Updates

Everything we ship to Chapter One, in plain words. Newest first.

1.2.1

Back to today in one tap, and a book on iPhone Duo

New
  • On iPhone Duo, your journal opens like a book. Unfold it, hold it sideways, and the day sits on the left page with your Timeline on the right, the open day outlined. Tap any day in the Timeline and the page turns to it. Recording a voice note spreads across both pages. With the Duo folded shut, the “+” button now sits in the bottom margin.
Improved
  • One pop-up fewer after your third memory. Chapter One used to show its own “Three memories saved” sheet, asking how it was going before anything reached the App Store. That sheet is gone, and we now leave the asking to Apple’s own rating card, the same stars and “Not Now” you see in every app. It still waits for a calm moment, never while you’re typing or recording. It asks again at your 10th memory and at every 10th after that, and Apple shows the card at most three times a year, and never to someone who has already rated. The “Rate on App Store” row in Settings still takes you there whenever you like.
Fixed
  • Tap Today again and you’re back on today. On iOS 27, tapping the tab you were already on had stopped doing anything. Now Today returns to today, Timeline scrolls back to this month, and Settings scrolls to the top. With Reduce Motion on, the page jumps instead of gliding.
1.2

Take your whole journal with you

New
  • You can download your entire journal, free on every plan. Settings has a new “Export memories” row. Tap it and Chapter One packs everything you have written into a single zip file: every memory as plain text under its date, the same memories in a form other software can read, a folder holding all your photos, and a README explaining the whole thing to whoever opens it, including someone opening it in twenty years. The file is built on your phone and nothing is uploaded anywhere. When it’s ready the usual share sheet opens, so you can save it to Files, AirDrop it, or send it wherever you like. This is the thing parents have asked us for most.
  • Your first memory now starts with a photo you already love. Right after you tell Chapter One about your child, a new screen invites you to pick a photo of them from your camera roll: a birthday, a first time, or an ordinary Tuesday you still think about. The writing screen then shows that photo and asks what was happening there. If the photo was taken on an earlier day, iOS offers to move the memory to that day. No permission dialog appears at any point, because the system picker never lets the app see more than the one photo you choose.
  • Settings counts what you have collected so far. A line at the bottom reads something like “47 memories · 6,180 words · 22 photos”. It counts only the days you actually wrote something or added a photo, so opening a day and leaving it empty adds nothing, and the line stays away until you have saved your first memory.
  • A screen before sign-in that says where your memories live. “Your memories are always yours.” They live on your phone and in your own iCloud, we keep no copy, and Settings can hand you the whole journal whenever you ask. You won’t need Chapter One to open it.
  • You can ask for the thing you wish Chapter One did. Settings has a new “Request a feature” row under “Get in touch”. It opens our public feedback board inside the app, where you can post an idea, read what other parents have asked for, and add your voice to a request that’s already there. The things most families want are the things that get built first.
Improved
  • Buttons in pop-up dialogs are readable again. System dialogs like “Delete account?” were drawing their buttons in the app’s yellow, which all but disappeared against the pale background. They are plain black now, the way they look everywhere else on your phone, and delete buttons stay red. The blinking cursor while you type went black too. The yellow buttons you actually press in the app are untouched.
  • Settings offers you a free month for twenty minutes of your time. The row that used to read “Talk to Founder” now reads “Get a free month”, with “Share your feedback, get a free month” underneath it. It opens the same booking page as before, and the free month goes on your account once the call has happened.
  • Settings reads more plainly, and more rows say what they are for. Titles are written the way a sentence is, so “Child Name” is “Child name” and “iCloud Backup” is “iCloud backup”. The reminder row explains itself before you turn the switch on, and “Share feedback” is now “Contact support”, with “Let us know if something doesn’t work” beneath it. Every row still does exactly what it did before.
  • Turning on your microphone is one dialog now instead of two screens. Tapping “Speak it out” used to open a Chapter One screen explaining why the app needs your microphone, with a button that took you to Apple’s dialog asking the same thing. That first screen is gone. Allow it and the recording starts there and then. Say no and a short screen offers to open Settings, and the recording you wanted starts on its own when you come back.
  • Every button during setup answers under your thumb. Some gave a small tap you could feel and others gave nothing, which made moving through the questions feel uneven. They all respond now, and the feel is deliberately quiet, so the screen that celebrates your first memory still stands out from everything around it.
Fixed
  • Three rows in Settings show the line of explanation they were always meant to have. “Rate on App Store”, “Share feedback” and “Delete Account” were each written with a short line underneath, and a mistake in the code meant it was never drawn. It shows now, so “Delete Account” tells you up front that it removes your account and every memory, including cloud backups.
  • The date above your writing has its comma back. It read “Monday 31 August”, with the weekday running straight into the date. It reads “Monday, 31 August” now, which is how it always looked on days from an earlier year. Days that read “Today” or “Yesterday” are untouched.
1.1.1

Photos from that day, and a way back through setup

New
  • Adding a photo starts with the ones you took that day. Add or replace a photo and Chapter One opens with the photos from your library taken on that exact day, newest first, one tap to attach. “Choose from all photos instead” opens the familiar full picker whenever you want it, and a day you took no photos on goes straight there. Nothing changes about one photo per day, or the 60 photos on the free plan.
  • You can go back and change an answer while setting up your child’s profile. Tapping the wrong thing used to be final. A back arrow now sits in the top-left of the screens where going back still makes sense: your child’s name, their birthday, whether they’re a boy or a girl, and the “Let’s begin their story” screen. Each screen you come back to still holds what you entered, the gender question shows which option is currently set, and walking forward again carries the new answer through, still as one child.
Improved
  • Today’s page says “Today”. The line above your writing always showed the full date. On the current day it reads “Today” now, and one swipe back reads “Yesterday”. Every other day keeps its date exactly as before. Write past midnight with the app open and the header turns from “Today” to “Yesterday” as the day changes.
  • The questions during setup are bigger and land in the same spot on every screen. They used to be small, centred, and at a different height on each screen, drifting up and down as the keyboard opened. They read as one clear heading now, near the top, lined up with the field or the buttons underneath. A long child’s name wraps onto as many lines as it needs instead of being cut short.
  • The button on the screens that explain why we ask for your microphone or photos reads “Continue”. It used to say “Turn on”, which reads as if pressing it hands over access there and then. Those screens only take you to Apple’s own dialog, and the answer is still yours to give there.
Fixed
  • Words no longer vanish while you’re writing. Text you had just typed could stop showing on screen, sometimes inside the very first word, and stay invisible for anywhere between a blink and several seconds before it all came back. Nothing was ever lost and every entry saved correctly; the app was drawing an empty page over writing it still had. What you type shows up as you type it now.
  • On a day that already has a photo, “write it down” opens the keyboard. Tapping “+” and then “write it down” on a photo-only day could close the menu and do nothing at all, and when you got the keyboard up another way it slid away again on the first letter. It happened every time on some iPhones and never on others, which is what made it so hard to find. Both halves are fixed.
  • The photo limit message reads properly again. The sheet you see after your 60th photo on the free plan ended with a line that started mid-sentence. It reads “Or journal text-only, it’s free forever” now. Same sheet, same 60 photos.
  • The Membership card in Settings is no longer cut off at the top. Opening Settings used to show the yellow card tucked under the title with its rounded corners painted over, and only a scroll brought it back. The list starts clear of the title now, so the card shows in full the moment the tab opens.
1.0.1

Reminders that show up

New
  • Settings shows which version you’re on. A line at the very bottom reads the version and build number, for example “Version 1.0.1 (build 38)”. Useful when you send us feedback and we need to know exactly what you’re running.
  • A quick check-in after your third memory. A small sheet appears once, ever, and asks how it’s going. “Loving it” hands off to Apple’s rating prompt. “Could be better” opens a short feedback form instead, so the frustrating bits reach us directly. It waits for a quiet moment and never interrupts you mid-sentence.
Improved
  • A day with a photo but no words now asks for some. The grey placeholder under a photo used to read “No memory yet...”, which is a strange thing to say when the photo is already a memory. It reads “Add a few words…” now. Completely empty days still say “No memory yet...”.
Fixed
  • Your daily reminder arrives every day again. If you’d written or opened the app earlier in the day, that evening’s reminder used to quietly cancel itself, so the nudge you were counting on never came. It now fires at the time you picked, every day, until you turn it off.
  • Your child’s name and its apostrophe-s stay together on the same line. On the “Let’s begin [name]’s story” screen the “’s” could wrap onto a line of its own and drift away from the name. It stays put now, everywhere a name appears in the possessive.
  • The microphone screen fits at big text sizes. The button used to clip its label and the “To capture your voice” line got cut off. The subtitle wraps now, and at the largest accessibility sizes the whole row reflows so the button drops underneath the text.
1.0

Chapter One is on the App Store

New
  • A page a day, from their birthday to today. Swipe between days and write whatever you want to keep. Everything saves as you type, so there’s no Save button to remember and nothing to lose if you get interrupted.
  • Speak it instead of typing it. Record a voice note when your hands are full and Chapter One turns it into the day’s written memory.
  • Prompts for the days you don’t know where to start. Gentle questions that change with your child’s age, the time of day, and whether it’s a weekday or the weekend. Written by a human, not generated.
  • One photo per day, kept inside the memory it belongs to. The photo sits with the words you wrote that day, so you get the moment back and not just the picture.
  • A calendar of the whole childhood. Month by month from their birthday to today. Days with a photo show it, days with words fill in yellow, and tapping any of them opens that day.
  • A daily reminder. Pick a time and Chapter One nudges you once a day.
  • Backed up to your own iCloud. Your entries, photos, and recordings live on your iPhone and in your personal iCloud account. We don’t store your journal on our servers and we can’t read it.
  • Free to start. Written entries are unlimited and always free. The free plan also includes 60 photos and a one-time 30 day window for voice notes. Premium lifts every limit: $5.99 a month, $49 a year, or $119 once for lifetime.
  • Sign in with Apple. One tap, and Hide My Email works fine if you’d rather not hand over your address.

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