Life Journal

Turn on Life Journal

1. Open Settings › Life Journal.
2. Turn on Enable Life Journal. It is off by default.
3. Sign in if asked, so the journal belongs to your account.
4. Under Add a memory, choose Record a memory, Write a memory or an import.

Turning on Life Journal does not start background recording or grant every permission. Each personal source, AI request, backup and family package has its own control.

Record and save your own voice

1. Stop listening or any call, then open Settings › Life Journal.
2. Tap Record a memory and enter a Memory title, such as “My first day at school”.
3. Tap Record memory and allow microphone access if asked. Record yourself or someone who agreed to recording; the limit is 30 minutes.
4. Tap Stop recording, then Preview recording.
5. Optional: Add Notes or transcript.
6. Tap Save.

The recording appears in Your timeline. Stopping alone does not save it, and saving needs a title. Keep the recorder open until saved; Cancel discards the temporary take.

Play, transcribe and correct a recording

Open the saved timeline entry and tap Play saved recording. To make text, choose Transcribe on this phone and allow Apple Speech permission when requested. This transcribes the existing file, without reopening the microphone or falling back to a server. On-device recognition must support the recording’s language; partial or incorrect text needs review. Use Edit entry to correct it before marking Reviewed and approved for drafts.

Write or import selected material

1. In Settings › Life Journal, tap Write a memory to enter a title, date, chapter and text, then tap Save.
2. To import media, tap Choose photos or videos and select the items in the system picker.
3. For documents, tap Import documents or files. Google Drive, Dropbox and other services appear through Files when installed and enabled there.
4. Optional: Use Add from Journaling Suggestions where available to choose a moment offered in Apple’s window.

Only the material you choose is imported. A folder can also be tracked under Choose source permissions.

Organize new imports with AI starts off. When on, each later imported photo, video or document is sent once to the chosen AI for suggested titles, dates, chapters, people, places and facts. Review AI suggestions to review before using those suggestions. A video sends three still frames, without sound. Recordings and daily source entries are not automatically sent.

Important: Organizing an import uses the displayed own-key request or free-question allowance. Turning on automatic organization authorizes those subsequent requests.

Choose personal sources

1. Open Settings › Life Journal › Choose source permissions.
2. Turn on only the sources you want.
3. Read the explanation and allow the matching iPhone permission when asked.
4. Review Added from sources and the new timeline entries.

• Calendar, Reminders and Contacts add the selected information for review. Calendar can work further back gradually.
• Photo details records dates, locations and on-device image descriptions, not unrestricted access to every app. Place-name lookup sends the location to Apple Maps.
• Current location reads your location when you turn it on or refresh. It replaces the previous current-location entry unless you edited that entry yourself.
• Places you visit needs Always location permission so iPhone can notice visits while Reverbot is closed.
• Motion & fitness is read-only; those daily entries never become soul sources.
• A folder you choose imports supported files in that folder and its subfolders, up to 20 new files per pass. Unreadable files are set aside until changed.

Sources normally add one entry per source and day while Reverbot is open; permitted background refresh may also run while the phone is unlocked. A deleted day is not added again. Source entries are not sent automatically to AI or included in drafts before approval.

Use a private listener interview

Important: The listener’s AI receives what you say during the interview. Without headphones, the listener speaks aloud.

1. In Settings › Life Journal, choose Simple guide or a soul under Your listener.
2. Tap Start a private interview, or say the Life Journal wake phrase during an active listening session.
3. Tell one memory at a time. Try “Ask me about my childhood home, one question at a time.”
4. Pause for the response; Wait before your listener answers sets the pause. Additional words while it is thinking join the same turn.
5. Tap Stop interview, then Save interview to put it in the timeline, or Discard.

If you say the phrase while talking with a soul, that soul switches into listener mode. Its stored memories and older conversations are excluded; only the last few lines of the conversation you switched from accompany the handoff.

Also let this Soul remember saved interviews starts off. Turn it on before the interview and leave it on when saving only if the listening soul should retain the saved interview. Simple guide uses Listener display & voice; a soul uses its own voice.

Set the listener wake phrases

1. In Settings › Life Journal, turn on Use the Life Journal wake phrase under Start an interview by voice.
2. Read Main wake phrase. Its default is “Hey Life Journal Listener”.
3. Optional: Enter a phrase with at least two words. Until it is valid, the default remains in use and the field explains why.
4. Optional: Turn on Also listen for “Hey Journal”. It starts off. If the main phrase is exactly “Hey Journal”, ignoring capitalization, this duplicate switch is unavailable.
5. Return to the main screen and start listening with the big button before saying the phrase.

You can also find Life Journal Listener under Wake Phrases in Settings after Life Journal is enabled. Calling a soul by name starts an ordinary soul conversation; say the journal phrase during it to switch into the private listener interview.

Analyze sources and create a draft

Important: Source analysis and draft generation send the selected material to the AI shown for that request. Review the confirmation and cost first.

1. Open a timeline entry and tap Analyze this source.
2. Review the proposed facts and correct errors in Edit entry.
3. Turn on Reviewed and approved for drafts only when you accept the source.
4. In the timeline, select Include for each approved source you want.
5. Under Life story drafts, choose the AI and tap Generate from selected approved sources.
6. Check the draft against its linked sources, edit it and tap Save edits.

Unreviewed AI guesses should not become biography. The linked sources let you check where an assertion came from.

Back up and recover

Your journal is encrypted on this iPhone with its own key before backup. Reverbot’s server stores locked copies it cannot read; backup storage is included up to the displayed account limit.

1. Turn on Back up automatically for changed pieces to upload after about a minute and when you open Reverbot, or tap Back up encrypted journal now.
2. After your first backup, tap Save recovery kit when prompted.
3. Keep that kit somewhere private and recoverable. Reverbot cannot recover its decryption key for you.

Important: The recovery kit contains the key and is not password-sealed. Do not send it as an ordinary journal attachment.

If another phone made the server backup, choose Restore that backup or Replace it with this iPhone’s journal only after reading the replacement warning. Replacement deletes the other snapshot. Restore recovery kit and Restore encrypted cloud snapshot also explain what they replace before continuing.

Leave memories for family

1. Open Settings › Life Journal › Leave memories for family and tap Leave memories for someone.
2. Choose them from your friends, or type their Reverbot username. If they haven’t turned on receiving yet, the package waits on your iPhone and is sealed to them as soon as they do.
3. Optionally give their email and turn on Tell them now that I chose them — both need a verified email address on your own sign-in; otherwise they hear nothing until something is released to them.
4. Choose what they receive: the memories you pick, or Everything I approve, now and later — and, if you want, your Journal Soul, your recorded face and voice, and life story drafts made only from those memories.
5. Type the name they’ll see and an optional message, which is encrypted. Choose a waiting period of 7 to 365 days, and leave Keep this package up to date on if it should follow your journal.
6. Tap Set aside, then check the encryption fingerprint with them.

Nothing is released while you’re alive, and inactivity never releases anything. Someone you chose must report your death with an official record; you’re told at once — by email if your sign-in has a verified address, and in Life Journal — so you can choose I’m alive — stop this; two independent reviewers must confirm it; then your waiting period passes. Only then is it released, and they’re told by email. Revoke a package at any time; copies already released can’t be taken back.

Record your face and test your Journal Soul

1. Turn on Life Journal, then open My Journal Soul, face & voice.
2. Enter Your journal Soul’s name, then tap Save name.
3. Tap Record my face & permission and follow the recorded consent flow. Sharing and use after death are separate permissions.
4. Select the approved memories to include, then tap Create Journal Soul.
5. Open AI, voice & recorded voice setup to choose the AI and voice. A recorded face has free local animation; Set up face animation offers optional paid services on your own account.
6. Tap Test with a text conversation to ask about the saved material. For voice, turn on Answers to their name, return to the main screen, tap the big button and say the soul’s phrase.
7. Correct biography in journal entries or profile sources. Test conversations do not rewrite those sources.
8. Optional: Turn on Keep my Journal Soul up to date, or tap Update now. Approved entries are included and removed or unapproved sources are taken out. Motion and fitness days are excluded.

To replace its recorded face, use Use this face for my Journal Soul.

Your face and voice, for family

Face and voice inclusion starts off. A package can include them only when their recorded permission allows sharing and use after death.

1. Open My Journal Soul, face & voice and, under My voice, for my family, tap Record my voice for my family.
2. Say the permission displayed, then record clear speech.
3. Review the separate permissions for receiving the recording and recreating the voice after death.
4. When preparing a family package, select My recorded face or My recorded voice only as intended.

Record my voice for this Soul can use the same saved family recording to create the Journal Soul’s voice through your own ElevenLabs account. Read that provider’s cost before confirming.

The recipient decides whether to keep a received face or voice. Free local face animation is available; recreating a voice requires their own eligible ElevenLabs account. Packages contain neither your API keys nor paid-provider account access. The result is an AI representation, not the person.

Memories left for you

1. Open Settings › Life Journal › Memories left for you. It is available before Life Journal is turned on; keeping received memories requires the journal.
2. Tap Turn on receiving for this account.
3. Save the receiving key’s recovery file somewhere private. It is needed to open received memories on a new iPhone.
4. Choose the email notification option if you want an email when memories are left for you. Emails do not contain the memories.
5. When a package is released, tap Open what they left you and read the message.
6. Choose whether to keep the recorded face and voice, then tap Keep these memories.

Received material stays separate from your own timeline under Kept in your journal. A .rbjournal file saved from reverbot.ai/life-journal opens only for the account it was released to; open it in Reverbot or use Import a package you saved from the website.

Hear their story, and bring in their Soul

In what someone left you, Their life story lists any chapters they wrote. Tap play to hear one told paragraph by paragraph, showing the photo, or playing the video without its sound, of each memory it cites; tap Read it myself to turn the pages instead. Write their life story asks the AI you choose to write one from the memories they approved — or all they left you when they approved none — citing each; it uses your own key or one of your free answers, and never sends their Health days. Under Their Soul, Bring them into Souls adds their Journal Soul — or makes one from what they left — with their photos, videos, recordings and kept face. It speaks as them, from those memories only, and it’s an AI: Reverbot says so at the start of every talk. Recreate their voice gives it the voice from their recording, on your own ElevenLabs account. That Soul’s own page lists their life story too, to read or hear in its voice. Your own life story drafts have the same play button, and are listed on your Journal Soul’s page.

If someone has died

Only a recipient the person chose can start the release process. Inactivity alone never releases memories.

1. Open Memories left for you and tap They have died — report it beside that person’s package.
2. Enter your name, the date and the requested details.
3. Add a death-certificate photo, PDF or a link to an official record or obituary.
4. Confirm the information is true to the best of your knowledge and submit the report.

Two independent reviewers must confirm against an independent source. The account owner is notified so a mistake can be stopped, and the waiting period they selected must pass before release. You can use Withdraw my report while review is pending.

Only reviewers see the record. It is deleted when the report closes, or 30 days after confirmation; reporter details are removed according to the stated retention period. The website offers this process for an email-and-password sign-in too.

If it doesn’t work

• If Record a memory is unavailable, turn on Enable Life Journal, sign in and stop any active listening session or call.
• If a recording cannot save, enter a Memory title and finish the recording first. Stop recording alone does not save it.
• If a source cannot be selected for a draft, review it and turn on Reviewed and approved for drafts.
• If a source permission is denied, change it in iPhone Settings; refreshing cannot override denial.
• If the soul-retention choice is unavailable, turn on Souls and create a soul first. The choice applies to saved interviews, not ordinary soul conversations.
• If a backup conflicts with another phone, read the restore-or-replace choices before proceeding. Do not overwrite a backup just to dismiss the message.
• If family memories cannot open on a new phone, restore the receiving key’s recovery file for the recipient account. A journal backup recovery kit and a receiving key are different files.

Still not working? In Settings, under Feedback, tap Contact Support. Never attach recovery keys or private journal material.