How Encourage works

Sign up with your email or Google account. You’ll land on your dashboard where you can post the things you’ve been avoiding. Your display name is whatever you want others in a group to call you — you can change it later.

A task is anything you’re putting off. Add one from your dashboard with a short title and, if you want, a few details. Every task has a visibility:

• Private— only you can see it. Good for keeping a to-do list where the pressure of other eyes isn’t the point.
• Group— visible to approved members of one group you belong to. They can react with emoji encouragements.
• Public— visible to anyone signed into Encourage. We’re still building the public feed surface, so for now public mostly means “not private.”

You can change a task’s status (Not started → In progress → Done) by clicking the status pill, and delete it from its row.

When you add a task you can optionally pick a Commit by date and time. That turns the task into a commitment: a small promise to yourself (and, if the task is group-visible, to your circle) about when you’ll get it done.

• Commitments get a colored chip on the task row — red if overdue, amber if due today, blue if coming up soon, grey if farther out.
• Group-visible commitments from people in your circle show up on your dashboard in Upcoming in your circle, sorted by due date. You can encourage them from there with an emoji.
• Life happens — you can reschedulea commitment up to three times, or clear it entirely. Each change counts toward the limit, and the row shows a small “Rescheduled N/3” note so your circle can see.
• Once you hit the reschedule limit, the date locks. From there you finish the task, mark it done, or delete it.
• Adding a commit-by date later to a task that didn’t have one doesn’t count as a reschedule.

Once a commitment’s due date passes, the task moves into a Needs your check-in section at the top of your dashboard. You answer with one tap:

• ✅ Did it— marks the task done and lets your circle see you finished. Nice.
• ❌ Didn’t— honest is fine. The task stays open and your circle sees you didn’t get to it; that’s the whole point of accountability.
• 🔄 Reschedule— pick a new date. This counts toward your three-reschedule limit just like a normal reschedule.

About an hour after a commitment goes past due, you’ll get one email asking how it went. Just one — we don’t pile on. If you’ve turned email off, the prompt only appears in the app.

Group-visible check-ins show up in your circle’s activity feed (“Alice finished ’file taxes’ in Accountability Circle”).

Groups are small spaces where a few people share the things they’re working on and cheer each other on. To join one, find it on the Groups page and click Request to join. A moderator approves or declines. Once approved, you’ll see the group’s chat, shared tasks, and member list.

Inside a group you can:

• Chat with other members in real time.
• Post tasks with group visibility so the group can encourage you.
• Start a Google Meet from the group page for synchronous check-ins (opens a fresh meeting in a new tab).
• Leave at any time.

Moderators can approve pending members and remove members. Whoever creates the group is the first moderator.

Inviting your circle. Inside the group page, tap Generate + copy invite linkto get a shareable URL. Anyone with the link can join the group — treat it like a password, and revoke it from the same panel when you’re done. Links expire automatically after 14 days.

Back on your dashboard, a “What’s happening in your circles” panel shows recent activity across your groups — new group tasks, new members, and new chat messages — so you can keep an eye on things without hopping between group pages. Your own activity doesn’t show up there.

If you work with a clinician on Encourage, they can see a small set of engagement signalsabout you — nothing about the content of what you’re working on.

• What they see:the number of tasks you’ve completed in the last 7 days, the time of your most recent check-in, and how many circles you’re in.
• What they don’t see: task titles or descriptions, your check-in notes, or any chat messages.
• How linking works:a clinician sends you an invite link. The consent page shows you exactly what they’ll see before you accept. Nothing is shared until you tap Accept and link.
• Revoking access: at any time, open Settings and tap Revoke accessnext to your clinician’s name. The link is removed immediately.

Clinician accounts are pre-approved by email. If you’re a licensed practitioner who wants access, email hello@encourage.today and we’ll add your address — the next time you sign up (or log in for the first time), your account is created with clinician access automatically.

Encouragements are little emoji reactions on tasks — a way to let someone know you’re rooting for them without having to write a whole message.

• You can react to other people’s group-visible tasks. You can’t react to your own.
• Pick from the suggested emojis, or click + to paste any emoji you like. Up to 5 distinct emojis per task from you.
• Click an emoji again to take it back. No notifications fire for reactions that get undone right away.
• When you receive encouragements, they’ll show up on your dashboard in the “People are rooting for you” section.

Encourage is a social-motivation tool. It is not a substitute for medical or mental-health care, and the people you interact with are not providing professional advice unless you already have that relationship with them offline.

Please do not post protected health information (things like diagnoses, medications, or clinical details tied to your identity). We’re not currently operating under a HIPAA Business Associate Agreement, so that information isn’t protected the way it would be in a clinical EHR.

If you’re in crisis or need immediate help, please contact local emergency services or a crisis line — in the US you can call or text 988.

Encourage sends email in three situations:

• When someone in your circle commits to a task— we let you know so you can cheer them on. One email per commitment, at the moment they post it.
• About a day before your own commitments are due— a single heads-up so the deadline doesn’t sneak up on you. One reminder per commitment.
• Right after a commitment’s deadline passes— a one-time prompt asking how it went. Click in to check in.

You can turn email off entirely from the Settings page. Every email we send also links there.

We don’t send marketing or digest email — just these transactional notifications.

Sign out from the top right of the app. To delete your account and all associated data (tasks, group memberships, encouragements, chat messages), email us at hello@encourage.today and we’ll handle it within a few business days. Self-serve deletion is on our list.

Questions, feedback, or bug reports: hello@encourage.today.