GameRecord

GameRecord is a private app for one family

Three things a day. Sunday together.

Every morning, each person says three things that matter today. Every night, three quick questions about how it went. On Sunday, one screen at the table to look at the week together.

Ask for an inviteSee a day

Sunday huddle
Sunday. The tablet in the middle, the host taps Next.

We wanted fewer reminders and more noticing. So we built the app our family runs on, and here is one day of it.

A day with the Millers

A made-up family, so no real name is on this page. The screens are real.

  1. 7:10 am

    Jennifer, 15

    History reading before practice. Call Grandma back. Fifty juggles.

    She says it to her phone on the way down the stairs. The app writes three lines and asks nothing else.

    Picking three things for the day by talking
  2. 7:40 am

    Mark

    Huh. My three happen most on days I plan them the night before.

    Once a week, a short private note from his own last few weeks. Only he sees it. Nothing is scored.

    Today with a private weekly note from the coach
  3. 3:30 pm

    Tyler, 11

    Game Saturday at two in Pleasanton, and Jennifer helped me with the volcano.

    One breath. The game goes on his calendar; the volcano becomes a note Jennifer finds on her Today.

    Say anything: one breath sorted into a calendar event and a Noticed note
  4. 3:31 pm

    Sarah

    Tyler is asking for a ride. Saturday, 2 pm. One tap.

    The ask reaches her phone the moment he makes it. She says yes; it lands on the family calendar.

    A ride request on a parent's phone
  5. 8:30 pm

    Jennifer

    Two of three. The juggling slipped, and it was the right thing to drop tonight.

    Three questions, about three minutes. The coach says one thing back, or nothing. Her answers stay hers.

    Tonight: did your three happen?
  6. Sunday, 6 pm

    All four

    Jennifer's week. Then the thank-yous. Then the surprise question. Sarah hosts; next week it's Tyler's turn.

    One screen on the tablet in the middle of the table. Only what people chose to share. The host taps Next.

    The Sunday huddle on a tablet
  7. End of the month

    The fridge

    Thank-yous, what moved, the walk to Yosemite, three pictures.

    One page a month from what everyone shared. Printed, it goes on the fridge.

    Our month: a printable page of the family's shared month

Things the app does on its own

Your calendar fills itself

Connect your own Google Calendar and practices, games and dentist days show up without typing. Add something here and it goes to Google.

The coach remembers

Tonight's one question refers to what you said yesterday. Once a week, a note from your own last few weeks. It suggests. It never grades.

One year ago today

What you finished, wrote, or were thankful for on this date last year, back on your Today. The longer you use it, the more it gives back.

What stays yours

Only you

  • Your night answers
  • Your journal
  • Your goals and the dream behind them
  • The coach's notes to you
  • Your warm-up

Your family, if you choose

  • A day's three, with a switch
  • A thank-you, read out on Sunday
  • A goal on the journey map
  • Your words of the week

Parents can see

  • A kid's three, list and calendar
  • Reading only, never changing
  • The kid sees a label saying so
  • Nothing else, ever

Enforced in the database, not only on the screen, and tested on every change. No scores, no streaks, no comparing people. Voice is turned into words and the sound is thrown away. The privacy page says the same with more words.

The rest of it

Why we built it

We're a family of four in Fairfield, California: two parents, one boy in high school and one in middle school. We wanted fewer reminders shouted up the stairs and more of the small things noticed, by each of us, about each other. The app started as a voice journal for soccer and grew into the thing we open every morning; the kids named the characters and picked the colors.

Ask for an invite

It's one family's app for now, shared by invitation. Tell us a little about yours.

We are one family using it right now. We'll open it to a few more once we've lived with it for six months. No list is sold, no mail except the one that says yes.