The Hearth blog
Kindling
Notes on privacy, journaling, and the occasional feeling — from the team behind Hearth.
privacy
How Private Vault Works
There's a switch in Hearth that takes away our last key to your journal. Flip it and we can't read a word — not won't, can't. Here's exactly how it works.
product
Ask Your Journal Anything
"What was I stressed about last spring?" used to mean an evening of scrolling. Now you just ask. Here's the journal that answers back — and the fine print, said out loud.
privacy
AI That Burns After Reading
"Privacy-first AI" is on every homepage now, meaning roughly nothing. Ours has one rule with a name: every glance burns after reading. Here's the actual machinery behind the phrase.
privacy
Should Your Journal Live in the Cloud? Yes — If It's Encrypted Right
"The cloud" sounds like the last place a private diary should live. Done right, it's actually safer than the notebook in your drawer. Here's the catch.
privacy
Why We Built a Journal That Forgets Your Password on Purpose
Most apps can hand everything back with a password reset. Hearth has a mode that genuinely can't, on purpose — and it's one of the most important things about us.
product
Meet Inkling, the Little Ink Blob Who Lives in Your Journal
There's a small ink blob who lives in your journal. It blinks. It naps. It keeps your secrets. Allow us to introduce you.
journaling
Venting on Paper vs. Venting in the Group Chat
The group chat is right there, and it loves your drama. But some venting helps you and some just spreads, and a journal is better at one of those.
journaling
How to Keep a Journal Going Past Week Two
Anyone can start a journal. The graveyard is full of three-day streaks. Here's how to get past the slump where most journals quietly die.
privacy
Is a Paper Diary Safer Than an App? An Honest Answer
There's a romantic case that paper is the only truly private diary. It's a good argument. It's also missing half the picture. Let's weigh it honestly.
privacy
We Don't Sell Your Data — There's Nothing Readable to Sell
"We don't sell your data" is the cheapest promise in tech. Here's a stronger version of it: there's nothing readable on the shelf to sell, and you can check.
anxiety
How to Journal About Something You Don't Want to Think About
The hardest entries are the ones about the thing you're avoiding. Here's how to write around the edges until the middle stops being so scary.
journaling
How to Start Journaling When You Have Absolutely Nothing to Say
Everyone tells you to journal. Nobody tells you what to do about the terrifying blank page and the brain that's gone suspiciously quiet. Let's fix that.
privacy
What Happens When You Delete Your Diary (With Us: It's Actually Gone)
You tap delete. The entry vanishes from your screen. But did it actually leave the building? Often, no. Here's the difference between gone and 'gone.'
journaling
Morning Pages vs. Night Pages: Which Actually Works?
The internet is weirdly insistent that you must journal at dawn. The internet is wrong. Here's the honest case for morning, for night, and for whenever.
privacy
What "End-to-End Encrypted" Actually Means, Minus the Jargon
It's the phrase every app slaps on its homepage. Here's what it actually means when it's your diary on the line — no computer science degree required.
anxiety
Journaling for Anxiety: Not a Cure, but a Pretty Good Night-Light
It won't fix your anxiety. Nothing in a notebook will. But it's a surprisingly good tool for the nights your brain won't stop, and that counts for a lot.
journaling
Notes App vs. a Real Journaling App: When a Text File Isn't Enough
"I'll just use my Notes app" is how a lot of journals start and quietly end. Here's where the plain text file falls short of the actual job.
journaling
Journaling Prompts for When Your Brain Is a Fog Machine
Not the grand, soul-searching prompts. The small, weird, oddly specific ones you can actually answer when your head's full of cotton wool.
product
Why There's No Feed, No Likes, and No Followers (and Never Will Be)
No feed. No likes. No followers. No streaks-you-share. We left all of it out on purpose, and we'd like to explain the purpose.
unsent
The Unsent Letter: Why Writing to Someone You'll Never Send It To Works
Write the whole furious, tender, unhinged thing — to the person who'll never read it. It sounds pointless. It's quietly one of the best tricks going.
privacy
Can Your Journaling App Read Your Diary? (An Uncomfortable Little Tour)
Spoiler: most of them can. Here's a quick, slightly awkward way to find out whether the app holding your secrets could read them if it wanted to.
journaling
The Five-Minute Journaling Habit That Survives a Busy Week
Most journaling habits die the first genuinely busy week. The trick isn't more discipline. It's making the habit so small it can't lose to a bad day.
future-self
Writing a Letter to Future You (and Why Future You Says Thanks)
Part time capsule, part pep talk, part note passed across the years. Here's how to write to a future you who is, weirdly, listening.
journaling
What to Write in a Journal (Besides "Today Was Fine")
If your entries keep dead-ending at 'today was fine,' the problem isn't you. It's that nobody told you a journal can hold way more than a daily recap.
privacy
The Case for a Diary Nobody — Including Us — Can Read
Not 'nobody's supposed to read it.' Nobody can. Here's what changes about your writing when that's genuinely, mathematically true — and the one switch that makes it so.
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