# Family Emails

### ✉️ Family E-mail Addresses

A family email address is an email address added to a user account, that is then marked specifically as a "shared" family email.  An email address marked as a family address will then be shown when viewing any family member in the Admin App, as well as the Member/Mobile App.

Family email addresses have the following **restrictions**:

* You ***cannot*** use a family email to login to Lightpost.
* You ***cannot*** use a family email to receive group email messages.
* You ***cannot*** use a family email to receive other email notifications.
* You ***cannot*** use a family email to set or reset a password for a Lightpost user.

#### Family E-mail Alternatives:

For families that **only** have one email address that is shared among family members, there are still some options for individuals to login their own Lightpost account.

1. **Phone Number Login:** You can use the user's phone number to login.
   * **NOTE:** An Admin currently must set the initial password for a user to login with a phone number.  You cannot yet reset your password using a phone number.
2. **New E-mail:**  Ask a user to create their own email account.
   * Though sometimes seemingly a difficult transition, this can be the most straight-forward and advantageous option, especially for being privacy conscious.
3. **E-mail Variation (NOT RECOMMENDED):** Use (+) or (**.**) to create a variation of an email address. (see note below)
   * Many email providers allow you to use a (+) or (**.**) in such a manner that emails will go to the same address.
     * i.e. `johnsmith@example.com` and `john.smith@example.com` would be different emails in Lightpost, but both work for sending emails to the same account.
   * ***WARNING:*** Using this method can enable sensitive information to be delivered to the wrong person.
     * i.e. If an elder and his wife share an email, an elder may receive messages from Lightpost that are for elders only, but his wife would receive a copy.
     * This method is *not recommended* for any user that could need access to or receive sensitive information.