Your life is
happening right now.
Life Tabs is a photo diary that gives you a few quiet minutes at the end of every day. Save what happened, watch a calendar of your whole life fill in, and keep every memory on your phone where it belongs.
No account. No ads. Nothing leaves your phone.
The ritual
A few minutes that belong to you
Between work, messages and everyone else's plans, this is a small part of the day that is yours alone. Set a reminder for a time that suits you and let it become the part of your evening you look forward to. It is a chance to slow down and think about what actually happened today, instead of letting it blur into tomorrow.
Quick
Some days you pick a photo, write a line and you are done.
Or slow
Other days you scroll back through the week and sit with it.
Yours
Either way it is a few minutes that belong to nobody else.
The calendar
A calendar of your whole life
Your calendar starts on the day you were born. Zoom out from the month, to the year, to every year of your life on one screen. Each day can show your age instead of the date, so you can see exactly how old you were when a memory happened.
- Month, year and full-life views
- Age shown on every day
- Empty squares you will want to fill
The habit
Keep the streak alive
Log today and your streak grows. Forgot yesterday? You have until the end of today to catch it. Put the streak widget on your home screen and get a heads-up before a streak is about to break.
- Home screen streak widget
- One daily reminder, your time
- A warning before you lose it
The map
Every memory, pinned where it happened
Each entry drops a pin at the spot the photo was actually taken. Zoom out to the globe to see everywhere you have been, or zoom into a single street and tap a photo to relive that day.
- Automatic locations from your photos
- Globe view of everywhere you have been
- Tap a pin to open the day
The search
Find any day in seconds
Search by place, date, activity or anything you wrote. Rome. Last summer. March. Birthday. Anything from years ago to yesterday is a couple of taps away, which is more than your camera roll can say.
- Search by place or date
- Filter down to a single month
- Jump straight into the day
The head start
Auto-Fill your blank days
Just got the app? Auto-Fill goes back through your camera roll and fills in the days you already photographed. Years of your life, restored in one pass, before you log a single day yourself.
- Imports straight from your camera roll
- Pause and resume any time
- Included free with the yearly plan
A nice touch
The app follows your sky
Life Tabs works out the real sunrise and sunset where you are and shades itself to match. Morning light on the way to work, deep blue by the time you sit down to write.
Morning
Day
Evening
Night
How it works
Three steps, then it is a habit
Open the app
Your calendar lands on today, with every day of your life laid out behind it.
Add your day
Up to five photos or videos, one chosen as the highlight, and a few words about what happened.
Watch it fill in
The blank squares turn into a mosaic of real days you can scroll back through any time.
Private by design
Nobody reads this but you
There is no account to create. Your photos, videos and words stay on your device and back up to your own iCloud, so we never see them and could not read them if we wanted to. No ads, no data selling, no algorithm deciding what your life looked like. You can delete everything, permanently, from inside the app.
FAQ
Good questions
Is my journal actually private?
Yes. There is no account and no server holding your entries. Photos, videos and text live on your device and back up to your own iCloud, so nobody at Life Tabs can read them.
What happens if I miss a day?
Nothing dramatic. You can log yesterday right up until the end of today, so one busy evening will not wipe out your streak, and older days can always be filled in later.
Can I bring in photos I have already taken?
Auto-Fill walks back through your camera roll and fills the days you already photographed, which means years of your life can be in place before you write your first entry. It is included free with the yearly plan.
Does it support video?
Yes. Each day holds up to five photos or videos together, and you choose one as the highlight that shows on the calendar.
How is this different from my camera roll?
Your camera roll is every photo you ever took. Life Tabs is the one that mattered each day, with your words attached, laid out as a calendar you can search by place, date or activity.
What does it cost?
Life Tabs starts with a free trial, then continues as a monthly or yearly subscription. Current prices are shown in the app before you confirm anything, and you can cancel any time in your Apple Account settings.
Start with tonight
One evening from now you will have a day saved. A year from now you will have a calendar you can scroll back through like a movie of your own life.
Launching soon on iPhone. iOS 16 and later.