How the MemoriesBox device works
The MemoriesBox device records when its one button is pressed, keeps up to 200 hours on board, and hands the recordings to the archive by Bluetooth through a phone or by USB-C to a computer. The archive transcribes them, files them into chapters and builds the voice. $79, ships 2027.
Facts on this page verified
What it is
A pendant with one button, worn at the collarbone. It costs $79 one-time at the early price and ships in 2027. Everything on this page follows from three decisions: it records only when pressed, it keeps what it records on itself, and it hands that to the archive rather than to a cloud of its own.
The three things it does
- It records when pressed. One press of the side button starts a recording; one press stops it. Because the pendant sits at the collarbone, it hears the person wearing it clearly, including a voice that has gone quiet, without anyone leaning towards a microphone.
- It keeps the recording on board. Up to 200 hours, on the device itself. Nothing is sent anywhere by the pendant on its own. It has no connection to the internet and no account of its own; it has a battery that lasts up to three weeks and a memory that fills slowly.
- It hands the recordings over. Two ways. By Bluetooth, to the MemoriesBox app on a phone, which carries them into the archive. Or by USB-C, to any computer, as ordinary audio files, with no phone and no account involved. If the pendant is ever lost, the app can find it by GPS.
What happens to a recording
| Step | Where it happens | Needs a subscription? |
|---|---|---|
| Recorded | On the pendant | No |
| Kept, up to 200 hours | On the pendant | No |
| Copied to a computer by USB-C | Your computer | No |
| Carried into the archive by Bluetooth | The MemoriesBox app on a phone | Yes |
| Transcribed, filed into one of the 21 chapters, kept in the EU | The archive: Stockholm and Frankfurt, see /trust/where-your-data-lives | Yes |
| Used to build the voice, when the person asks | The archive, see /features/voice-cloning | Yes |
The first three rows are the recorder. The last three are MemoriesBox. The pendant is a good recorder for the rest of its life without the last three, and we would rather you knew that than discovered it: the subscription is for what happens to a recording after it is made, and it is a separate purchase at $139 a year.
Recordings that reach the archive through the pendant are treated exactly like recordings made in the app: kept as audio, transcribed, filed under the question or chapter they belong to, exported whenever you like, and never used for anything but this one family's archive.
What it does that a phone doesn't
A phone is a general device that happens to have a microphone. It is on the table, face down, on silent, at 4% battery, or in another room. Recording with it means deciding to record, finding it, unlocking it, opening the right app and pressing the right thing, all while somebody is halfway through the story. Most of the time, the story ends first.
The pendant is on the person. It is charged, because it lasts three weeks. It has one button. The decision to record is the press, and the press takes half a second. That is the entire advantage, and it is a large one, because the recordings that families regret not having are the ones that were never started.
What it will not do
- It will not record without the press. There is no always-on mode and no wake word. A recording is a decision, made by the person wearing it.
- It will not upload anything by itself. It has no internet connection. Recordings leave it only through a phone the wearer pairs it with, or a cable the wearer plugs in.
- It will not ask questions. It is a recorder, not an interviewer. The 380 questions live in the app, and the pendant is for everything the questions do not reach: the story told at the table, the thing remembered on a walk.
- It will not work as a hearing aid, a phone, or a panic button. One job.
- It will not build a voice on its own. That happens only in the archive, only when the person presses "Create my digital self".
What it costs and when it ships
$79 one-time at the early price, rising to $169 later. Ships in 2027. If the date moves, everyone who reserved hears first and can cancel for a full refund. The terms are on /device/preorder.
Until then
Everything the pendant will record can be recorded today with the phone in your pocket, and the archive it builds is the same one. Start with the app, and reserve the pendant if you want the button.
Questions people ask
How does the MemoriesBox device get recordings to my family?
Through the archive. The pendant pairs with the MemoriesBox app by Bluetooth and hands its recordings over; the archive transcribes them, files them into chapters and holds them in the EU, and the people you gave a key to reach them there when the archive is released. Or by USB-C to any computer, as plain audio files, with no account at all.
Does the device connect to the internet?
No. It has Bluetooth, to talk to a phone, and USB-C, to talk to a computer. Nothing leaves it unless the wearer pairs it or plugs it in.
How long does the battery last?
Up to three weeks on a charge, charged by the same USB-C cable that moves the recordings off.
What happens when the 200 hours are full?
It stops recording and says so when it is next paired or plugged in. Move the recordings off and the space is free again. Two hundred hours is roughly a year of ordinary use.
Is a subscription needed to use the device?
Not as a recorder: recording, keeping and copying by USB-C need nothing. A MemoriesBox subscription, $139 a year, is needed for the archive to receive the recordings, transcribe them, file them and build the voice.
Related: The device · Reserve one · Setting it up for someone else · How the guided interview works · Where your recordings live
MemoriesBox is $139 a year, hosted in the EU, first 14 days free, cancel anytime. Start here.