Press kit
Pocket Chronicle
A private, prompted archive of a child's childhood, for iPhone. Two prompts a day — a question, and a small mission to photograph, film, record or do. Each answer is filed with the prompt that caused it and the child's exact age, on a timeline they inherit.
The facts
Everything in one place
| Name | Pocket Chronicle. The App Store lists it as PocketChronicle.App; on the home screen it reads Chronicle. |
|---|---|
| What it is | A prompted childhood archive. One question and one mission a day, answered in about fifteen seconds. |
| Platform | iPhone. Requires iOS 18.6 or later. |
| Released | 7 September 2026 |
| Price | Free to download. The first two weeks are fully open, with no card and nothing to cancel. After that the daily question stays free forever, and anything that needs storage — photographs, video, their voice — is part of membership: $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year, one membership per household. |
| Category | Lifestyle. Rated 4+. |
| Made by | Travis Terry, working alone. No company, no investors. |
| App Store | Pocket Chronicle on the App Store |
| Website | pocketchronicle.app — all 133 prompts are published, readable before signing up for anything. |
| Press contact | hello@pocketchronicle.app |
| @pocketchronicle.app |
Why it exists
A dad who forgets to take pictures
Travis Terry built Pocket Chronicle for himself. He forgets to take pictures, and on the days he remembers, a year later he cannot say what was happening or why he took the shot. The camera roll remembers what his kid looked like. It remembers nothing about what they were like.
So the app gives him a reason to write one thing down, and a reason to take the picture — and then keeps the reason attached to it. Every entry carries the prompt that caused it, the day it happened, and the child's age on that day, on a timeline the kid eventually inherits.
The rules it is built under come from the same place. Nothing counts down, nothing keeps a streak, and a missed day is never described as a failure. There is no feed, because a childhood is not a performance. There are no ads on any tier, and no advertising or analytics code in the app at all.
What's different
Six things worth knowing
Two prompts a day, not a blank page
One is always a question — “What word does your kid mispronounce that you don't want to correct?” The other is a mission: a photo, a video, their voice, or something to do together. Weekends add a second mission.
The reason is saved with the moment
A photo with the question that made you take it is a story. Every entry keeps its prompt, the date it happened, and the child's exact age on that day.
Their voice, transcribed on the phone
Recordings run up to ten minutes. On an iPhone running iOS 26 the phone writes the transcript itself, so what a child said out loud becomes searchable text. The audio never goes to a transcription service.
You can fill in the past
Any entry backdates to any day, years ago, and it lands at the age the child was then. Look back walks the camera roll month by month to find the months never written about — reading only dates and counts, on the phone.
No streaks, no feed, no ads
One notification a day at most, at a time you pick. Nothing public, nothing to perform for. No advertising on any tier, including the free one, and no third-party code in the app.
An export that outlives the company
One tap, free on every tier: a zip of every entry, photograph and recording in folders by date, plus a viewer that opens offline by double-clicking. Plain JPEG, MP4, M4A, text and HTML.
Demo
Thirty seconds of the real app
- The morning board: a photo mission, a video mission, the question.
- A voice prompt is tapped and the recorder opens on its own.
- The recording runs, is kept, and saves against the prompt.
- The entry, open, with its transcript and “4 years, 2 months”.
- A note written tonight, dated back to 2023.
- The timeline at 2023, with the entry sitting where it belongs.
Screenshots
The six that tell the story
Click any image for the full-resolution PNG — 1206 × 2622, straight off the device, with no frame or shadow added. Captions are written to be usable as they are.
More, if you need them
Onboarding, the composer, the capture sheet, settings and the export.
Quotes
Quotes you can use
From Travis Terry, founder. Use them as they are, or ask for something specific.
“I'm the dad who forgets to take pictures. And on the days I remember, a year later I can't tell you what was happening or why I took the shot. My camera roll knows what my kid looked like. It knows nothing about what they were like.”
Travis Terry, founder
“A photo on its own is a photo. A photo with the question that made you take it is a story. That's the whole product — the app keeps the reason attached to the thing.”
Travis Terry, founder
“There are no streaks and there never will be. A parent who opens this after two weeks away should feel welcomed back, not audited. If a feature only works by making you feel behind, it isn't going in.”
Travis Terry, founder
Boilerplate
Descriptions, ready to paste
One line
Pocket Chronicle is a private, prompted archive of a child's childhood for iPhone, built by one parent.
Short
Pocket Chronicle sends two prompts a day about your kid — a question, and a small mission to photograph, film, record or do. Answers take about fifteen seconds and are filed with the prompt that caused them, the date, and your child's exact age. Free on iPhone.
Medium
Pocket Chronicle is a private, prompted archive of a child's childhood for iPhone. Two prompts arrive each morning: a question about your kid, and a small mission — a photo, a video, their voice, or something to do together. Answering takes about fifteen seconds, and every entry is filed with the prompt that caused it, the day it happened, and the child's exact age on that day. Voice notes are transcribed on the phone. There are no ads, no feed and no streaks, and the whole archive exports in one tap.
Founder credit
Pocket Chronicle is made by Travis Terry, a parent working alone. It shipped on the App Store on 7 September 2026.
Fact check
Details that are easy to get wrong
Not corrections to anything you have written — just the six things that most often come out slightly off.
- Two prompts a day, not one. One is always a question; the second is a mission. The App Store subtitle says “one prompt a day”, which is shorthand for the free daily question.
- The daily question is answered by typing. Voice recording answers a voice mission, or a freeform entry you start yourself. It is not how the question is answered.
- Transcription needs iOS 26. The app itself runs on iOS 18.6 and later. On an older iPhone the recording is saved and kept; only the transcript is missing.
- It is private, not local-only. Entries sync to Pocket Chronicle's own server, which is what lets a second parent write into the same archive and a new phone pick it up. What stays on the device is the voice-to-text and the cache.
- The recorder holds ten minutes. Not two.
- After the first two weeks, free means the daily question. Anything that needs storage — photographs, video, their voice — is part of membership. Everything already in the archive stays readable, searchable and exportable forever, on any tier.
Press access
A full account, free, for as long as you want it
Download it from the App Store and tell us the email you signed up with, and a lifetime membership goes on the account the same day. No trial clock, no card, nothing to cancel.
Interviews, extra screenshots, a different cut of the video, a specific screen captured on a device you name — ask and it will come back quickly. There is one person to ask.
Travis Terry · Founder, Pocket Chronicle
hello@pocketchronicle.app