Concepts and glossary
The nouns of Incico, defined once, with their Dutch equivalents as used in the app.
Updated: 12 September 2026
| Term (EN / NL) | Definition |
|---|---|
| Account / account | The sign-in identity (e-mail, Google or Apple). Owns one or more profiles. Deleting the account deletes everything. |
| Profile / profiel | A person’s set of details and settings. The account’s first profile is the main profile; extra managed profiles (for example a child) can be added and are administered by the same account. Everything below is per profile. |
| Detail / gegeven | One piece of contact information: a name, a phone number, an e-mail address, an address, a special date or a photo. A profile can have several of each. |
| Type / soort | The label on a detail: Personal, Work, Mobile, Home, Birthday, Anniversary, or a custom type the user defines (“Gaming”, “Holiday home”). Types help the receiver file the detail correctly. |
| Sharing circle (circle) / deelkring (kring) | A named, coloured group of connections that receive the same set of details. Every profile starts with Family, Friends and Work and can add more. A connection is in exactly one circle. |
| Circle assignment / gedeeld met | The set of circles that may see a detail. Chosen per detail (and for dates separately for day-month and year; for addresses optionally per field). |
| Searchable / vindbaar | A flag on a name, phone or e-mail that allows people who already know that exact value to find the profile. |
| Connection (contact) / connectie (contact) | A mutual link between two profiles. Each side places the other in one of its own circles. A connection has a status: connected, sent request, received request. |
| Invitation / uitnodiging | A request to connect, carrying the sender’s chosen circle, an optional relation and message. Accepting creates the connection. |
| Relation / relatie | An optional label on a connection: parent, child, partner, sibling. Shown on both sides; triggers a confirmation when accepting because family details are usually shared more widely. |
| Nickname / bijnaam | A private display name the owner gives a connection (“Mum”). Only the owner sees it. |
| Favourite / favoriet | A pinned, reorderable connection shown at the top of Contacts. |
| Contact card / contactkaart | What one profile sees of another: the details the other party shared with the circle they placed you in. Stored as a snapshot on the server. |
| Connected service / gekoppelde dienst | An external address book the app writes contact cards into and reads contacts from: the phone’s contacts, Google Contacts, later Microsoft. Configured with the circles whose contacts it should receive. |
| Sync / synchronisatie | Comparing contact cards with a connected service and applying the differences. Contacts fall into buckets: to add, to update, to delete, to link, to invite, invited, in sync, hidden. |
| Cross-reference / vergelijken | Checking which people in a connected service already use Incico, by hashed e-mail, phone and name, and inviting them from there. |
| Notification / melding | An in-app and push message: invitation received or accepted, contact updated, contact removed, circle changed. |
| Block / blokkeren | Prevents a profile from finding, inviting or seeing you; removes any connection. |
Two principles behind the terms
You never edit other people’s data. A contact card is read-only on your side; if a detail is wrong you tell the person, or they fix it themselves and it flows to you. The only things you own about a connection are its circle, relation label, nickname and favourite position.
A circle is yours, not shared. Family means your Family; the other party has their own circles and places you wherever they like. Neither side sees the other’s circle names.