Frelio 1.7 is out for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Frelio is on Google Play for the first time. What changed, how to use it, and a word about your wrist.
Two things happened this week. Frelio 1.7 went out on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac, and Frelio landed on Google Play. The update took a few weeks. The Android app took most of September to build and three days for Google to approve.
Here's what's in both, and how to actually use it.
If you've been waiting on the Android version, this is it. Frelio on Google Play. Free, like the iPhone one.
It's a real Android app, not a wrapper. We built it from the iPhone version screen for screen, so it has the same paper, the same orange, and the same five-second capture. Everything Frelio could do through 1.6 is in it: writing someone down, events with the memory game, your Circle with a check-in rhythm for each person, places, planned check-ins, the Story on every person, and the home-screen widget. The 1.7 features below come to Android in its next update.
One honest difference. On iPhone your notes travel between your devices through your own iCloud. Android has no equivalent that doesn't involve an account or a server, and Frelio has neither. So on Android your notes live on that phone and ride along in Android's standard device backup to your own Google account. Nothing reaches us. Same rule as always.
Seasons change what a friendship needs from you. Some months it's family. Some months it's the two people you're mentoring, or the coworkers on a new team, or the strangers at a church you just started attending.
How to do it. Open Settings. The first section is "Right now, I'm leaning into." Pick any mix: family, close friends, friends, acquaintances, mentors and mentees, coworkers, meeting new people. You'll also see it in the welcome if you're new.
What happens. Those people move up. They come first on Home, first in your Circle, first in your nudges. Nobody drops off, they just wait their turn. Lean into acquaintances and the people you've known for a while but never really pursued start coming around.
While you're adding someone, there's a new choice: "Just now" or "A while ago." Tap the second one for the neighbor you've known for months and Frelio files them as an acquaintance, not a stranger. The Met tab now tells those two groups apart.
A place used to be a flat list of names. Now it has a shape.
A café can sit inside your city, and the city's page gathers everyone you met in any of its places. Open a place and you'll see three parts: Met here, Lives here and Events. Lives here is new. Mark the people in your Circle who live in that town and next time you're passing through, the list is ready.
You can add a street address to a place and open it in Maps from the page. Small thing.
Focus tells Frelio who matters most. Mute is the opposite. It's for the person you wrote down with no way to reach them, or anyone you'd rather Frelio stopped asking about.
How to do it. Long-press them anywhere, or use the row on their page. They leave your check-ins. Everything you wrote about them stays. Unmute whenever you like.
On the phone there's a fifth tab now. Places, Events, Birthdays and the full check-in list, each one tap away, with a line under each telling you what's waiting there. At the top, one card each visit with something worth a look: the widget, the feedback page, the Founders Circle. A different card each visit, and Not now puts one away for a month.
Every one of those pages now has search and a + at the top. That one was overdue.
Add the friends who were there while you're creating the event, not just afterwards. And when you're logging last night's dinner the morning after, pick Yesterday. A friend added to an event gets their connect dated to the event itself, so it sits on their timeline where it happened and their next check-in counts from that day.
Check in, Birthdays, Active event, Recently met and Add someone, on your desktop and in Notification Center. Right-click the desktop, choose Edit Widgets, and search for Frelio. These are real Mac widgets, not the iPhone ones mirrored over, so they work when your phone is in the other room.
There's a Frelio for Apple Watch sitting with Apple for review as I write this. Their name, one thing about them, done, from the watch. If an event is active on your phone, they're filed under it. Swipe over for who needs a check-in, the people you've recently met, and your Circle, with Call, Text and Log a connect right there. It rides inside the iPhone app, so when it's approved it shows up as an update.
I'll write it up properly once it clears. If it's already out by the time you read this, check for the update.
1.7 is live on the App Store for iPhone and iPad and on the Mac App Store. If you already have Frelio, it updates on its own. Android is on Google Play today.
If something in here doesn't work the way I've described, tell me. Settings has the feedback row now, and the Founders Circle in Slack is where most of these ideas came from. You're welcome in.