What is My Heritage? MyHeritage is a genealogy platform that was first launched in 2003. It allows users to create their own family tree and to consult different history records. Today, MyHeritage has over 10 million installs on Android devices alone. In this article, we discuss some of the app’s key features, as well as some additional information.

Key features

Here are some of the main features of the My Heritage app:

Create your family tree: To find distant family members or ancestors, you first need to keep track of your family tree! With MyHeritage, this feature is opened to everyone curious about their origins!
Matches: Doing all the research work can be challenging, and in some cases - even impossible. This is why MyHeritage comes with different smart technologies that cross-references family trees between users, but they can also compare them to historical records.
Consult documents: MyHeritage offers users the possibility to consult over 14.0 billion historical records to allow them to create and complete their genealogy tree! In addition to that, users have access to all Record Matches.
DNA testing: This is undoubtedly the most famous feature of the app. It provides users with DNA matches and ethnicity estimation. To do so, one has to use a My Heritage DNA kit in order to collect and send samples.
Deep Nostalgia: This My Heritage animation feature allows users to animate photos and thus bring them to life. This is a fun way of getting a new look at your family and ancestors.

Is MyHeritage safe?

In October 2017 MyHeritage faced a massive data breach and the passwords and email addresses of all the users who had created accounts before this date (which is over 92 million) were found on an external server. The company addressed this issue on their blog, stating that there isn’t ”any activity indicating that any MyHeritage accounts had been compromised.” or any ”no reason to believe that any other MyHeritage systems were compromised”.

When it comes to how MyHeritage uses users’ data the Privacy policy states that ”Personal information provided by you is never sold or licensed. We will never sell or license DNA information or health information to any third parties without your explicit informed consent. We will never sell or license any information to insurance companies under any circumstances. We will not provide information to law enforcement unless required by a valid court order or subpoena for genetic information.”

We recommend taking note of the full policy before installing.

My Heritage Cost

You can use a basic plan, limited to 250 in your family tree for free. There are also paid subscription plans that include different features, such as the possibility to consult history records and DNA testing, with prices starting at $59 a year.