# Told

> Told gets a parent's life story out of them without a family member having to ask: six guided conversations on their own phone, in chapters they name themselves, delivered as a story the family can read with the recording behind every quote and fact, the lossless archive, and a hardcover book. Read before printing; full refund if it isn't them. Sold worldwide. Contact hello@told.media.

Told is a life-story recording service for families. Its typical customer is an adult son or daughter who wants to record a parent or grandparent while they still can.

## What Told does

- Runs six guided conversations, usually twenty to thirty minutes and never cut off by a clock, about a week apart or sooner if the storyteller wants, on the storyteller's own phone; a link sent to the phone opens the app already set up. The app asks one question at a time, out loud and in big type, with one big button, and sets a reminder for the next conversation.
- The package is The Life Story: the first conversation asks for the story the storyteller always tells and for the chapters of their life as they see them, read back until confirmed; the remaining conversations walk those chapters in the storyteller's order. Six conversations produce a portrait, not a complete biography; the book lists the chapters left open. A shorter package about the storyteller's parents comes later.
- Builds the written story from the storyteller's verbatim words with short connecting sentences. Every quote and every factual sentence points to the recording it came from, and the family can play it. Connecting sentences do not carry audio. Unsupported sentences are flagged for a person, not smoothed over.
- Shows the family the first chapter, as a preview, after the first conversation's names review. The family's work is a few minutes after each conversation confirming the names and places the engine was unsure of, which never holds up the next conversation, and a read-through before printing with names, dates and relationships checked against the recordings as the chapters arrive. At the end of a conversation the app can read back the few names it was unsure of for the storyteller to confirm by voice.
- Keeps every recording in full and lossless, plus transcripts, and delivers all of it as a download that works without Told.
- Delivers one hardcover with codes beside each quote that play the storyteller's voice, with photos the family adds printed where they belong (captions marked as the family's words), plus the print-ready file for more copies.
- The storyteller decides who can hear the story, can change that from their phone, and chooses what happens to it after their death. Recordings are kept lossless and backed up, and the family can download everything at any time.
- A conversation counts toward the six only once it reaches its usual length; if the storyteller stops early, the sitting is kept and short sittings add together.
- Requirements: the storyteller needs an iPhone on iOS 17 or later (iPhone XR, XS or newer) and an internet connection; Android is planned. Conversations are in English; names and words from other languages are kept as said.
- Price: $249 (US dollars) for one storyteller, paid once. No subscription. Guarantee: the family reads the finished story before printing; if it does not sound like them, a full refund, and the recordings and transcripts stay with the family (terms on the page).
- Comparison figures on the page are indicative, checked September 2026, in US dollars: professional ghostwriters charge $18,000 to $50,000 for a memoir or nonfiction book (Reedsy 2026 marketplace data); memoir subscription services charge $69 to $199 a year, renewing each year.

## Pages

- [Home](https://told.media/): the offer, how it works, the guarantee and every reason this usually fails.
- [Privacy](https://told.media/privacy.html): what Told collects, who else touches it, retention, deletion, the storyteller's control, rights.
- [Terms](https://told.media/terms.html): what is bought, the That's Them guarantee, consent and control, ownership, hosting and the download, delivery.

## Contact

- Email: hello@told.media