Jots & Nibbles
Still missing OhLife? Same.
OhLife shut down in 2014, and nothing has quite replaced that evening email asking how your day went — with a glimpse of your past self tucked inside. Jots & Nibbles keeps that loop alive.
Free to use. No credit card. Works offline, on any device.
OhLife got something right
OhLife ran from 2010 to 2014, and people still talk about it because it understood two things most journaling apps never figure out: showing up in your inbox beats hoping you'll remember, and re-reading your own past is the reward that keeps you writing.
When it shut down, thousands of people downloaded their archives and went looking for a replacement. The periodic "whatever happened to OhLife?" threads suggest a lot of them never found one. This page is for those people — including an honest note about the one thing OhLife did that we don't.
The loop, carried forward
Feature by feature: what OhLife did, and where it lives in Jots & Nibbles.
| What OhLife did | In Jots & Nibbles | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A daily email asking about your day | ✓Optional daily reminder email, at the time you choose | Timezone-aware; off by a toggle whenever you like |
| A past entry inside the email | ✓The reminder includes what you wrote a week, a month, and a year ago | "On This Day" also lives in the app, any time you want to look back |
| Write by replying to the email | Not yet — the email links you into the app to write | The honest gap; see below |
| Plain, pressure-free writing | ✓A quiet page; streaks are optional pressure with grace days built in | Nibbles cover the "just a quick thought" moments, no goal attached |
| Export your archive | ✓One-click export to Markdown, JSON, or PDF — free for everyone | The lesson of 2014, taken seriously |
| Free, simple, lovely | ✓Core app is free forever; Premium ($3/month billed annually) keeps the lights on | OhLife was entirely free — which is part of why it's gone |
And the parts OhLife never had
Twelve years of web platform progress buys a few things.
Works offline, on your phone
Install it like a native app. Write on a plane or in a dead zone — everything syncs when you're back online.
Streaks that forgive
An optional gentle streak with grace days — up to two missed days a month don't reset it. Or ignore streaks entirely, OhLife-style.
Nibbles for stray thoughts
Quick, goalless notes for the ideas that don't belong in a daily entry. Capture in seconds, no streak involved.
Optional AI reflections
Premium can turn a month of entries into an honest monthly letter about your own patterns. Opt-in, private, and your entries never train anyone's models.
Where OhLife still wins
Even against an app that shut down in 2014, honesty requires this section.
- Reply-to-write. OhLife's magic trick was that the email was the journal — you hit reply and were done. We send the email and the memory, but writing happens in the app. If replying from your inbox is the whole point for you, we're not that today. (Tell us if you want it — it's the most-discussed idea on our list.)
- Radical simplicity. OhLife had no streaks, no word counts, no settings to speak of. Jots & Nibbles is calm, but it does have knobs. If you want them to disappear, you can ignore streaks and targets — but they exist.
Questions from OhLife people
Can I import my old OhLife archive?
Not yet — there's no importer today. A lot of people are still holding 2014 export files, and we'd like those words to have a home; email us if that's you, because interest is what moves it up the list.
What happens to my writing if Jots & Nibbles shuts down someday?
The fair question, given why you're here. Export to Markdown, JSON, or PDF is one click and free for every user from day one — your archive is never hostage. And unlike OhLife, the free tier is subsidized by a paid one, which is the boring, durable way for a small product to stay alive.
Is the email reminder required?
No — it's opt-in, you pick the send time, and every email has an unsubscribe link. Some people write mornings in the app and never touch email at all.
Is my writing private?
Yes. Entries are never shared, never sold, and never used to train AI models. The AI reflection features are opt-in and you can delete anything they generate without touching your entries.
Your past self is worth hearing from again.
Start tonight, and a year from now the email will prove it.
Start writing — free