Apart from a few small features, August updates have mostly been focused on performance improvements and bug fixes. A large group of people recently moved to Happyfeed from another app (that unfortunately was discontinued), and they’ve been keeping me very busy with ideas and feedback. It’s fun to see several Pods with dozens of members and even a few with over one hundred. However, this creates a variety of new challenges!

I also went for a short vacation at the end of the month, so it wasn’t quite as productive as the previous few. It’s good to practice what I preach and spend a little time enjoying the summer. 🌴

### Overall
- 👷‍♂️ __Pods and Following__ - Wide-ranging improvements to the backend code to catch bugs, avoid duplication errors, and better manage increased usage within groups. (Boring, but necessary as Happyfeed scales!)

### iOS
- 📸 __Photo-Only Memories__ - Many of you use Happyfeed as a photo journaling app or way to send photos to friends. Now text is optional to help with those days where a simple photo says enough.
- 👨‍🔬 __Sharing Experiment__ - If you’re in a Pod or have a bunch of followers, it’s pretty easy to forget to share even your favorite moments. We’re testing a new pop-up to prompt sharing when you save a new post. But don’t worry, it’ll only appear for people actively using Pods.
- 🐛 __Performance Updates__ - Some Happyfeed Pods are growing bigger than I originally expected and are seeing a buzz of daily activity. This means more stress on our servers and new kinds of bugs, which I’ve been fixing as fast as possible!

### Android
- 📆 __Memories 3 Years Ago in the Calendar__ - Did you know you can use the Calendar to add moments to any day? The Calendar previously only went back to the day you joined Happyfeed, but now you can go back 3 years.
- 🛠 __Calendar Performance__ - The calendar code has been heavily optimized, especially with regard to how months and days are rendered efficiently. If you’re on an older device, these changes should be noticeable! In addition, I fixed a few bugs related to adding moments to past days.

## Coming Up

It seems like there’s an infinite list of ways to optimize the apps even further, but I’m hoping to devote the upcoming month(s) to building our most common request: __video uploading__. Video requires more bandwidth, smarter caching, and all sorts of work behind the scenes to feel totally seamless.

If you’re interested in checking out an early version of video please send me an email at [matt@happyfeed.co](mailto:matt@happyfeed.co) and I’ll send a beta version for you to test when it’s ready!

As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you’ve had a chance to relax a bit this month as well. 🕶

Photo of an open field with the text "August 2022"

Exploring photo-only memories, focusing on improving performance for group sharing, and fixing bugs caused by larger groups with direct followers.

Product Updates: August 2022

Another hot summer month, another month filled with app updates! I’ve been focused on improving existing features, bringing the Android app up to par with iOS, and running a few small experiments for new ideas.

The Android app received the bulk of my attention this past month. It’s almost completely caught up to the iOS app now in terms of Pods functionality (like nudges and following) and I’ve been optimizing the code to make it noticeably faster. If you catch anything broken from all the changes, please reach out to me by email.

## iOS Updates

- 🖼 __Moment history layout__ - New photos appear bigger and above moment text in your history tab. I increased the max ratio for photos in Pods up to 1:1 ratio (so they don’t overwhelm the text).
- 🗑 __Delete account in app settings__ - I’ve always been a little worried about having an option to delete your account in the app because of the chance of accidental deletions, but the new delete button requires a password, clarifies the process, and gives you 72 hours to reconsider.
- 📆 __Memories 3 years ago in the Calendar__ - Did you know you can use the [Calendar](/plus-faq) to add moments to ANY day? The Calendar previously only went back to the day you joined Happyfeed, but now you can go back 3 years (and possibly longer soon!)
- 👨‍🔬 __Fun experiments__ - You might have noticed the emojis that popup after you finish a day. I added a little fun by adding more options and a small chance that you’ll get three of a kind and a special effect!

## Android Updates

- 👀 __Moment history layout__ - Photos has a much bigger focus in your moment history now. I got rid of the extra padding on the left and moved the photos above the text to better reflect the way you upload them 
- ⌨️ __Send any emoji as a reaction__ - Tap a new option in the reaction pop-up to select any emoji from your device’s built-in emoji keyboard.
User profiles - Tap a Pod member’s photo at the top of the Pods screen to see their profile. You’ll see a bigger photo and some useful options (details below)
- 🤫 __Muting users__ - From profiles, you can mute members of your Pod. This is perfect for random pods where you might just not love someone’s content. You can skip their content without having to leave the Pod.
- 👉 __Sending nudges__ - Once per day, you’ll be able to send a “nudge” to your fellow Pod members and followers. Nudges might be a way to say “hi” or remind someone to keep up the habit! 
- 👂 __Following__ - To add flexibility to sharing, now Android users can follow each other and share posts with followers. Following requires approval from the person you follow and you can learn more about it in this [blog post about followers](/blog/follow-friends-and-share-comments)

![Android screens showing your profile, sharing with followers and new emoji reaction popup](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/7jucKf5j74nedgEW6cUk81/cb1dafbbef446e1de51e95694745371b/android-screens-july-2022.jpg)

### Thank You!

Lastly, I wanted to thank everyone for being so incredibly understanding about a (not-so-minor) bug I introduced this month. Since Happyfeed is a daily habit for many of us, I really hope that anyone affected was able to quickly recognize the issue and update to the version with a fix. Thank you to everyone who messaged me about the bug too - that helped me get it fixed within hours (rather than days).

You may or may not know that I’m the sole person designing and building Happyfeed. I’d like to be more transparent about that moving forward and am trying to avoid using the words “we” and “our” so often. I think that habit probably comes from a mix of a personal dislike when people on teams say “I” too often, wanting to be taken seriously early on, and looking ahead to when I actually have a team at Happyfeed.

It’s been almost 9 years since I started Happyfeed and it’s been such a joy to work on!


July 2022 text over ocean view

Adding user profiles, following, and major optimizations to Android as well as photo updates and experiments on iOS

Product Updates: July 2022

Big product launches aren’t really my thing at Happyfeed. I believe it’s best to gradually roll out new features piece by piece and actively listen to feedback along the way. This helps build a process to improve ideas quickly and avoid building the wrong things. Breaking work in little updates gives me the opportunity to fix bugs and make small, meaningful improvements every release.

This past spring has been full of little launches and iterating to make a couple of big, impactful changes.

[Commenting in Pods](/blog/follow-friends-and-share-comments) for iOS and Android is Happyfeed's first big feature. You could always send emoji reactions to shared posts, and now you can share your thoughts as comments. We revamped notifications and the “Recent Activity” list to make the whole process much more intuitive.

![iPhone screenshots showing how to view and add comments in Happyfeed](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/7aVUzoTXqmIDGMPchnFEkg/0d71dfa04cd53cb1b59ab7e8b58a9657/iphone-screens-spring-2022.jpg)

The second major feature was [Android Subscriptions](/blog/announcing-android-subscriptions). Extra features, like the Calendar, are now available to Plus subscribers on either platform. Between subscriptions and recent Pod features, the Android app has almost fully caught up with Happyfeed's (much older) iOS app. I’m grateful for all your patience and am starting to feel much more pride in the performance of __both__ apps now. The ratings seem to agree!

### Overall Updates
- 💬 **Commenting in Pods** - Send comments directly on memories shared in your Pods. Tap a post to open up a new detail screen to see comments and write your own. Commenting is unavailable in Random Pods until we have proper content moderation. Available on iOS and Android.

### iOS Updates
- 📸 **Photos Updates** - Added support for RAW and shared albums. We also rewrote our offline syncing system to improve speed and reduce the amount of data stored locally.
- 🔢 **Character Counter** - When entering text for a moment, you’ll now see a character counter in the bottom right corner to show you how close you are to reaching the limit. No more surprises!
- ✨ **Improved Pods Layout** - To make room for Commenting, Pod posts received a little design refresh. The button positioning, especially, feels noticeably more intuitive.
- 🚨 **Activity Notifications** - Your “Recent Activity” notifications on the Pods screen will now show a mix of follow requests, comments, and reactions to your shares. Most importantly, you can tap a comment or reaction to open up that memory and reply.
- 👋 **Welcome Screen** - Unless you’re new here you probably didn’t notice, but we redesigned the welcome, login, and register screens to better match our brand.
- 🐛 **Plenty of Bug Fixes** - Layout issues with right-to-left languages, app freezing on re-install, a workaround for the passcode, an emoji editing bug, and more.

### Android Updates
- 👑 **Subscriptions** - The premium [Plus](/plus-faq) subscription is now available on Android as well. Get access to the Calendar, enter up to 10 moments each day, download your journal as a PDF or CSV and more. Read the [full announcement](/blog/announcing-android-subscriptions).
- 📲 **Activity Notifications** - Notifications on the Pods screen are now a mix of comments and reactions to your posts. You’ll also be able to tap a comment or reaction to open up that memory directly and reply.
- 💥 **Photo Upload Fixes** - I can finally say that pretty much ALL the photo upload bugs are fixed! This was a huge, persistant problem that took longer to solve than it should have, but we’re thrilled to everything working for everyone now.
- 🐞 **Assorted Bugs** - Better initial loading, handling errors properly, upgrading core infrastructure, fixing reminder time zone issues, and much more.

### Thoughts
With all the changes described above, I think you’ll experience Happyfeed as a noticeably better app on iOS and Android - especially with sharing and Pods. More and more people have started to use Pods with their friends and family and I’m excited that commenting will allow them to create real conversations right in the app.

If you haven’t joined a Pod, I would _highly recommend_ trying out a Random Pod. You’ll get a sense of how sharing works and may be pleasantly surprised by the positivity of others in the group. When you’re ready, you can gather some friends to create a Pod of your own.

Thanks for reading! 👋

Spring 2022 text over photo of winding road

Moving quickly and releasing all sorts of wonderful journal features including commenting in Pods and Android subscriptions

Product Updates: Spring 2022

Since March 2020, it’s been clear that people are looking for new ways to connect with their friends and family online. Existing apps often focus too much on life “highlight reels” and creating posts for the sake of scoring likes and clout.

Recently, I wrote an article about the shortcomings of big social media, particularly Instagram, and how we might be able to create a more [sustainable social experience](/blog/private-instagram-alternative). I’ve been delighted by how many people have discovered that article and downloaded Happyfeed just to try something new. Of course, I quickly realized that Happyfeed needed a few major improvements to become a real _replacement for existing social apps_.

Over the past few months, I’ve launched features to resolve two of the biggest problems:
1. __Direct Following__ - Until recently, the only way to share on Happyfeed was to join or create a group with others. This is perfect for families and best friends, but sometimes you just want to share with ALL your close friends. Not everyone belongs in a group.
2. __Commenting on Posts__ - Happyfeed originally only allowed for emoji reactions to shared moments because I wanted to avoid the pressure of writing a “good” comment. For a lot of people, this was preventing them from having a real conversation about the meaningful memories they share. Commenting allows you to build deeper connections.

_Update August 8, '22: Following and Commenting is now fully available on both iOS and Android - thank you so much for your patience!_ 

## Following Your Friends

Now you can directly follow friends and invite them to follow you. Along with selecting Pods to share with, you can select a new option to share memories with anyone who follows you. _Following_ allows you to invite anyone to see a glimpse into your life. No need to sort them into groups and deliberate over who should see what.

A few details on how _Following_ works in the Happyfeed app:
- __Invites Only__: Happyfeed is all about close friends and connections so you’ll need an invitation to follow someone. Special invite links automatically open the option to follow a person right in the app. See the image below for how to send invites!
- __Approving Invites__: All follow requests require approval. You can see a list of your recent follow requests in the Notification nav link on the Share tab of Happyfeed. It’s located in the top right corner of the screen along with your recently received reactions.
- __Managing Followers__: You have full control over who you follow and who follows you. Unfollow or remove followers anytime from the “Manage Followers” button in your Share Profile. Reference the image below to see how this works 
- __Share Selectively__: Share with your Followers just like you would with Pods. Select the new Followers option at the bottom of the share drawer to make moments visible to anyone who follows you.

![iOS screenshots showing how to invite and manage followers in Happyfeed](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6O2dtFWDtsK5M9PH2pqK5D/6f1a472634875d2043bf50a4af79a28a/android-screens-android-subscription.jpg)

Group sharing in Pods was meant to emulate how people communicate with our friends in chat groups, like iMessage or WhatsApp, but with a lighter touch. Many families and friend groups created Pods during the pandemic to spread positivity while unable to meet in person. The world is gently shifting towards sharable experiences again, and I wanted to provide ways to share more broadly with Happyfeed.

## Commenting on Memories

You shouldn't have to hop off of Happyfeed to tell someone how beautiful their morning hike looked or how great they've gotten to be at baking sourdough bread.

There’s nothing too new or exciting about our commenting feature compared to other apps you likely use. That’s on purpose. My goal was to create an intuitive experience that just works! 

![iOS screenshots showing Commenting button, full story screen, and adding a comment](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/DIjHsBH74xmwRvlFU12Rh/2b28735ce1f5ca5c2ba9bc298a22b4c0/iphone-screens-winter-2022.jpg)

More on these updates:
- __New Comment Button__: I reworked the Pods page to show emoji reaction and comment buttons below each post, rather than off to the side. Tap the comment button to see a new preview screen.
- __Moment Previews__: There's a new screen to show comments and highlights from each moment. This page provides a perfect opportunity to add more delight to shared moments in the future too!
- __Random Pods__: For now, Random Pod members are unable to comment on each other’s posts. Until I have proper moderation in place, this seems like the right move. You can always request to follow your Random Pod friends directly though!

I need to thank a group of women who came from another app, _YOU-app_, to try out Happyfeed. They have been incredibly supportive and have been nudging me (in a good way!) to add features that will help build stronger bonds within Happyfeed - particularly commenting. 

## Moving Forward

Following and commenting are big moves toward helping the social experience in Happyfeed feel more interactive and meaningful. I hope these features make it easier to connect with the right people and foster deeper connections through sharing your positive memories.

Next, I’ll be working to refine these experiences and bring them over to Android so that you can interact with 100% of your friends and family. These were quick projects so I'll be spending additional time to make sure that notifications, comment visibility, and follow invites are all working perfectly too.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts on these new features. If you’ve signed up for Happyfeed, you know my email 😄

Journaling with Friends

Growing beyond group sharing to provide a meaningful social experience that fits all kinds of relationships and friendships.

Follow Friends & Share Comments

We launched Happyfeed for Android almost exactly 3 years ago to this day. It’s always been completely free and had _most_ of the features users love from our iOS app too. The big thing missing was Plus subscriptions, and more importantly, the features that come along with Plus.

Today, I’m excited to announce that [Plus subscriptions](/plus-faq) are now available on Android! It’s a huge step toward ensuring that our Android app has feature parity with the original iOS app. With a small team, this is not easy to do considering that iOS had a 5-year head start!

_Thanks to everyone who has nudged us to do this over the past couple of years, and I’m sorry that it took so much longer than expected!_

### Features Overview

So what comes with a Plus subscription? Most importantly, Plus features are meant to let you get _more_ out of your journal. More posts each day and more control over your past memories.

- 🗓 __The Happy Calender__ - Probably the best part of Plus, the Calendar allows you to see an overview of all your past months. Days on the month show sample photos and there’s a map at the bottom to show where you’ve been. Tap on a day to see all your memories or even add new ones.
- ✨ __Add moments to ANY day__ - Most noticeable in the Calendar, there’s a new ✍️ button in the bottom left corner of the screen to add new moments to past days. We’re planning to update this soon to let you go back many years and fill in your past.
- 🔟 __10 Posts Per Day__ - After completing your day, go ahead and enter a few more moments. You’ll be able to save up to 10 for those extra special days 😊
- 🖨 __PDF or CSV Exporting__ - Navigate to the Profile tab and select Settings to see your journaling exporting options. Either download your entries as a PDF with photos inline or as a csv and separate photos in a .zip file. It’s a great way to make sure you have them forever.
- ⏳ __Go back 4 days__ - Ever wish you could go back more than 2 days on the uploading screen? With Plus, you can go back up to 4 days so you don’t need to stress about breaking your streak.

![Android screens: Calendar view, profile page with Plus button, Journal exporting page](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/7nPEiBBpd3BiYKuFkTzOaB/d6186664dd47b84ba78a04fb89959d15/android-screens-android-subscription.jpg)

To learn more about Plus subscriptions, please visit our detailed [FAQ](/plus-faq).

### How to Try It Out

All new subscriptions come with a 7 day free trial, whether you are signing up for the monthly plan or yearly plan. You can check out the calendar, try exporting your journal, and enter a few extra moments all before canceling your subscription. (Though we’d love it if you stuck around.)

You can start a subscription by navigating to the bottom right Profile tab in the Happyfeed app. From there, you’ll see a purple “Plus Subscription” button that opens a page to explain the features and allow you to sign up.

## What’s Coming Next?

Android subscriptions are still missing a few of the features that iOS subscribers can enjoy. We tried to build out the top features first and will work to add in others based on demand and complexity. This includes (in rough order):

- Multiple photos per post
- Offline mode
- Moment Search

As you’ve probably noticed, we love experimenting with new features. We’re constantly balancing when to try something new and when to just build the things that we know will work (like Plus subscriptions). Two of the more exciting features we’ve been testing are direct __following__ and __commenting__ in Pods. Some Plus features may be briefly delayed to ensure that we can make sure that both Android and iOS users can enjoy these new social experiments 👩‍🔬


Purple hue photo with camera and Google icon with Happyfeed logo

Try our monthly or annual subscription to access new features like the calendar and get more out of your daily journaling app.

Announcing Android Subscriptions

The colder months of the year are perfect for dedicating time to bigger projects that require laser-focus, late nights, and too many cups of tea 🍵 to count. For Happyfeed, that means a chance to build a major feature that I've been itching to try out since we released Pods. 

_Unofficially_, we've released all the pieces on iOS to allow you to follow friends directly on Happyfeed and share selected posts with your followers. It's a much more [privacy-focused version](/blog/private-instagram-alternative) of what you might expect from social apps like Instagram or Twitter.

There's a lot to cover since the [last update](/blog/product-updates-december-2021) at the end of 2021. I'll skip over the little fixes and break down the updates by platform, as always.

### iOS Updates
- 💁‍♀️ __User Profiles__: Within Pods, you can tap a person’s picture to open up their mini-profile. You can get a better look at their photo and send them a daily nudge. View your own profile via a new button in the Pods screen navigation bar.
- 🤐 __Muting__: You’re not going to always love everyone in your Random Pods so we added a “mute” button in mini-profiles to hide the shares of someone you aren’t vibing with.
- 🎙 __Followers & Broadcasting__: To add more flexibility to sharing, we added an option to follow friends directly. By sharing your profile with friends, they can request to follow you in Happyfeed and see any post you decide to “Broadcast.” Broadcasting is a new option in the Pod Share Drawer that can easily be toggled on or off. To ensure privacy, following requires approval and only friends who receive a link to your profile can find you in the app. (More on this in our official launch!)
- 🌄 __New Day Complete Screen__: With shareability (that’s a word, right?) in mind, the Day Complete Screen got a little refresh in March. It’s a minor change but leaves room for new ideas and experiments!
- ✏️ __Language Support in PDFs__: We updated the code in our PDF exporting script (for [Plus](/plus-faq) members) to allow for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters.

![Winter 2022 iPhone screenshots - share drawer, profile screen, new day complete screen](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/kcx6CJcq6gR8G8PrQyAE6/613800b88efe47003bd884cf074223c6/iphone-screens-winter-2022.jpg)

### Android Updates:
- 👉 __Double-tap to React__: Thanks to a user request, now you can simply double-tap a moment to send a classic 💜 reaction in Pods.
- 🤔 __Editable Pod Reactions__: With the new “quick kudos,” we noticed a need to make the emoji editable. Now you can tap the reaction to change it to something new.
- 🐛 __Various bugs__: Fixing some auto-resizing issues, image caching causing crashes, reminder timezone problems, and showing more than 3 Pods.

### Web Updates:
- ␡ __Delete Button__: We added back the delete button on Web. It’s the easiest way to remove memories quickly in rare cases (though we hope you won’t need this!)

## Coming Up
It’s been a lot of fun experimenting with profiles, following, and broadcasting on iOS. We’ll continue to test out some ideas and work out any bugs or confusing interfaces. You can expect an official announcement sometime mid-month.

I’m also very happy to say that we are dedicating the majority of April to launching Plus subscriptions on Android. The goal is to have it ready before the start of May. We’ve been pushing it off for a long time and hope it’s worth the wait!

Winter 2022 Cover

We've been busy all January, February, and March building and launching features such as following and broadcasting on Happyfeed for iOS.

Product Updates: Winter 2022

Happy New Year! It’s always a busy time of the year for all things journaling, gratitude, personal goals, and seeking out ways to make your life a little better. It just so happens that we’ve been steadily improving Happyfeed as well. Most of the changes we’ve implemented recently won’t make the app look very different but are doing a ton of work behind the scenes to make it easier to keep your daily habit going.

Let’s get into the changes:

### iOS Updates
- 🛠 __Streak Repair__: We’re strangely excited for this one because it’s been a recurring piece of feedback in my inbox for years. Before, if you entered days out of order, your streak broke completely. Now, when you fill in those empty days, the app intelligently looks ahead and can rebuild your streak back to it’s previous glory!
- ✌️ __Double-Tap to Like__: Thanks to a user request, now you can simply double-tap to send a classic 💜 reaction in Pods.
- ✍️ __Editable Reactions__: With the new “quick kudos,” we noticed a need to make the emoji editable. Now you can tap the reaction to change it to something new.
- 8️⃣ __Memories 8 Years Ago__: Happyfeed is getting older and so are your memories! Some people will be seeing “10 Years Ago…” memories before we know it.
- 📸 __Photo Library Fixes__: [In November](/blog/product-updates-november-2021), we rewrote our photo backend from the ground up. Now photos should reflect any changes in your library, location data should map properly, and we even use degraded images for faster loading. (Note: if you delete a photo from your library, we’ll still have back-up, so no worries.)

### Android Updates
- 🖼 **Zoomable Pod Images**: Tap any photo in your Pod feed to see it full screen. This works the same as tapping any of your photos on your moments.
Joining Random Pods: Now you can tap the PLUS icon in the top left corner of the Pods screen to join a Random Pod (if you already are in other Pods) and you can join up to two Rando Pods.
- ✂️ __Image Cropping__: We noticed that image cropping was causing a crash for some users and could feel like an unnecessary step when uploading. For new users, this is off by default and you can turn it on and off in your settings.

### Overall Improvements
- 🗑 __Random Pod Shuffling__: After receiving a lot of helpful feedback, we finally have a system in place that seems to work for everyone. Share or send kudos once every 11 days or you’ll be removed from the group. We’ll send a push notification reminder after 7 days and an email after 9 though!
- 💗 __Bigger Random Pods__: We increased the number of people in Random Pods from 8 to 12. This means 50% more people and (we hope) 50% more content to interact with and engage with. 

## Coming Up
The core features of Happyfeed, like photos, are really feeling rock-solid after another month of full focus. For January, we’ll be focusing more on what makes Happyfeed truly a unique app: Pods and [Private Sharing](/blog/private-instagram-alternative). More specifically, we’re exploring ways that you can share with friends without having a go through the work of creating a group and getting the right friends to join. It’ll be an experiment but one I’m very excited about!

_Journaling first, sharing second._ That’s the way Happyfeed will always work because all the benefits of reflecting, savoring, and practicing gratitude come from doing it for yourself first.

Cheers!

December 2021 text over photo of latte and paper snowflake

Improving our updates to photo storage, intelligent streak repair, and encouraging more activity in your Random Pods.

Product Updates: December 2021

Let’s face it, Instagram isn’t what it used to be. Gone are the days when you could snap a photo of your food, slap on a glossy filter, and receive likes from pretty much everyone you knew. In the beginning there were no ads, brands had yet to “discover” it as a way to sell products, and most people were just having fun trying to make something beautiful with their subpar phone camera. It was a digital oasis filled with only the best moments from people you cared about.

Today, it’s become common for people to actually feel a need to set limits on their devices to prevent themselves from using apps like Instagram too much. “Too much” never used to be a concern because there wasn’t an infinite amount of content and scrolling to do. Everyone followed friends from their contacts or people they knew from Facebook or Twitter. You had dozens of real friends, not hundreds of loose connections and celebrities.

Instagram is still a wonderful app for many, but it’s changed drastically from what it used to be. It’s no longer focused on those close, meaningful relationships. In this post, I’ll outline the things that made the early days of Instagram so amazing, and how a photo journaling app, [Happyfeed](/), might bring us back to that magical place.

## The Joy of Posting Photos Online

Let’s start by looking at what made early Instagram such an magical app. It quickly replaced Facebook for many people and was one of the first mobile social apps to really find traction. “Magic” isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to define, so I’ll dive into the qualities that I think made early Instagram such a unique experience:

![Instagram screenshots from 2021](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/3ewWnmCGzjWRHDLHndqhbb/b46c1508dc372811096058e53dcfa7b7/instagram-pre-android.jpg)

1. __Each post felt magical to the poster.__ Posting on early version of Instagram felt like magic. The filters turned our not-so-great phone camera photos into artsy memories and you could easily post to all the other social networks. It was simple, novel, and just worked.
2. __Just friends and people from your phone.__ When Instagram started, everyone followed friends from Facebook and their phone contacts. People posted once a day and the feed was sorted chronologically. The content wasn’t nearly as grand (e.g. chic brands and influencers at resorts) but it felt meaningful because it came from real connections.
3. __People actually liked your content.__ Less followers and content means more eyes on each post. Instagram has always done a great job of making sure posts receive engagement from people you care about. They did invent the double-tap to like, after all.
4. __Aesthetics only, no opinions.__ Instagram was originally more about sharing what you were up to and getting a glimpse into others’ lives. You could keep up with your friends by scrolling through photos. Now, there’s a mix of everything from political opinions to brand promotions. Even memes are a relatively new trend.
5. __Less polish and low ego.__ As an ad-driven platform matures, it tends to create more ways to gain attention and social capital. What was once “isn’t this beautiful?” becomes “isn’t my life amazing?” I wonder how a platform can stay in a low ego state and avoid the one-upping and status-seeking behavior. If more followers isn’t the goal, how do you keep people motivated?

How could a photo sharing platform retain the parts of Instagram that we once loved but lost due to the nature of its massive size, business model, and focus on growth? It’s not easy for a product to stay in that special, magic place.

My biggest takeaway is that the __magic__ comes from feeling a deep connection with others on the platform and making sure that content is meaningful to the poster. I believe it’s completely possible to create an alternative that can sustain these ideals while growing as a company. (A nice challenge at least!)

## Private Photo App

What’s the best way to ensure that a photo sharing experience never turns into a massive, overwhelming social network? Default to private photo uploading. That leads to the obvious question: “Why would anyone want to post on a private photo app instead of a public one with all their friends?”

The type of apps you use each day impact the way you take and share photos:

- Someone on __Instagram__ may look to capture and share moments that make them look impressive or mark important life milestones. (Like asking a photographer to hide in the bushes for their engagement photo.)
- A __Snapchat__ user might want to point out an inside joke or just quickly send playful photos to their close friends to keep a streak going when they’re bored.
- People on __Facebook__ used to post dozens of photos at once with the goal of tagging all their friends and getting engagement. (Back in 2008, we did this with digital cameras at parties and big events.)
- A person who uses more __artistic platforms__ will likely spend more time getting the perfect shot and tinkering with editing software. Identifying as a “creative” person can completely change the way you perceive what’s worth capturing.
- But if you keep your __photos private__ (like in Happyfeed) you’ll likely go through your day thinking about which scenes and moments you’ll want to save to reflect on and savor.

[Happyfeed](/) is a daily photo journal built around gratitude and reflecting on happy moments. There’s something special about taking photos to savor and save for a future version of yourself. It’s intentional, it can be reflective, and if a picture if worth a thousand words, you’ve found an incredibly efficient way to keep a journal without writing.

![Happyfeed screenshots - reflection, calendar, and memories](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6XsKB137wLujr7GVXWNj6H/e9c2b579833a459da6ba02d2c780f989/android-screens-photos.jpg)

Ultimately, I think the most meaningful photo app is a journal at its core: a place to record and (sometimes) share memories that you’ll want to be reminded of in ten or twenty years. At the end of your life, would you rather look back on personal memories or how many followers and likes you got?

## Group Photo Sharing

One of the biggest problems with a huge social network is that it’s a huge social network. Over time you follow more and more people and, before you know it, the people you actually care about only make up a small fraction of posts between travel bloggers and that bird photographer you’re lowkey obsessed with. What if you wanted a place just to send and receive moments from your real friends and family?

You might already be sharing photos in a group chat app like Whatsapp or iMessage, but these apps are built only for sharing. Alternatively, creating shared albums with Apple or Google is great for events but would be overwhelming for everyday use.

Happyfeed combines a private photo journal with sharing in small groups called [Pods](/pods-social-self-care). We think that a journal gives you the perfect space to reflect on the best moments and photos from your day, while providing the flexibility to share the especially notable ones. To share your photos and memories with friends, all you need to do is toggle those Pods for them to automatically show up in your shared feed.

![Happyfeed sharing screenshots - upload screen, share options, and Pods screen](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/01jzJfvVy2iobUHpXD4Zk0/9d59fb39bc6f6272eb78e29a901713c8/iphone-screens-sharing.jpg)

Making group sharing a secondary function helps us create a feed of meaningful moments as opposed to just the things you think others will want to see. Happyfeed is a way to track your life and Pods provide a way to show others a glimpse, a highlight reel of your best photos.

## Sharing Memories in a New Way

Happyfeed got its name from the idea of trying to create a newsfeed that didn’t have all the negativity and bad feelings from other social networks. The simplest way to do that was to build a positive journal where the feed was your own happy memories. Over time, we’ve explored ways to turn this feed into something sharable and social.

Let’s take a look at what makes Happyfeed a unique experience comparable to the earlier days of Instagram. (And yes, you can map each of these to my breakdown list above.)

1. __Daily Reflection__ - Journaling in Happyfeed is meant to be fun. You can easily upload photos, read uplifting hints, receive funky daily prompts, track streaks, and even tag days with an emoji. It’s based on [gratitude journaling](/research/what-is-a-gratitude-journal), a practice proven to actually boost your happiness.
2. __Share in Pods__ - Sharing on Happyfeed happens in small groups called Pods. By joining one or many Pods, you can control your sharing and make sure the right people see your memories. You can even share memories from your daily throwbacks to surprise friends.
3. __Simple Interactions__ - To keep things simple and reduce the pressure of leaving a “perfect comment” the app encourages you to send emojis as reactions to shares in Pods. There's also a commenting option (in case you have more to say).
4. __Photos for You__ - Happyfeed is a photo journal at its core. That means all the moments are personally meaningful unless you go out of your way to post something else (which you 100% can). This dynamic makes most feeds feel like a fun glimpse of your life.
5. __Private by Default__ - Every post in Happyfeed starts out as a private reflection: only a fraction of posts ever should or will be shared. This means that posts are inherently made for the writer and not written to impress others. 

There are dozens of Happyfeed features that I left out in this list. Most of them involve creating ways to explore and interact with your past memories - like [Joy Recaps](/blog/monthly-joy-recaps), Daily Throwbacks, or the [Gratitude Jar](/blog/happiness-jar). When the focus of an app is on savoring your life, there’s a whole world of new functionality to explore.

## An Instagram Alternative, Not a Replacement

Of course, if you try to use an app like Happyfeed in place of Instagram for every feature, you’ll likely be left feeling a bit disappointed. You can’t send videos yet and you can’t follow The Rock or any Kardashians. But it is guaranteed to be a more focused experience that strives to foster positive emotions and thoughtful sharing. 

Many people are beginning to realize that social media isn’t always a good thing. Maybe it’s better not to have so many options and so many perfect people to compare ourselves to. So let’s take out the bad stuff, magnify some of the good stuff, and add some little twists to give it some personality.

You can think of Happyfeed as a private Instagram alternative and, more importantly, as a new way to share and focus on meaningful moments with your closest group of friends and family. With that goal in mind, I’m excited to continue to build an experience that can bring you more joy each day.

[Try the app, it's free!](/)

Various images of people taking photos on their phones

How a group photo sharing app based on journaling can be used as a private social network

Private Instagram Alternative

With Thanksgiving and the start of the holiday season, November is always a good month for gratitude and a great time for us to make some big changes to Happyfeed. Most notably, we launched an [Apple Watch app](/blog/apple-watch-journal), but there have been plenty of other helpful update.

### Overall
- 🙅‍♀️ __Language filter in Random Pods__: We added an automatic filter to look for inappropriate words in memories shared within Random [Pods](/blog/pods-shared-gratitude). Anytime we catch one, we’ll hide the post, remove that person from the Pod, and ban them from joining more. Happyfeed is a positive, supportive place and we have zero tolerance for misuse!
- ✨ __Improving Random Pods__: We’re in the process of reworking the way Random Pods filter out inactive members. Most likely, we’ll require members to share a memory every week or so to remain active.

### iOS Updates
- ⌚️ __Apple Watch app__: Now you can enjoy a few of your favorite Happyfeed features right from your watch, like the [Happiness Jar](/blog/happiness-jar) and mood tracking. [Learn more.](/blog/apple-watch-journal)
- 📸 __New photo storage__: We realized that photos were using up a lot of data and taking up too much space on iOS, so we completely rewrote the code handling uploading and downloading. Now, Happyfeed only stores photo IDs from your Photo Library. It can display images without duplicating the data or needing a network connection.
- 🌙 __Better dark mode__: Until last month, Dark Mode in Happyfeed included everything except for the background colors on the upload screen. Now we have a unique dark gradient for each of the theme options. Don’t they look great?

![iPhone screen mockups with three different dark mode background gradients](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/5sk6htZM0CcjSPH9mmM6uV/f1355dd297dc79748bc1e8533d91eee0/iphone-screens-november-2021.jpg)

### Android Updates
- 👨‍🔧 __Easier to join Pods__: We fixed a few pesky bugs that caused issues when joining a Pod. It also wasn’t always clear to new Pod members how they could share memories. Now there’s a bit of help text right on the Pods screen.
- 🏁 __Daily goal prompt__: You’ve always had the option to update your minimum moments per day in settings, but now we explicitly ask all new users to set a daily goal. This means you’ll be able to track streaks and completed days whether you want to write three things a day or one.
- 📐 __Big tile layout__: For people who choose a 1-per-day goal, we redesigned the layout to show a larger tile and image. It takes much better advantage of the space!

![Android screens with daily goal drawer, big tiles for single moments, and help text in Pods](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/5YdfO9Ea4MpKJM36NO7RKf/2b8d5430d9878decbb3198b265da7583/android-screens-november-2021.jpg)

## Coming Up

The New Year is always a huge source of inspiration to help people get started with a gratitude habit. We can confidently say that it’s our most important time of year and the perfect time to discover the joy of journaling! However, so many people try to start healthy habits in January but find themselves losing interest or quitting within weeks. We have a some new ideas in the works to help with motivation.

We’ll also be cleaning up the annual Gratitude Grid for this year (one of my favorite things that we do). If you are new to Happyfeed this year, you can think of it as a larger version of the [Joy Recaps](/blog/monthly-joy-recaps) aimed at a whole year rather than just a single month.

November 2021 text over a photo of cherry pie

Smarter photo storage, daily goals on Android, an Apple Watch app, and some smarter ways to handle content in Random Pods. November was busy!

Product Updates: November 2021

As you may have guessed from our name, Happyfeed aims to create a place on your digital devices that fosters genuine happiness. When we started to plan out an Apple Watch app, we wanted to further that goal by answering the question, “How could looking at your watch spark a bit of joy?”

Today I’m excited to announce the launch of our new [Apple Watch app](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943#?platform=iphone). It aims to take a few of the best features of Happyfeed and repackage them in a novel way that’s more accessible right on your wrist.

> How could looking at your watch spark a bit of joy?

### Happiness Jar
Nothing sparks joy as naturally or simply as the [Happiness Jar](/blog/happiness-jar). Looking through dozens, hundreds, or thousands of your past moments is the best way to remind yourself that life really is wonderful. It’s no surprise that the Happiness Jar is one of the most popular features of Happyfeed, but unfortunately, it’s also one of the most overlooked. It’s always been a challenge to find intuitive ways to fit it into your daily habit.

Using the Happiness Jar in our watch app is a lot like the iOS version. Tap the "Happiness Jar" button to open it up and then simply swipe left or tap the "shuffle" button to see new memories. There's even a "back" button in case you swipe too fast and miss one of your favorite moments.

![Images of Apple Watch with Happiness Jar, a memory with a photo, and a plain text memory](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/6yCXOoyJG9jvYM8yXe7lOc/e5063eef6f1176f96e108ece1dfc51d0/Artboard.jpg)

We think you’ll love how accessible it is when you can swipe and tap to see happy memories right from your Apple Watch. If you have data access, you don’t even need your phone nearby to shuffle through your Happiness Jar.

### Track Your Mood
Gratitude journaling teaches you that there are positive moment and things to be grateful for in any day, but some days are naturally going to stand out from the others. In the app you can “heart” a day to tag it as a favorite and select an emoji to make a more memorable note about that day. Your evening hike up a mountain might earn the 🏔emoji and you might put a 💕 emoji on your anniversary. It’s meant to be a quick way to know what makes any day special.

Since they are quick ways to recognize your day, we thought these features were perfect as actions in the watch app. Next time you feel that boost of [serotonin](/research/4-brain-chemicals-make-you-happy) from a big promotion or endorphins from finishing a challenging hike, you’ll be able to make a note from your Apple Watch. 

![Images of Apple Watch with day favoriting and emoji tagging options](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/12VSdo4BSdF7DMmsdtxLvt/1695420eea4f86b0c572fdefe0a80d71/Artboard_2.jpg)

To tag your day, you can tap the “Today” button in our watch app to see an overview of the current day. Here you'll have the option to toggle a heart to “favorite” the day or tap the smiley icon to select an emoji. The emoji picker will open up the keyboard which will only accept emoji values. You can reset the emoji by tapping the button again and selecting the prefill "Remove emoji" option.

As a bonus, if you add our “Day Overview” complication to your Apple Watch face, you’ll notice that it automatically updates to show any emoji you picked for the day.

### Writing Journal Entries
Audio and voice are increasingly becoming less of a novelty and more of a mainstream way to use our devices. We thought that it might feel silly to try and type out a journal entry on your watch, but a voice note might make perfect sense. In a future version of the Apple Watch app, we plan to explore ways to send voice notes right into the iOS app that you could pin to your moments or use as inspiration while reflecting more deeply on your day.

### Feedback and Ideas
The Apple Watch is becoming a mature product but we think that there’s still room to invent intuitive and unique experiences. We want to make our watch app more than just a watered-down version of the iOS app. It’s an opportunity to create experiences even further beyond anything a paper journal can do. If you have some thoughts, ideas, or examples of how we might expand our thinking around what a watch can do, please [reach out](mailto:hello@happyfeed.co)!

As always, thanks so much for following along and helping us make a positive journal that’s built to bring you decades of joy ✨

cover-image

Explore your happy memories with the new Happyfeed Apple Watch app. Shuffle through your Happiness Jar or tag the current day before reflecting more in-depth.

Apple Watch Journal

Simple is what we do best at Happyfeed so our goal this month was to continue to focus on improving the core functionality of our apps. This meant refining the photo experience and making sure Happyfeed looks amazing on any device: iPhone, Android, iPad, or even your new MacBook with the M1 chip.

### iOS Updates
- __🌁 Blurry backdrops__: Portrait photos are becoming much more common than landscape these days. To address that, we’ve updated the Moment screen to show your full portrait photos with a blurred background to fill the space.
- __✨ Full tiles__: All new users (and some existing ones) will see larger tiles on the main upload screen in Happyfeed. This is meant to bring more attention to your daily post, particularly if you only record one each day.
- __💻 iPad and Apple silicon Mac__: We’ve been doing a ton of work to improve the infrastructure of Happyfeed. One of these updates has made it vastly easier to make flexible layouts. That means Happyfeed looks great on everything from iPhone to iPad now!
- __🤳 Selfie Fixes__: Some users reported that selfies were being distorted when saved. We rebuilt our image formatter from the ground up to properly handle all your beautiful future selfies.

![iPhone screens showing blurred photo background and full tile on uploader](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/4dwjHDcvLZWZjkhtGG9YVf/21e7bdaf2cb61a71d3da22defe534b30/iphone-screens-october-2021.jpg)

### Android Updates
- 📐 __Image dimensions__: All new photos will now be displayed in their natural ratios in your moment history. That means no more accidental heads cropped out of selfies and family pics.
- 📲 __Memory reminders__: New users will now be opted in to receive a daily notification at noon each day when they have memories from this day weeks, months, or years ago. The notifications should start after two weeks and you can toggle on memory notifications in your settings if you’ve been using Happyfeed for a bit longer.
- 🐛 Minor bug fixes and performance enhancements (because we’d really like to have 4.9 stars on both apps!)

### Website Updates
Thankfully, our website is up and running on a new set of technologies after a complete rebuild from [last month](/blog/product-updates-september-2021). It’s much faster to add features, fix old ones, and explore new ideas! Happyfeed is always mobile-first but the website provides a fun way to support the apps.

We left out a few pages during the rebuild, but everything should be back up and running with a few improvements.

- Inline photos: Photos now appear inline on the dashboard page. It’s nearly as good as the in-app experience now :)
- Uploading: The upload page back up with a minor design refresh. We squished a few little bugs while updating it too.

## Coming Up
I’ve been wanting to venture into the world of Apple Watch development since it was first announced. For Thanksgiving, I thought it would be a fun project to launch an Apple Watch to pair with the iOS version of Happyfeed. We’ll keep it simple to start but it’s exciting to think of all the ways that we can extend the Happyfeed experience right from your wrist.

If you have any ideas or thoughts about what we should do next, send us an email at [hello@happyfeed.co](mailto:hello@happyfeed.co). We read every message and often get our best ideas from the inbox.


cover-october-2021

Focusing on the fundamentals by improving the photo experience in Happyfeed and ensuring the app looks great on any device.

Product Updates: October 2021

Starting this month, I’m excited to share an overview of all the product updates we’ve made to Happyfeed over the past month.

## iOS Updates
- __Happiness Jar__: Swipe right to shuffle or left to go back
- Newer photos display in their __natural ratios__ in your history
- __Prettier buttons__ in the Photo Picker drawer with icons
- Improved __flexible layout__ for iPad users
- __✨New Mood Picker__ - We split the favoriting functionality and emoji tagging into two unique buttons (and made a much simpler emoji picker). Your favorite days don’t need an emoji, and now any day can have emoji for easier mood tracking.
- __✨New Moment Layouts__ - To make memories more sharable, we replaced the color button in our Moment overlay with an option to switch between different layouts. The first is a fullscreen image option and the second is a simple square with text on top. Both are perfect for sending to friends.

![iPhone screens with mood picker and moment layouts](//images.contentful.com/6toqfbloxcdn/dZNwFBIxEIOrnlDtxoXWy/f8b866cd5e86ead1bfc7ed2cc0d8c089/iphone-screens-september-2021.jpg)

Happyfeed is filled with so many wonderful memories and I know we can always do a better job of building ways to present and share those memories. Moment Layouts are a good starting point and I hope we can offer up even more options soon - like fonts, colors, and more layout control.

## Android Updates
- Larger photos in the [Happiness Jar](/blog/happiness-jar)
- Started storing image dimensions for future release with natural ratios
- Updated navigation structure to help speed up the app

The Android app is still a bit behind the iOS one in terms of features, but it’s finally starting to feel almost as robust and reliable. If you notice something in our list of iOS updates that sounds cool, let us know and we’ll prioritize it for Android next!

## Website Updates
You may have noticed a few small changes to our website. That's because we rebuilt the whole thing from scratch on a new platform to help speed up the pages and make room for new features.

Plus, it's always fun to come up with new homepage designs 👨‍🎨

## Up Next
Many of the best ideas come from people who use Happyfeed every day. If there’s something you’re wishing the app had, or just a fun idea for a new feature, please reach out and let us know! You can drop us a message at [hello@happyfeed.co](https://www.happyfeed.co).


An overview of updates made to our apps over the past month, including new layouts options and a mood picker

Product Updates: September 2021

Happyfeed is first and foremost a place to store all of the amazing little things that happen in your life. Some of these are personal, intimate thoughts and others are more public and fun to share. What if you saw a memory from finishing your first 5k a year ago? You might have ran with friends who would love to remember the feeling as well.

> It’s a place to store all of the amazing little things that happen in your life.

There are essentially three ways to take your wonderful moments in Happyfeed and share them with the rest of the world:
1. Take a screenshot and post it wherever you like
2. Share with friends in a [Pod](/pods-social-self-care)
3. Share on other platforms using our share options

We realized that we weren’t doing much to enhance the __third__ experience and make it special. As much as we’d love for all your friends to join Happyfeed and create a Pod, we know it’s not for everyone. But you’ll probably still have memories involving those friends that you’d love to share!

## Introducing Share Links

For years, we kept sharing super simple. Tap the share button and you’d see the default sharing option on iOS: iMessage, Facebook, Twitter and any of your favorite apps. Happyfeed would put together a summary of your memory in quotes with the date to send.

But we left out all the context! Anyone receiving our pre-made messages might wonder if you typed the text out yourself. Then you’d have to explain everything and it becomes a bit too much work.

![Default sharing flow screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/2XzUxtVGnPfDRzXg6Xbwsz/23b027f31cb5da1fb4cce9fc47fd5545/Default_sharing_flow_screens.jpg)

Now Happyfeed will automatically generate a secret, shareable link for any of your past moments. These Share Links create a beautiful version of your memory, hosted on our website.

We made sure to include the date and any images in the meta tags for the preview, to help friends understand exactly what you are sending them.

![Share Link flow screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/33pfI1jKhLtIIY78RAesjB/16f74c6ad14de7127eb6cb2f390d3563/Share_Link_flow_screens.jpg)

### Why are Share Links better?

Social networks, in particular, make it difficult to turn text and images into a shareable post. On Facebook, you can really only share links or images. This means that we have no way copying and pasting the text from your moment into a post. Most apps get around this by creating unique URLs for content - which is exactly what we decided to do!

On top of that, it adds a little more legitimacy to your memories. It’s more casual to send a link to a friend than a typed out message. If a picture is worth 1000 words, then a link is worth at least a dozen...right? Did we mention that the page is gorgeously designed?

![Share Link website preview](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6m62KjQARa3QOKMesP9L5L/7fa74ecf6e300289d2fdd849d2ad0e70/Share_Link_website_preview.jpg)

## Unlocking new ways to share

I try to think ahead by 10 or even 20 years, because Happyfeed is meant to hold your positive memories for life. Giving each memory a unique URL gives it a special little spot on the internet which unlocks all sorts of possibilities. I won’t make any promises but this could lead to countless fun features like:
- New ways to store shared moments on the receiver side in the app
- More complex integrations into other apps and platforms
- Leveraging new technologies like Apple’s App Clips
- The ability to send memories as QR codes (maybe on postcards?)
- A novel way to bookmark memories by saving links

We can’t wait to try out some new ideas and see what makes the most impact!

### Final note on privacy
You might be wondering, “OK, so if there’s a unique link for every moment, won’t my memories be publicly available??” _It’s an excellent question!_

The short answer is **no, absolutely not**. First off, Share Links are only created for moments that you select to share. There’s no API available to see which moments have a shared link turned on.

To future-proof the feature, we also built each Share Link with the ability to be turned off. Our website checks to see if sharing is enabled before it will present any moment information on these pages (and even then it needs to go multiple levels into the data to find anything). Turn off sharing and the page will display a 404 error!

Hero image

Create a secret URL for your memories on Happyfeed to make them easier to share with friends and other social platforms like Facebook or Twitter.

Spread Happiness with Share Links

Be happy! Smile more! Look on the bright side! These phrases might make you cringe if you’ve ever been in an unhappy place and faced a relentless source of positivity. Perhaps a friend was just trying to cheer you up but failed to recognize that they were actually only making the problem worse.

_You may have heard that smiling can instantly boost your mood, but even that is [debated by psychologists](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/can-smiling-really-make-you-happier/)._

There’s a growing trend on social media of what many are calling toxic positivity. What is toxic positivity? We’ll define it as:

> A misguided attempt to spread happiness by promoting the concept that negative feelings can be avoided by simply maintaining a positive mindset.

At its core, toxic positivity is problematic because it encourages a mentality where negative emotions are suppressed instead of being dealt with in a healthy way. Some have compared this to “emotional gaslighting” because of the way it denies very real feelings: you can’t force depression to disappear by smiling and dancing. Finding real happiness requires an understanding of the existence of negative emotions.

## Where Does Toxic Positivity Come From?
Happiness is celebrated in American culture. Buy a house and you will be happy. Find the right partner and you’ll be happy. Fit in and work hard and happiness will be just around the corner. If you haven’t achieved happiness, you might feel like you’re failing somehow.

In modern society, toxic positivity can most easily be found in disingenuous self-promotion, typically on social media. With an environment of social influencers, follower counts, and rewards for likes and positive comments (❤️ this!), it’s no wonder that positivity has gotten a little out of control.

> If you haven’t achieved happiness, you might feel like you’re failing somehow.

I’d like to think that most toxic positivity is an unintentional side-effect of ambitious influencers. Spreading positivity seems like a worthy pursuit and popular accounts have proven that it’s a sure way to gain followers. Over-the-top joy and cheerful proverbs _can_ genuinely give us warm fuzzy feelings when we aren’t being exposed to so darn much of it!

Distrust is an emerging issue as well. When you’re in front of a camera with video filters and professional editing, real emotions can get lost and unrecognizable. How can we know what’s real when everything feels “produced?” Seeing a beautiful person explain how to be happy like them makes many of us just want to curl up and delete Instagram.

### Examples of Toxic Positivity:
I’ve used the example of an overly enthusiastic Instagram influencer spreading toxic positivity by suggesting that “you too can be happy and beautiful if you try harder,” but there are many more ways this can manifest:

- A friend who dismisses your emotions (hopefully unintentionally!)
- Positive mantras from self-help books without the appropriate context
- Influencers on social media spreading “just be positive” messages
- Suppression of your own negative emotions
- Feelings of guilt for your unhappiness

Sometimes the best way to handle your negative emotions is to sit with them, learn to understand them, and notice the ways they come and go. There’s no secret pill to cure sadness and understanding the [chemicals that cause happiness](/research/4-brain-chemicals-make-you-happy) is a great place to start.

## How to Avoid Toxic Positivity
A Buddhist monk would tell you that life consists of pain and suffering. This isn’t to say that happiness is unachievable but rather that comfort (or enlightenment) can come from learning to accept the ebbs and flows in life. Find gratitude in what you already have.

You can’t always be over-the-moon happy and expecting to be might put you in a vicious cycle. Start by avoiding toxic positivity and the false notion that happiness is all that matters.

Tips to avoid toxic positivity:
1. **Reduce your time on social media.** You may not realize the effects it has on your mental health until you take a significant break.
2. **Try to remove the guilt.** Recognize feelings as you have them and slowly try to understand where they come from. 
3. **Surround yourself with self-aware people.** Insecure friends may fall into the habit of boasting and making you feel inadequate by comparison.
4. **Understand other approaches to a good life.** [Learning about Buddhism](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0043VDI6A) or meditation, for example, could help you find perspective. 

Luckily, there’s an entire field of study called [positive psychology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_psychology) and more research coming out every day on how to make small changes to find more positivity.

### Healthy Positivity
Not all positivity is bad and most of it is likely well-intentioned. When you approach positivity with the idea that it isn’t a magic cure for negative feelings, but instead a way to discover balance, you’ll find that it can be improved with effort. Routines, habits, and shifts in perspective can all help you slowly infuse healthy positivity into your life. These are just a few ways to get started:

- **Gratitude** - Try writing down things that went well each day in a [gratitude journal](/research/what-is-a-gratitude-journal). This practice can help you learn to recognize positive moments even during tough times.
- **Savoring** - By understanding that happiness comes and goes, you can fully appreciate true joy when it hits you. Celebrate your wins intentionally and with loved ones when possible.
- **Enjoy time with yourself** - Go for long walks, learn to meditate, or take up a hobby that lets your mind wander. Getting to know your own mind paves the way for real progress.
- **Let your thoughts flow** - Complex emotions and ideas can take work to understand and dissect. We recommend writing in a journal, talking to a friend, or trying therapy.
- **Recognize progress** - Your friends, your family, your accomplishments, and everything that’s gotten you to where you are. Many people even suggest that awareness of your own mortality can help put life into perspective.

No post on happiness would be complete without reminding you that this all comes from the perspective of a single author. Please consider my thoughts with an open mind and know that what makes life meaningful to you can be very different than the next person.


toxic-positivity-emojis

Learn how our never-ending search for happiness and a "good vibes only" culture can be harmful, and explore ways to seek out healthy positivity.

What is Toxic Positivity?

Exploring your past memories is the best part of keeping a gratitude journal. I might even go so far as to say that the _whole point_ of keeping a digital journal is all the unique ways of accessing past entries that it unlocks. Photos, tagging, collages - there are limitless options for a simple app to be a superpower for your memory.

I’m excited to introduce our latest feature for exploring your memories in Happyfeed: __Joy Recaps__.

![Joy Recaps iPhone Screenshot](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/4IBb2lIMWARlmqAaaPvkTi/d2c84cf00586bc0d033e65ab2b9b1a04/pods-share-image.jpg)

## How do they work?
Joy Recaps are a way to get a quick snapshot from any period of time, starting with monthly reviews. At the end of each month, you’ll be able to access an interactive overview of your moments. It’s a little bit like the Calendar* but more condensed and free for everyone.

- 📋 Open the Joy Recaps by tapping the **clipboard icon** in the top left corner of the main upload screen
- 📱 **Swipe left and right** or tap the month buttons to quickly change the current month
- 🍒 Your **top emojis** from the month (if any) will be displayed to the left of a ring chart showing the percentage of days you completed that month
- 📸 An **image grid** shows randomly selected photos from the month. Tap the shuffle button to randomly select new ones (over and over and over).
- ⚡️ **Sharing is simple**: Tap the Share/Save button to see options on how to share. You can also just use this button to save a screenshot of the grid.
- 🥑 Note: You can’t see the Recap for a month until it has completely finished. You’ll have to wait until March 1st to see February, for example.

It’s generally our philosophy to do the simple thing first and build more from there. If Joy Recaps are popular, you can expect many, many updates. Features like a word map or themes (e.g. “you mentioned food items _a lot_”) would be wonderful starting points. We’ll also look into smaller updates to how the image grid is used.

_*The Calendar is currently only available to iOS users who subscribe to our [Plus](/plus-faq) subscription._

## How'd we decide on Recaps? 
If you’ve been Happyfeeding for a while, you might notice that this new feature is very similar to our annual [Gratitude Grid](/gratitude-grid). Our motivation was a combination of two things:
1. We wanted a way to use the Gratitude Grid more freuqently. Why wait a full year to use this tool when there are plenty of memories and photos to explore from each month? By the end of 2021, you can expect to see the yearly Gratitude Grid in the app too.
2. For the past couple of years, we've been sending "monthly review" emails with random photos, top emojis, and most-used words. We wanted to move the reviews from email to an in-app experience. Email is a useful tool but for the sake of privacy and clutter-free inboxes, we’d rather avoid it. Plus, there’s a lot of extra feature’s we can access in-app!

## Let's keep improving
Please try out the Joy Recaps and let us know what you think! We always really appreciate your reviews and love to hear your ideas and feedback via email. Just send us an email at <a href="mailto:hello@happyfeed.co">hello@happyfeed.co</a>.

Joy Recaps illustration

Introducing a way to create a snapshot of your memories from past months in the Happyfeed app.

Monthly Joy Recaps

Happyfeed is finally available in **Dark Mode** for iOS! Now your journal will automatically follow your device’s appearance settings to toggle between traditional light and dark content. We’re excited to make the app even more calming and easy to use.

In most cases, choosing Dark Mode comes down to personal preference. However, there are some benefits that are generally true and can help you decide if it’s worth trying out. 

### Benefits of Dark Mode
- Easier to read text in dim lighting
- Less blue light can prevent disruptions to your sleep cycle
- Lower battery usage by decreasing brightness
- Less disruptive to others in a dark environment
- It also just looks wonderful 🌚

![Dark Mode Example Screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6EXKTQo6IAqWVAevWmo3e5/4ad2d26293a5dcda68079f31dc90577c/Dark_Mode_Example_Screens.jpg)

## How to Journal in Dark Mode

Dark mode is enabled by default if you have the Happyfeed iOS version _v3.10.0_ or newer. Whenever your device switches into Dark Mode for the evening, Happyfeed will automatically switch out the white for blacks and shift into a darker color palette. You can choose to override your device settings to put Happyfeed in always-light or always-dark mode as well. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to the Profile tab in Happyfeed (far right option)
2. Open your settings by selecting _User Settings & Exports_
3. Select the _Display_ option to view Dark Mode settings
4. Use the toggles to turn Dark Mode on or off. _Use device setting_ will automatically follow the appearance settings from your device (In _Settings_ -> _Display & Brightness_)

![Dark Mode Settings](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/3sZvvxJiwRy5mr1SBn6nDU/e6e3afab8bf1a4bc29ef30efb8028c60/Dark_Mode_Settings.jpg)

## Dark Mode for Calmer Nights

The benefits of Dark Mode make it worth adding to any application, and this is especially true for Happyfeed. Most people prefer to write in their gratitude journal in the evenings, sometimes just before falling asleep and often even in bed. Sleep research suggests that decreasing your exposure to bright light in the evenings can help you fall asleep more easily. Staring at a bright white screen on your phone can’t be good if you’re especially concerned about getting a full night of rest!

Happyfeed is designed to help you cultivate feelings of joy and ultimately feel less stressed and more optimistic about life. Getting a good night of sleep can be the difference between feeling amazing or feeling terrible the following day. If a dark device screen can help you sleep even just the tiniest bit better, than it is worth it!

### Accessible Journaling for Everyone

The core idea behind Happyfeed is to create a simple gratitude journal that anyone can enjoy. Dark Mode isn’t everyone’s preference, but those who like it often love it. If that’s the case, I hope you love this update. 😉

If you have any ideas on how we can improve our accessibility even more, please send us a message as hello@happyfeed.co

Thank you!

Dark Mode Hero

Introducing full support for iOS Dark Mode to make it easier to journal in the evening and reduce the strain on your eyes.

Dark Mode Journaling

We released Pods in November 2019 with the goal of making it easier to stay motivated and keep up your gratitude journaling habit. We liked the idea of having an accountability buddy - a way to check in with friends and share your progress. It's common for fitness apps to leverage your friends to help you run an extra mile or get in those extra steps, so why shouldn’t your journal do something similar?

Pods have been especially popular in recent months and we've received overwhelming feedback. Most commonly, families, couples, and friends have all requested that we add a way to actually share your moments in Pods. 

We loved the idea of being able to share your gratitude with others, so we decided to rethink Pods and make some major updates.

_Update April 28, 2020: Updates are released on Android as well!_

## Introducing Pods 2.0:
We redesigned Pods from the ground up into a colorful, interactive feed of positive progress and happy moments. Stories in this feed are a mix of friends completing their daily journaling and sharing specific moments and photos from their day. 

![pods-2-shared-gratitude](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/3INRQjSEvjv5Nw5qG6FUdz/50e2da1284167b5b83dcfed3ea39306b/pods-2-shared-gratitude.png)

### What's New
- **New Layout:** The Pods screen now displays a feed of activities from friends, like completing a day or sharing a moment.
- **Shared moments:** Moments and photos are mixed in with progress updates, making it much more fun to check in on your Pods and see if anything new has been shared.
- **Member circles**: Pod members are listed across the top, showing their current streak and whether or not they’ve completed today. Soon these may be tappable to see their shares, journaling progress, and more.
- **Pod filtering:** Your feed can be filtered by specific Pods by selecting one from a dropdown menu in the new header.
- **Reactions:** Now you can send reactions to individual activities in your feed. You could send a 🔥 for completing a 100-day streak or a 🍰 for sharing a fun moment.

### How To Share
You can share any moment you like, even ones from your daily memories. Tap on any moment and you’ll see a new option to share that moment with one or many different Pods.

![how-to-share-moments](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/3qEiySbkoMbziwcOrhSTYI/0573b6e34273c92704d8cc3b98acf8ea/how-to-share-moments.png)

If you’d like to change your sharing settings for a particular moment, you can tap-and-hold on that moment in your Pods feed. Keep in mind that unsharing will remove any reactions!

To keep things simple, you can only share moments after they've been uploaded. We’ll likely be adding an option to the upload form to share directly with your Pods in the near future though.

## Why Now?
I’ve noticed that more and more people have started (or restarted) using Happyfeed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Many of us are stuck at home, feeling isolated and anxious, and looking for any way we can to connect with others.

While I think it’s incredibly important to stay informed and keep up with the news, I think too much exposure to negative headlines is giving us all anxiety. Happyfeed was always meant to be a small escape from the unpredictability and stress of social media. Now, with Pods, you’ll hopefully have an extra dash of serendipity to go with your existing gratitude habit.

Sharing a moment or sending a reaction feels like a little way to say, "Hey, we're all in this together and there's definitely still some good."

## Your Stories
I think it’d be especially fun to put together some stories from actual Happyfeed users. If you’ve made a Pod, I’d love to hear from you. We might even feature a few stories here on the blog. Reach out to me at [matt@happyfeed.co](mailto:matt@happyfeed.co) with the subject “Pods Story” and we can get a conversation started.

We’re excited for what’s next with Pods and can’t wait to hear your stories about using them.

### Note on Privacy
Happyfeed is first and foremost a journaling app that focuses helping you cultivate personal moments of joy. Pods are completely optional and moments will only ever be shared to the groups you specifically select. We encourage you to give them a try if you have a friend or loved one who you’re especially grateful for 💜

pods-hero-2

Reintroducing Pods as a new way to share your journaling progress and happy moments with friends

Pods: Shared Gratitude

**🚀 We recently updated Pods! See the new post - [Pods: Shared Gratitude](/blog/pods-shared-gratitude)**

Journaling is a very private act by nature, and it should be. Knowing your thoughts are just for you allows you to be more open with yourself and able to reflect on your day without judgement. But journaling doesn’t have to be something you do alone. As we know from running, yoga, and book clubs, starting a habit is easier with support.
So we’re excited to announce Pods, a totally new way to find support and motivation while you journal with Happyfeed.

You could think of it as “**Fitbit for Gratitude**.”

> Journaling doesn’t have to be something you do alone.

(_Update March 7, 2020: We've released Pods on Android as well! Some features may still be in development, but we'll get to them ASAP_ 😄)

## What’s a Pod?
Pods are small, private groups where you can share your journaling progress on Happyfeed. When you join a Pod, you agree to make your total number of completed days and current streak viewable by that group. It’s a simple way to keep each other on track and share your accomplishments. Sometimes a little nudge can help a friend through tough times!

Moments themselves are still 100% private and always will be. 

![pods-screens-2](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/doI8gxzXeKasTOYpuJZNy/506e017143b63e2e244fddc628d7d5e4/pods-screens-2.png)

So why might you start a Pod? Personally, I’m just trying to get my family more into journaling but maybe you...
- 👫 Would like to encourage a friend to try gratitude journaling
- 🤗 Have a support group already using Happyfeed
- 👵🏽Think your family could benefit from a little gratitude
- 🧘‍♀️ Want to start a workplace wellness challenge
- ❓ Have something else in mind! (Please email us if so, we’d love to know)

How do I join a Pod?
1. **Create or join a Pod** with a name and emoji
2. **Invite friends** by sending them a 6-digit code
3. **Share** completed days and streaks with Pod members
4. Just keep using Happyfeed as you normally would
5. **Send reactions** for accomplishments by tapping on them

![pods-share-screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6l6dCmjemTzO4dKSdBTynE/7f611a68e85244830773c59f60795c59/pods-share-screens.png)

## Why Pods?
We noticed that many people like to share their streaks and total days on Happyfeed. Sometimes it’s a way to share a milestone (“100 days of journaling 🎉”) or just a fun way to tell friends about the app (“2 weeks of journaling, join me 😄”). Some groups have even been sharing and liking each other’s progress on Twitter. So, naturally, we wanted to explore ways to do this right inside the Happyfeed app.

The idea is also inspired by exercise apps like Fitbit or [Strava](https://www.strava.com/). I'm an off-and-on runner and it's always easier to get started again with a little social pressure. Seeing that my friends are also out running is a huge motivator - there's an unexpected sense of comradery from just sending "kudos" to friends in an app. Why should social support be limited to exercise apps?

> Why should social support be limited to exercise apps?

### Lastly...
Pods are an experiment! They will evolve and grow as we get feedback and understand how they can be most useful. 

You can send us feedback anytime at hello@happyfeed.co.

Pods Hero Image

Small, private groups to share progress and help build your journaling habit.

Pods: Journaling Together

We’ve had optional location tracking in [Happyfeed](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943) for years now - even before we had a single map in the app where you could actually see those locations. From day one, I thought that maps could be a fun way to look back on your happy memories. There are many triggers that help us recall our fond memories like smells, sounds, and words. I think places are one of the strongest: summer vacation spots, favorite restaurants, a particular hiking path or hilltop 🏔

*(I really enjoy hiking.)*

## The Problem
However, when I looked at my own location data, I realized that 90% of my moments were at my apartment because I use Happyfeed at night in bed. Unless there’s a photo attached, the app has no way of knowing where a moment actually happens. For locations to really work in Happyfeed, we need to solve a few key problems:
- 🗺 __Updateable__: You need to be able to pick the right location even at the end of the day, in the comfort of your own bed.
- 🌎 __Sortable__: GPS coordinates aren’t enough, we want a form of location selection that can be used to organize happy moments around a particular place.
- 🛠 __Just works__: We spent a _lot_ of time last year building offline mode and we want to make sure locations fit in with that and always just work. 
- 😛 __Fun__: If it won’t make you happier, we won’t add it to the app! 

## Exploring our options:
Our first thought was to do what everyone else is doing. Pick a service, like Google, and build an interface that looks more or less like adding a location to Instagram or Facebook: one of those easy-to-use autofill forms.

![google-autofill](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/5mHfJcPWcCWRDAkgNHuA1r/c118c55c0c23f64af2988bec8f44ea73/google-autofill.png)

The deeper we looked into the services the more problems we ran into:
- __*Google*__ seemed like a simple option, but Google (1) doesn’t let you store any information in your service and (2) requires you to use Google Maps to display locations. We like having the freedom to pick our map and we want to at least be able to store GPS location for faster searches and offline access.
- __*Foursquare*__ is probably the best service on the market, but it turns out that they wanted hundreds of dollars per month for their cheapest tier. No thanks! We’re not a huge, funded startup so $600/mo isn’t really doable.
- And __*Facebook*__ is, well, Facebook. How can we position ourselves as a cure for social media if we are relying on the king of social media. Each check-in on Happyfeed would be feeding their algorithms and giving them more power.

## Our Solution: Spots
We decided to build our own independent location service called Spots. (Maybe that’s what happens when your founder is an engineer?) This allows us to avoid depending on data from big tech companies and focus on what really matters: _your_ interactions at _your_ Spots.

> Spots are private and unique to you.

You pick the location and you name them whatever you want. That means you can create a Spot for anything: your favorite park bench, restaurant, surfing spot, or coffee shop. We built a new “location picker” to make updating location and adding Spots super simple.

![spot-locatoins-screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6Bww6PZB9TyeZeuaKJkxlx/b98bc6855db85a1320d4f6aff1c73484/spot-locatoins-screens.png)

### How it works:
- __Select the location marker__ icon on the upload page or “Update Location” button while editing a moment
- The __initial location__ will be either your device location (from GPS) or the location data from any uploaded image. Images are usually much more accurate, so we recommend adding an image before picking a location, if you have one.
- __Drag the map__ around to move the location pin. When it’s in the right place you can save the updated location by tapping “Update” in the top right corner.
- Optionally __name the location__ to create a new Spot. Just type in the name and tap the “Create” button next to the first search result.
- Alternatively, you can __search for any Spots__ you’ve already created. These will automatically move the map marker when you select one.

There are a few tradeoffs, but we really think the flexibility of Spots will be worth it in the long-run.

## What’s Next
Spots will start out simple and build up features over time. Our next steps will be to add in some of the basics like editing an existing Spot and seeing all your memories at a specific Spot. Eventually, we’ll be rolling out new options like auto-suggesting frequent Spots, adding tags and personal notes (“burger joint,” “hiking spot,” “where I met Sally”), and building up information about your favorite places.

If you’re an [iPhone](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943) user and have any thoughts about Spots, please message me at matt@happyfeed.co. It’s been a fun (and huge) project and I hope we can just keep making it better and better (and better). 😄

spots-hero

A new way to update and manage the locations of your memories in Happyfeed with unique Spots.

Spots & Location Updates

One of the most common requests we get is to build an option for printing out Happyfeed moments, ideally in a book. Something people can keep forever, share with their loved ones, or just enjoy as a new way to look back on their memories. Sounds amazing, right?

Turning a digital journal into a printed journal is no small feat. We would need to find a printing partner. We would need to design for variations in post length, number of posts per day, and image orientation. We would need to find a way to let you choose which moments to include or not include. 

So we decided to do what we always do: **start small** and build step by step toward our larger goals.

## Introducing Journal Exports

_UPDATE: As of December 31, 2020, exports are also available in a PDF format that's easy to print with all your images and emoji integrated into the design!_ 😄

Today, we're extremely excited to announce that you can now export all the moments from your Happyfeed journal in a simple downloadable format.

You’ll see a new option in your settings called “Journal Exports” where we provide the option to create a backup of your journal. Your data will be delivered to you via email as a .csv file with a compressed .zip images file.

We choose this format because it's simple and versatile:

- ☁️ You could save your CSV as a **Google Sheet** and back it up in the cloud
- 📊If you are an **Excel** pro, you could analyze your journal for patterns
- 🤓A developer friend could setup a **visualization tool** using the data

For now, __exporting is only available to Plus subscribers on the iOS app__. Please take advantage of the 7-day free trial if you’d like to export your journal without committing to a full subscription.

_Why isn’t it free? It’s really expensive for our servers to turn all of your moments into a downloadable format. We have a separate set of servers spun up to handle export requests as they come in. More on that later._

## Our Motivation
Recently, another very popular gratitude app announced that they were shutting down their service forever. All those years of entries gone forever, just. like. that. 

We have no intention of ever shutting down Happyfeed, but we realize bad things can happen (it's part of life) and we'd rather be safe than sorry.

### What if...

- We were forced to shut down the company from a lawsuit or something unexpected? 
- I (Matt) got hit by a bus and no one else had the motivation to keep Happyfeed running?
- Hackers targeted our servers and managed to delete all the data?
- Hackers turned off the entire Internet? 
- A meteor... OK... you get the point 😅

Besides that, it just feels good to know you have full control of your posts. We think Happyfeed is a great place to explore them, but now you have the option to view your memories however you like.

_Note: If we ever were forced to shutdown, we'd absolutely make exporting free for everyone during the transition period._

## How does it work?

![Journal Export Screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6JwyvEZWYI82av1WRk6ML6/76c0566a7af28a8b875016a0c4fced59/screens.png)

1. Select an optional **start and end date** for the export
2. **Confirm your email** and kick off the data export
3. Our **server creates a task** to find all your entries
4. For each entry, our server **adds a line to a CSV file** and copies any images
5. Once done, the **CSV file is saved** in a private location
6. The images (copied in a new folder) are **compressed and saved** as a single file
7. You **receive an email** with (private) links to both files to download
8. That's it!

Step 4 and 6 can be particularly time-consuming if you have been using Happyfeed for a long time. We limit exporting to once per week to prevent the servers from getting overloaded. Once we have a better idea of demand, we may adjust this.

### The Big Question: Where’s my printed journal?

You may still be wondering, “But when will I be able to get a printed version of my Happyfeed Journal?” Honestly, I’ve been thinking a lot about the same thing.

I have a meeting scheduled for this Wednesday to discuss options with a potential printing partner - someone who could handle the printing and shipping of individual journals. We want this to happen and are trying to get the ball rolling!

There’s a lot of work to be done still. We need to decide on the best way to layout entries, how to handle images, what the cover should look like, and ways to make it feel extra special. We’ll try and start small and build from there. Someday I’d love to have multiple formats and options for printing your memories. (Flipbooks, scrapbooks, yearbooks, etc.)

## Testing and Surprises
There was one big test to see if the journal exporting could handle our bigger accounts. I had to try it out on the oldest account with the most entries: my account. It took a few hours of debugging to handle 2GB of images, but eventually, I received an email with my exported journal.

> Me, looking at my files: 🤯🤯🤯

I’ve scrolled through my memories in Happyfeed, looked at all my moments from 1 year to 5 years ago, and I’ve swiped through my calendar many many times, but seeing all my **5500 moments** in such a condensed format was wild.

I haven’t personally been this excited about Happyfeed in a long time. The style of short, positive posts made it easy to remember exactly how I felt during all those periods of my life. And I’ll have those forever.

## Your Support

We’ve been getting so much helpful feedback from Happyfeed lately and it feels absolutely amazing. I’m positive that this is something worth working on and that we are just getting started.

Please give [Plus](/plus-faq) a try if you haven’t yet. Each subscription is a huge help toward building Happyfeed into a company that will be here for decades to come. 

We're looking forward to bringing you even more ways to find joy in the coming months 😄 ...Like a PDF export option (_Edit: We have this now!_) and a printed book!

 
— Matt, Founder at Happyfeed

journal-exports-hero

Finally, an option to download your journal and truly make it yours.

Journal Exports

Do you remember the last time you received a handwritten Thank You note? It’s something that brings a uniquely wonderful feeling that tends to linger. Maybe you even keep a few favoites. Saying “thank you” is a simple and powerful way to spread joy to others.

Starting today, you can thank others right inside of [Happyfeed](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943) 😄

We’ve always wanted to build a way to send thanks in our app. Wellness blogs and positive psychologists often mention gratitude and thanking as two of the best practices for fostering happiness. We wanted to branch out and try another important practice. Happyfeed is a **place to find more happiness**, not just a gratitude journal app. Thanking is the first time we’ve stepped out of our gratitude-only comfort zone!

Note: We are launching in the US only, but we plan to expand soon. This is due to the technical difficulty of sending messages outside of the US. The UK, Canada, and Australia are next up!

## How Does It Work?
We made thanking as simple as possible, but there are still a few steps you'll need to follow. Here are the step-by-step details on how Happyfeed will let you “thank” a friend:

### Sending Thanks
1. *Navigate* to the new Thanks tab and select the send button 
3. *Connect to your contacts* after a prompt
4. *Select a friend* by searching through the list
5. Optionally *add a reason*, like: “For driving me to the airport ✈️”

![thanking-screens-1](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/4lTzBZEf3OQs2IkIuEgESC/fafd3d2c4b8c089ef08aac6fc794825b/thanking-screens-1.png)

### Receiving Thanks
1. *Friend receives an SMS* from our HappyBot number
2. *Friend replies* with an emoji
3. *We thank them* for their thoughtful reply
4. *You receive their reply* as a notification in the app

![thanking-screens-2](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/3bKA5D2Ep2CAIs6Y0e2Q4S/f75cddec910a189ff6ea2b6cd6f63834/thanking-screens-2.png)

We even built a system that allows you to save your phone number to your account. This allows you to receive thanks as push notifications and reply right in the app - so you can better track thankfulness and skip the text messaging with our “HappyBot.”

You’ll also see any thanks you received before adding your number! (We tried to cover all the bases.)

## Why texting?
We thought about tagging friends in posts, sending out emails, and even mailing out postcards for you to forward along. After years of conversations and pondering, we decided the easiest solution would be to send them via SMS. Mailing seemed like too much work to start, and email felt too spammy and stressful. Plus, texting is one of the main things we use our phones for. It felt right.

### Much More Than A Text
- 😛 _Emoji reactions_ - We love emojis because they are (1) easy to send and (2) convey a lot of meaning. A random 🐢 emoji may trigger fond memories years later.
- ⏰ _Time-based_ - Each thank is attached to the day it was sent. We plan to explore ways to show thanks on other pages, like the calendar or memories. 
- 👭 _Connections_ - Each thank is associated with a phone number and grouped together. This gives you a private history of your gratitude and relationships.

We can’t wait to see how you use thanking in Happyfeed. If it proves useful, we have a few ideas we are excited to pursue - things to evolve the nature of how to associate friends with gratitude. For example, someday you might be able to optionally trigger a thank in the future by tagging a friend on a moment.


## Final Note: Privacy
One of the things we love most about Happyfeed is that it’s 100% private. You can happily post moments that feel special to you without worrying about the opinion of others. Thanking is “semi-social” in that it _does_ connect you with others, but your journal will always be private and personal. We were careful to create a system that maintains full privacy - part of why we use phone numbers to send and receive thanks.

> Your journal will always be private.

No matter how happy you can be on your own, you can always be happier with others. Thanking is a reminder that mental wellness is a shared journey.

Enjoy the holidays and __THANK YOU__ for hanging around and [trying our app](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943)! 😊

feeling-thankful-hero

A new way to spread gratitude by sending thanks to your friends.

Feeling Thankful

One of the top requests we get for new features is offline mode. That’s no surprise - why shouldn’t you be able to view your private moments even without a network connection?

Now Plus subscribers will be able to use Happyfeed in 100% offline mode. (Don’t worry if you aren’t subscribed, you’ll notice a few significant improvements related to these changes too!)

## Why Offline Mode?
From the start, we wanted to leverage the fact that you’re on a connected device with all the capabilities of a tiny computer. We want your journal to last you a lifetime, and we know your current phone probably won’t. For the sake of simplicity, Happyfeed has traditionally required a network connection. It was the easiest way to ensure consistent data and reliable backups.

> We want your journal to last you a lifetime, and we know your current phone probably won’t.

Lately, more and more people are understanding the benefits of taking mindful breaks from the internet and all the negative effects of social media and constant comparison. We also considered a few key situations where you might want to use Happyfeed w/o internet:

- 🏕 **Escaping to nature** - I’m an avid hiker myself. A few nights camping away from the chaos of life is the best thing for my mental health. It’s also one of the best times to read, write, and reflect.
- 🚇 **Commuting and travel** - A long commute home can be a wonderful time to practice gratitude. Just because the subway doesn’t have wifi doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to record a moment or two from your day.
- 🌏 **International trips** - You can fit more experiences into a week in a new country than months at home. Now you won’t need an international phone plan to remember more of those places, people, and happy memories.

### How Does It Work?
If you are subscribed to Happyfeed Plus, you shouldn’t notice any difference in the app whatsoever. We built Offline Mode to be smart about when you are online or offline and handling each appropriately.

1. All new moments and images are first saved locally and uploaded only if a connection is available
2. Whenever the app is restarted, it checks for un-synced moments and uploads them if necessary
3. With your moments stored locally, if you can’t find a connection you can still scroll through your past posts and images

Now when you’re commuting through tunnels to make your way home from work, traveling abroad to experience something new, or camping in a lush valley to find yourself, you’ll be able to record your happy moments, save photos, and scroll through your feed.

![offline-sketches-2](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/6yUMKCraY8SKk4oQ66CIQk/254f5dfbf35a3f46049ef3ee2c6bb162/offline-sketches-2.jpg)

### Something For Everyone
As with every update, we like to make sure all of our users get something out of it. So even if you’re a free user (like most people) you’ll be getting a few benefits.

- ⏱ __Image uploading__: The slowest and most “breakable” part of Happyfeed has always been image uploading. Sending image data up to the cloud can easily fail on a bad connection, leaving you to find that photo again and try to remember what you wrote. Now image uploading is done in the background. If you lose your connection, it’ll try again next time you load up Happyfeed. No sweat!
- 💯 __Streaks__: Your streak data is now stored directly on your device, as well as in the cloud. This means we don’t rely on a network connection to determine if you are continuing or breaking your current streak. In rare cases where the data isn’t available, we now err on the side of caution (keeping that streak going 🌈)

### What’s Next?
Building Offline Mode required us to really change some of the key functionality behind how Happyfeed works. There are a few parts of the app that still need updating to work with Offline Mode, like the Magic Calendar, [Happiness Jar](/blog/happiness-jar), and editing or deleting past moments. We are slowly working our way through the updates, and are prioritizing the most frequently used functions first.

## Share the Joy!
We put a lot of effort into building Happyfeed with the same quality you’d expect from the top apps on your phone. Unlike Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram, *__we aren’t social.__* Privacy is important, but it creates a real challenge for growth!

If you love using our app, please tell a friend or two. Hopefully it will help them find more little moments of joy. The more we grow, the more we’ll be able to improve the experience for all our current and new users. ☀️🌱

offline-mode-hero

Reworking our app so you can use it anywhere, really.

Offline Mode

One of the best reasons to keep a [gratitude journal](/research/what-is-a-gratitude-journal) is that you build a journal filled with positive moments. Looking back on your past memories can sometimes bring more happy feelings than the practice of recording those moments in the first place.

We've made several updates over the past year to make exploring past memories easier and a bit more fun:
 - Adding in the Calendar for Plus subscribers
 - Improving our Memories feature to show text samples and image previews
 - Infinite scroll and layout changes to the history page

_But what if you just want to view some random past moments?_

## What is a Happiness Jar?
I was first introduced to the idea of a Happiness Jar when I read [this blog post](https://qz.com/859269/i-kept-a-happiness-jar-for-a-year-to-get-data-on-what-really-brings-me-joy/).

There are many different ways to use a Happiness Jar but the concept is simple: a physical jar that you fill with happy memories that you can pull out at random. It's kind of like a cookie jar with happy thoughts instead of carbs. When life gets you down, the jar is there to cheer you up! 😊

> It's kind of like a cookie jar with happy thoughts instead of carbs.

There are a few key differences between the way a Happiness Jar and a [gratitude journal](/research/what-is-a-gratitude-journal) work and the ways they can bring you joy.
- Happiness Jars favor randomness over organization.
- You can add memories to a Happiness Jar as often (or not often) as you like.
- Moments in a Happiness Jar are more like messages to your future self, which can help you reflect more deeply.

Of course, we thought the Happiness Jar was another perfect practice to try to digitize and add to Happyfeed! 🤓

## How to Use the Happiness Jar
It's pretty easy to make a Happiness Jar when you already have (in some cases) hundreds of days of happy moments. So we found an empty corner of Happyfeed and added in our own Happiness Jar.

![Screenshots of Happiness Jar](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/5vN0rihUJDsBZlE2Yp5fQJ/af36d740d08b84b197e238d65b9973ec/iphone-screens-happiness-jar.jpg)

If you open up the Moments view in Happyfeed (from the bottom tab navigation bar) you'll see a little jar icon at the top left of the screen. Viewing your Happiness Jar is an simple as tapping that icon. Here's what we love about it:

 - __Discover hidden gems__ - The jar is completely random, so you're just as likely to see a memory from your first day as one from yesterday.
 - __Share options__ - You can share memories right from the jar. Just tap the share button and select anything from messages to Instagram.
 - __Back button__ - It's easy to accidentally tap one too many times. If you skip a favorite moment, you can go back to see it again.
 - __Unlimited happiness__ - You aren't limited to how long you're willing to scroll now. Whenever you need a happy boost, your happiness jar is the perfect solution.

Note: New users _will not_ see the Happiness Jar until they've had Happyfeed for 2 weeks. We just thought it was too boring when you only have a few days to randomly choose from.

### Shake Up Your Happiness
We think the "shake" gesture is very underrated on your iPhone! So if you want to open up the Happiness Jar, you can also give your phone a shake on your history page. You can shake it again to see a random day. How you shake is up to you, but we definitely wouldn't discourage any full-body shakes to get yourself moving a bit 🕺.

If shaking isn't you thing, you can also tap and swipe. We don't discriminate against gestures.

## Big Picture
So why did we build the happiness jar? It fits perfectly with the ethos of what we want Happyfeed to be: a place to escape social media and get to know yourself better. There’s a lot of power in learning what makes you happy and what made you happy in the past. Memories are crucial in teaching us where we're going next. If nothing else, maybe you’ll see a photo that triggers a feeling and floods your brain with positive emotions.

> "Happyfeed grows with you"

We like to say that “Happyfeed grows with you,” and that feels even more true with this new feature. More moments means more days to choose from in your jar. The more you use Happyfeed, the more likely you are to pull up a day you completely forgot about. 

Next time you’re feeling burned out on social media, give the Happiness Jar a shake!


happiness-jar-hero

Introducing a novel way to explore your past memories and spark a little joy everyday.

Happiness Jar

Last week we released one of our biggest updates to the [Happyfeed App](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/happyfeed/id707073943). We rewrote the code on most of our pages and added a few big features to make it even more fun to use.

![screens](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/5b996hFI8EoMekguyo0msC/9fc9be3b08aaf36e591dff497968b0d5/screens.jpg)

### Focus on the journal
The more you use Happyfeed, the more happy moments you are collecting. We want to make scrolling, tapping, swiping, and zooming through these moments an absolute joy. 
There’s something incredibly powerful about having a journal full of only your happiest moments, and in this version of Happyfeed, we really wanted to make that our focus.

## The Homepage
You might not see any major differences on the new homepage. That’s because posting on Happyfeed has always been our simplest and best feature. We wanted to improve the look without losing any ease-of-use. 

The first thing you might notice is the new navigation bar on the bottom. We threw out the old green (too much green!) and updated the icons to be more appropriate for each page.

![smileys](//images.ctfassets.net/6toqfbloxcdn/4Ou8xq1Gg004qQMu2CYCEi/e0d3bec51423d8c4b087a21ab8d31152/smileys.png)

Additionally, we updated the _“1 month ago…”_ button look, improved the spacing a little, and added little dots to make it easier to know which day you’re on. And if you’ve been using the _“Especially wonderful day?”_ button, you’ll notice we updated that as well.

## Past Moments
Since we are introducing a calendar for Plus subscribers, we thought we better make some big changes to the history view as well. The main goals were to make it cleaner, clearer, and more fun to scroll through.

>> Looking through your past moments is one of the most fun parts of using Happyfeed

- 🗂 Grouping by Day - Each day is now separated by a green line and text. This saves space by not repeating dates and makes it easier to see which moments go together.
- ✨ Image loading - All the images throughout the app now load in with a fade effect. It makes scrolling feel smoother and much more pleasant.
- 📐 Text sizing: We added a little spacing and now use a bigger font for short posts. If you just want to post the name of your boyfriend or girlfriend, we want that to pop out just as much as a snapshot of the ocean.
- 👆 Tap to scroll up - You might expect this from other apps, and now you can tap the history tab icon to automatically scroll to the top. (It’s the little things, right?)

After posting on Happyfeed for even a week, looking through your past moments is one of the most fun parts of the app. We hope that feels even better with these changes!

## Your “Magic” Calendar
The calendar is by far the most complicated addition we’ve made to Happyfeed in a long time. It’s the first time we’ve explored using location data and new ways to think about your past posts in the app.

- 🗓 Overview - The new “magic” calendar shows all your days on a familiar calendar interface. The days you tag as special will be immediately obvious, and you can tap on any day to quickly see those moments
- 🏞 Preview images - Each time you load a month, we’ll pull up a set of sample images. Images are a powerful way to remember your month without needing to tap through the days
- 📍 Map view - Below the image slider, we (finally) added a map of your moments. Location tracking has been an optional feature for a long time, and now you can actually see where you were when you posted your happy moments.
- 👀 Focus on exploration - If you wanted to see a post from last March, it would require a LOT of scrolling before. Now you can just tap on the month title and select the month you want to look at. It’s quick, easy, and gives you all the control.

The calendar is only available to Plus subscribers. We built it specifically to make the monthly subscription more worthwhile. If you get the chance to check it out, we think you’ll absolutely agree 😊

## Subscriptions
We’ve been pondering paid versions of Happyfeed for years. Mostly - how can we generate revenue to cover our costs and grow our team without sacrificing any of the happiness created by our app? We decided it was important that the free version of Happyfeed will __always__ be available and will _never_ lose any features. 

So, we called the subscription “Plus” because it’s just the same version of Happyfeed but with extra features to make the experience even better. Some of these features make it more expensive to run our company (server costs, etc) so it felt natural to ask for a small monthly fee.

> Subscriptions allow us to avoid advertisements, expensive partnerships, and silly ventures

Most importantly, subscriptions allow us to avoid advertisements, expensive partnerships, and silly ventures like “Happyfeed for business.” We might even be able to hire on some talented designers to make a few new “end-of-day” images! _(That’s secretly all we want.)_

We’d really love it if you try out the Plus version of Happyfeed! You can learn a bit more about it on the profile page of the app or by reading <a href="/plus-faq">our FAQ</a>

## Moving Forward
Not only did we polish up the face of Happyfeed, but we rewrote most of the application code to make it easier for us to add new features and make updates in the future. We’re building the infrastructure for something we hope to use ourselves in 30 or 50 years from now, and it’s important we do that right.

### What about features?
We can’t say exactly when or what order you can expect these in, but in the next few months we’re most excited to work on:
- Adding locations by name (like that new restaurant or hiking spot) to your moments
- More map integrations (for Free and Plus versions)
- Offline posting
- Long-form journal posts 
- And a few surprises we don’t want to spoil quite yet... 😛

### Thank you!
Thanks for reading and thank you for supporting us even if just by trying out the app! We can't wait to share even more updates soon.

hero-1

One of our biggest updates and redesigns since launching in 2013

Introducing Happyfeed 2.0

After you finish a day on HappyFeed, you've always been shown a completion screen with a random snippet and a count of the number of days in a row you've been practicing gratitude. 

Last year, with some convincing from our community, we decided that the streak needed to go. So we are happy to announce that we've decided to focus on total days completed and "days in a row" is a fully optional feature. It was a small change but a big decision, and we thought it was worth sharing the story ☺️

## Why did we have streaks to begin with?
Starting a new habit is _really_ difficult. People download and delete thousands (millions?) of apps every day and never think twice. We knew that asking people to open our app every night was a big ask, and we were always searching for ways to provide an extra nudge.

We thought we could help by making HappyFeed feel a little more like a game. Tracking days in a row might encourage users to set goals like "don't miss a day in January" or "reach 100 days in a row." The app would reward them by praising their dedication with an emoji-heavy response like "WHOA! 🦄🌈".

It's not uncommon to see similar things in other apps, and HappyFeed is a "good" habit, so it felt like we had a free pass. Plus, it would be sort of fun, right?

## What changed our minds?
In short, we realized that tracking days in a row was stressing out our community of users, and it was causing us to deviate from our goal to be a safe, happy place on your devices.

### 1) Community feedback
Our best insights almost always come from user emails. Someone feels a feeling, hunts down our email (it's hello@happyfeed.co) and courageously sends along their thoughts. These messages can be joyous, frustrated, short, long, or IN ALL CAPS. They are _always_ helpful.

Two of the most common we received were:
 1. _Feeling discouragement_ from streaks and losing desire to use HappyFeed after breaking a streak of days in a row.
 2. Issues with the _streaks breaking when they shouldn't._ If you did a day out of order, the streak broke.

Our first response was, "well, how can we fix these issues?" We tried making the 'broken' streak text more encouraging, we added flowers to the background (really), we manually reset streaks for some users, and conceived of a better algorithm to improve the accuracy of our counter.

> We added flowers to the background (really).

One day we saw a message on Twitter requesting an option to turn off streaks because it was adding too much stress. That was finally enough to push us to reconsider the streak and how we might reformat or even remove it.

### 2) Alignment with our mission
I wouldn't be a good product manager if I did everything users asked without questioning or considering the big picture impact; so I reread the feedback and spoke with some of our most active users.

It didn't take many conversations to understand what was happening. People were actively avoiding coming back to HappyFeed after breaking a streak.
- They didn't want to feel discouraged
- They didn't want to start over
- They didn't want to stress about missing a day

Guess what? __Missing a day, doesn't ruin a new habit.__ We say that in an email we send about habits, but our product hasn't been reflecting that fact.

People often download an app like HappyFeed when they are feeling overwhelmed by life. Seeing three little smiley faces pop up on the screen as you reflect on positive moments is meant to make you feel _better_. HappyFeed strives to be a safe, stress-free place on your device where you can escape the FOMO and negative social comparison created by social media.

Streaks just didn't align with that mission.

### 3) Don't be 'Evil'
A motto I've had in my head since starting HappyFeed has been "don't be like Candy Crush." Games like Candy Crush suck in their users and lead to minutes, hours, and days of wasted time. They use tactics to create addictions and pull you away from things that really matter. We’d rather that you spend your free time taking a walk in the park, calling an old friend, or trying meditation. More minutes does NOT mean more value.

> "Don't be like Candy Crush."

So if you have the option between a 4-day backpacking trip in Yosemite and trying to maintain your HappyFeed streak, please please break your streak and go camping! 🏔

## Moving Forward
You've probably noticed that HappyFeed is a lot more than just a gratitude journal. It's a place to keep all the positive moments and experiences in your life.

When you look back at a joyful moment years from now, you won't care if you were in the middle of a streak. You'll want to remember where you were, what you saw, the smells in the air, the people you were with, and if it was a cozy rainy day or bright sunny day. You'll care about how it felt, and _that's_ the sort of information we want to capture.

We sincerely hope that the "days in a row" _did_ help some of you get started with the habit of gratitude, and I know we learned a lot from the experience.

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Why we stopped counting days in a row and started focusing on the big picture.

Building Happiness