WHAT IS MYSTORY?
MyStory is a guided autobiography app. It gives you one question at a time across 18 chapters — from your childhood to your beliefs to letters for the future. You write at your own pace. There's no right or wrong answer, and no pressure to answer everything.
FIRST STEPS
1
Just answer the question in front of you — the app opens straight into one. A word or two is enough; tap Continue and the next appears. Skip freely with ask lighter →.
2
Set up your profile — sidebar → Profile. Choose your age and who you're writing for; the questions personalise to you (children and teens get their own).
3
Explore chapters when you feel like it — Home shows all 18 chapters. Open any one and use the ← → arrows or the dots above the notepad to move between its questions.
4
Invite questions from family — ⋯ → Share → ✉️ Invite Questions from Family gives you a link to send. Their questions greet you next time you write, and their name stays next to your answer in the book.
5
Read your story — tap 📖 My Book in the sidebar to see everything you've written, beautifully formatted.
ACCOUNTS
Each person in your household can have their own account with their own story, PIN, and theme. Tap the account icon at the top of the sidebar to switch between accounts or add a new person.
For children: if a child is writing, create them a separate account and set their profile to Child mode — they'll get age-appropriate questions and a playful theme.
ADDING YOUR OWN QUESTIONS
At the bottom of any chapter, tap + Add question. You can write your own or ask the AI to suggest one. Custom questions are added permanently to that chapter for you.
DELETING A QUESTION OR CLEARING AN ANSWER
Open any chapter and navigate to the question. If you have already written an answer, look at the top-right of your answer block — there is a small 🗑 Clear answer button. For questions you added yourself (custom questions), the same button reads 🗑 Delete question and removes the question entirely. After deleting, an ↩ Undo link appears briefly in the notification bar at the top of the screen — tap it within a few seconds to recover.
WHAT SAVES AUTOMATICALLY
Your writing auto-saves inside the browser as you type — you never need to tap a Save button for your answers. The app also creates automatic browser snapshots in the background, and automatically downloads a backup file to your Downloads folder every 10 minutes while you are writing, and when you close the app.
✅ Your answers, photos, tree, and settings are always being saved in the background. A backup file also downloads automatically every 10 minutes and when you close the browser tab — no action needed.
CLOUD SYNC — AUTOMATIC
Your story also backs up to the cloud automatically about 15 seconds after every change (look for "✓ Last synced" under ⋯ → Backups). If this browser's data is ever wiped, sign in with your name on the login screen — or use 🔗 Link this device with a code from another device — and your story comes back.
🔐 Optional end-to-end encryption (⋯ → Backups → Turn on end-to-end encryption) means the cloud stores only scrambled data that nobody — not even the server — can read. You get a recovery key to save; every story backup file also contains it. If you lose every device, the key, and every backup file, the cloud copy cannot be recovered by anyone.
WHAT STILL MATTERS
⚠️ Keep occasional file backups anyway. A saved .json file is the one copy that depends on nothing — no browser, no cloud, no company. Move your latest one somewhere safe (iCloud, Google Drive, email to yourself). The app reminds you weekly.
HOW TO EXPORT YOUR STORY TO A FILE (manual)
This is the one thing you need to do yourself. It takes about 5 seconds and gives you a permanent, portable copy of everything.
1
Tap Profile in the sidebar
3
Tap 💾 Save Story as File — a .json file downloads to your device
4
Move it somewhere safe: Documents, iCloud, Google Drive, or email it to yourself
💡 Do this at the end of every writing session. The file is small and contains everything — answers, photos, family tree, custom questions, all of it.
HOW TO RESTORE FROM A FILE
1
Open the app in any browser on any device
2
On the login screen, tap ↩ Restore story from file
3
Choose your saved .json file — your story loads immediately
BROWSER SNAPSHOTS
These automatic snapshots (Profile → 💾 Backups → scroll down) are a safety net for accidental deletions mid-session. They are not a replacement for file exports — they disappear if you clear browser data.
WHAT'S IN THE FILE?
Everything: all written answers, photos and media (stored as embedded data), voice notes, family tree, custom questions, profile settings, and themes. One single file contains your complete story. It works in any future version of MyStory on any device.
💡 Note on photos: photos are embedded directly in the file as data, so the file size grows with each image added. Large video files in particular can make the file very large — if your file feels slow to export, consider removing large videos from Albums.
SHARING THE APP WITH FAMILY
Just send them the link — MyStory is a web app that works in any browser. On a phone, open it in Safari (iPhone) or Chrome, then use Share → Add to Home Screen to install it like a real app.
INVITE QUESTIONS FROM FAMILY
⋯ → Share → ✉️ Invite Questions from Family copies a personal link. Anyone who opens it can write you a question — no account, no app. Their question appears the next time you sit down to write ("✉️ Anna asked you…"), and their name is kept next to your answer in the book. One link works forever.
YOUR STORY ON A NEW DEVICE
1
Easiest: on your current device open ⋯ → Backups → 🔗 Link another device. On the new device tap 🔗 Link this device on the sign-in screen and type the 8-letter code.
2
Also works: type your name (and PIN) on the new device's sign-in screen — your story is pulled from the cloud. (Stories with end-to-end encryption need the code or a backup file instead.)
3
Always works: restore a saved .json backup file via ↩ Restore story on the sign-in screen.
WHAT TO TELL PEOPLE BEFORE THEY START
1
Use Chrome or Safari — not private/incognito mode (private mode doesn't save anything)
2
Everything saves by itself — on the device and to the cloud. Save a backup file now and then as the belt-and-braces copy.
3
Don't clear browser data without exporting first
CAN TWO PEOPLE SHARE THE SAME DEVICE?
Yes — each person creates their own account with their own PIN. Accounts are completely separate. Tap the account icon at the top of the sidebar to switch between people.
MY WRITING DISAPPEARED
Usually the browser's data was cleared — your story is still in the cloud. On the sign-in screen, type your name (and PIN) to pull it back, or use 🔗 Link this device with a code from another device. Also check ⋯ → 💾 Backups for a recent snapshot, or restore a saved .json file (↩ Restore story on the sign-in screen).
MY PIN ISN'T WORKING
Make sure you're typing exactly 4 digits. If you've truly forgotten it: on the login screen tap Forgot PIN? — there are recovery options, including by email if you added one when creating the account.
THE APP IS SLOW OR UNRESPONSIVE
Try refreshing the page. If photos or media are making the app slow, go to Albums and delete large video files — they're stored in the browser and can fill up available memory quickly.
MY FAMILY TREE WON'T IMPORT (GEDCOM)
MyStory supports GEDCOM 5.5 and 5.5.1 files from Ancestry, FamilySearch, MacFamilyTree, and most genealogy software. If your file doesn't import, try exporting it again from your genealogy app as GEDCOM 5.5 format specifically.
THE APP LOOKS DIFFERENT ON MY PHONE
MyStory is designed for both desktop and mobile. On a phone, the sidebar becomes a slide-out menu — tap the ☰ button at the top to open it. The layout adapts automatically.
I SEE DUPLICATE ACCOUNTS ON THE LOGIN SCREEN
This can happen if the same person was created more than once during testing. On the login screen, each account card has a small ✕ button on the right — tap it to hide duplicates. Their data stays safe; they're just removed from the list.
QUESTIONS AREN'T PERSONALISED TO MY AGE
Go to Profile and make sure you've set your mode (Myself, Child, Teen, etc.) and your age group. Then tap Save Profile. The questions will update immediately.
📖
MyStory
Your life in words
CHAPTERS
18 (incl. Once, Notes & Epilogue)
WHAT'S NEW IN v174
v174: Opens straight into a question. Family "ask me" links — send an invitation, their questions greet you when you write, their name stays in the book. Cloud sync with unguessable addresses, device linking by code, and optional end-to-end encryption. Sentence-starter and either/or tap questions. "Remember this?" resurfaces an old memory each day.
v170–v173: Daily ritual — one prompt every day, tiered by depth. Flow mode. Inline editing auto-saves. Ink flourish on save. Writing background toggle. Cross-browser voice memos.
v169: New navigation icons, improved streak display, chapter grid redesign.
v162: Book compilation. API key. Date picker.
v158–v160: Once… & Notes. Multi-account. Kids mode.
v136: Media canvas, voice memos, AI images.
v109: Timeline, Search, Family tree.
WHAT MYSTORY IS
A guided autobiography app — one question at a time, across 18 chapters. Built for families. Questions adapt to age: children get playful, simple prompts; adults get deeper reflective ones; teens get their own voice.
STORAGE & PRIVACY
Local-first: your story lives on your device and works offline. It also backs up automatically to a small private cloud store so you can recover it and use several devices — and you can turn on end-to-end encryption so the cloud holds only scrambled data nobody else can read. The optional AI writing assistant sends only the text it needs. Your story is yours.
BUILT WITH
Pure HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — no frameworks. A web app that installs to your home screen and works offline. Sync runs on Cloudflare. The AI assistant uses the Anthropic Claude API.
Every life is worth remembering. Every single one.
This app is a spiritual testament and a memoir — a place to let the people you love know and remember you. To transfer your knowledge, your experience, your way of seeing the world. To recreate your mindprint — the way life passed through you.
We are all pieces of a puzzle. Our loved ones' legacies are a place to find guidance, advice, and hope. A place to remember lives — short or long — meaningful for what they were, what they experienced, what they felt. With words — always imperfect — we try to recreate the thoughts, the memories, the inner world of the people we love. But not just the people we love. All people. Because each one of us has a lesson to teach, a funny story to tell, and emotions that shook us until we believed what we never thought was possible.
This is a way to understand humanity — its limitations and its sameness. A way to grow together, to stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before us. Without them, we would not be here.
Your story matters.
Your life was worth living — and it is worth remembering.
Write it down.