Every social app I've used eventually starts working against me. The feed stops being the people I follow and turns into whatever keeps me scrolling. Notifications invent reasons to pull me back in. The whole thing is tuned to take as much of my attention as it can get.
I want the opposite of that. Heartbeat is built to help you check in on your people and then put your phone down. It's named after what it's supposed to be: a steady, quiet pulse of updates from family and close friends. No strangers, no algorithm, no tricks.
Some of this is a direct reaction to the news. A major platform was just found to have deliberately designed its apps to be addictive — including for kids. I want Heartbeat to be the opposite of that.
What Heartbeat is
Invite-only, real names, mutual. Everyone uses their real name. To connect, you send someone a request and they accept — and then you follow each other. You can only reach someone with an email or phone number you already have for them: there's no directory, and no way to search by name.
You pick the audience for every post. Like mailing a letter to a specific list. Send it to everyone you're connected with, or to just a few people. Changing your mind later doesn't un-share what people already saw.
The feed is only time order. Newest first, oldest last — and then it ends and tells you you're caught up. Nothing is ranked, boosted, or buried by a machine.
Tags let people opt out instead of unfollowing. Label your posts (#politics, #kids, #garden). Anyone following you can quietly filter out a tag they'd rather not see, without unfollowing you.
The author runs the comments. Turn comments off on a post, or hide and delete replies on your own posts. Your space is yours.
Photos forget where they were taken. Location data is stripped from every photo automatically, before anyone else can download it.
Where it is right now
Works today
Signing up & email verification
Follow requests and approvals
Posts with a chosen audience
Photos and tags
Comments and emoji reactions
Editing a post or comment after you publish it
Settings: nickname, contact info, location, reaction controls, muted words
Not built yet
Payments — everything is free during the beta
Feed filters and per-person controls
Changing your account email
Deleting your account
A formal report button — for now, just tell me
It's a beta. Some screens will look rough on a phone, and I may have to wipe the database while I'm still building. Please don't post anything you'd be upset to lose — or anything you wouldn't want me to see while I'm testing.
The someday plan for paying: your first 12 followers are free, and a bigger audience needs a small subscription. It's built so a popular grandparent with a lot of grandkids never gets priced out. You'd pay for the audience you built, not for using the app.
What I need from you
The best way to help is to actually live in it for a week or two. Roughly in order:
Sign up with your real name, then click the link in the verification email.
Send me a follow request — or accept the one from me.
Post a few real things. Try a photo. Add a tag or two. Send one post to everyone, and one to just a couple of people.
Comment on something, leave a reaction, rate a comment.
Go back and edit one of your posts.
Do all of it again on your phone.
Tell me what was confusing, broken, or annoying — and especially anything that felt like it was trying to hook you or keep you scrolling. That last one matters most.
Once you're signed in, the full checklist — with a box to leave a note on each thing you try — is under Beta in the menu.
That's the whole pitch. If a quieter place to keep up with each other sounds like something worth having, the way to help build it is to use it and be honest with me. Thank you — really.
