Frelio 1.8 is out for iPhone, iPad and Mac. You can now create a Frelio account and keep one notebook on every device, encrypted so nobody else can read it. Here's what that means, plus everything that shipped since 1.7.
Frelio 1.8 was approved this week for iPhone, iPad and Mac. It's the biggest change since the first version, and it's one most people asked for without knowing what it would take: the same notebook on every device you own, whatever it runs.
A few other updates went out quietly since I last wrote here, so this post covers those too, after the 1.8 news.
Until now, Frelio kept your notebook on your device and let iCloud carry it between your Apple devices. That worked well if every screen you own has an Apple logo on it. It didn't if you carry an Android phone, or have a Mac and an Android phone side by side.
1.8 adds a Frelio account. Sign in on each device and they stay in step: iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android.
How to do it. Tap your picture at the top of Home to open your You page, the same page that holds your share card. Tap Create your Frelio account and sign in with Apple or Google. That's it. Your notebook starts syncing straight away.
On your next device, sign in with the same account. If that device has been signed in before, Frelio says Welcome back and it's one tap.
An account is optional. Without one, Frelio works exactly the way it always has, and iCloud keeps syncing your Apple devices. Nothing changes unless you choose it.
This was the part I wasn't willing to compromise on. A notebook about the people in your life is personal. It should stay that way.
Your notebook is encrypted on your device before it leaves. The key that unlocks it is kept by your Apple account on Apple devices and by your Google account on Android. Our server stores your notebook, but all it holds is scrambled data it has no way to open. Photos included.
When you create the account you also get a recovery key. Keep it somewhere safe. You'll probably never need it, but if you ever lose every device at once, it's how you get your notebook back.
What Frelio can see is short: your email, your first name if you give it, the devices you've signed in on, and a few counts and dates, like how many people are in your notebook. There's a box for the occasional update email. It's off unless you tick it.
The full detail is in the privacy policy. If you ever want out, Delete account is on your You page, or you can do it from frelioapp.com/delete-account.
Settings used to explain itself in long grey paragraphs under every section. They're gone. Where you'd want an explanation, there's a small question mark. Tap it and the explanation opens right there.
"Right now, I'm leaning into" folds into one row that shows what you've picked. Everything about your data now lives on one page called Your data and sync: iCloud, Contacts access, exports, the Frelio archive and your account.
On someone's page, the Keeping up card now opens with one choice: Remember, Check in or Focus.
This is the same toggle you see right after writing someone down. More on that below.
The Apple Watch app went out in 1.7.1, the week after 1.7. If you have a watch and haven't noticed, check the Watch app on your iPhone and install Frelio from there.
Add someone. Their name, one thing about them, done. If an event is active on your phone, they're filed under it. You can put it on the Action button on an Ultra, or add it as a complication, so it's one press from your wrist.
Swipe for more. Who needs a check-in, the people you've recently met with search across everyone, and your Circle. Open anyone for a simple card with Call, Text and Log a connect.
The watch doesn't keep its own copy of your notebook. It hands everything to your phone, so it's always in step.
Before accounts, there was no way to get a notebook from a Mac to an Android phone. So 1.7.2 added the Frelio archive: one file that carries your whole notebook, photos included.
How to do it. Settings, then Your data and sync, then Export a Frelio archive. Save it, AirDrop it or email it to yourself, then open it in Frelio on the other device. Import is careful. People and places it already has are matched up, not doubled.
It's still there in 1.8. Accounts are the easier way now, but the archive is yours to keep, and it works with no account at all.
Most of 1.7.2 came out of one long testing session with a friend who uses Frelio every day and wrote down everything that annoyed him. Here's what changed.
The archive and the fixes reached Android in 1.3.1. The account arrives in Frelio 1.4.0 on Google Play, so an Android phone can share one notebook with an iPhone, iPad or Mac. Sign in with the same Google or Apple account on each and they stay in step.
The newest review came in on Google Play this week, from an Android user:
"love love love this! We need tools like this to be intentional and making and keeping friends! have been using daily and it's a huge help"
That's the whole point, in fewer words than I've ever managed. Thank you.
1.8 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. To start syncing, open your You page and tap Create your Frelio account.
If something doesn't work the way I've described, tell me. The feedback row is in Settings, and the Founders Circle in Slack is where most of this started. You're welcome in.