Setting Up Alpaca

Open Alpaca. The first two screens, Keep Your Family Safe Online and Keep Your Family's Browsing Private, give a short overview of what Alpaca does. Tap Continue on each.

Alpaca needs an account. If you already have one — for example from Alpaca on another device — use Welcome back to sign in with your email and password, or tap Sign in with passkey. New to Alpaca? Use Create your account: enter your email address and choose a password of at least 8 characters. Your region is filled in for you.

Alpaca sends a 6-digit code to your email address. Enter it on the Check your inbox screen to confirm the address is yours.

You'll briefly see Setting up your device…, followed by Device activated. There's nothing to do here — Alpaca is getting the iPhone or iPad ready.

Pick a preset — a ready-made starting point for what Alpaca helps filter. Standard is marked Recommended and suits most families. You can change the preset, or adjust individual categories, at any time. Using Alpaca explains the presets.

If your account doesn't have a subscription yet, Alpaca shows the subscription screen. Choose a plan to start the 7-day free trial. If you already subscribed on another iPhone or iPad, tap Restore Purchases, or tap Have an invite code? if you were given one. See Subscription for details.

Alpaca explains the one permission it needs. Tap Continue.

iOS now shows the message Alpaca Would Like to Add VPN Configurations. Tap Allow. iOS may ask for the device passcode to confirm. This is the step that lets Alpaca help filter content on the device — what it means is explained below.

Choose Basic for a few clear switches covering the most important categories — a good choice for most parents — or Expert to see every category, grouped, plus the presets. You can change this anytime in Settings.