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Merorme is a private journal for iPhone and iPad. You write, talk or add photographs, and Mero — the journal’s gentle companion — can reply, remember what you wrote and give it back when you ask.

Mero is the journal itself, as a character: a small light that waves when you open the app, listens while you talk and thinks while it reads back through your entries. Its face shows what the journal is doing — it never guesses how you feel. A mood is always one you set.

No. There is nothing to sign up for and no password: your journal lives on your device, and in your own iCloud if you use it. The first screens ask for your date of birth, for one reason only — Merorme is not for people under 16 — and that date stays on your device.

No. Replies are off until you turn them on, and you can turn them off again at any time. They’re written by Apple’s model on your device, which is part of Apple Intelligence; what Apple Intelligence supports depends on your device, language and region, under Apple’s published requirements.

On your device, in the app’s own storage. If iCloud is on for Merorme, it also syncs through your iCloud account so your own devices agree. We never receive a copy, and there is no server of ours to send it to.

Not unless you choose it. Replies are written by Apple’s model on your device, and still work in aeroplane mode. If you turn on Apple’s cloud model (You → Replies), an entry’s words — with what the journal gives the reply, and a photograph the reply looks at — go to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute for that request, and nothing goes to us. Apple states that Private Cloud Compute uses that data only to do what was asked and keeps it only until the answer is returned.

Nothing goes to us. A few things can go to Apple or to your own devices, each for one job:

• Where a photo was taken, to Apple’s map, to learn the place’s name — a switch you can turn off.
• The area on screen, to Apple’s map, while you look at the map of your photographs’ places.
• Where you are, to Apple’s weather service, for the weather under the journal’s date — only if you allow location.
• The words of an entry you haven’t sent yet, to your own other devices through Apple’s Handoff.
• Only if you turn it on: what you write, to Apple’s Private Cloud Compute, for replies by Apple’s cloud model.
• Only while you’re signed in to Game Center: a won round’s result and the achievements your rounds earn.

The privacy policy describes each one in full.

We recommend it. Your iCloud backup is encrypted, but unless Advanced Data Protection is on, Apple holds a key to it. You’ll find it in Settings → your name → iCloud → Advanced Data Protection.

No. If you allow it, Merorme reads a few figures from the Health app — steps, exercise minutes, time in daylight, resting heart rate, heart rate variability and hours asleep — and shows them to you. They are read fresh each time and never stored, synced, exported or given to the model. Merorme never writes anything to Health.

You can export everything you wrote at any time, in a format you can read without the app. Deleting the app removes the journal from that device; if iCloud sync is on, delete the app on every device and remove Merorme’s data in your iCloud settings. Because we never held a copy, there is nothing for us to delete. Export first if you want to keep it.

As you write, the journal keeps a memory of your entries on your device — the people, plans and places in them, and what keeps coming up. Ask about something you wrote and Mero answers from your entries, and can tell you when you wrote it.

When an entry says what you’ll do, whom you’ll call or see, or where you’re going, the journal keeps that sentence as you wrote it and, at the right moment, asks how it went — in the journal, and in a notification from your device. Follow-ups are kept on that device only, never in iCloud. A notification shows your words only if you turn on Show what it asks about. You can turn follow-ups off in You → Notifications → Follow-ups, or set one aside with Stop asking about this.

Only if you turn it on (You → Calendar). Then, when an entry asks about your plans or names an appointment on a day, Merorme reads that day’s events from the calendars on your device to answer. It never adds, changes or deletes an event, and iOS asks you once before it can read anything.

Apple’s face grouping, on your device, tells Merorme when the same person appears in more than one photograph you attach, so the journal can ask you who they are and remember the name you give. Merorme receives no image of a face and no measurement of one — only a label Apple makes — and it never puts a name on someone you haven’t named.

Yes: turn off You → Naming places from photographs. Then nothing about where your photographs were taken leaves your device, and the journal asks you what a place is called instead. A name you give yourself is always the one it uses.

Yes. What you say is turned into words on your device, and the sound of your voice is never kept. A reply can be read aloud in one of the voices on your device — or in your own Personal Voice, if you allow it. No recording of your voice or of the spoken reply is kept or sent; the words become an entry like a typed one.

Four, in their own tab:

• Nines — number place in four sizes, each puzzle with one answer.
• Doubles — sliding tiles, 3×3 to 6×6. Two equal tiles that meet become one worth both; the goal is a 2048 tile, or 256 on 3×3.
• Letters — a hidden five-letter word, found in six tries.
• Tempo — circles on the beat, each tapped as its ring closes.

Each game has a round of the day and unlimited rounds.

Tap Mero in the bar at the top of any game. Mero reads the round as it stands and answers by the game’s own rules: in Nines, the next step and why; in Doubles, the swipe weighed two moves ahead and what it joins; in Letters, the words that still fit and the best try; in Tempo, how your last run was counted. Asking never costs a point — but only a round won clean, without asking Mero, counts as a pure win.

Yes, when iCloud is on for Merorme: each day’s rounds and your scores in them travel through your own iCloud account, so the round of the day is the same round on each of your devices.

Only while you’re signed in to Game Center: a won round’s result goes to that game’s leaderboard — Nines’ time, a Doubles or Tempo score, Letters’ run of words found — under your Game Center name, and the achievements your rounds earn go to your Game Center profile. Nothing you write goes with either. Sign out of Game Center in Settings and nothing more goes.

Thirteen cards, each won by your rounds — a game’s first win, a clean win, five wins in a row, and every game won. Signed in to Game Center, every card you win is an achievement there too. After the thirteen, the cards go on in six kinds — wins, pure wins, in a row, best round, points and days — each asking more than the one before, through rarer and rarer materials. A day missed takes nothing away.

Merorme may offer a paid subscription. If it does, purchases go through the App Store, so we never see your payment details. You can cancel at any time in Settings → your name → Subscriptions, and nothing you’ve written is ever deleted, locked or held back because a subscription ended. The full terms are at the end of the privacy policy.

Refunds are handled by Apple, not by us: Apple’s own refund request process at reportaproblem.apple.com is the way to ask.