What's new in Frelio 1.6, and it's on the Mac now

The biggest updates since launch: a memory game across the whole app, events that hold your friends, planned check-ins, a Story for every person, and Frelio on the Mac. What each one does, and how to use it.

Every time we send Frelio to Apple, I'll write one of these. Not a changelog, more a walk through what changed and how to actually use it, because a feature nobody finds is a feature that doesn't exist.

1.6 was the biggest one since launch, and 1.6.1 followed a few days later with the rest of it. Here's what's in the two of them together.

Frelio is on the Mac

Same app, same notes, on the screen you actually work at. If your week is mostly Zoom calls like mine, the Mac is where you'll sit down and look at the whole picture: who's coming up, who's gone quiet, what you wrote about someone before the next call.

How to get it. Search for Frelio on the Mac App Store, or open the App Store on your Mac and check Purchased. It's one purchase across iPhone, iPad and Mac, so if you have it on your phone, it's free on the Mac.

How your notes get there. Through your own iCloud. Open Settings in the app and make sure iCloud sync is on. Frelio has no servers of its own, so there's no account to make and nothing to log into. Your phone and your Mac talk to each other through your iCloud and nowhere else.

Refresh your memory, anywhere

The memory game used to live on one event. Now it draws on everything you've written down. It'll show you a photo and ask who it is. It'll ask where you met someone, what they told you, when their birthday is, who their spouse is. And it pays attention to who's getting fuzzy: the people you've missed before, or never been asked about, come up first.

Where to find it. There's a "Refresh your memory" row on Home, at the top of your Circle, at the bottom of Recently Met and Places, and on every event and place page. Each one quizzes you on the people from that part of the app. The Home one is the long version, twelve questions across everyone.

When to use it. The night before you go back somewhere. Five minutes with the place's quiz and you walk in with the names ready. That's the whole point of it.

Events can hold the friends who were there

Before this, an event only held the people you met there. Which was fine for a conference and useless for a dinner. We had two families over last week and I couldn't make an event for it, because everyone there was already in my Circle.

Now you can. Open the event, tap "From your Circle" under Who was there, and pick them. Each person gets an in-person connect dated to the event, so it counts the way a real evening together should.

Plan a check-in

This one came from a Founders Circle member who wanted to schedule a check-in by hand. Say you know you want to call Sam on Thursday because he has an interview that week.

How to do it. On Sam's page there's a new Planned row. Tap Plan, pick the day, pick how (in person, call, text), and add a line about why if you like. You can also long-press anyone on the Home check-in strip or in your Circle and choose "Schedule a connect."

What happens. That day, Sam goes to the top of your check-ins and you get one reminder at your usual hour. When you log the call, the plan clears itself. If you don't get to it, it stays at the top until you do.

Every person has a Story

Open anyone's page and you'll see three parts now: Keep up, About, and Story. Story is everything that's happened between you, newest first: the notes you wrote, the coffees and calls you logged, the events you were both at, the day they joined your Circle, and at the very bottom, the day you met.

Adding a note is different too. Tap the + on their page and choose "Add to the story." It asks you a question instead of handing you a blank box, it takes a date so you can back-fill something from last month, and you can attach a photo.

Smaller things worth knowing

• See all. Every section on Home has a "See all" now, so the check-in strip, Recent, birthdays and events each have a full page behind them.
• The + on an active event adds someone you just met straight into that event.
• Text, call, and share are three small icons on a person's page, right under their photo.
• Export is a spreadsheet. Settings has an "Export as a spreadsheet" row that opens in Numbers or Excel, one row per person.
• People leave the check-in strip the moment you log a connect. This was a bug, and it was annoying, and it's fixed.

Get it

Both updates are out now on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and 1.6 is on the Mac App Store. If you already have Frelio, it updates on its own.

If something in here doesn't work the way I've described, tell me. The Founders Circle in Slack is where most of these ideas came from, and you're welcome in.