Our story, told together

Inkling is a private app for two people who love each other. It has two halves. One is The Novel, an ongoing story the two of you write together, chapter by chapter, that belongs to no one else. The other is Margins, a quiet vault for the notes, photos, and voices you leave for one another.

There are no feeds, no followers, no way for anyone to find you here. Everything you write and every moment you keep is shared only between your two phones, and no one else's.

See it

A glimpse inside

A private, candlelit space, just for the two of you. Here is a little of what it looks like.

The Novel

Read your chapter, then choose

Your story unfolds a chapter at a time, told through your own eyes. When it is your turn, a choice appears, and where it goes next is yours to decide. Then the pen passes back to your partner.

Something awaits

A little anticipation, on purpose

Leave a scene waiting a few chapters ahead, and your partner feels a soft glow that something is coming, without a hint of what it is. A reason to keep writing toward it.

Margins

A vault for the things you leave

Notes, photos, a recorded whisper. Some to open now, some sealed for a date to come or a chapter you haven't reached. Nothing here ever leaves the two of your phones.

See how it works → Skip to download

Getting started & pairing

When you first open Inkling, it walks you through a short, unhurried setup. Take your time with it, it only happens once.

Making it yours

You will choose the name the story calls you, and who you are within it. Then comes a set of gentle, private questions, the mood you like, the pace, what draws you in. These shape how your story is told. Only you ever see your own answers, they are never shown to your partner, they simply teach the story your taste.

Pairing with each other

Inkling is meant for two. One of you creates your shared space and invites the other; once you are joined, the two phones become a private couple within the app, and the story becomes something you build together. Until your partner joins, you can begin, but the shared saga gently pauses after the first couple of chapters, because the rest is theirs to help write.

The Novel — your shared saga

The Novel is the beating heart of Inkling: a story written just for the two of you, unfolding a chapter at a time. It is not a fixed tale you read passively. It grows from your choices, remembers what has happened, and carries your world forward as you go.

You can have more than one saga at once, each its own story with its own mood, all kept on your shelf in The Library. Begin a sweeping romance in one, something playful in another, whatever you are both in the mood for.

Taking turns & two points of view

This is the part that makes Inkling feel alive. Your saga is one shared story, but each of you reads it through your own eyes, the same night, the same moments, told from your own point of view. What you experience as I, your partner experiences as you.

Passing the pen

At the turns of the story, a choice appears, and the choices alternate between you. When it is your turn, you decide where things go next, then the pen passes back. Some chapters even pause in the middle for a choice, then continue once it is made. You will get a gentle nudge when it becomes your turn, so no one is ever left waiting without knowing.

Starting a saga & setting its mood

When you begin a new saga, you give it a name, and that name becomes the seed of its very first chapter, a starting place the story grows from. You can also shape the feel of that particular saga:

• How warm it runs, from tender and slow to something much more intense.
• Where it lives, a candlelit Victorian world, the Highlands, the modern day, a getaway, or a surprise.
• Its tone, playful or intense, romantic or raw, slow-burning or urgent, set with a few simple sliders.
• Background characters, if you like, name a few incidental faces for the world, a rival, an innkeeper, purely for texture. The story always stays about the two of you.
• Or let it surprise you, choose "surprise me" and Inkling sets the scene within your tastes.

Each saga carries its own mood, so no two have to feel alike.

Margins — your private vault

Margins is where you keep the little things left in the edges of your story. A note. A photo. A short voice recording. Some are gifts to open right away; others you can seal for later.

Gifts for now, or for later

Leave something plainly, and your partner sees it in the vault. Or seal it until a certain date, an anniversary, a night you are both looking forward to, and it stays quietly closed until then. There is a particular kind of joy in knowing something is waiting, and in being the one who left it.

Yours to tend

You can remove anything you have left, at any time. And by design, nothing in Margins can ever be downloaded or taken out of the app, it lives only on your two linked phones and stays there, between you. That is the whole point of a vault.

Planted scenes & things that await

Here is where the two halves of Inkling meet. You can take something from Margins, a photo, a note, and plant it in a chapter still to come, up to several chapters ahead. You write a private description of the moment you have in mind, and when the story reaches that chapter, that scene is woven into what happens, for both of you.

The wonder of it: your partner never knows you planted it. They simply arrive at the chapter and find the moment there, as if the story dreamed it up on its own. You get to quietly steer your tale toward a night you are longing for, and let them be surprised by it.

A letter on the pillow

If you like, you can let your partner feel that something awaits, a soft, glowing hint that a moment is coming a few pages ahead, without a word about what it is. Or keep it a complete surprise, hidden until the moment arrives.

Writing your own stories

Sometimes you do not want to take turns, you want to write something yourself, for your partner. Inkling lets you do exactly that.

Let them read along

You can write a story entirely in your own hand, and choose when to let your partner read it, even while you are still writing, so they watch the words appear, live, as you set them down. Or keep it sealed until it is finished and ready.

Hand them a choice

If you want them woven into your story, you can hand your partner a decision right in the middle of it. They are asked to choose, and their choice flows into what you write next. You stay the author; they help steer. And if you would like a hand with the words, Inkling can help you draft the next passage from their choice, in your own voice.