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The keepsake

A voice that stays

Some of the recordings in Voicebooks are of people who are no longer here. This page is about them, and about the promise we make to the families who keep listening.

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A child's hands holding a phone and headphones over an open family photo album
Two Voicebooks mascots — a grown-up and a child — side by side, smiling

We didn't design this for grief. Families did.

The first message we got about it was from a mother whose own mother had recorded eleven books for the grandchildren the winter before she died. The children were four and six. They still ask for Nana's books. She wanted to know whether the recordings would ever go away. They will not.

The promise

What we owe a recording like that

It never expires

A lapsed plan, a cancelled card, a family that hasn't opened the app in three years. It keeps playing. It is in the terms.

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It belongs to the family

When a grown-up's account is deleted, their recordings are the family's question to answer, never ours. The family's admins decide what stays.

It can be taken out

Family Plus includes keepsake exports — the family's whole voice archive as ordinary audio files, to keep anywhere.

It is private

Nobody outside the family hears a recording unless the family chooses to share it. No ads, no third parties, no training anything on it.

It stays personal

A recording made for one child stays that child's. Their name, their aside, their goodnight.

Written down

Read the Plans, payment and cancellation section of the terms. We wanted it where a lawyer could find it, not only where a marketer could.

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If you're reading this in time

Record more than you think you need

The families who wrote to us all said the same thing. Whoever it is — a grandparent, a parent facing something, an old friend with the voice — get them recording now, and get them to record for each child by name. A book for everyone is a library book. A book for Maya, with Maya's name in it, is a letter.

It takes a link. They don't need a plan or an app. A page a night is plenty.

  • Invite them from the Family tab — free, always
  • Ask for one recording per child, not one for the house
  • Let them talk between the pages. The asides are the keepsake.

How to invite someone to record

The Voicebooks Family tab listing the adults and recording artists

If it's already happened

What to do with the recordings now

Nothing, if you don't want to. They'll be there. When you do: a child can hear them from their own shelf, at bedtime, with the lights off, the way they always did. A playlist of one person's books keeps their voice going through a whole evening. And if the account that made them is one you need to close, write to us first — we'll make sure the recordings stay with the family before anything is deleted.

Write to us

A child's shelf in Voicebooks with the books recorded for them
My dad recorded The Snowman for my son in October. He died in January. My son is three and thinks Grandad lives in the phone. I'm not going to correct him yet.
A mum in Glasgow · one three-year-old

Record something today

For someone who isn't here yet, or for someone who won't always be. Free, and kept.

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Two Voicebooks mascots — a grown-up and a child — side by side, smiling

The careful questions

Not by us, and not because of a plan. A family's admins can delete recordings; nobody else can. If an account has to be closed, write to us first and we'll keep the recordings with the family.
Family Plus includes keepsake exports — the family's whole voice archive as ordinary audio files.
Nothing, unless you ask. Their recordings stay on the family's shelf. If you need their account closed, email [email protected] and we'll do it in a way that keeps every recording with the family.