A private family heirloom
The little things they say. The mornings you swore you'd remember. Save them in your own voice, one memory at a time, into a keepsake you hand each child for the day they are grown. Their childhood, kept in your voice, theirs to keep and keep adding to.
Not a feed. Not a photo backup. A private family keepsake you build now and hand down later.
Capture takes seconds. Reading back feels like opening a book.
Quotes, milestones, photos and videos, voice notes, selfie videos, and letters. Save one in seconds, then tag it to the timelines or albums you choose.
A family timeline plus a thread for every person, each with its own color. Grouped by day, so reading back feels like opening a book.
Gather a beach trip or a Christmas morning into one collection. Add anything from your timeline, or pull in photos straight from your camera roll.
Write a letter today and seal it for a wedding day, an 18th birthday, the day they leave home. It waits until the date you choose.
New in 2.0. Give your spouse, a grandparent, or a grown child a code, and the timelines you choose open in their own copy of the app. You decide if they can add memories, and everything they add waits for your approval.
No public feed and no ads. What you write stays on your phone and backs up to your own iCloud, where we can't read it. Only the timelines you choose to share ever leave your device, and only to the people you choose.
Private by design
Most family apps keep your photos on their own servers, run on advertising, and use what you upload to learn about you. Dear Ones works the other way around. What you write and record stays on your phone and backs up to your own iCloud, where we can't read it. The smart parts, like tagging a face or turning a voice note into text, happen right on your device. We don't run ads, and we don't sell your data. When you choose to share a timeline, we move only that, and only to the people you pick.
Your entries live on your phone and back up to your own iCloud, in your own Apple account. We can't see inside it.
No advertising, no data selling, and no analytics following you around. The subscription is the whole business.
Only the timelines you hand out ever leave your phone, and only the people you give a code can open them.
Capture, timeline, albums, letters, voice, family sharing, and one thread for each child.
From the home screen, you are two taps from a saved memory. Here is the lay of the land.
Open Dear Ones and you land on Capture. Pick what kind of memory it is: a quote, a milestone, a photo or video, a voice note, a selfie video, or a letter. Add it, and save. Tag it to the family timeline, to one child's timeline, or keep it private just for you. The whole thing takes a few seconds.
The Timeline is where it all comes back to you. Filter by a child to read just their thread, search by a word to find one memory, or jump to any month with a tap. Show every kind of entry, or narrow the timeline to just one, like photos. Read it day by day as a list, or switch to a grid to see every entry at once. Your Albums sit one tap away, for gathering a trip or a whole season into a single collection.
Letters have their own tab. Write one for today, or seal it for a date down the road, and pick the font that feels like you wrote it. Voice notes keep their voice for you, and your voice for them. All of it stays private to your family and backs up to your own iCloud, so a new phone never means starting over.
When you want to pass something on, any timeline or album becomes a keepsake to share. It bundles into a single file: a PDF book of the words and photos, with the videos and voice notes traveling right alongside, ready to send by AirDrop or Messages or save to Files. You choose what goes in, everything you have saved or just the photos.
And new in 2.0, you can open the timelines themselves to the people you love. From the Family tab, create a code for any mix of timelines: the family timeline, one child's, or several at once. Hand it to grandma, your spouse, or a grown child, and those timelines appear in their own copy of the app. Each code is view only, or view and add memories, your choice, and anything they add waits for your approval before it joins the keepsake. Viewing is free for them, one subscription covers your whole family, and you can change or revoke any code anytime.
For the one with a phone full of photos and a head full of stories they don't want to forget. From Next Frontier Builders
Unlimited entries, unlimited children, for one simple subscription.
Family plan
$59 / year
or $7.99 a month
14-day free trial. One family per subscription. Family Sharing enabled. Cancel anytime.
Dear Ones is on the App Store now, for iPhone and iPad. Tap any Download button on this page to open it.
Yes, and in a specific way. Your keepsake lives on your phone and backs up to your own iCloud account, where we can't read it. There's no public feed, no friends-of-friends, no ads, and no data selling. The only thing that ever leaves your device is a timeline you decide to share, and only the people you give a code can see it.
It's your cloud. Your entries back up to your own iCloud account, tied to your Apple ID, the same place your iPhone photos and messages already live. We don't keep a copy on our own servers and we can't open yours. A new phone never starts you over, without handing your family's memories to a company.
Yes. From the Family tab, create a code for your spouse and the timelines you choose open in their own copy of the app, where they can view and add memories from their own phone. Anything they add waits for your approval before it joins the keepsake. You can also tag either parent in any entry, even if they don't use the app.
Yes, new in 2.0. Give anyone you choose a code for any mix of timelines: the family timeline, one child's, or several at once. You decide whether each code is view only or view and add. Viewing is free for them, and you can change or revoke any code anytime.
When you decide. You hold each child's keepsake and share it with them whenever the time feels right, whether that's a code to their timeline now or the whole keepsake someday.
Quotes, milestones, photos and videos, voice notes, selfie videos, and letters you can schedule for the future.
Dear Ones is on the App Store now. Save the small things, in your own voice.
Download on theApp Store
