Heardloom

Heardloom is an AI app for keeping your family's history: its interviewer, Lana, talks with your parents or grandparents in their own language and, once the chat ends, the system turns what was said into stories, biographies, a family tree, a timeline and a map, with the original audio linked to every paragraph.

What is Heardloom used for?

It helps multilingual families avoid losing their elders' stories. Nobody has to type anything: the older person taps one big button and talks, and Lana listens patiently, picks up half-told threads and brings in questions from children and grandchildren by name. If the speaker asks for a part not to be shared, that part stays private, a rule the system enforces in code instead of leaving it to the AI's judgement.

How does Heardloom work?

You don't need to tell a life in order. Minutes after each conversation, Heardloom places every detail where it belongs: it writes a multilingual story checked sentence by sentence against the audio, adds facts to people's pages, pins places on a map and gathers recipes, traditions and sayings on a family heritage page. You can also upload old photos, which Lana asks about during the conversation, and query the archive in plain language, with answers drawn only from what was said.

Who is Heardloom for?

• Children and grandchildren of immigrant families who don't speak their grandparents' language well.
• Families spread across countries who want to share memories and photos.
• People who want to give their parents a printed book of their stories.

Heardloom pros and cons

It stands out for working in the original language, for privacy enforced in code and for tying each sentence to its moment in the audio. On the downside, unpaid use is limited to each storyteller's first recording and the printed book is exclusive to the yearly option.