Frequently Asked Questions
Hearthly · hello@gethearthly.app
These answers are a plain-language summary to help you get oriented. They are not the contract. If anything here differs from the Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy, those documents control.
About Hearthly
What is Hearthly? Hearthly is a shared journaling and care coordination app for families supporting a loved one through an illness or ongoing health situation — and for individuals keeping notes on their own health. It's a place to log what's happening, coordinate with your care circle, and surface patterns from what you've already written down.
Is Hearthly a medical app? No. Hearthly is a journaling and organization tool. It does not diagnose conditions, interpret symptoms, predict health outcomes, or provide medical advice. Always bring questions to a licensed healthcare provider. Hearthly is not for emergencies and does not contact emergency services. In an emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Who is Hearthly for? Hearthly is for family caregivers, spouses, adult children, close friends, and anyone managing their own ongoing health situation. It's designed for the everyday work of keeping track — not for clinical settings.
Is Hearthly available outside the United States? No. Hearthly is for people located in the United States only. Some features (like medication reminders and visit summaries) are built around US healthcare norms.
Getting Started
How do I create an account? Sign up at gethearthly.app with your email or a Google account, then start your 7-day free trial. A payment method is required to start the trial — you can cancel anytime before it ends to avoid being charged.
What is a care circle? A care circle is a private group of people — family members, close friends, hired helpers — who share notes and updates about one person. Everyone you invite can see the same daily logs, medication list, and appointment notes. You control who's in the circle.
How do I invite someone to my care circle? From the Care Circle page, enter their email address. They'll receive an invitation and can join with a Hearthly account.
What are condition packs? Condition packs are sets of note prompts, tips, and journaling fields tailored to specific conditions — dementia, Parkinson's, cancer, heart failure, and more. They help your circle notice and record what matters most for that situation.
Privacy and Data
Who can see my notes? Only you and the people you invite to your care circle. In the ordinary course, Hearthly staff do not read your journal entries. Access is limited to the small number of personnel and service providers who need it to operate, secure, support, or back up Hearthly, and we never share your notes with insurers, employers, advertisers, or data brokers. AI-generated summaries (like morning moments and calendar pattern views) are produced from your notes but shown only to you and your circle. See our Privacy Policy for details.
Do I need a power of attorney to keep notes about my loved one? Not necessarily. If your loved one is an adult, you can journal about their care if you're their legal representative (guardian, power of attorney, healthcare proxy) or a family member or caregiver acting honestly in their interest when they can't manage their own care. It's like a notebook on the kitchen counter — we ask you to act in good faith, not to file paperwork. One firm rule: notes about a child can only be entered by that child's parent or legal guardian (or with their documented permission), and children can never have accounts.
Do you sell my data? No. We do not sell your personal information or health notes to anyone.
Is my health information safe? We encrypt data in transit and at rest. No online service can promise perfect security, and Hearthly does not. Health notes are treated with care — we do not share them with insurers, employers, or advertisers. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Do you share my notes with AI companies? Only to power the features you use, and only the parts a feature needs. Our in-app help chat goes to Anthropic (Claude). Other AI features — summaries, pattern matching, voice transcription, and photo scanning — route through an AI gateway (Lovable) to Google (Gemini) and OpenAI models. If you scan a pill bottle, that photo is what gets read; if you record a voice note, that audio is what gets transcribed. Under our providers' current agreements, your content is not used to train their AI models, results are shown only inside your Hearthly account, and you can turn AI features off in settings. The always-current list of providers is in our Privacy Policy.
Can I export or delete my data? Yes to both. You can delete your account from account settings. If you own a care circle with other members, you have two options: transfer ownership to another member who has their own active subscription, or request deletion of the entire circle — that notifies every member immediately, opens a 14-day window during which any member can export data and you can cancel, and then permanently deletes the loved one's record and all of the circle's care data. Member accounts themselves are not deleted by circle deletion. No refunds are issued for the current billing period. To export your journal data, email support@gethearthly.app.
What happens to the circle if one member deletes their account? Their account and personal information are deleted within 30 days. Entries they authored about the loved one that the circle shares stay in the circle's record with their name removed and the author shown as "Former member," so the family's history isn't broken. If the person deleting is the circle Owner, they either transfer ownership to another member or delete the entire circle (see above). The details are in Section 9 of the Privacy Policy.
What if the loved one has their own Hearthly account and deletes it? Deleting the loved one's account removes their login and their personal account data. The care record the circle keeps about them is managed by the circle Owner and stays with the circle — it is the family's journal about the care they've given. The loved one can ask the Owner to remove specific information at any time, or contact support@gethearthly.app and we'll help.
Who is the paying subscriber for a circle? The Circle Owner. Billing and member seats are always tied to the Owner's subscription and can't be assigned to anyone else. Other members can be added without a separate subscription — the Owner's plan covers them.
How does transferring a circle to another member work? Because the Owner is the payer, a transfer can only complete once the receiving member has their own active Hearthly subscription. When it completes, they become the Owner, the member seats move to their subscription, and the previous Owner's subscription does not renew for that circle — it runs out the time already paid for. No refunds or proration are issued, and any discount or promotion on the previous Owner's account stays with that account and does not transfer.
What happens if the circle Owner has passed away or can no longer manage the circle? A family member or another circle member can contact support@gethearthly.app — or use the corresponding category in the in-app support form — to start a verified ownership transition. We notify the circle, verify the situation, and complete the transfer once a new Owner has their own active subscription. If billing lapses in the meantime, the circle becomes paused so members can still open and export what is there — we do not delete the circle.
What happens to my data if Hearthly shuts down? If we ever have to discontinue Hearthly, we'll give you advance notice (at least 30 days where practical) by email and in-app, and keep your account in a state where you can export everything before access ends. If you've prepaid for time you can no longer use, we'll refund the unused portion where we're able. After the export window closes, we delete user data on our normal schedule, except records we must keep by law. If Hearthly is ever sold or transferred — including in a bankruptcy — your data stays subject to a policy at least as protective as this one, and we'll aim to give you a chance to export or delete it first. Full details are in Section 16.4 of the Terms and Sections 8–9 of the Privacy Policy.
Plans and Billing
What happens during the free trial? Your 7-day trial includes everything in Hearthly — the shared care circle, daily check-ins, medication reminders, journaling, condition packs, and AI features. A payment method is required to start the trial; if you don't cancel before it ends, your paid plan begins automatically.
What do paid plans include? Hearthly has two paid plans:
- Hearthly Pro — one care circle with up to 10 members.
- Hearthly Plus — up to three care circles, each with up to 10 members.
Both plans include everything Hearthly does — daily log, medications, appointments, condition packs, AI insights, advanced pattern views, visit summary packets you can hand to a doctor, the quiet caregiver check-in, and generous photo and document storage (set well above typical family care use). During our early launch, we offer promotional pricing that is locked in for as long as your subscription stays active. Early launch pricing is limited to the first 250 subscribers and ends when the promotion deadline is reached (whichever comes first). Current prices for both plans are shown on the pricing page. Paid plans renew automatically at the end of each billing period until you cancel, and you can cancel anytime in your settings.
How do I upgrade or downgrade? From your account settings, go to Subscription. You can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel at any time. If you downgrade from Plus to Pro and own more than one circle, your newest circles are paused (see below) and your oldest circle stays active; upgrading back to Plus restores them.
What happens when I cancel? Your paid features remain active until the end of your billing period. After that, your circles become paused — you and your circle members can still sign in and view everything already saved, and you can export your data, but new entries and edits are paused until you reactivate. We don't delete your notes or circle just because you cancel; resubscribing restores full access.
Do you offer refunds? All purchases are final. Refunds are at Hearthly's discretion — we review requests case by case, especially for billing errors or genuine hardship. Email support@gethearthly.app within 7 days of a charge and we'll take a look. If we ever cancel your paid subscription without cause, we'll refund the unused portion of your current billing period. (If you subscribed through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, refunds are handled by that store under its own policy — see the next question.)
What if I subscribed through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store? If you subscribe through an app store rather than our website, that store processes your payment and its own billing, renewal, cancellation, and refund rules also apply. You'll manage and cancel that subscription in the store's account settings (for example, the Subscriptions section of Google Play), not in Hearthly's in-app settings, and refund requests go to the store, not to us. Everything else about how Hearthly works stays the same. Full details are in Section 8.9 of our Terms of Service.
Does Hearthly qualify for Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) reimbursement? Often, yes. Many employers offer a Lifestyle Spending Account that covers caregiving, eldercare, or family support — and Hearthly usually fits those categories. Because every plan is different, please check with your HR or benefits team (or your plan administrator) before submitting a claim. Need a receipt for reimbursement? Just email support@gethearthly.app and we'll send one over. Learn more about using an LSA for Hearthly →
Are First Circle members held to different rules? No. First Circle members get the same care and the same Terms of Service as every other member. First Circle membership is a benefit, not a shield — if anyone violates our Terms or community standards, we may end First Circle benefits, end the account, or both, depending on what happened. We may also wind down a complimentary program itself (like the beta period) when its time is up; that's separate from anything to do with member conduct.
Using Hearthly
What is the daily log? The daily log is where you or your circle record what happened today — mood, sleep, meals, symptoms, medications, and any notes worth remembering. Short entries are fine. The goal is consistency, not completeness.
What are calendar insights and day outlooks? Calendar insights surface patterns from past daily logs — for example, noticing that difficult days often follow poor sleep. If you enable day outlooks, Hearthly also offers a soft outlook for upcoming days ("days like this have tended to be harder"), based only on your circle's own past entries, your schedule, and local weather history. These are reflections of your own notes, with plenty of humility built in — they are not forecasts of health, medical predictions, or clinical findings, and your day will go however it goes.
What is a visit summary? A visit summary is a printable one-pager of recent notes, patterns, and questions — designed to help you make the most of a short doctor's appointment. It is a journaling summary the family compiles and hands to the doctor, not a medical record or clinical report.
What is the quiet caregiver check-in? A short set of warm, plain-language questions for the caregiver to reflect on how things are landing right now. It's private — only you see it — and Hearthly does not score it, classify it, or treat it as a medical assessment.
Can I use Hearthly to track my own health, not a loved one's? Yes. When you set up your account, choose "Journaling for myself." Your dashboard will use first-person labels and the circle features are optional.
Can my loved one use Hearthly themselves? Yes, two ways. If you're managing your own health, choose "Journaling for myself" at setup. And any circle can invite the loved one to hold their own account — to see their schedule, look at photos, or join the community — as long as they're an adult (18+). Once they join, the account is theirs: they accept the Terms themselves and control their own account, while the circle Owner still manages what features they see.
Can I connect my Google Calendar? Yes. You can connect Google Calendar (read-only) to bring upcoming appointments into a care circle's schedule view. You choose which calendars feed which circle, and other members see your events as a generic "Appointment" with the time, not the title. See our Privacy Policy for details.
AI in the daily log and respite tools
What are the little AI suggestions I see in the daily log? After you pick a mood, Hearthly may offer one short, warm follow-up question (something like "Did anything help her settle today?") to make the blank text area less intimidating. It's optional. Tap the × to dismiss it, or just ignore it. It's generated only from the mood you chose and recent context from your own logs.
What is the "From your past logs" panel? As you type a note, Hearthly quietly searches your own logs from the last 30 days for similar moments and shows up to three short snippets you can tap to re-read. It's there to help you notice patterns ("we tried earlier dinner two weeks ago and it helped") — not to tell you what to do.
What does "What's helped you before" do in the respite tools? When the app notices you've been carrying a heavier load, it summarizes coping strategies you have already used in past respite and well-being entries — a walk, a phone call, an early bedtime. It's designed to reflect your own history back to you, not to generate new advice.
What are appointment talking points? If you have an appointment scheduled in the next 7 days, you can tap Generate talking points and Hearthly will organize the last 30 days of your own log entries into three lists — observations, questions, and changes I've noticed — written in plain caregiver language. It's a draft to help you prepare, not a medical summary. You decide what to share.
Is any of this medical advice? No. None of these features interpret health data, score anything, or replace a clinician. They organize what you've already written so you can notice it and talk about it with the people who matter.
Can I turn the AI features off? Yes. AI features can be turned off in your account settings; when they're off, your entries aren't sent to AI providers for these features. See the Privacy Policy for the details on what's sent and to whom.
Still have questions?
Email us at hello@gethearthly.app — we read every message.
Beta testing & the First Circle
What is the Hearthly beta? The closed beta lets a small group of families use Hearthly before public launch, share feedback, and help us catch what's not quite right. Beta participants get free access during the beta cycle and, if they meet our participation requirements, become Hearthly First Circle members.
What does First Circle membership mean? First Circle membership is an honorary thank-you for helping us build Hearthly. It comes with optional public recognition and a distinctive ring around your profile avatar in the app. That's it — it is a token of appreciation, not a business relationship.
Is First Circle member status equity, ownership, or a job offer? No. It explicitly does not include equity, ownership, profit-sharing, board seats, voting rights, intellectual property rights, or any claim on Hearthly's valuation or sale proceeds. The benefits listed above are the complete compensation. The full language lives in Section 19 of our Terms of Service.
Will my name and photo be public? Only if you opt in. At the end of the beta we'll ask whether you want to be listed on our public Friends of Hearthly page. You can say no and still keep every other benefit, and you can ask us to remove your listing at any time by emailing legal@gethearthly.app.
Can I hide the avatar ring? The ring is part of the First Circle member designation, so it shows up wherever your profile appears inside Hearthly. If you'd strongly prefer not to have it visible, email legal@gethearthly.app and we'll talk through options.
Can I transfer my First Circle member status to someone else? No — it's personal to your account and not transferable.
Who owns my feedback? When you send us feedback, bug reports, or suggestions, you give us permission to use and build on those ideas inside Hearthly. That's about the ideas only; your account data still belongs to you, and feedback doesn't create equity or any other entitlement.
Where can I read the full beta terms? The full terms are in Section 19 of the Terms of Service, and the data-handling details are in Section 17 of the Privacy Policy.