Touchstone FAQ

Before you begin

What is Touchstone?

Touchstone is a private diary for making sense of your relationships. You write down what happened and how it felt; over time, Sage reflects patterns in the record back to you. It does not tell you what to do.

Who is it for?

Touchstone often introduces itself through dating because that is where many people first need it. You can also keep a separate diary for a spouse, ex, close friend, friend, family member, coworker, or anyone else you want to understand better.

How many relationships can I track?

As many as you want. Every relationship gets a separate private history. Touchstone does not gate the number of relationships behind a paid plan.

Touchstone and AI chat

How is this different from talking it through with ChatGPT or another AI chat?

An AI chat is built for conversation. You write a few paragraphs, it writes a few back, and you get a thoughtful answer about how things feel tonight.

Touchstone works the other way around. You give it small moments as they happen: a sentence or 30 seconds of voice about what he said, what she did, or how the evening went. Touchstone sorts every moment into the same categories, the same way, every time. Over weeks and months, those moments add up to a picture you can count: how often, how recently, and whether it’s getting better or worse.

Why short entries instead of long conversations?

Because one long conversation captures your mood on the night you wrote it. Many short entries capture what actually happened, including the good days you wouldn’t think to bring up after a bad one. Short entries also take seconds, so you keep making them.

Why does it matter who the person is and what you’ve agreed to?

Whether something is normal or out of bounds depends on the relationship. “He didn’t text all weekend” means one thing about someone you met last week and another about a partner who agreed to check in. An AI chat only knows that context if you remember to spell it out every time: who the person is, what they are to you, and what you’ve agreed to.

Touchstone keeps a separate record for each person, along with what they are to you. Coming soon: it will also hold what you’ve agreed to with each other, such as how committed you are, so every entry is read against that relationship’s own terms.

Can I tell Touchstone my boundaries?

Coming soon. During setup, or any time after, you’ll be able to write down your boundaries for each relationship, in your own words. Then you just keep talking to Touchstone as usual. You don’t have to flag anything: when an entry describes a boundary being crossed, Touchstone counts it, so you can see how often it happens.

What if a boundary keeps getting crossed?

Coming soon. When you set a boundary, you can also write down what you’ll do if it keeps happening. If it does, Sage shows you the count and reminds you of what you said you would do, in your words, and asks what you want to do now. You can follow through or change your plan. Sage won’t make the decision for you, but it won’t let you lose track of the promise you made to yourself.

Do I have to stop using ChatGPT?

No. Plenty of people use both. An AI chat is good for thinking out loud; Touchstone is where the moments are kept and counted.

Sage and patterns

Does Sage tell me whether I should stay or leave?

No. Sage can reflect a pattern and ask a direct question, but it does not make the decision for you, diagnose another person, or turn your history into a verdict.

Is Sage a therapist?

No. Sage is a reflective companion, not a clinician or emergency service. Touchstone is designed to sit alongside real-world support, including therapy where that is right for you.

When Sage uses an AI model, how do you keep my identity separate from my diary?

When you paste a relationship story into a consumer AI chatbot while signed into your personal account, that provider knows who you are and ties the conversation to your login. Touchstone is built to isolate your identity from your diary content before anything reaches a language model.

Your diary lives in Touchstone’s own database, locked to your account. When Sage calls a contracted cloud AI provider to classify an entry or reflect a pattern, Touchstone’s server strips your name, email address, and account identifier first and sends only the text needed for that step under a single Touchstone application key. On the AI provider’s side, the request is not scoped to you or to any individual user account, so the provider cannot tie the text to you or build a profile on you.

Our contracts also require the AI provider never to train on your words and to delete processed text automatically within 60 days. Because your entries are written in your own words, they can still include names or places you type yourself, and your diary is not end-to-end encrypted — read the Privacy Policy for the full explanation.

Can the person I am writing about find out?

Touchstone does not notify them that you logged an entry or that you use the app. It cannot protect you from someone using an unlocked phone, so use your device lock if that is a concern. Read the Privacy page for the full, current explanation.

Account and data

How do I delete my data?

Use the app’s account and privacy controls when available, or contact support. The Privacy Policy gives the authoritative, current explanation of deletion and export.

Getting help

What if I need urgent help?

Touchstone is not emergency support. If you are in immediate danger or think you may hurt yourself or someone else, call your local emergency number or contact a qualified crisis service now.

Still need help?

A confirmed support contact will appear here. In the meantime, the Touchstone privacy overview and the full privacy policy answer many common questions.

Privacy overview Full privacy policy