Hi Product Hunt — I'm Gary, a first-time maker. For years I faked this app with recurring calendar events. Every life-changing day — the day my daughter was born, the day I lost someone, the day we finally hiked the Grand Canyon — got a yearly repeating event so a little "3 years ago today" would pop up. No photos, no story, just a title. It still got me every time. Backstory is the real version of that hack. You save a milestone once — the story in your own words, photos, even a voice memo — and every year on the anniversary it quietly taps you on the shoulder. A few deliberate choices: - Everything stays on your phone. No account required, no ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics. Sharing memories with family is strictly opt-in — and only the memories you choose ever leave the device. - "Remember gently" mode for grief anniversaries — a softer notification, no confetti, no "celebrate!" language. Loss deserves different handling than wins. - No streaks, no gamification. Your memories shouldn't guilt-trip you. - Free, in English, Spanish, Hindi, and Chinese. Honest disclosure: I'm not a developer. I built this as the product owner while AI (Claude) wrote every line of code. I made the decisions — what to build, how it should feel, what to say no to — and reviewed and tested everything on real devices. Happy to answer anything about that process; it was the strangest and most fun part. I built it one-handed, mostly while feeding my infant daughter. She's the first milestone in my timeline. What day would you save first?

Backstory

"3 years ago today" — remember the days that changed you

"3 years ago today" — remember the days that changed you