Logging a Moment

Not every moment needs a journal entry. A phone call with your brother, coffee with an old colleague, a letter from a friend: you might want to remember that it happened without writing a page. Logging an interaction takes a few seconds and keeps that relationship's history honest.

Opening Log interaction

Press ⌘L from anywhere in Ember.
Choose Log on a person's page, so they're already filled in.
Choose Log interaction on someone's card in Nudge.
Use Interaction in the ⌘N palette, or the Log Interaction widget on iPhone.

What you can note

Only the people are needed. Everything else is optional: just the essentials, no grading.

The Log an interaction sheet filled in for Charlotte Lucas: a text, presence four and five dots, a line and a grateful tag — A logged letter from Charlotte, with a line and a tag.

Who was involved: type a name or a nickname. Add as many people as were there.
When: today, unless you change it. Log something from last week just as easily.
Who reached out: you or them.
How: Call, Text, In Person, Social, Voicemail, and more under More. Add your own (a letter, a video call, a game night) in Settings ▸ Catalogue.
How present were you, and they?: one to five dots each. A distracted call and a long walk aren't the same, and this lets you say so.
A line, if you want: what stayed with you.
Tags: free labels, like #grateful or #awkward. Pick a suggestion or type your own.

Press Log interaction or ⌘↩ to save. Write more saves it and opens a full journal entry attached to it, for when a line isn't enough.

Typing Charl offers Charlotte Lucas and Mr. Bingley aka Charles — Nicknames work here too: Charl finds Mr. Bingley as Charles.

Where interactions show up

On the person's page, under Interactions, newest first, with the presence dots and your line. Write more about this adds a longer entry later.
On each of their worlds' pages, under Recent contact.
In search and in the Feed.
In your journal, as a link: type + in an entry to point to an interaction.

A person's page with the interaction timeline: in person, a letter, a visit — Interactions on Caroline Bingley's page.

Every interaction counts as contact, so it keeps a Tending relationship from fading.

Editing and archiving

Right-click an interaction on someone's timeline (long-press on iPhone and iPad) and choose Edit to change it, or Archive to remove it. Archived interactions are listed at the bottom of the timeline, where you can restore them or delete them for good.

"We're good" instead of a log

Sometimes there's nothing to log, but you know the relationship is fine. On a fading person's card in Nudge, or on their timeline, choose We're good. Ember records a check-in for today, which counts as contact, without inventing an interaction that didn't happen. Remove a check-in from the timeline if you tapped it by mistake.

Still stuck? Ask on the feedback board → All guides