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How Memories work

Start with the individual things you want to remember.

A Memory is something you've saved

A Memory keeps something you want to return to: an idea, a decision, a question, an action, or an account of what happened. It can be a single sentence or a longer note with several Thoughts in it.

You might save a restaurant recommendation, the reason you made a project decision, or something your child said. Give it enough context that you'll understand it later. You can save it without knowing which larger story it will become part of.

Saving is just the beginning

Write what you want to remember in the app and save it. Where those connections are available, you can also send a Memory by SMS or email, or bring prepared Memories in through Import.

After a Memory is saved, Memory Currents can do some organizing for you. It may:

• recognize what kind of thought you saved;
• add tags that describe what it's about;
• and look for Currents it may belong to.

This work may take a little time after you press Save. You don't need to save the Memory again. This organizing never changes your text. You can turn on Find Memory splits and Thoughts automatically in Preferences to identify the separate Thoughts within a Memory and receive suggestions for smaller Memories, for all your Memories, or only those in the Currents you choose.

Types help describe what kind of thought you saved

Not every Memory represents the same kind of thing.

Memory Currents uses types to make those differences easier to recognize:

• Observation — something you noticed.
  “The rosemary did better in the back garden.”

• Idea — something you thought of.
  “What if we held the reunion at the lake?”

• Question — something you're wondering about or want to answer.
  “When does my passport expire?”

• Decision — a choice you've made.
  “We're going to Denver for Thanksgiving.”

• Intent — something you want or plan to do.
  “I want to start walking in the mornings again.”

• To-do — a specific action you want to get done.
  “Call the dentist to schedule a cleaning.”

• Action — something you, or someone in your life, did.
  “Called the dentist and booked the cleaning for the 12th.”

• Event — something that happened in the world around you.
  “The power was out for three hours last night.”

• Artifact — material you kept to use or refer to as a whole, where its wording, values, or organization are the point: a recipe, a config file, a quoted passage, a contact block.
  “The oven settings that finally worked: 220 °C, fan off, middle shelf, 34 minutes.”

A Memory can hold more than one kind of thought at once — “I noticed the feeder was empty, so I filled it” is both an observation and an action — and Memory Currents can record both.

Types help you recognize what you've saved. You don't have to choose one before saving a Memory.

Reading a Memory, or one Thought at a time

In your Memories library and on the Split Memories screen, cards keep the date at the top and links to their Currents at the bottom. Choose Expand Memory on a longer Memory to read the full text in a focused reader. The reader shows the date, then a short title written for the Memory, then the text and its Currents. Titles appear shortly after you save a Memory; a short Memory needs none. Close the reader to return to where you were; choosing a Current link takes you to that Current instead.

When a Memory has several retained Thoughts, the top-right count — for example, 3 Thoughts — opens another face of the card. Once the Memory has a title, it heads this face, so you can see which Memory the Thoughts belong to. Each Thought has its own type and text, in their original order. If a Memory has more than four Thoughts, the first two show and the button below the list tells you how many more — for example, Show 3 more Thoughts. Choose it to reveal them, or Expand Thought on a long Thought to read it in full. Back to Memory returns to the whole Memory. This only changes what you're reading; it doesn't create or change any Memories.

A Memory with one retained Thought shows its type without another face. Before separate Thoughts are available, a label such as To-do +1 more describes the estimated types instead. You can hover over or focus the label for more detail, but it isn't a Thought count or a button.

See Thoughts for how the individual parts of a Memory are kept and read, including after a split.

Tags describe what a Memory is about

A type tells you what kind of thought something is. Tags help describe what the thought is about.

A Memory about choosing a restaurant for an upcoming Denver trip might have tags related to Denver, travel, food, or the people you're traveling with.

Tags make individual Memories easier to recognize and help Memory Currents notice when different Memories may be related.

They're also one of the signals that can help related Memories come together in Currents.

Currents connect Memories into something larger

A Memory keeps what you've saved. A Current connects related Memories into a larger thread.

Suppose you save these over several weeks:

“Sarah suggested staying in RiNo when we go to Denver.”

“Found that little Italian restaurant Chris was talking about.”

“Decided we'll fly out Thursday afternoon.”

They're useful Memories on their own. But together, they also tell part of the story of a trip.

When matching is available, Memory Currents can look at a new Memory and compare it with your existing Currents. If the meaning fits, the Memory can be connected to one or more of them.

A Memory doesn't have to match anything. And it can belong to several Currents at once.

Memory Currents will not always understand a connection the same way you do. Matching is meant to help surface useful relationships, not decide what your experiences mean.

You can also decide for yourself. On the Memories page, choose Tools on a Memory's card, then Add to Current, to put it in a Current. To take it out, open the Current, choose Tools on the Memory's card there, then Remove from Current. A Memory you remove isn't added back to that Current automatically, though you can add it again yourself. Add or remove a Memory explains how.

When parts of a note would be useful on their own

Meeting notes might contain a decision, an idea, and two things you need to do. You may want to find those parts separately or connect them to different Currents.

For Memories that contain several thoughts, you can ask Memory Currents to suggest smaller Memories. You can also turn on Find Memory splits and Thoughts automatically in Preferences to receive suggestions without asking each time, for all your Memories, or only those in the Currents you choose. You review the suggestions and choose which ones to save, unless you also enable Save split Memories automatically, in which case proposed splits are automatically accepted on your behalf. This includes splits that you initiated. Suggestions already waiting still need your review. Your original text is kept. Automatic saves also archive the original Memory unless you uncheck Archive the original Memory.

Split Memories explains the review process, the option to archive the original, and what happens after you decide.

Set a Memory aside and return to it

On the Memories page, open Filter and sort, then use Show to choose Active, Archived, or All. Each new browsing session starts with Active. Your choice stays in effect as you browse in this tab. Search, sorting, pagination, and the result count all apply to the set you've selected.

A Memory card's actions are under Tools, the wrench button at its top right. To set aside a Memory, choose Tools, then Archive, and confirm. It disappears from Active views, but its original words, Thoughts, tags, and connections are preserved. For a few seconds, a notice above the list says “Archived. Find it by choosing Archived or All.”

Choose Archived or All to find and read it. An archived Memory shows Archived across the top of its card and is read-only until you unarchive it, so its tools don't include Edit Memory. If it was edited before, its Revision History is still there to read. To return the same Memory to active use, choose Unarchive from its tools and confirm; the notice then says “Unarchived. The item is active again.” In All, the card stays visible: the Archived banner appears or goes away, and its tools offer Unarchive or Archive to match.

An original Memory and any smaller Memories created from it are archived independently. Archiving one doesn't affect the others. Unarchiving a Memory doesn't unarchive any Current it belongs to, trigger another split, or restart processing. Work already underway can still finish, including saving smaller Memories you've already approved.

If a Thought belongs to more than one Memory, its to-do remains visible while at least one of those Memories is active. Archiving the last active Memory hides the to-do. Unarchiving any Memory holding that Thought makes it visible again with its previous status and history. Archiving doesn't complete, cancel, or restart a to-do.

Importing brings existing Memories with you

You can paste supported import text or load it from a file to bring in Memories in larger groups. The format tells Memory Currents where each Memory begins and ends, and can preserve dates, types, tags, and links to Currents. It doesn't turn an arbitrary document into separate Memories.

Import explains the format and the choice to look for additional Current connections. Export explains how to take a readable copy of what you've saved.

You don't need to make every Memory perfect

Save what you mean while it's fresh. Types, tags, and connections can give it more structure afterward. If you notice a mistake later, you can correct it, and every earlier version is kept. Start with something you'll be glad to find again, and let your collection grow.

Currents explains how Memories become part of larger, ongoing threads.