Articles on: Getting Started

Your home screen and getting started

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.


Your home greeting tile with the Get started chips


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). The rest of the tile is your launch pad, and on a brand-new account it starts by asking rather than guessing.


First, tell us what you're here for


Until you add your first animal, the greeting tile opens with a short, skippable prompt of up to two one-tap questions, so your first shortcuts fit what you actually do:


The What brings you to Creatures question with its choices


  1. "What brings you to Creatures?" with eight choices: I breed animals, I keep animals as pets, I run a farm or ranch, I run a rescue or sanctuary, I provide animal services, I run a registry or breed association, I organize shows or competitions, and I run a genetics storage facility. A Skip for now option sits alongside; skipping sets the questions aside (they stay away for about 21 days) and shows the standard shortcuts instead.
  2. "Which animals do you work with most?" with chips for the most common species on Creatures, plus Something else if yours is not listed. This step has its own Skip, and skipping here only skips the species detail; the answer you gave at step one is already saved.


The Which animals do you work with most step with species chips


Each answer updates the tile on the spot, with nothing to save and no page reload. And if Creatures already has a strong signal about why you are here (for example, you signed up through a link about a specific species), it may skip the questions and go straight to shortcuts that fit.


One chip can appear ahead of everything else here: if an association or registry you belong to has imported its member roster and a row matches your verified email, the tile shows a "Waiting for you" chip reading Claim your association membership. Claiming connects that membership to your account, powers your verified member badge, and applies any member Pro benefit your association set up.


The Get started chips


Once the questions are answered or skipped (or immediately, on an account Creatures already knows something about), a "Get started" label appears with up to three onboarding chips: one-tap shortcuts into the first things most people want to do. The set is picked from your answers, so it stays short and relevant. The core four:


  • 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. If you named a single species in the prompt, this chip becomes "Add your first {species}" (say, "Add your first goat") and opens the form with that species already filled in. For a full walkthrough, see Adding an animal to Creatures.
  • Create your farm profile. Opens the create-an-organization form, and its wording follows your answer: breeders see Create your breeder profile, rescues see Create your rescue profile, and service providers see Create your business profile. Whatever the label, it 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 (for rescues it reads "Import your animals"). See Importing your animals (bring them all in).


A few answers bring their own chips: saying you keep animals as pets adds Browse the marketplace; saying you provide animal services leads with Create your business profile plus Browse the directory, since a business page and a directory presence are how providers get found; saying you run a rescue pairs Add a rescue animal with Set up animal sponsorships; and saying you run a registry, organize shows, or run a genetics storage facility swaps in setup shortcuts for that work (for example Claim your registry or Set up your show organization). Whatever the mix, only three chips show at a time to keep the row uncluttered, and the row adjusts once you create an organization.


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.


The action center when everything is caught up


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).
  • Add {animal}'s first health record. Opens the add-a-record form for an animal that has no health or care records yet, so its history starts in one place.
  • Estimate {animal}'s value. If you keep books for an animal's owner and that animal does not yet have a value recorded, this chip opens the finance value editor (as a slide-over sheet) so you can set or estimate its worth. It appears only when there is a set of books to record the value into and no value is on file yet.
  • 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.
  • Make a Creature card for {animal}. Opens the card builder, which turns an animal's profile into a shareable card. This one appears once a public animal has a photo but no saved card yet.


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). Losing the browser address bar does not mean losing your way around: once installed (or whenever you are signed in on your phone), Creatures shows a bottom tab bar (Home, Dashboard, Create, Marketplace, Profile) and an in-app Back button. 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




Updated on: 07/08/2026

Was this article helpful?

Share your feedback

Cancel

Thank you!