Since Stories went live in September, most of my evenings have gone into one question: what should a family see when they open Haklo on a Tuesday, when the gathering is still days away?
The next iPhone update is my answer. It is in final testing now.
A Home that follows your family
Home is rebuilt around your family, starting with your own picture at the top. Parents can choose a photo from a gathering, crop it, or put together a small album that rotates each time you come back.
What comes next follows the week. Before a gathering, the gathering comes first. Afterward, Home brings forward something your family kept: a shared story, a moment saved in the Record, or a Heard note someone passed back.
Heard, Tell a story, and Set an agreement are right there on Home. You can set or change your weekly gathering time there, too.
An easier way to ask
Story requests are my favorite part of this release. Asking someone for a story now sits next to telling your own, with one place to find the requests you sent, the ones waiting for you, and the answers that came back.
Bruce Feiler has written about research linking children's knowledge of their family stories with greater resilience. Researchers at Emory describe the value of talking openly about challenging family experiences. The hard chapters belong in those stories, too.
That is part of why this matters to me. It is easier to ask Grandpa for the story than to wait for him to bring it up.
Taking care of what you keep
You can react to and comment on what lands in the Record, including stories. Parents can rename or combine themes, and the family book handles long titles, photos, and dates more gracefully.
There are practical improvements, too. Pausing a recorded gathering keeps the recording, and finishing saves it properly. Going back asks before discarding an unfinished note. The keyboard stays clear of what you are typing, and error messages give you a next step.
These are small things until you have something you want to say or keep. Then they matter.
The update is in final testing. If your family already uses Haklo, watch for it in the App Store. If you are new here, haklo.app is the place to start.
— Clay