01 — Capture
Text it
A sentence, a photo, a voice note. Anything that crosses your mind, sent to one number. It replies only when a reply earns its place.
Works in Messages · nothing to install
A journal
you text.
Send a thought, a photo, or a voice note to one number. Sidenote keeps it, asks one small question a day, and writes up your evening in your own words.
$10/mo14-day refund · your phone number is the account · no password
SN
Sidenote
Today
This is your journal. Text it anything.
Try it. It replies only when a reply earns its place.
nobody else would do it so I didBiscuit woke me up at 5voice note · 0:14lunch with Sam, shortthe sprint review went better than I expectedphoto · the planning wallI don't mind planning it, I mind that nobody askedgym at 6
No app. No blank page. No streak to keep.
A text-message journal that works over iMessage or SMS. Capture takes five seconds and happens where you already are. How text journaling works →
02 — Check-in
One small question
At most one a day, around lunch or in the evening — never two in a row, never needy, never a notification you dread. Text “pause” and they stop; text “quiet” and it stays silent between entries.
03 — Entry
Your day, written up
At ten each night a short entry arrives in the thread, in your own words. Structure from Sidenote. Every fact from you.
One thread, one day
Not four features. One thread.
Capture, the small question, the list, the entry — written out, they read like four features. Here is an ordinary Tuesday with all four running together, exactly as sent and exactly as answered.
Night · 10:00 PM11 / 11
Built from what you actually wrote, plus the photo. The to-do never made it in.
SN
Sidenote
8:12 AM
woke up before the alarm for once
Saved.
12:04 PM
How's the day going?
12:06 PM
steady. big presentation is done
3:41 PM
Saved.
4:30 PM
todo pick up the dry cleaning
Added: pick up the dry cleaning. 1 thing on your list.
7:15 PM
done dry cleaning
Done: pick up the dry cleaning. Nothing left on your list. Text “undo” if that was the wrong one.
10:00 PM
Tonight's entry is in the thread.
The nightly entry
Your words. Lightly joined.
Sidenote is an editor, not an author. It never adds a feeling, a person, or a lesson you didn’t write. If you were terse, the entry is terse.
Thursday, Sep 310:00 PM
Saying yes again
Realized in the 10am meeting that I keep saying yes to things I want to say no to. Today it was the offsite planning; nobody else would do it, so I did. Later, in a voice note, I got closer to it: I don’t mind planning it, I mind that nobody asked. Tired all day. Biscuit woke me up at 5 and then sat on the porch like he owned it.
Photos: Biscuit on the porch, the planning wall from the offsite meeting.
The list
Text it. Tick it off.
The things you still have to do live in the same thread as the things you already did. No second app, and no count of how long anything has been sitting there — open is just open.
Your list2 open
- book the dentist
- renew the passport
- pick up the dry cleaning
what did I say about the offsite last week?
Three mentions. Tue Sep 1: “nobody else would do it so I did.” Thu Sep 3, voice note: “I don’t mind planning it, I mind that nobody asked.” Fri Sep 4: you called it “the thing eating my week.” Want the full entries?
yes
Recall
Ask your own archive.
Every answer is a quote with a date. Sidenote never invents a memory you didn’t send, and it says so plainly when it finds nothing.
It’s your diary. We treat it that way.
Four promises, in plain words, that we’d rather be held to than admired for.
01
Never trains a model
Your entries are not training data. Not ours, not anyone’s.
02
Export by text
Text “export” and get a zip: one file per day, plus your photos.
03
Delete for real
Text “delete everything,” confirm once, and it’s gone from storage.
04
Encrypted at rest
Your journal sits in an encrypted database, and no human at Sidenote reads it to improve the product.
Not therapy
Sidenote is a journal, not care. It isn’t a therapist, a counsellor, or a crisis service, and it won’t pretend to be one. If you tell it you’re in danger it stops the small talk and gives you a real number to call, every time.
Ten dollars a month.
Everything is included — the nightly entry, the list, recall, the web journal, export. Nothing you write is ever behind a second paywall.
Charged today. Cancel by text. Full refund within 14 days if it isn’t for you.
Monthly$10billed monthly
Yearly · save $40$80billed once a year
Getting started
Four steps.
Then you just text.
No app to download, no email, no password. Your phone number is the account — the same number you text from.
- 01
Pay
Ten dollars a month, charged today. Cancel by texting cancel.
- 02
Give your number
That number is your account. There is nothing else to remember.
- 03
Enter the code we text you
Six digits, ten minutes. Then it says you’re verified — that’s your whole signup.
- 04
Save the contact, open your journal
Add +1 937 546 2208 to Messages. Everything you send shows up in your journal.
Questions people actually ask
Do I need to install anything?
No. Sidenote is a phone number. You text it from the Messages app you already use, on any phone.
What if I don’t like it?
Text “refund” within 14 days of your first charge and we’ll refund it in full. You can cancel any time by texting “cancel” — your journal stays readable until the period you paid for runs out.
What if I don’t want it to reply?
Text “quiet.” It keeps saving everything and still sends your nightly entry, but it won’t say a word in between. “Talk” brings it back.
Does it write things I didn’t say?
No. Entries are built only from what you sent that day. If a day has nothing in it, you get nothing — no invented reflection, no filler.
Does it do to-do lists too?
Text “todo” and whatever you need to do, and it’s on your list. “Done” and a name ticks it off. It never counts how long anything has been open, and it never reaches your diary — a to-do is something you haven’t done yet, not something that happened.
Can I read it all somewhere?
Yes — a quiet read-only web journal with your days, your photos, your list and search. And “export” hands you the whole thing as plain files whenever you want.
Does a model read my journal?
Yes — that is what writes your entry, and we would rather say it than dress it up. It is Claude, from Anthropic: it sees a day's messages when it writes that day up, and it also writes the replies, answers your recall questions, and describes photos so an entry can mention them. Nothing you send is used to train it. No person at Sidenote reads your journal, and every company that touches your words is named on the privacy page.
Are texts really private?
SMS itself isn’t end-to-end encrypted — your carrier handles it, same as any text. On our side it’s encrypted at rest, access is logged, and nobody reads it to improve the product. We’d rather tell you that than claim otherwise.