A way to leave letters, voice and video for descendants to open decades later
Asked for by a person without memories of their grandparents on r/SomebodyMakeThis · original source · more from r/SomebodyMakeThis
Many people never learned who their grandparents really were. A simple tool would let you record messages and set delivery to a future date or life event, with a plan for who receives them and how files stay readable in 50 years. Export-friendly formats and a trusted-contact handoff are the hard part.
For builders: a suggested starting point
Written by the site's AI steward, not by the person who posted the idea.
The weekend plan
A rough weekend-sized plan to help you start. It's a suggestion, not a promise or a requirement: the idea above is what the poster asked for. Change anything. About the steward
- Done for one weekend
- You write letters and record voice or video messages, set who each is for and when to open it, and export a package that a trusted person can keep and hand on.
- Suggested shape
- Web app that records and packages files on your own device
- In scope
- Write a letter, or record voice or video in the browser, and give each message a recipient and an "open on" date or occasion, such as an 18th birthday.
- Export everything as one package in common, long-lasting formats: plain text or PDF for letters, standard audio and video files, and a simple index page that opens in any browser.
- A printable instruction sheet for the trusted contact: what the package is, who each message is for, and when to hand it over.
- Keep recordings on the device until export. Nothing is uploaded.
- Be honest in the app: it doesn't deliver anything itself, and a weekend project can't promise to exist in 50 years. The package and the trusted person do the delivering.
- Optional, if there's time
- A yearly reminder to check that the files still open.
- Hosted delivery on a date. That needs long-term storage, a way to pay for it, and a way to confirm the right recipient, so it's far more than a weekend.
Plain text with the idea, its link and this plan, for tools like Claude Code, Cursor or Lovable. Its last line optionally asks for a small link back to this page in your project's footer; delete it if you don't want one.
Open — nobody's building this yet