Remembering and sharing · Chapter 17
Writing and opening time capsules
A time capsule is a letter that opens only on a day you choose. To yourself in a year, to Paul on your anniversary, to Mia on her 18th birthday. Time capsules stand on their own, apart from your journal, and have a menu item of their own: “Time capsules”.
Writing a time capsule
- “New time capsule”
Under “Time capsules”, the button is at the top right.
- For whom
Under “For whom? Several are fine.” tap “Myself”, one or more other people on your server, or both.
- When it opens
“In a year”, “In five years”, “New Year's Eve”, or pick a day of your own in the date field. Below it the day is spelt out as a check, along with how far away it is. The day has to be in the future, at most 50 years ahead.
- Heading and letter
Write a heading and the letter below it, in the same editor as a page, with bold, italic, subheading, quote and list.
- Add photos
With “Add photos” you choose as many photos as you like, several at once too; on a phone also with “Take a photo”. The only limit is the storage your operator gives you.
- “Seal”
With that the capsule is on its way. The recipients see it in their list straight away.
If you close the window with a letter begun, nexdiary asks “Discard this time capsule?”, so that nothing is lost by accident.
A letter to yourself
A letter only to you is sealed when you close it: “until the day you can neither read nor change it, only take it back.” In the list it carries the mark “sealed”. That is on purpose. What you write today to yourself in a year should surprise you then.
A letter to others
Until the day it opens you can read a letter to others under “From me”, adjust it with “Change” (recipients, day, heading, text and photos) or withdraw it with “Take back”. Taking it back asks first, because the letter “disappears for everybody it is for and cannot be brought back.” Once it has opened for anyone, neither works any more.
Until the day, the recipients see only whom the letter is from, its heading and the day it opens. They do not see the text or the photos, not even how many photos there are. The operator cannot get at a time capsule either.
When a time capsule arrives
Under “Time capsules” there are two parts, “For me” and “From me”. Under “For me”, “Still waiting” lists the sealed letters, each with its sender, heading, opening day and a bar showing how much of the time has passed. If you have signed your device up for notifications, a message comes when one arrives, saying who wrote to you and when it opens.
The day begins at midnight in your own time zone, as it was when the letter was sent. Travelling later on does not open it any sooner. At 8 that morning a second message says that the capsule has opened. In the app it then sits right at the top with “Opened today” and the button “Read the letter”, and a counter on “Time capsules” in the bar shows that something new is there. The letter says who wrote it and when, such as “Ruth wrote this letter 1 year ago”. Opened letters stay under “Opened”.
When an account is deleted
A time capsule outlives the account that wrote it. If your account is deleted, your letter to Mia stays for Mia and opens on its day; the sender then reads “a deleted account”. If a recipient's account is deleted, only their own copy goes.
Good to knowThe recipients see the heading beforehand. Give nothing away in it that should only arrive on the day; “For you, on your 18th” says enough.
Ideas for what a time capsule is good for are on the page Time capsules.