The letter.

Jot things down through the day. Before bed, Trace lays out what you wrote, what you finished, the habits you kept and the people and dates on your mind, as a letter. You pick a closing line, press the wax seal, and it goes into your mailbox.

Letter no. 38

Saturday, October 17

You wrote 3 entries today. And kept one photo.

08:40On the subway, the woman next to me had a few pages of One Hundred Years of Solitude left.
12:30New noodle shop downstairs. Good broth.
19:40Called Alex. We talked for an hour.

You finished 2 things —

Send the weekly report
Repot the mint on the balcony

You kept up Run and Water today.

You had Mom and Alex on your mind today.

“Only a few pages left.”

— Trace

Sealed at 21:30Day 731 of keeping this together

Today the little cat is on stamp duty. Press and hold the seal.

The day, as it was.

Not a summary. The words, photos and voice memos from that day, in order; then what you finished, the habits you kept, the people on your mind and the dates coming up. Even a day with nothing written can be sealed: “A quiet day is worth keeping too.”

You choose the last line.

Pick a line from today to close the letter. It’s signed “Trace” unless you sign it yourself — your name, or “me, next year”. A new signature goes on future letters; sealed ones stay as they were.

Sixteen seals, one on duty each day.

The twelve zodiac animals, plus a cat, a chick, a duck and a bear. The date decides whose turn it is.

Mouse
Ox
Tiger
Rabbit
Dragon
Snake
Pony
Goat
Monkey
Rooster
Dog
Pig
Cat
Chick
Duck
Bear

A mailbox, one shelf a month.

Sealed letters are kept by month. Want a certain August? Tap “Jump to”, pull out a letter, and open it.

One letter a day. Wrote more after sealing? Tap “Update today’s letter” and the new one replaces it.
Save a letter as an image to your photos.
With sync on, letters follow your own iCloud to your other devices.
Sealing is part of Pro; everyone can try it free for 7 days. When the trial ends, your letters stay, and you can still open them.

What Pro costs

Other ways to look back.

On this day, the photo wall, a year of moods, a little planet of the places you wrote from. Want something to hold? Bind your journal into a PDF, or turn a notebook into a page-turning video.