What’s new in Afterglow

Version 0.5, 8 November 2026

A second way in, and pictures you shape any time

Keep six digits beside your face, so Afterglow still opens when your face won’t, and crop or turn a photo long after you kept it. Large albums now leave in parts and can wait for Wi-Fi, and anyone who sends you something can be blocked or reported.

New

• A second way in Six digits can now open Afterglow on this phone whenever your face or fingerprint won’t. A card on Home walks you through saving your 24 words and setting the code, and Settings changes or removes it later. Opened by the code, Afterglow shows your 24 words only once your face opens it again. Who can open it
• Block and report Behind More on a share or a chat, you can now report what someone sent or block them. A block throws away what they still had waiting, unpairs you, keeps their code from pairing again, and tells Afterglow’s server to turn their sends away. A report shows what it holds before your mail app opens, and only what you choose goes along.
• Shape a kept photo Crop or turn in a photo’s menu now works on a photo you already kept. Its folder, its moments and its blur stay as they were. What you cut away leaves your phone, and your next backup no longer holds it.
• Cropping a video You can now crop or turn a video as well as trim it. In the review, its trim and its crop open under one switch.
• Edit what’s shared in Photos and videos shared from another app can now be cropped, trimmed or blurred before they go in. You do it right where you choose whose album they go to, and Afterglow asks before you leave with any of them still there.
• Export in parts An album too large for one file now exports as your journal and its pictures in parts. Each part is small enough for a memory stick, and the other phone imports the journal first, then the parts in any order. A part that arrives damaged is turned away by its number, so you send just that one again.
• Wait for Wi-Fi Photos and videos can now wait for Wi-Fi to back up, while your journal backs up anywhere. Turn on Wait for Wi-Fi, and Back up now still sends them at once.
• Online moments A call or messages now stands apart from your nights together. It’s greyed in every list with a blue dot of its own, and counts toward nothing your journal works out, such as Home’s counts, your numbers or your taste. The calendar names it Online, and a partner’s count of moments says how many were.
• Someone without a name You can now add someone to a moment when you never learned their name. Add without a name calls them after the place and month, such as Lisbon, Mar 2026, a name you can change later.
• Pinch to zoom Pinch the camera to zoom in, also while a video records.
• Gentle motion Screens now fade in, tabs cross over softly, and rows move into place. A slow screen shows a still outline of what’s coming, and a save answers with a small pop. Your phone’s Reduce Motion setting turns it all off.

Improved

• Pictures in a chat Pictures and videos in a chat now stay blurred until you open them. One you’ve opened stays clear until you leave the chat. Keeping a copy, and letting them save it, are now asked right on the camera’s review and the album sheet, which send at once.
• Sends that keep going On iPhone, a send of pictures now carries on after you leave Afterglow. iOS 26 shows how far it has got, and on Android it moves while Afterglow is open, as before.
• A picture’s moment A picture now belongs to one moment at most, so putting it on another moves it there. In the viewer, its menu puts it on a moment, moves it or takes it off, and the viewer names that moment by its day and who was there. Folders still go on as many moments as you like.
• Profile pictures A profile picture, a partner’s or your own, can now come from your album or another app. It’s a copy, so changing it later leaves the album alone.
• Room for an export An export of an album in your cloud now needs half the free space it did. An export that fails no longer leaves half a file behind.
• Your words first The words you pick for a moment now list the ones you use most first. Acts, positions and kinks soon read in your own order, while places and the other lists stay A to Z.
• One lock The lock now looks the same however the app opened, under the light of the hour.
• Shares at a glance Each row on Shares now shows what it held, and an arrow marks the ones that open. A finished send opens only while this phone still has something of it to show. An opened share counts what it held, such as 3 pictures, with the partner underneath.
• Deleting a partner A swipe across the list can no longer delete a partner. Deleting now lives on their profile alone.
• A partner’s first night A partner with no moments yet now shows a short empty line with a way to add one. Their album and card stay in view.
• Reporting a problem A failure in a feedback email now opens with what went wrong, how often and when. It carries the same facts as before.

Fixed

• A picture cut short A picture whose download was cut short is no longer taken for the whole one. Keeping it on this phone can’t delete the copy in your cloud any more.
• An update that stops An update that can’t finish now leaves your journal as it was. Afterglow then opens again instead of getting stuck.
• A changed face The lock now says when a face or fingerprint was added or removed, and offers another way in. Switching how you unlock and cancelling halfway no longer leaves only your 24 words to get in.
• Large albums Google Drive backups now read past the first thousand pictures. A restore finds your backup and nothing goes up twice. Moving a large album to another phone no longer runs out of memory, and a phone that runs out of room keeps the journal it had.
• Sends and chats A phone set to the wrong time no longer loses what it had waiting to send. Messages from a partner on a newer version no longer hold back your other chats.
• Swiping pictures Swiping between pictures no longer jumps when the swipe ends. The frame travels with your finger, and the thumbnails underneath keep one size.
• A cropped photo A photo cropped or turned before it goes in now shows the crop on its tile.
• Closing by mistake Closing the review of new photos and videos now asks before it drops what you picked. So does going back on Android, and Back closes an open crop or trim first.
• Whose album Pictures shared in from another app now show each partner’s flag beside their name.
• Something that’s gone A link or a notice for something deleted no longer opens an empty form. It goes back instead.
• Stuck at the start Afterglow no longer stays on its first screen when its own font won’t load. It opens with your phone’s font instead.
• Android permissions Afterglow no longer asks Android to let it draw over other apps.
• Spacing The lists of words for a moment now give each group room above its heading. The & between the cities a partner is based in sits evenly between them.

Version 0.4, 30 October 2026

Choose what stays in your album

See photos and videos before you add them, and keep only the parts you want. Chats now show when pictures are on their way, while cards and filters make people easier to find again.

Update both phones before using direct sharing. An older build may not open a picture sent by this one.

New

• Before it goes in See each photo or video before it joins an album. Leave one out, crop or turn a photo, or trim and cut a video into separate pieces. Anything outside the crop or left out of a video is not kept in Afterglow.
• Longer videos Keep up to five minutes of each video. A longer one opens with its first five minutes picked, so you can choose another part before adding it.
• Smaller files Turn on Smaller files to save space on your phone and in your backup, with a little less detail in new photos and videos. What you have already kept stays as it is.
• From your albums Pick a photo, video or sound from an Afterglow album to send in a chat. You choose one at a time, and the item stays in its album.
• People you know A partner’s card now has an ethnic background you can pick from plain words. A breast size stays in the system it was given, while cup sizes on the card and in the filter read in the system you choose beside your units.
• Every word The plus beside a row of tags now opens all its words, so you can pick one without knowing what to type.

Improved

• Pictures in chat A picture now shows when it is coming in or could not load, with a way to try again. If one never reaches their phone, you can send it again. An open chat checks for arrived and read marks within seconds.
• Before anyone sees it Blur a picture or video in the review before adding it, so it is hidden in the album from the start. A blurred picture still opens in full when you choose to see it.
• Finding a partner The filter keeps its sliders in view and marks your own age, height or size where your card holds it. An Instagram link fills in the username, and a note from a shared card stays with it when you bring it in.
• What arrived A share now leads with the card, moment or picture that came in, so you can tell arrivals apart at a glance.
• Screenshots Chat and open media stay out of screenshots. You can capture another screen to show a problem during testing.
• Usage counts With usage counts on, Afterglow now counts which build you updated from and how many tries it took to open with your recovery phrase. The phrase stays on your phone. What Afterglow learns

Fixed

• Sending a picture A tall photo now keeps its thumbnail when it reaches another phone. A chat picture that stalls no longer holds up the shares behind it.
• Taking back A message you take back while another is being sent now reaches the other phone as taken back.
• Adding a photo A large camera photo no longer holds the full size in memory while it is added, which could stall or close the app.
• Places The place picker now offers Singapore and other cities that are also countries.

Version 0.3, 28 October 2026

Find anyone again, and see them at a glance

This version helps you find a partner again, by when you met or by how they measure up, and shows each one at a glance. A partner can now come straight from another app, and a moment says what protection you used.

Update both phones first. What you send each other, the chat included, opens only once both phones run this version.

New

• Ordered by a measure In the filter, Sort puts partners in order by age, height or a measure, such as Tallest first, or by who you added last. Where your own card has the measure, you can also find who is Shorter, About the same or Taller. Filtering by looks comes with Plus. What you can keep
• When you met The filter now asks When you met, and finds the partners you met between two months. Either end can stay open. A partner with no day you met is left out while you ask.
• From another app Share an Instagram profile, a WhatsApp link or a phone number to Afterglow, and it asks who it is, then offers what arrived for their card. Photos and videos go straight into an album you pick, never through your camera roll. Afterglow never opens a shared link, and on Android a contact card works too.
• Protection A moment now says what protection you used, if any. A partner’s card can say they’re on birth control, and every new moment with them starts with it picked. A moment saved as protected now reads as a condom.
• Favourites Hold something a partner likes to make it a favourite, which stands out in coral. Hold it again, and it’s a like once more. A favourite goes with a card you send, and the filter counts it as a like.
• Orientation Every card now asks straight, bi or gay, right under the gender, and the filter can ask it too. A card you send carries it only when you switch on Orientation.
• Blur In the viewer’s menu, Blur in the album blurs a picture in the grid, on the glance and on a folder’s cover, while the picture itself opens in full. The blur goes into your backup and is never sent.

Improved

• At a glance A partner’s glance now shows their card as tiles: height next to your own, body, eye colour, and the facts you fill in for most partners. Tap a tile to land on that part of their card, or the portrait to see it full screen. Their note stays closed until you open it.
• Scales Tap an age or a measure to set it, and tap beside it to stretch it into a range. Your own height now shows as a mark on a partner’s height scale.
• From contacts Fill in from contacts now works on Android before 17 too, and reads only the contact you pick. You can change the name and take the picture before they go on the card. Where the name or the number hints at where someone is based or comes from, Afterglow offers it for you to tick.
• Numbers A phone number can now go without a country code, and one already on another card names that partner, so nobody is added twice. A pasted Instagram link turns into the username.
• Body details Three intimate questions on a card explain their options behind a small sign by the label. Nipple colours now run down to black, and a colour saved as Rose reads as Pink.
• The chips Each row of chips shows the ten words your journal uses most, and typing finds every other one. Lost virginity and Phone sex are now acts, and search finds Period sex and Without a condom by the words you’d use. The words every journal starts with stay, while yours can still be renamed or deleted.
• Chat The chat now opens under your partner’s portrait and name, and its row on Shares shows whether your last message was read. While Afterglow is open, a new message names who wrote at the top of the screen, never what they wrote. Pull Shares down to look for new messages at once.
• Ratings Rate a moment you shared with a paired partner, and Afterglow offers to send them your rating.
• A restore Restoring a backup now brings back Sent and Arrived, along with anything that arrived unopened, so you can still take back what you sent. Sends still on their way, pictures that run out and the chat stay with the old phone.
• Direct sharing Sending straight to a partner’s phone and the chat now need Plus, as they always should have. Without it, your pairings stay, and both pick up again once Plus is back.
• Settings Settings now opens on its groups, each with a page of its own and a line on where it stands.
• What you like Every list of moments under What you like stays closed until you tap it, so the findings scroll past without them in the way.
• Pulling a row A row now acts once pulled a little under half its width, and its actions stay hidden until you pull.
• The icon The mark sits smaller on its tile, so it reads lighter on your home screen.

Fixed

• Restoring a journal Bringing your journal back while setting up Afterglow works again, from your cloud or from one left on this phone. A cloud you pick during setup now backs up from the start.
• Chat A message now shows the moment it arrives and keeps going when the connection stalls. The chat and Shares no longer flicker, and Today moves on past midnight.
• Saving a partner On Android, the app no longer closes after you save a new partner.
• Recording A sound you just recorded now plays straight away.
• Sending a card A card whose picture isn’t on this phone now fetches it from your cloud, or goes without it.
• Dropbox On Android, signing in to Dropbox now brings you back to Settings.
• Take back Behind a one-line message in a chat, Take back now fits.
• Typing A field low on the screen now stays whole above the keyboard.

Version 0.2, 23 October 2026

A chat for the two of you

This version adds a chat for you and a paired partner, where messages, pictures and sounds last 48 hours before they go from both phones. A moment and a partner’s card hold more too, and a partner now opens at a glance.

Update both phones first. A moment or a chat sent from this version won’t open in an older one, and a chat needs both of you to send directly.

New

• Chat Open a chat from a partner’s page or from Shares, and send messages, pictures, videos and sounds. Everything in it lasts 48 hours, then Afterglow deletes it from both phones. You decide what they may save to their album, and you can take any of it back, saved or not.
• At a glance Tap a partner, and their picture, their name and the ways to reach them come first. Their moments stand on one line beneath, and Card, Moments and Media jump straight to that part of their page.
• From contacts On a card, Fill in from contacts opens your phone’s own picker, and you choose what of that one contact goes on the card. Afterglow sees only the contact you pick and keeps none of it. On Android, this needs Android 17.
• Recording In an album, Record in the app takes a photo, a video or a sound that never lands in your photos. Albums hold sounds now too, picked from Files and played in the viewer. Albums are part of Plus.
• Moment details A moment can now say its time of day, whether it was online, and which folders and pictures go with it. The acts field also finds positions and kinks, and offers a few new acts for moments apart. An online moment keeps no place and never counts as a first, and one past four hours reads 4 h+.

Improved

• Partner cards Background has a note for where and how you met, and Contact ends with an optional full name, which search finds. Neither leaves with a card you send. A city typed out in full fills in its country, and a partner’s first times fold under the newest one.
• What you like Something in every moment no longer leads just for being there, so what makes a moment stand out comes first. Positions and kinks rank with the acts, and your type has a place from the start, with a line on what fills it.
• Albums Moving pictures can make a new folder on the way, and a picture a partner sent for good can move into your own album, where they can still take it back. A picture’s actions sit behind the dots, and a picture or folder on a moment says so.
• Backups A second phone with your recovery phrase can now take the backup over, after a question that says what the other phone loses. Afterglow also says plainly that two phones never merge.
• Sending Each send in Shares shows what it held and opens to it, and a send says how far it has got. One over 100 MB goes as a file, and a partner’s face on a share opens their page.
• Invite codes An invite code now works on one phone, which Afterglow’s servers check once. A phone that’s offline keeps Plus and checks at its next start.
• What’s counted With counting on, a word you invented is counted after a day rather than two weeks.
• The lock When the lock doesn’t recognise you, a card offers Try again and the way to your recovery phrase.

Fixed

• Cloud pictures A phone your journal moved away from no longer deletes what the new phone backed up. A picture you delete or take back now leaves the older backup too, and a cloud copy that couldn’t be reached is tried again with every backup.
• Places The place list now has the cities of the Netherlands and hundreds more in the United States, and a place in several countries no longer fills in one of them.
• Files of moments A file of several moments now offers Update on each one you already have, so a note your partner added lands. Its preview folds each moment under its date.
• Opening the app Home no longer comes back empty, and the Plus offer no longer flashes up first. A journal that won’t open says so, rather than sending you to your recovery phrase.

Version 0.1, 9 October 2026

A journal only you can open

The first version, for the people testing Afterglow before it reaches the stores. There’s no account to make, and your journal is encrypted on your phone before anything leaves it. Its later builds send straight to a partner’s phone, with a file still one tap away.

New

• Moments Write down a night: who it was with, when, a rating from Forgettable to Legendary, what happened and where. Home works out your numbers as you write. What you can write
• Partners A page for everyone, with their picture, where they’re from, how you met and what they look like. Search and the filter find anyone again. What you can keep
• Pairing and sending Send a night or a card that only the two of you can open. Pair once, side by side or apart, and see everything that goes before it leaves. How sending works
• Backups in your own cloud Pick iCloud, Google Drive or Dropbox, and your journal goes up encrypted whenever you leave the app. Your cloud keeps files it can’t open. How backups work
• Your 24 words Your recovery phrase brings your journal back on a new phone, and opens it when the lock won’t. Lose the words and the phone, and the journal is gone. What they’re for
• The lock Afterglow opens with your face or your fingerprint, and locks itself 30 seconds after you leave it. The app switcher shows a moon, never your journal. Who can open it
• Export One encrypted file with everything, for a new phone or another cloud, and two files anyone can read. Getting it out
• Plus Every partner beyond the free 5, an album for each of them and the type you rate highest, bought once. An invite code unlocks it too. What Plus adds
• In your language Afterglow follows your phone in English, Spanish and German.
• Sending directly Set up Send straight to their phone in Settings or when you pair, then a card, moments or an album can go straight to a partner’s phone. A short guide says what the server sees before you turn it on and asks separately about notifications. Send as a file is still there whenever you’d rather.
• Where a share stands Open Shares from any tab to see what’s arrived and what you’ve sent. What waits for you leads, under To open, with a dot on anything you haven’t opened. Finished shares sit under Today, Yesterday and the last 30 days, one row per partner, and stay for 30 days before they go by themselves. Tapping a notification opens the share it was for, and the round button at the foot sends. Tap a picture or a clip a partner sent, and it opens full screen, with Save and Don’t keep at the foot. Looking keeps nothing.
• Take it back Swipe a send in Shares to Take back, and their phone deletes the pictures and clips you sent directly in the last 30 days. Unpairing and deleting a picture you sent offer it too. Copies made outside Afterglow stay.
• Timed pictures When you send pictures directly, pick One look, An hour or A day. Their phone shows the time left, and the pictures are gone once it runs out. They stay inside Afterglow and out of any backup.
• Add as you send In Send to, each album starts with an Add tile, so a picture goes into yours or theirs and comes in ticked, ready to send. Albums are part of Plus.
• Your own shares A share now opens with your recovery phrase as well as your partner’s. A file you sent opens on your phone under Sent by you and can add back anything your journal lost. It also means whoever holds your 24 words can read what you sent.
• End-to-end explained Six short answers say who can read your journal, what your cloud sees and what happens to what you send. Find them in Settings, under Your privacy. What end-to-end means

Improved

• Sending Send to and a partner’s own page have Select all, and a tap on a picture shows it full screen before it goes. A send stopped before it leaves can be sent again from Shares, and says what it waits for. A moment you already have opens the review when it comes back, so the rating your partner gave it lands.
• Readable files Each readable file now asks before it’s made, because anyone who gets one can read all of it.
• Add from the tabs Add a moment from Moments and a partner from Partners, now that the add button is off Home. Each tab says what it adds.
• Dialogs Every question, warning and choice now opens in a dialog of Afterglow’s own. Saving a share is confirmed at the foot of the screen and goes by itself.
• Backups When a backup to iCloud doesn’t go through, Afterglow now says why, such as being signed out or a file still downloading.
• What’s counted With counting on, each count now names the build it came from, and a share says whether it went directly or as a file. Counts made offline wait for a connection instead of being lost.

Fixed

• Your invented word Only a word you typed yourself is offered as your invented word, never one that came with a partner’s moment or card.
• Truer words Every entry is called a moment now, and no line claims more than is true about what leaves your phone. Settings opens the privacy page in the language Afterglow speaks, not the browser’s.
• On screen Long text stays within cards and buttons, and a crowded day keeps its moments on screen. Saving text keeps each emoji together, a name’s initials leave emoji and flags out, and a picture you swipe back to in the viewer shows while it loads.
• Shares that open A name or note saved longer than a share can carry is shortened when it leaves your phone, so the other phone can open it. The copy in your journal stays as it was.