several.

Once a family is your client or has marked you as hired, Schedule interview is no longer offered in that conversation.

Adding a family to Clients

When a family hires you, click the status pill at the top of the conversation and choose Hired me. The family is added to your Clients page, where their details, visits, notes, invoices, and documents live, and the conversation stays open in your Active inbox. If the family tells Bornbir they hired you, the thread shows a Hired you tag and a banner, "[Name] marked you as hired", with an Add to Clients button. Clients comes with Premium and Business; on the free plan, these buttons take you to the Clients page to upgrade. See "Managing your clients".

Requesting a payment

Once a family is your client, US providers on Premium or Business can click Request payment above the message box to ask for a deposit or payment by card; the payment lands in your bank account through Stripe. Payment requests are for clients only, so add the family with Hired me first. You can also send a full invoice from the client's profile. Set-up, fees, invoices, and refunds are covered in "Invoicing clients and getting paid".

Updating a conversation's status

The pill at the top of each conversation shows where things stand: In conversation, Client, or Archived with the reason. Click it to change the status. Every option works in one click, and the notice that follows has an Undo.

Hired me adds the family to Clients. The conversation stays open.
Did not hire me, Not a fit, Connected offline, or Close without a reason records how it ended and moves the conversation to Archived.
For a client, the pill offers View in Clients, Care is complete (archives the conversation; the family stays in Clients with their care marked complete), and Remove from Clients (back to an open lead, as if you'd never added them). Messages are never deleted.
For an archived conversation, the pill offers Reopen conversation, which puts it back in your Active inbox. The same button sits at the bottom of the archived thread.

Archived conversations are read-only until you reopen them. If the family sends you a new message, the conversation reopens automatically. A conversation the family ended from their side shows "The family went another direction" and can't be reopened by you.

To flag a family, click Report a scam or misuse at the bottom of the status panel, choose what went wrong, and click Report as scam. Conversations you've reported stay closed while our team reviews them.