A private place for your own words
Write your life as you live it, in your own words.
Answer a question a day about your life, your views and the people in it, or write about anything you like. It is private to you, it grows with you over the years, and one day it goes to the people you choose, so they can know you as you really were.
Try it free for 7 days. Only you can see your record. Never public or searchable.
Our principles
Only your own words
Your record holds what you write, with nothing added and nothing taken from anyone else.
Write or speak
Type, or speak with your phone's or computer's own dictation. We never receive your voice or image.
Private while you live
Nothing you write is shared while you are living. The people you chose receive it no sooner than 6 months after your passing is confirmed.
You decide
You choose who receives your record, and you can change your mind at any time.
How it works
A few minutes a day, at your own pace, at any age.
Answer a question a day
Your childhood, your work, your beliefs, the people you love and what you have learned. Answer more whenever you like, skip any you don't, and write about anything else on your own.
Let it grow with you
Edit or add to your answers any time. Each one is dated, so one day your family can see how your thinking changed over the years. Add your family tree as you go.
Choose who receives it
Name the family and/or friends who will one day receive your whole record. With Archive Membership, they can also ask a guide about your life, which answers only with your own words, quoted and dated.
Our approach
Your words, exactly as you wrote them.
We do not try to imitate you. Your thoughts are yours until you choose to share them. What you share is kept exactly as you said it.
A conversational guide then helps the people you name find your words naturally, by asking questions, the way they might have asked you.
Your words, in first person
Exactly as you said them, with the date.
The guide's words, in third person
It speaks about you, never as you.
Nothing invented
No new opinions in your name. If your record holds no answer, the guide says so.
Example of the AI guide. It speaks about the person, never as them.
Did Grandma ever regret leaving home so young?
She wrote about this in 2031, when she was 58:
"I was nineteen and terrified. I have never once regretted the fear of it. The fear was how I knew it mattered."She returned to the subject in 2038, writing that she wished she had called her mother more that first year.
Recorded · 2 entries
Built to outlast us
Your record should not depend on any one company, including ours.
So that your descendants, generations from now, can still read your words, we have built ToldForward so your record does not depend on us: everyone you name receives their own copy, it is kept in open formats, and if we ever close, every record is released early. For the longest view, there is a path you can choose: a Historical Deposit.
A copy for everyone you name
When the waiting period ends, each person you named receives their own copy of your whole record, to keep for as long as they like, with or without us.
Your rules travel with it
Your wishes and the people you named stay attached to your record, wherever it is held.
Open and rebuildable
Your record is kept in open formats, and we will publish the method for building the guide, so it can be rebuilt as technology advances.
If we ever close
Every record is released early, in full: to you while you are living, or after your passing to the people you named, with the waiting period still kept.
Historical Deposit, with Archive Membership
Your family first. Then, if you choose, history.
- While you are livingYours alone
- After your passingYour family and/or designees
- If you chooseA partner library or archive
An optional add-on to Archive Membership, for a one-time fee. After your passing, when your record leaves ToldForward, a copy can go to a partner library or archive for your state, which takes it into its collection under its own policies. We are confirming our partners now. Your record is never made public while you are living.
Archive Membership gives it a full record to keep: your experiences, values and reasons, in your own dated words.
Always your choice, never the default.
Why your words matter
Every person is one of a kind.
Your thoughts, hopes and stories matter today, and they will matter to the generations after us. A few ways to think about it:
See them allStart with one question.
It takes a few minutes, and you can try either membership free for 7 days. Your record stays private to you, and you can add to it whenever you like.