Home Screen
Starting a conversation - The home screen is where you can discover your memories by having a conversation with your personal Guide. Simply tap the ‘Start conversation’ button to begin, and your Guide will begin by asking thoughtful questions about your favorite adventures, lovely memories, and dearest relationships. Remember that this is your journey and that your Guide is here to help you. You can always skip questions, ask to change topics, or verbally direct the conversation to any topic you choose. If you need a moment to think, pause the interview with the microphone button, and if you’re done for the moment you can end the conversation at any time by clicking the ‘End interview’ button.
Reviewing your notes - Once you end a conversation, everything you’ve spoken about is recorded and preserved securely in your Memory Vault. The interview will end with a confirmation screen where you can review your interview notes. As you review your conversation for accuracy, you can uncheck specific notes to remove them, or use the pencil icon to edit for clarity or spelling. When you’re done, press the ‘Confirm notes’ button at the bottom of the screen to save them. You can always return to your interview notes in your Memory Vault to view them again, or even see your full conversational transcript. Remember, your interviews are secured and private to you - no one else has access to them.
Memory Vault
Accessing your Memory Vault - You can access your Memory Vault by tapping your profile icon in the upper left corner of the home screen. You will be prompted to provide Face ID or enter your iPhone passcode prior to being able to access your stored information.
Navigating your Memory Vault - Once in your vault, you can see your profile information by clicking the gear icon in the upper right corner. You can also see your usage information below your profile photo. Below this, you will see a Topics section where you can look through recently completed interviews and access your Vault Topics, which consist of People, Places, Important Memories, and Other Topics. Each section will show the specific topics you’ve created to have a conversation with your Guide about that specific topic or person. You can add as many topics as you want across any of the categories to discover and preserve your memories. More info on topic creation is below.
Creating new topics - You can create topics about anything you choose by moving to the appropriate category and clicking the ‘Add’ button. You will be prompted to enter a title or a name for the topic, and select a relation for that topic from a list. Choose whichever relation is most accurate, and be as accurate as possible for the name or title of the topic. This will help your Guide understand how best to converse with you on that specific topic.
Working with topics - We created Autobiographer to give you unlimited scale to your own memory preservation. Feel free to create as many topics as you’d like, and add as much information to each topic as you want. You can always return to a topic to add more, or tell your stories from different perspectives and tones. Your Guide will seamlessly integrate new information with what you’ve said previously - you don’t need to worry about sharing context or referring to old conversations. You may also notice that your Guide will ask questions based on your prior interviews; remember that you can revisit these areas, or direct the conversation to new areas.
Integration with your home screen conversations - Don’t worry if you’ve spoken about specific topics in your open conversations with the Guide as well as made Memory Vault topics for them. The Guide has a great memory and will refer to conversations regardless of where they began. This is also true of story creation in the Studio, when you’re ready to share your stories. All conversations are stored securely and permanently in the Memory Vault and can be recalled in conversation at any time, or synthesized in the Studio to create beautifully written stories.
The Studio
Accessing the Studio - When you’re ready to turn your conversations into beautifully written letters and stories that you can share with your loved ones, you can find the Studio by tapping the icon in the upper right corner of the home screen. Here you’ll find your personal library where all your stories are stored.
Story types - Autobiographer offers multiple types of content that you can turn into beautiful stories. One is a letter to someone important to you, created by your Guide based on all the conversations you’ve had about that person. This letter allows you to write an introduction as well as a conclusion. Additionally, the guide will write an introduction from their perspective and will share some thoughts with the recipient about what they mean to you. We find this is a wonderful gift for loved ones and a great way to share your gratitude with them for special holidays, milestone events, or just to create a warm moment out of the blue!
Another content type is a short story, meant to neatly tell a favorite memory or piece of wisdom that you’d like to share. The options are endless - choose any Memory Vault Topic you want to turn into a beautiful story. You can create a personal introduction as well as conclusion, and edit any details or quotes within the text. Share this story with anyone close to you and recall any memory that needs to be expressed!
Telling your first story - Before you create a story, ensure you’ve created the topic you want to build a story about in your Memory Vault. You can also create a topic from the Studio screen by clicking ‘Want to add a new topic ?’ at the bottom of the pop-up. Follow the red dot back to the Memory Vault to continue.
Creating Stories - You can create a story by clicking the ‘Tell a new Story’ button at the bottom of the screen. You’ll be asked what kind of story you want to tell: About a person, which will direct you to choose a person from the People topic in your Memory Vault, or About an Important Memory, which will direct you to choose a topic you’ve created about a Place, Important Memory, or Other Topic. Once you choose a topic, hit ‘Confirm’ to start creating the story. You’ll then be directed to the story generation screen, where you can see if you’ve reached the word count threshold for your story. If you haven’t reached the required amount, head back to your Memory Vault to record more information about that topic. If you have, tap ‘Generate’ and the Guide will begin assembling your story. You can check back in the Studio any time to see progress on your story. Note: limits are based on word count in that specific topic, and do not include word counts for related conversations in the home screen. Word count thresholds ensure that the stories you generate are full and high-quality.
When your story is ready - editing - Once your story is ready, you can review it by clicking on the specific icon for that story in the Studio screen. Then hit the ‘Open’ button to review your PDF and make any edits you’d like. For each story, you’ll be able to write a personal introduction and a conclusion if you like. Please note that for stories about people, the Guide will also write a contextual introduction from their own perspective. You can always return to editing mode by clicking the edit button on the bottom right of the screen to edit content, the intro you’ve written, or the conclusion you’ve written.
When your story is ready - sending - Once you’re done editing, you can send it or save it to your files by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner and selecting ‘Share or Save.’ From here, you can send the finished PDF to anyone you choose by any of the messaging options available on iPhone.