An app for thinking

Pondr

15 minutes a day, on a subject you chose.

Pondr is an app for thinking and writing about a subject you chose. It is for looking at your own life from the outside, as you would a friend’s. Each day you think about one question for 15 minutes, then write, then read the mirror.

The mirror is a short note and one question that come after you write. They use your name, not “you”, like “Where was Sam that day?” An AI model writes them. The mirror gives no advice, no praise, and never decides for you.

Soon on theApp Store

iPhone · first 4 sessions free, then one yearly subscription · 18+ · hello@hawkmason.com

In short

What it is, and what it is for

What is it?: An app where you think and write for 15 minutes a day. You choose the subject.
What is it for?: It helps you see something on your mind from the outside, as you would see what a friend is going through.
What is it not?: Not a chatbot. Not therapy. No streaks, no badges, no score.
What happens to my writing?: It stays on your phone. For the mirror, that day’s writing goes through our server to OpenAI’s AI model, but only after you say yes. Our server keeps none of it. OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse.
What does it cost?: Your first 4 sessions are free, with no card. Each 15 minutes that gets a mirror counts as 1 session, so 4 sessions are enough for one 4-day subject. Then one yearly subscription: $39.99 a year in the US, TRY 1,299.99 in Türkiye.
Who is it for?: People aged 18 and over.
Which languages?: The app is in Turkish, English, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Italian.

What is in it

What is in Pondr

Each item below has one job. The first 4 are the tabs at the bottom of the screen.

The 4 tabs

Today

You start your 15 minutes here each day.

Good for: seeing today’s question and starting to think.

Entries

One card per day, with what you wrote and the mirror’s note.

Good for: opening an old day and reading your own words again.

Trace

Each subject’s first and last day, side by side.

Good for: seeing what changed on a subject, and what stayed the same.

Life

You start parts here. What you write at the end of a part is kept here too.

Good for: seeing your values, direction and decisions in one place.

Each day, for 4 days

The 15 minutes

One question stays on the screen. You put the phone where you can see it, and think. When the time is up, you write a few lines.

Good for: thinking one thing through without rushing.

The mirror

A short note and one question after you write. On your own subject, tomorrow starts from that question.

Good for: seeing what you wrote from the outside.

Day 4

A subject lasts 4 days. On day 4, your own sentences sit side by side, one from each day, with dates. Then you close the subject, or keep going. If you keep going, you can write a step: when, and what you will do.

Good for: seeing where you stand after 4 days. If nothing changed, you see that too.

Also on Today

A breath

3 minutes for a hard moment. If you want, you write what is happening. Then you breathe with the line on the screen. Then you look around you. You can keep what you wrote for tomorrow, or delete it.

No AI. Pondr sends nothing. Free for everyone. If you are in danger, this is not enough. Help lines are on every step of “A breath”.

Today’s puzzle

A small ring puzzle each day, apart from the 15 minutes. No score, no clock.

Example · Sam’s 4 days on “My father and me”

Day 1 · 3 MarchEvery talk with my father turns into a fight. I go quiet and he keeps going.

Day 4 · 7 MarchI don’t go quiet because of his tone. I want to be right, and at that table I can’t be.

Sam’s stepIf work comes up at Sunday lunch, I will ask him a question before I answer.

On day 1 Sam writes about the father. On day 4 Sam writes about Sam. Sam wrote both sentences. Then Sam kept going and wrote the step.

Everything inside

Subjects, parts and pages

Subjects and parts are the same 15 minutes with different questions. Start any of them when you like. Pages are built from what you wrote.

4 days

Your own subjectYou write what is on your mind, or pick a suggestion. From day 2, the mirror’s last question is your question.
Ready-made subjects24 subjects, with each day’s question already written. For an evening when you don’t know what to think about.
ValuesYou look at where your time and money really go. You end by writing 3 things you won’t give up.
DirectionYou picture a morning a year from now. Then you write what is in the way and a first step for this week.
What you avoidYou look at something you put off and what it costs you. Then you write a small, safe step.
Letting goYou look at a habit, goal or belief you want to drop.
Decision RoomYou write your options side by side. You make the decision.
One hard thingYou choose a hard but safe thing to finish this year. The check-ins every 3 months and the story at the end need the subscription.

One day · with the subscription

Month look-backOnce a month, you look at where last month’s time went.
A letter to next yearYou write a letter to yourself a year from now, about your life today. It opens in exactly a year.

Pages · no 15 minutes

ManifestoYou edit a draft made from your values, direction and steps.
Life mapYour values, direction, what you avoid and your hard thing, in 5 rows.
Your yearA year’s subjects and conclusions on one page. It opens after your first year.

What it rests on

How it works, and what it rests on

The daily 15 minutes rest on 4 known methods. Each row below says what the studies found. Most effects were small. Pondr itself has not been tested in a study.

d and r are two ways to measure how big an effect is. For d, about .2 is small and .5 is medium. For r, about .1 is small and .3 is medium.

Seeing yourself from the outside

The questions and the mirror don’t say “you”. They use your name.

Thinking of yourself by name helps you see a moment from the outside.

Self-distancing: Kross et al., 2014

The question you can see

The question stays on the screen for 15 minutes. You put the phone where you can see it.

A question you can see makes thinking a little easier. The effect is small.

Westgate et al., 2017 · d = .21

Writing about what happened

Each day ends with writing. A subject lasts 4 days.

Across many studies, writing about what happened had a small effect. That is the average over everything the studies measured. It was a little larger in studies with 3 or more writing sessions. Studies where people wrote for less than 15 minutes showed no effect on average. In Pondr the 15 minutes are for thinking, and the writing after it is short. We do not know whether this works the same way.

Expressive writing: Pennebaker & Beall, 1986 · Frattaroli, 2006 · r = .075

When, then what

Direction and What you avoid end with a step and a time to take it. You write the step.

A step tied to a set time happens more often than a vague plan. That does not mean every step happens.

Gollwitzer & Sheeran, 2006 · d = .65

Pondr does not promise a change. The mirror never asks “why”, never praises and never chats. That is our rule, not a finding.

Trust and price

Privacy, safety and price

Privacy

No account. We ask for no email and no password.
What you write stays on your phone. If your iPhone backup is on, it goes into the backup too.
For the mirror, that day’s writing goes through our server to OpenAI’s model in the USA. Your first name, the day’s question and a short summary of earlier days on the same subject go too. The tone you chose in Settings goes too. So does your pronoun, if you picked one. So do your values, direction and step, if you wrote them.
We ask before sending. If you say no, your writing stays on your phone and there is no mirror.
Our server keeps none of your writing. It knows your phone only by a random install id. It uses that id to count your free sessions and check your subscription. RevenueCat keeps your subscription status under that id. Apple runs the purchase. Our server runs on Cloudflare.
The server also keeps a few counts per day, with no id and no writing.
OpenAI does not train on your writing. OpenAI may keep it for up to 30 days to check for abuse.
You can export what you wrote to a file, or delete it from your phone. Deleting keeps the install id and how many free sessions you used, so free sessions cannot be used twice.

The full text is in the privacy policy.

Safety

Pondr is not therapy, a medical service or a crisis service. It does not diagnose or treat.
If things are hard, talk to a professional. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.
If your writing shows a sign of harm to yourself or to others, you get no mirror. You also get no mirror if someone close to you is hurting you. A help lines screen opens instead. People wrote that screen.
Your phone checks first. If it finds a sign, your writing is not sent. Then the model checks too. Neither catches everything.
The help lines screen is always free.
Pondr is for people aged 18 and over.

Price

Your first 4 sessions are free. We ask for no card.
Each 15 minutes that gets a mirror counts as 1 session.
After that, there is one yearly subscription. It is $39.99 a year in the US and TRY 1,299.99 in Türkiye. Other countries see their local App Store price.
No monthly plan, no free trial, no bundle.
Month look-back, the letter, and your hard thing’s check-ins and story need the subscription. They are not part of your 4 free sessions.
Reading, exporting and deleting what you wrote is always free. So are “A breath” and the help lines.
It renews each year through your Apple account. To stop it, cancel in App Store settings at least 24 hours before it renews.

Support

Questions, bugs, a sentence the mirror got wrong

If the mirror misread you, tell us the day and the sentence. That helps us fix it. Please do not send us your writing.

Support Privacy Policy Terms of Use