Stories

Post a photo, a short video or a few lines on a card. If there’s more to it, write the story behind it, and people can swipe from your cover into the words. Nobody has to write a story, but it’s what this place is for.

Stories is invite-only for now and kept small on purpose, while we find out what it should be. There are no ads, no counts of your followers’ loves on show, and no algorithm deciding what you see: Today shows the people you follow, newest first, and Flip goes on to everyone else. How pages are chosen.

How we look after each other

Post your own work. Photos you took, or ones you have permission to share. Say so when you post.

Be kind in the margins. Notes are for the work and the story. Disagree if you like, but never with the person.

Respect the people in your pictures. Think twice before posting someone who didn’t agree to it, especially children.

No spam, no hate, no hurting. Pages and people that break this are hidden.

The whole of it is in the house rules.

If something is wrong

Use Report this page in a page’s ⋯ menu, or the ⋯ on someone’s book. You can also mute or block anyone from there. Nobody is told who reported or blocked them.

Your pictures and your data

Your photos stay yours. They are redrawn before upload, which removes the GPS location hidden in them; only the place you type is shown. You can download everything you posted, or delete your account, from Settings.

Tell us something

Something broken, something missing, something you like. It goes straight to the editors.

What’s new

Flip is a tab again: pages from people you follow first, then everyone else, and nothing you’ve already seen comes back.
Today shows only the people you follow, since your last visit, with no counts. Extra pages from one person fold into a line under “Also since…”.
On a laptop the left sidebar is back, folding to a narrow rail on story pages and in Flip.
Every page in a book shows its words again: the title, the place, the date.
The editors’ picks say why they were chosen, and a new shelf on Wander, Read to the end this week, is chosen by readers. See How pages are chosen.
Notes can sit beside a paragraph: select a few words and tap Note.
Writers see how many people read a story to the end and how they found it, and a short letter about their week arrives in the Letterbox on Sundays.
Post is clearer: Photos, Video or Write, with “Write the story behind it” right under the caption.

Earlier changes

Earlier this week

On a laptop, photos are as large as the window allows: whole and uncropped in Flip, bigger in Today, and a story’s cover and photos wider than its text, all on one centre line.
Photos inside a story keep their own shape (they were drawn too tall).
Signing in or out changes the whole app at once, without a reload.
For visitors who aren’t signed in: Love, Keep, Follow and notes ask to sign in instead of seeming to work; Write explains it’s for members; the laptop menu has Sign in and Ask for an invite; Sign in and Join have a way back.
Buttons are black; red is kept for Follow and a loved heart. On someone’s book, Pass it on is the paper-plane button, so the row fits small phones.
Photos on pages for your followers are locked: a copied photo link only opens for someone who may read the page.
On a laptop, a story’s title shows under its cover without scrolling, and books read a size larger on wide screens.
“Skip to content” for anyone using a keyboard: press Tab once on any page.
Fits small phones, tablets and phones held sideways: whole photos in Flip, and the side menu from tablet width up.
A link to a missing book, tag or place now says what wasn’t found and where to look instead.
When a photo was taken, read from the photo itself, shown on its postcard line (you can leave it off on Write).
Send a preview to a friend from Write: a private link to your draft that works for seven days.
People here: everyone with a book on Stories, from Wander or Search.
Search shows every page the same way, with the line your words were found in.
Profile photos sit centred in their circles.

Before that

Postcards: one photo on the front and a note on the back, for one person. Tap Postcard on a friend’s book, or Send as a postcard in your own page’s ⋯ menu. To pass a page on privately, use Send, then Send in a message. Choose who can send you postcards in Settings, Privacy.
The bell remembers what you’ve seen on every device you use.
Cancel an upload on Write; your draft stays.
Find someone in a long list of followers.
The paperclip stays black when you keep a page, so red means a loved heart.

Earlier

A QR code for your book, in Settings, to save as a picture or print.
Print a story (Ctrl+P on a laptop, or Print from your phone’s share menu): cover, title and text, nothing else.
“Full stories only” is remembered on this device.
Kept pages say when they’re saved to read offline.
Lenses link to other pages shot with them, like cameras.
Stay signed in while offline, instead of being asked to sign in.
For the editors: make and take back invite codes on Members, and a notice when a database update is waiting.
“Full stories only” on Today and Wander, for when you want something to read.
Tap the camera under a cover’s details to see other pages shot on it.
Places on a book: where its pages were made, each opening that place’s pages from that book.
Pages you keep can be read offline in the home-screen app.
On a laptop, n on a page puts you in the note box.
For the editors: a Members page with places left in the beta, and Reports split into Reports, Feedback and Invite requests.
No invite code? Ask for one from the sign-in sheet or the welcome page.
Make your photos harder to save, or put a small @name mark on them, in Settings, Privacy.
Your week: reads, loves, notes and new followers from the last seven days, on your own book.
Get told when a series you’re reading has a new part.
Follow a few tags on the welcome screen.
On a laptop: j and k move between pages, l loves, n opens the notes, and ? lists the keys.
Series: put pages in a series, and each shows “Part 2 of 4” with the parts either side at the end.
Name who made a page with you under Made with. They’re told, and it shows on their book under With others.
Pin one note to the top of the margin on your own page.
“Posted · Undo” for a few seconds after you leave a note.
Tap the tags a book is most often about to see just those pages.
Photos shared from your gallery start a new page, and what you were writing waits in your drafts.
Select a line in a story to make it a quote card, with the cover, the author and the title.
Rotate a photo before you post it.
Choose which part of a cover shows when it’s cropped into a print on your book.
Move photos earlier or later, in a cover set or inside a story.
Turn off notes on one page, from the end of the page.
Get told when someone @mentions you in a note.
Share photos into Stories from your phone’s gallery (Android, once Stories is on your home screen).
Love a note in the margin. Its writer sees how many did.
Hide a page from your book without deleting it. Find it again in Settings, Hidden pages.
Mute a tag to keep its pages out of Today, Flip and Wander.
Tap a time to see the exact moment.
Pull down to refresh Today and Notifications in the home-screen app.
Change your email, or sign out on your other devices.
Find a page in a long book with the filter.
Tell us something, from this page.
A welcome for new members, who start out following whoever invited them.
A small mark in Today where the pages since your last visit end.
Every page you loved, on your book.
Notifications grouped by day.
Report a single note.
Tags suggested as you type.