❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is My Tempus?
My Tempus is a life progress tracker that visualizes time as a beautiful grid. Track the time you, your family, and your pets have lived — and the time ahead. Record life moments, set event countdowns, generate wallpapers, and pin widgets to your lock screen. Fully offline and ad-free.
How do I add a new companion (person or pet)?
Go to the Companions tab, tap the "+" button, choose a type (Myself, Parent, Child, Partner, Pet, or Custom), fill in their name and birth date, then tap "Save". You can add a photo avatar — snap from Camera or pick from Photo Library, cropped into a circular portrait. For pets, select Cat (15yr), Dog (12yr), Rabbit (8yr), or define custom pet types with your own lifespan. The companion's age updates in real time. Free users can add up to 2 companions.
What is the Life Grid and how do granularities work?
The Life Grid is the home screen of My Tempus. It visualizes your companion's expected lifespan as a grid of cells. You can switch between four zoom levels: Day (each cell = 1 day), Week (7 days), Month (~30 days), and Year (~365 days). Blue cells = time passed, yellow cell = current time, gray cells = future. Tap the golden (yellow) cell to view today's moments.
What are Templates and how do they work?
My Tempus includes 13 built-in templates across 3 categories: Emotional (Parent Time Remaining, Child Growth, Pet Companionship, Relationship), Growth (Exam Countdown, Fitness Journey, Reading Challenge, Skill Tracker), and Life Stage (Career Prime, Retirement Countdown, Mortgage Payoff, Gap Year). Each template calculates the grid differently — some use lifespan, others countdown or milestone tracking. Free users have access to 4 templates; Pro unlocks all 13, plus unlimited custom templates.
How do I record a moment?
You can record a moment in several ways:
From Life Grid: Tap any cell to view that day's moments.
From Timeline: Tap the "+" button in the toolbar.
Quick Record: Use the "+" menu → "Quick Mood" to save a moment with just a mood emoji.
Each moment can include: mood (15 emoji choices), text content, tags (presets + custom), location, photos/videos (up to 6), linked companions, and linked event timers.
What are the different Timeline views?
The Timeline has 5 view modes:
List: Moments grouped by date, searchable, with time filters (All / Today / This Week / This Month). Supports swipe-to-delete and context menu sharing.
Calendar: Month grid with dots on days that have moments. Tap a day to see its records.
Map: Moments with location data plotted on an interactive map. Tap markers to see details.
Photos: Filterable photo grid grouped by time period. Tap any photo to open the full-screen viewer with zoom and swipe navigation.
Statistics: Overview cards, mood distribution chart, top locations ranking, activity trend charts, and weekday distribution.
How do I create and manage Event Timers?
Go to the Events tab, tap "+" to create a new timer. Choose between Countdown (days remaining until a target date) and Elapsed (days since a past date). Customize the icon (50+ SF Symbols, 80+ emoji, or custom photos) and color (8 options). You can link timers to specific companions. Event markers appear as colored dots on the Life Grid, and you can pin a timer to your lock screen widget. Completed events are automatically hidden from widgets. Free users can create up to 2 timers.
How do wallpapers work?
Go to the Life Grid tab and tap the "Wallpaper" button at the bottom. Choose from 3 styles (Minimal, Data, Story) and 5 layouts. Preview the generated wallpaper, then you can:
• Save to Album — saves to your Photos library
• Set as Lock Screen — opens iOS wallpaper settings
• Share — send via the system share sheet
Free users can generate 3 wallpapers per day. Two premium layouts (Storywall, Pure) require Pro.
How do I share a moment as an image?
Open any moment's detail view and tap the Share button (square.and.arrow.up icon) in the toolbar. The app renders a beautiful share card with the moment's mood, content, location, photos, tags, companions, and events. You can also share directly from the Timeline list by long-pressing a moment and selecting "Share as Image".
What widgets are available and how do I add them?
My Tempus offers 6 widget variants: Life Progress, Events, Grid, Ring, Calendar, and Composite. To add a widget:
Lock Screen: Long-press the lock screen → Customize → tap the widget area → find "My Tempus" → choose a variant.
Home Screen: Long-press the home screen → tap "+" → search "My Tempus" → choose a variant and size.
Each widget header shows the companion's template icon and name. Free users can use Small and Lock Screen widgets. Medium and Large widgets require Pro.
Can I use the app without adding a companion?
A companion is needed for the Life Grid (grid calculations require a birth date). The app creates a default "Myself" companion on first launch. If you delete all companions, tapping the golden cell or the "+" button will show a helpful prompt guiding you to add a companion first. You can still browse existing moments in the Timeline.
I purchased Pro, how do I restore my purchase?
Open the app, go to Settings (gear icon in Life Grid), and tap "Restore Purchases". Make sure you're signed in with the same Apple ID you used to purchase Pro.
How do I cancel my Pro subscription?
Subscriptions are managed through your Apple ID. Open the Settings app on your iPhone, tap your name, tap "Subscriptions", find "My Tempus", and tap "Cancel Subscription". You can also manage this via the App Store: tap your profile icon → Subscriptions → My Tempus → Cancel.
How do I change the app theme?
Go to Settings → Appearance, and choose from 4 themes: System (follows your iPhone setting), Light, Dark, or Sepia (warm vintage tone). The change takes effect immediately.
What icons can I use for Event Timers?
You can choose from three icon types: SF Symbols (60+ system icons in 6 categories), Emoji (80+ curated emoji in 7 categories), or Custom Photo from your library. The icon picker is searchable and suggests icons based on your selected companion (e.g., cat emoji for Cat companions). Icon color is independently customizable.
What's the difference between Reference and Local Copy for photos?
Reference (default, space-saving): Stores only the Photos library identifier and a small thumbnail. Full-resolution images load on demand from your Photos library — saves storage space.
Local Copy (reliable): Saves a full-resolution copy to the app's storage. Faster loading and works offline, but uses more storage. You can switch between modes in Settings → Image Storage.
How do I manage tags and moods?
Go to Settings for dedicated management views:
• Tag Management: Rename, merge, delete tags. Clean up unused tags in one tap. Search and create new tags.
• Mood Management: Enable or disable mood emojis. Add custom moods (emoji or SF Symbol + name).
Can I add custom pet types?
Yes. Go to Settings → Pet Types to add custom pet types with a custom name, icon (emoji or SF Symbol), and lifespan. Presets include Cat (15 years), Dog (12 years), and Rabbit (8 years). Custom types can be deleted; presets cannot.
What does the Statistics view in Timeline show?
The Statistics tab (chart icon) shows: overview cards (total moments, this month, with photos, with location), mood distribution bar chart, top 5 locations, activity timeline by month, and weekday activity chart. Use the time range selector to filter by All / This Year / This Month / Last 30 Days.
How does the "Mark as Complete" feature work for events?
When editing an event timer, toggle Mark as Complete to hide it from the main event list and from all widgets. Completed events can be shown again by toggling Show Completed in the event list filter bar. You can unmark a completed event at any time to make it active again.
Is my data private?
Yes. All your companion profiles, moments, events, and media are stored locally on your device using Core Data and your iPhone's photo library. By default the app works entirely offline and makes no network requests. The only exception is the optional AI Assistant: if you choose to enable it with your own API key, the text you submit for an AI action is sent directly to the AI provider you selected — never through us. My Tempus operates no server and does not collect, sell, or share any personal data.
What is Retrospect?
Retrospect automatically turns your moments into an immersive, auto-playing recap with its own background music. Recaps are triggered by weekly and monthly summaries, streak milestones (7 / 30 / 100 / 365 days), your 50th moment (and every 50 after), a companion's birthday, or a completed countdown. Open the latest recap from the sparkles button in the Timeline tab — a red dot marks an unviewed recap. In Settings → Retrospect you can enable or disable triggers, set the frequency, pick a cover photo, generate one now, and browse your Library of past recaps. Each recap can be shared as beautiful image cards.
What is Story mode?
Story mode plays your moments as a full-screen, auto-advancing story with a progress bar and background music — similar to Instagram Stories. Open it from the play button in the Timeline tab. Tap a card to open its detail, hold to pause, and use the sort toggle to switch between ✨ Highlights (your most notable moments) and 🕐 Recent.
What is the AI Assistant, and is it private?
The AI Assistant is an optional, off-by-default feature that turns a sentence you type into a structured moment, event, or companion (and can write an optional recap summary). It uses your own API key from a provider you choose — Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, DeepSeek, Google (Gemini), Moonshot (Kimi), Qwen, or Mistral. Your key is stored securely in the iOS Keychain, and the text you submit is sent directly from your device to your chosen provider — Tempus runs no server and never sees your key or your text. The assistant is free in the app (not a Pro feature); you pay only your provider for your own usage. Set it up, test the connection, and review usage & estimated cost in Settings → AI Assistant. Delete your key any time to fully disable it.
Does My Tempus work on Apple Watch?
Yes. My Tempus includes a companion watchOS app (Apple Watch Series 4+ / watchOS 10+). Add a complication to your watch face to see your active companion's life progress or upcoming event countdown at a glance — four styles: Circular, Corner, Rectangular, and Inline. Open the watch app for full details including the progress bar, accumulated/remaining time, and active events. Data syncs from your iPhone via Bluetooth/WiFi and is cached on the watch so it stays visible even when your phone isn't nearby.