How it works

Every way a story gets told.

Stories adapts to how your family actually communicates — not the other way around. Four capture methods today, with a phone-based option on the way.

One tap to record

Hit record, tell the story, stop. Stories automatically transcribes the audio, suggests tags, and attaches the recording to whoever you're adding it to. Works on desktop and mobile — no app download needed.

  • Automatic transcription
  • Real-time waveform visualization
  • AI generates a title and summary
  • Speaker diarization for group recordings

Recording in progress...

2:14

Write it down, beautifully

A full rich-text editor for written stories. Paste from anywhere, format with headers and quotes, and add supporting photos. Great for long-form family history that deserves more than a voice note.

  • Rich text (bold, italic, headers, quotes)
  • Attach photos to written stories
  • AI-assisted tagging and date detection
  • Serif typography makes it feel like a book
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The Day Dad Got the Job

"He walked in the front door and didn't say a word. Just set his briefcase down on the kitchen table and looked at Mom with this expression she'd never seen before..."

1962 Dad

Forward an email. Save a memory.

Got a great story sitting in an email thread — a holiday note from an aunt, a long reply where your mom recounted the old neighborhood? Forward it to your family's dedicated inbox. The AI extracts the story, figures out who it's about, and asks you where it belongs on the tree.

  • Every family gets a unique forwarding address
  • AI extracts the narrative from the email body
  • Inline photos and attachments are kept
  • You confirm who it belongs to before it's saved
AB
Aunt Barb
to: capture@callahan.thestories.family
Re: that old Christmas photo you sent

"I haven't seen that photo in 40 years. That was the Christmas your grandfather surprised us all by bringing home a puppy he'd been hiding in the garage for three days..."

Stories detected a story — tap to attach

Import what you already have

Don't start from scratch. Import your existing family tree from any genealogy platform with GEDCOM files. Upload recorded conversations, voicemails, or old audio — Stories transcribes, separates speakers, and turns a single dinner recording into individual stories attached to individual people.

  • GEDCOM import from Ancestry, 23andMe, FamilySearch
  • Upload audio files (MP3, M4A, WAV, OGG, WebM)
  • Multi-speaker conversation diarization
  • One upload becomes many individual stories

Drop a GEDCOM file

or any audio file

GED
family_tree_2024.ged
847 individuals imported
⏱ Coming soon

A phone call that captures itself

For the relatives who will never download an app. An AI interviewer calls your grandmother at a scheduled time, asks gentle questions from our prompt library, follows up based on her answers, and saves the conversation straight to her profile. She just picks up the phone.

  • Warm, conversational AI interviewer
  • Weekly or monthly scheduled calls
  • Follow-up questions tailored to her past stories
  • Transcribed and tagged automatically

In development. Join the waitlist to be notified when it launches.

Scheduled call
Grandma Lena
Sundays, 3:00 PM · 20 minutes
"Tell me about the house you grew up in — the sounds, the smells, the room that felt most yours."

After capture

The AI does the organizing

Capture first, organize later. Every story you record runs through a pipeline that handles the tedious work automatically.

Transcription

Every recording is automatically transcribed. Search across every word ever spoken in your family archive — even inside a two-hour conversation.

Smart tagging

AI suggests tags for people, places, decades, and themes. You approve or reject — it learns your family's vocabulary over time.

Perspective detection

AI cross-references all your stories to find overlapping events. When two family members describe the same moment differently, Stories surfaces the link.

Follow-up questions

After a story is captured, AI drafts follow-up prompts and emails them to likely witnesses: "You mentioned your father's workshop — what did he build?"

The prompt library

100+ questions to spark a story

The hardest part of capturing a family story isn't recording — it's knowing what to ask. Stories ships with a curated library of 100+ questions, organized by theme and life stage, designed to draw out specific memories rather than summaries.

Family members can also submit their own questions. Someone adds "What did Grandpa's workshop smell like?" — and the next time Grandpa records, it's waiting as a suggested prompt.

Childhood

"What did your childhood home smell like when you walked in the door?"

Turning points

"What's a decision you'd make differently if you could go back?"

People

"Tell me about the first time you met my mother."

Work

"What was your first job, and what did you learn there that you still use?"

··· and 96 more

The living tree

A family tree that grows richer over time

Every person on your tree has a profile built from their stories. The more stories attached to someone, the more their node blooms on the tree. Hover over any ancestor to hear their voice and see their world.

  • Collaborative editing
    Multiple family members can add to the same tree. A steward role controls who can invite others and moderate content.
  • People, not just users
    Anyone can be on the tree — living, deceased, or non-member. Stories attach to people, not just accounts.
  • Privacy controls
    Mark stories as family-only or specific-members-only. Living people's information is handled with care by default.
EK
Eleanor
12 stories
HK
Harold
8 stories
TK
Tom
4 stories
MK
Mary
7 stories
?
Add person

Start with one story.

Free plan, no credit card. Invite your family when you're ready.

Start your family archive →