Good questions. Honest answers.

It's a gentle companion app for parents and grandparents. Every day it asks one personal question out loud about childhood, family, work, love, or wisdom. The storyteller answers by talking, and their words are turned into a beautifully written life story, organized into chapters, that the whole family can read.

The storyteller is usually a parent or grandparent. The app is designed for older adults, with big buttons, large text, spoken instructions, and nothing technical to learn. The readers are their family: children, grandchildren, siblings, anyone they invite.

No. If they can answer a phone call, they can use Family Diary. The companion speaks every question aloud, and answering is just talking. There are no menus to learn and only one thing to do each day.

iPhone and Android. Family members can also read the diary on any web browser, no app needed.

Typing is always available with a large, comfortable text box. Voice is just the easiest way for most storytellers.

It works from a map of 65 life-story topics across 10 chapters, from first memories to hard-won wisdom. It tracks what's already been told (even things mentioned in passing) and never asks about something the story already covers. Questions get personal fast: if Dad mentioned his father's bakery, tomorrow's question might be about how it smelled on a Saturday morning.

That's their choice on every story. By default it gently polishes: grammar is smoothed and rambles are organized, but the meaning and their charming phrasings stay, and nothing is ever added that wasn't said. Or they can choose to keep their own words, where it only fixes punctuation and clear slips. Either way, any passage can be switched between the two, edited, or removed, with a tap or a sentence.

Yes. Open any passage and just say the change ("add that the dog was named Rex") or type it. You can also tap Continue to keep telling a story from where it left off. The diary rewrites the passage gracefully and keeps everything else intact.

Yes. If they already kept a diary, or wrote letters, just photograph a page. Family Diary reads the handwriting or typed text, types it into the story, and files it into the right chapter. It's a lovely way to bring older writing into the same place. Handwriting can occasionally be misread, so the transcription is shown for you to check and correct before it's saved.

Yes. Every chapter can be read aloud in a warm, natural voice you choose. And with a short voice recording, Family Diary can read the whole story in the storyteller's own voice, so your family can always hear them tell it, in the app and on the family website. Re-listening is always free. The recreated voice is a close, AI-generated approximation, not a perfect match, and it may not be exact on every word.

Yes. In the app, every individual story has its own Play button, so you can hear one memory without sitting through the rest. You can also choose to listen out loud or hold the phone to your ear like a phone call, which is quieter in a waiting room or at night. On the family website, each chapter has a Listen button that reads its stories aloud in order.

Soon. We're building beautiful 6 by 9 hardcover books of any diary: every chapter, their photos, the family tree, and a code printed inside that plays each chapter in the storyteller's own voice. Books are expected to start around $49. Visit the Books page and leave your email to be first in line when ordering opens.

Yes. Photos can be attached to any chapter, right beside the memories they belong to, and they appear in the diary's photo gallery and on the family website.

There's a head start option: talk freely for 10 or 20 minutes (the whole life story, in any order), and the diary sorts it into chapters immediately. From then on, the daily questions fill in what's missing.

Two ways. In the app: scan the diary's QR code, create a free account, and the diary appears in the app. On the web: the same QR code opens the diary's own page at familydiary.ai, readable on any device, with the photos, a heart to love a story, a button to hear it read aloud, and an easy way to make the text larger.

No. Reading a diary is completely free, forever. Anyone can create a free account to read along, love a story, ask a question, and explore the family tree. Only the storyteller, the person telling their own life story, needs a subscription.

Yes, and it's free. Family readers can love a story with a tap, and ask a question they've always wondered about. That question becomes the storyteller's next daily prompt, so the people who love them help shape the story. Loving a story is open to any reader; asking a question is for family who joined with the 6-digit code.

No, unless your parent decides to allow it. Asking a question requires the 6-digit family code, and that is the default on every diary. Even if your parent makes their diary public so anyone with the link can read it, questions stay behind the family code until they choose otherwise in Settings. So a link that gets forwarded around lets someone read the life story, not message your parent. If the storyteller writes to someone first, that person can always reply.

Each storyteller can build a warm family tree of their relatives, with real faces. When a relative has their own diary, tapping them opens their life story, so the tree becomes a living map of your whole family's memories.

The storyteller. Every diary starts private: it needs both the unguessable link and a 6-digit family code. It can be made public (anyone with the link can read) or reset (new link, new code) at any time with one tap.

Yes. Any single passage can be marked private, so it stays visible only to the storyteller and is hidden from family, in the app and on the web. They can share it with family later, or make a shared story private again, whenever they like, with one tap.

No. Family members are readers. Only the storyteller can add, edit, or remove memories.

It stays with the family, always. A storyteller can name a trusted family member as a steward. When the time comes, that steward can turn the diary into a gentle memorial. It remains readable for the whole family forever, with no subscription required to keep it.

Yes. You can order a small, weatherproof QR sticker for a headstone or memorial. A visitor scans it and the person's whole life story opens: their voice, their chapters, their photos. Learn more on the memorial keepsake page.

Yes. A completed life story is meant to outlast us. Memorialized diaries stay readable for the family at no cost, and you can always export the entire story and photos as a PDF to keep offline as well.

Private by default, and built security-first. Access rules are enforced in the database itself, not just the app; diary links are unguessable; family codes are stored encrypted and locked out after repeated wrong guesses; and photos live in private storage that only permitted readers can open.

It comes back. Anything removed, a story or a photo, is kept in Settings → Recently removed for 7 days, and one tap puts it back exactly where it was. This happens automatically, so there is nothing to switch on. Separately, everything is copied to independent off-site storage every night, so a mistake on our side cannot cost your family a memory either.

Only if your parent chooses to be findable, and it is switched off until they turn it on. When it is on, a relative can search their name and send them a question, which is how families reconnect through the app. When it is off, the only way to reach their diary is the private link and 6-digit code they hand out themselves. They can change their mind at any time.

No. Stories are processed only to write the diary itself, are never used to train AI models, and are never sold or shared with advertisers.

Yes. Export the complete story and all photos whenever you like. And if you delete the account, everything is permanently deleted with it.

In professionally managed, encrypted cloud infrastructure in the United States, with security controls enforced at every layer. Payment details never touch our servers at all. Billing is handled by Apple and Google.

Reading is always free. Telling your own story is free for the first 7 days, then $6.99/month, or $49.99/year, which saves over 40%. Everything is included on either plan. See Pricing.

Any time, with no phone calls and no hoops. On an iPhone: open the phone's Settings, tap your name at the top, tap Subscriptions, choose Family Diary, and tap Cancel Subscription. On Android: open the Play Store app, tap your profile picture in the top corner, tap Payments and subscriptions, then Subscriptions, choose Family Diary, and tap Cancel subscription. You can also start inside the app, under Settings then Subscription, which takes you to the right place. You keep everything you paid for until the end of the period you're in, and canceling never touches the diary: every story and photo stays readable for you and your family, forever.

It stays. The full diary and all photos remain readable for the storyteller and the family, forever. Only adding new memories pauses until the subscription restarts.

Yes. It's one of the most loved ways to start. Buy a full year of Premium for someone right in the app (Settings → Give Family Diary as a gift). You get a code to share; they redeem it in the app and get a whole year to tell their story. It's a wonderful gift for a parent or grandparent who has stories worth keeping.

Yes. Premium is $6.99/month, or $49.99/year. The yearly plan saves over 40% (about $4.17/month). You choose when you subscribe; everything is included on either plan.