Frequently Asked Questions

Creating your first entry is simple! Open Companion and tap the '+' button or 'New Entry' button. Choose your current mood from the circular selector, then start writing about your day, thoughts, or feelings. Don't worry about perfect writing - just be authentic. When finished, tap 'Save' to store your entry locally on your device.

Companion offers 10 distinct moods to capture the full spectrum of human emotions:

• Happy: When you're feeling joyful, content, or positive
• Calm: For peaceful, relaxed, or centered moments
• Neutral: When you're feeling balanced or neither positive nor negative
• Sad: During moments of sorrow, disappointment, or melancholy
• Angry: When experiencing frustration, irritation, or anger
• Anxious: For worry, nervousness, or stressful situations
• Tired: When feeling exhausted, drained, or low energy
• Excited: For anticipation, enthusiasm, or high energy
• Grateful: When focusing on appreciation and thankfulness
• Confused: During uncertain, unclear, or conflicted times

Companion's interface is designed for simplicity:

• Home Screen: View recent entries and quick stats
• New Entry: Tap the '+' button to create an entry
• Weekly Insights: Access your AI-generated summaries
• Achievements: Track your journaling milestones
• Settings: Customize preferences, themes, and language

'Save & Reflect' is Companion's AI-powered feature that goes beyond simple saving. When you choose this option, Companion's AI reads your entry and provides thoughtful, personalized responses based on your communication style. It might ask follow-up questions, offer different perspectives, or provide gentle guidance. Regular 'Save' simply stores your entry without AI interaction, perfect for private thoughts you want to keep to yourself.

Consistency is more important than frequency. Daily journaling provides the most benefits, but even 3-4 times per week can be transformative. Start with what feels manageable - even 5 minutes daily is better than one long session per week. Research shows that regular journaling (at least 3 times per week) leads to improved mood, reduced stress, and better emotional processing. Use Companion's reminder feature to build the habit gradually.

Write about anything that comes to mind! Here are some effective approaches:

• Daily events: What happened and how it made you feel
• Emotions: Current feelings and what might be causing them
• Gratitude: Things you're thankful for, big or small
• Challenges: Problems you're facing and potential solutions
• Goals: What you want to achieve and steps to get there
• Reflections: Lessons learned or insights gained

There's no perfect length! Quality matters more than quantity. Some days you might write a few sentences, other days several paragraphs. Research suggests that even 15-20 minutes of expressive writing can provide significant benefits. Focus on being authentic rather than meeting a word count. Companion's Weekly Insights work with entries of any length.

Journaling provides a safe space to process thoughts and emotions, which can be incredibly beneficial for mental health. It helps in managing anxiety, reducing stress, and coping with depression. By externalizing your thoughts, you can gain clarity, identify negative thought patterns, and better understand your feelings. It's a powerful tool for self-reflection and emotional regulation.

Extensive research has demonstrated the positive impact of expressive writing on both mental and physical health. Key findings include:

• Reduced Anxiety and Stress: Studies show that regular journaling can significantly decrease symptoms of anxiety and stress. It helps in processing intense emotions, leading to more effective stress management.
• Alleviation of Depression: Research has found that expressive writing can lead to significant improvements in depression scores, with some studies suggesting it can be as effective as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) in reducing depression risk in young adults.
• Improved Overall Well-being: Journaling is linked to better emotional regulation, enhanced self-awareness, and improved cognitive function. Some studies even report physical health benefits like lower blood pressure and improved immune response.

Sources: Positive Psychology, WebMD, PMC Article

Companion uses a secure, state-of-the-art Large Language Model (LLM) to power its reflective conversations. When you choose to "Save & Reflect," the app sends your journal entry (and the conversational context) to the AI, which then generates a thoughtful, personalized response based on your unique communication preferences. Your privacy is paramount; your journal entries are handled securely and are not used for training the AI model.

Weekly Insights are AI-generated summaries of your journaling patterns, created every Sunday based on your timezone. They analyze your mood trends, recurring themes, and emotional patterns from the past week. You'll receive a notification when your insights are ready. These summaries help you identify patterns you might miss and provide gentle guidance for the week ahead.

To change your theme: Go to Settings → Appearance → Theme. Companion offers several beautiful themes including Light, Dark, Sunset, and Ocean. You can also enable 'Auto' mode to automatically switch between light and dark themes based on your device's system settings or time of day.

Yes! Companion supports multiple export formats to ensure you always own your data. Go to Settings → Data → Export to choose from PDF (beautifully formatted), plain text, or JSON (for other apps). You can export all entries or select specific date ranges. Exported files include your entries, moods, and timestamps while keeping AI conversations private unless specifically requested.

Companion automatically detects your device's system language when you first open the app. If your system language is supported, the app will switch to it immediately. You can always manually change the language in Settings → Language, and the app will remember your preference for future sessions.

Absolutely! Your journal entries are stored separately from the interface language. You can switch between any supported language at any time without affecting your existing entries. Even your AI conversations will continue in the new language while preserving the context from previous interactions.

Yes. We take your privacy and security very seriously. All your journal entries are stored securely on your device. When you use the AI reflection feature, your data is transmitted over an encrypted connection. We do not sell your data or use it for any purpose other than providing the app's core functionality. For more details, please review our full privacy policy.

Local-first privacy means that your journal entries are primarily stored on your device, not on our servers. This ensures that you maintain control over your personal data. Only when you choose to use AI features does the app securely transmit your entries for processing, and this data is never permanently stored or used for training purposes.

Companion uses AES-256 encryption, the same industry-standard security technology trusted by leading cloud providers like Google Cloud, AWS, and Oracle Cloud to protect data in their systems. This military-grade encryption ensures that your personal journal entries, mood data, and sensitive information are secured with one of the strongest encryption methods available. Even if someone gained access to your device or our servers, your encrypted data would be virtually impossible to read without your unique encryption keys.

Your journal entries are stored locally on your device using encrypted SQLite databases. We follow a 'local-first' approach, meaning your private thoughts never leave your device unless you explicitly choose to use the Save & Reflect feature. Even then, only the specific entry is sent securely to our AI service and immediately deleted after processing. No one else can access your personal journal data.

When you use 'Save & Reflect,' your entry is sent over an encrypted connection to our secure AI service. The AI processes your text and generates a response, then immediately deletes your data from the server. Your entries are never stored, never used for training, and never shared with third parties. The AI conversation history is kept locally on your device only.

Companion offers three secure authentication options:

• Google Sign-In: Use your existing Google account
• Apple Sign-In: Privacy-focused authentication via Apple ID
• Email & Password: Traditional account creation with strong encryption

All methods use industry-standard security practices and two-factor authentication when available.

To completely delete your account: Go to Settings → Account → Delete Account. This will permanently remove your account, all cloud sync data, and authentication information from our servers. Note that journal entries stored locally on your device will remain unless you also choose 'Delete Local Data' during the process. This action is irreversible.

Check these settings in order:

• Ensure notifications are enabled in your device settings for Companion
• Go to Settings → Notifications and verify Weekly Insights are enabled
• Make sure you've written at least 3 entries in the past week
• Check that your timezone is correct in Settings → General

Insights are generated every Sunday evening based on your local timezone.

Try these troubleshooting steps:

• Force close and restart the app
• Restart your device to clear memory
• Ensure you have the latest app version from the store
• Check that you have sufficient device storage (at least 1GB free)
• Backup your data, then try clearing the app cache

If issues persist, contact support with your device model and iOS/Android version.

Yes! When you sign in with the same account on multiple devices, Companion will sync your entries, preferences, and achievements across all devices. However, note that sync requires an internet connection and may take a few moments to complete. For privacy, AI conversation history is stored locally and won't sync between devices.

We love hearing from our users! You can provide feedback in several ways:

• Use the 'Send Feedback' option in Settings → Help & Support
• Email us directly at feedback@atalaku.app
• Use the contact form on this website
• Leave a review on the App Store or Google Play

To report bugs effectively, include these details:

• Your device model and operating system version
• Companion app version (found in Settings → About)
• Steps to reproduce the issue
• What you expected to happen vs. what actually happened

Send this information to support@atalaku.app for the fastest response.

We're always improving Companion based on user feedback! Share your feature ideas:

• Use the 'Feature Request' option in the app's feedback section
• Email detailed suggestions to features@atalaku.app
• Use our website contact form with 'Feature Request' selected

The more specific and detailed your request, the better we can understand and potentially implement it!

Companion features a comprehensive achievement system to celebrate your journaling journey:

• Streak Achievements: For consecutive days of journaling (3, 7, 30, 100 days)
• Entry Milestones: For total entries written (10, 50, 100, 500+)
• Mood Explorer: For using all 10 mood types
• Deep Thinker: For frequent use of Save & Reflect
• Insight Seeker: For consistently reading Weekly Insights

Companion fully supports four languages:

• English: Complete interface and AI conversations
• French (Français): Full localization with native AI support
• Spanish (Español): Complete translation and AI interactions
• Swahili (Kiswahili): Interface and AI conversations available