Your home screen and getting started

After you sign in, the home screen is your starting point every visit. It is built to answer one question fast: what is worth doing right now. This guide walks the parts you will see, in the order a new account meets them.

The greeting tile

At the top is a personal greeting: "Good morning, {your name}" (it shifts to "Good afternoon" and "Good evening" with the clock in your own time zone). Just below, under a "Get started" label, you get up to three onboarding chips: one-tap shortcuts into the first things most people want to do. The set is chosen for you, so it stays short and relevant:

• Add your first animal. Opens the create-an-animal form. This is the natural first move, since most of Creatures revolves around the animals you keep. It is highlighted as the primary action. For a full walkthrough, see Adding an animal to Creatures.
• Create your farm profile. Opens the create-an-organization form. This chip appears only if you do not already have an organization; once you have one, it drops off and a different chip takes its place. Choosing it gives your farm or business its own public page.
• Follow breeders near you. Opens the breeder directory. Following breeders fills your feed with animals and updates from people near you, so the rest of the site has something to show. The feed is the social heart of your home screen; see The community feed: posting, reactions, and reposts.
• Import your herd. Opens the import tool, for bringing in many animals at once (for example from a spreadsheet) instead of adding them one by one. Best if you already keep records elsewhere. See Importing your animals: bring your whole herd in.

There are four of these built, but only three are shown at a time to keep the row uncluttered. Which three you see depends on your account: a brand-new account without an organization sees the "Create your farm profile" chip; once you have an org, you see the other three instead.

The "Add a recovery phone" prompt

If your account has no phone number on file, the home screen shows a short "Add a recovery phone" card with an Add phone button.

• What it is: an invitation to verify a phone number so you can recover your account if your email or sign-in access changes later. It is about getting back in, not about selling.
• Why it is separate: this is distinct from the verified phone that sellers need to list and get paid. Adding a recovery phone here secures your account; it is not the same as the seller requirement. You can verify the same number for both purposes. To see what a verified phone unlocks on the selling side, see Verifying your phone number.
• What choosing it means: you verify the number once (Creatures texts a code, you enter it), and the prompt goes away. If you skip it, your account still works, but you lean entirely on email to get back in.

The action center

Your home screen surfaces anything that needs your attention, and there is a fuller view at /dashboard (the action center). When you are brand new and nothing is pending, this is deliberately quiet: you see an all-caught-up empty state ("Nothing urgent right now" / "All caught up") with no red counts. The greeting echoes the same calm ("You're all set up. Here are a few things to do").

This is the expected state for a fresh account, not a sign something is missing. As you start using Creatures (a message, a bid on your listing, a care reminder coming due), real items appear here with a count, and an Open your dashboard link takes you to the full list.

Suggestions that grow with you

Once you have added at least one animal, the greeting tile starts offering a small, rotating set of suggestion chips: concrete next steps tied to your actual animals. These rotate so you see a few at a time rather than a long list, and they include things like:

• Add an animal's sire and dam (start its pedigree).
• Get a Crestimate (an estimated value for an animal).
• Add a registration to an animal.
• Add a photo to an animal that has few or none.
• Add a bio for an animal that has none.

You will also see zero-state nudges for capabilities you have not set up yet, such as grouping your animals into a herd, starting to track your farm finances, setting up boarding, or creating a transporter profile. Each appears only while it is relevant (for example, "group your animals" shows once you have two or more, and drops off once you have made a group).

• Dismissing a suggestion: suggestion chips have a small dismiss control (the x). Dismissing one hides it for about 21 days, then it may resurface if it is still relevant. The implication: clearing a chip you are not ready for keeps your home screen focused without losing the reminder forever. (Note: this dismissal is remembered as long as your account is fully set up; if a suggestion you dismissed reappears sooner, it is a harmless display detail, not a lost setting.)

Installing Creatures as an app

Creatures runs in your browser, but you can add it to your device's home screen so it opens like a regular app and keeps you signed in. There is no app store download; it installs straight from the browser. Open Get the app from your account menu (or use the prompt when it appears) and follow the steps for your device:

• On iPhone or iPad (Safari): tap Share in the browser toolbar, choose Add to Home Screen, then tap Add.
• On Android or desktop: open the browser menu (the three dots), then tap Install app or Add to Home screen.

Once added, open Creatures from the new icon and sign in that one time. After that it launches full-screen and stays signed in, which is the smoothest way to use it day to day (and it is exactly why the first-sign-in tip in Creating your account and signing in matters). For the full walkthrough, including how this fixes getting repeatedly signed out from a Facebook or Google in-app browser, see Getting Creatures on your phone (add it to your home screen).

Where to go next

• Tune what Creatures tells you and how: see Notification and account settings.
• Fill out who you are so others can find and trust you: see Setting up your profile.
• Set up a business presence with a team and payouts: see Creating an organization and adding your team.
• Go beyond how-to help and learn the craft: the Learn Center has in-depth guides on raising and breeding animals. See What is the Learn Center (and how is it different from Help & FAQ)?.

Related information

• Creating your account and signing in
• Notification and account settings

Updated on: 23/06/2026