Generational Story is the premier app to record, store, organize, and share valuable, personal histories of loved ones  or yourself  and preserve them for generations to come.

Interview clips, taken in a single session or over time, are stored in unique albums.Together, these clips form a life story video that can be viewed as a whole or in brief, natural segments in an online personal file called an album. Photos, descriptions,and links may be added to supplement clips.

Comparable professional service packages range from $1000 to over $30,000. Now, through Generational Story’s straightforward interface, you can quickly create individualized albums for you, your loved ones, or your clients at a fraction of the cost.

Generational Story automatically guides you through the recording process.
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The app will initially prompt you to create your first album i.e. 'Jane Doe.' From there, you may immediately begin recording or, if you prefer, plan your interview by loading a series of questions from our suggested list or customize your own questions to step through during the interview.
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When you select a question or custom recording during an interview, a record button will appear. Press record to begin recording and stop to finish. When you finish a recording, you will be asked if you wish to 'save' or 'delete' your clip. If you delete, you will be given the option to record again. When you are satisfied, press the 'save' button.
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The app will seamlessly process and upload video to your Generational Story album.

At Generational Story, we take our promise to preserve life histories seriously. Should something happen to the owner of an account, the legacy email provides us with an alternative contact to determine if and by whom the account will be maintained.

The Generational Story app is free to download. There is no account device limit. You may use your credentials to login to your account on any device. Personal account holders may even choose to add contributors to their album to login in on their devices.

A standard album starts with 50 clips. A legacy album starts with 100 clips. Additional clips may be added for a nominal upgrade cost.

Once you download the app and open the album, you may use it in any location. When you save the clip, the file is held in your local memory and automatically uploaded when access to the cloud is detected and the app is open. You have the choice in settings to upload only when connected to wifi or using either wifi or data.

By default, if your device is not connected to the internet for uploading, the recordings will remain on your device until an internet connection is established.  Once your device detects a connection and the app is open, automatic upload will begin.  If you prefer to have uploads occur over data when an internet connection is unavailable, please go to settings and toggle the “Upload clips only if connected to Wi-Fi” to off.

The possibilities are endless. For instance, albums may be used to preserve information such as historical locations or cultural heritage.The Generational Story platform has also been used to archive and share: special moments in the lives of children, weddings, or memories at family gatherings and funerals.

At Generational Story, we take our responsibility of storing precious memories seriously. The GS deletion protocol is set up to help ensure that histories are not accidentally lost.

Deletion policy for accounts with:
‍No albums - the account may be terminated immediately upon request. This applies only to albums which the user owns. (Trial albums or albums for which the user is a contributor albums do not apply.)
Annual Subscription, Lifetime or Legacy Albums - must have all albums deleted or transferred to another account before the account can be deleted.  
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Album Deletion:
Only the owner can delete an album. Once an album is deleted it cannot be retrieved.   
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Deleting Standard or Trial albums from an owner’s account:
1. Login to your account.
2. Open the album to be deleted.
3. Under the About tab click the 3 dot menu in the top right.
4. Select Delete Album.

Deleting a Legacy Album
1. Delete all clips from the album.
2. Follow Deleting Standard Album steps.
^{‍Important Note: Legacy and lifetime albums are one time payment options made to be available into perpetuity without additional cost.  It is not anticipated that this album would ever be deleted.} 

‍GS story encourages album owners with recorded clips to transfer albums (perhaps to other contributors on the album) rather than deleting them to preserve important recordings. 

GS will delete trial albums at the end of the trial period.  Standard or Read-Only albums will be locked if payment is not made. GS will attempt to reach the owner and any contributors for 12 months to make payment, transfer ownership, or download before deleting the album.

Creation, organization, and storage of personal interviews in online albums.

In-person recording on any smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Remote video conf recording.

Video Upload from another source.

Connected  photos, links, and descriptions to clips.

QR labels and permanent storage options.

Sharing and Privacy settings  for entire  albums or individual clips.

Curated, high-impact questions available individually or in personalized templates.

Email Prompts.

Contributor invites for collaboration with family and friends

Download options.

Company brand name recognition.

QR lables placed on headstones, keepsakes, pictures, or documents gives recipients direct access to an album.  This offers accessibility to the recordings for future generations long after login information is forgotten.

QR labels can be linked to either an individual clip or to an entire album. If linked to the album, the user will open to the first clip in the album when scanned. If linked to a clip, the user will open the album to the designated clip. Linking a specific clip may be useful when using QR codes on heirlooms.

^{For example, a person may designate a specific vase to a favorite niece. When the QR code on the vase is scanned, the individual may see the explanation or story of the vase along with a special message  to the niece, with access to the entire album.}
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We have a variety of QR code labels covering  a variety of applications:
Laser-engraved stainless steel for outdoor applications such as a headstone.
Anodized aluminum for indoor/outdoor applications such as a urn, vase or frame.
Thin plastic with archival adhesive for sensitive applications such as photos.

^{Additional sizes and shapes may be ordered as plaques to be placed on historical structures.}

Contributors have editor access to the albums they have been invited to. This allows individuals, like family members, to create or enhance an album with video clips, photos, descriptions, and links.
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To add an album contributor:
Open the album
Open the about tab
Under the section label contributor enter the name and email of the person that you are adding as a contributor
An email invite will be sent to the contributor to create a password and login to their account.

Guests are invited to a portal to record or upload a video to an album without viewing or editorial access.

The Guest contributor feature is useful for things like collecting memories of a loved one from a variety of family and friends without granting editorial access.

A custom recording is simply an unlabeled recording. For instance, if you want to immediately record a story or go off your planned interview script, select "custom recording."

You may always label the clip at a later time before or after saving and uploading the clip to your album.

A Clip Description appears once a clip is selected. This optional field may be used to give further details about the clip such as background information in text or digital links to articles, photos, etc. Descriptions are allowed 240 characters.

Open the album
Select the Record/Upload tab
Select Upload Videos
Browse your computer to select the video you would like to upload
^{Note: Video uploads up to 500MB are allowed.}

Once you are in an album select the clip you would like to attach a photo to.
Underneath the video clip you will see the section labeled ‘Picture (optional)’
Click on ‘Browse files’ to upload.

Owners or contributors may designate a particular video clip as ‘audio-only'. An audio-only clip will not show the visual portion of the video in playback. If a photo is added, the photo will be displayed while the audio is playing.

Share the entire album - You may copy and share the URL for the entire album. The person receiving the link, the 'viewer', will be able to see and  re-share, all the clips not marked private.

Share a particular clip - Each clip has an associated dropdown menu. A single clip may be instantaneously shared on Facebook or Twitter or the URL may be copied and shared via email. Sharing a clip does not grant access to view the entire album.

A private clip can only be seen when logged into the account. Thus, only those individuals with login access could see clips marked as private even if the album is shared. This is a good option if there are special concerns such as messages to children that an individual would like to save until after passing away. Clips can be marked private or public through a toggle switch at any time.

For ease of uploading, sharing and quickly accessing a particular segment in the interview, clips are recorded or uploaded in segments.

You can extend the time limit if necessary. From the mobile app, when you reach 4 min 30 sec on a single clip, an option will appear to "Continue in new clip if time runs out." Unless unselected, the recording will seamlessly advance to the next clip under the current label followed by the sequential order i.e. "Tell me About Your Siblings (2)"', "Tell Me About Your Siblings Clip (3)", etc. On the web app, you may extend the question up to 15 min.

You can see all the questions that have been answered and remain to be recorded in your queue when you open the album under "Plan Interview."

When you are recording, you will also have access to your list of questions to help you anticipate the next question (if you are going in order) or to select a different question in your line-up to be recorded.

As most clips don't exceed 5 minutes, we suggest you delete and redo any short clip you are unsatisfied with. This is the quickest, easiest, and most efficient way to edit without complex software or technical training.

^{You can always download and edit on a 3rd party platform if required.}

You may view your album online by logging in, or scanning a QR code label connected to your album. You may also copy and share the URL to any album or clip to share over email, social media etc.  You may also download the album to your own device.

An album owner or contributor may choose to download their h album at any time in the GS format to store on their own electronic device (i.e. hard drive, USB). To download, open the album and open the top right menu (3 dots next to “Copy link to album”) and click ‘Request download.’
^{You can always download and edit on a 3rd party platform if required.}

Generational Story allows users to set up email reminders to record into an album. Reminders may be sent only as long as there are unanswered questions in the ‘plan interview’ section. 

To set up reminders: 
Navigate to the ‘About’ tab.
Go to the ‘Record reminders’ section and toggle ‘email reminders’ to on.
Select the email recipient from the list of owner and contributors that have created their accounts.
Select the frequency of reminders (every week, bi-monthly or monthly). 

The recipient of the email reminder may simply click on the link to be taken to the record/upload screen where they may choose to do a recording or upload a previously made video. 

Email reminders will suggest answering the next question in the album’s unanswered questions interview queue, but the recipient may select any question they would like to respond to or go off script on a custom question. 

Generational Story offers 4 album types.

One-time payment options - are a higher upfront charge where a large portion of the payment is put in a trust fund for ongoing maintainence of the album.  These albums are meant to last for generations. As such, we strongly suggest ordering the QR labels including in the package pricing to place on heirlooms or headstones to grant access to the memories even if the login information is forgotten. 
Legacy - ‘forever’ storage
Lifetime - 50-year storage

Subscription options 
Standard Album - full access to record, upload, and edit
Read-only - is available once a standard album has been created. It offers an inexpensive option to store and view clips that have already been recorded.

Subscriptions can be modified from Standard to Read-only and back again by the owner.

Free Trial - Limited album for users to experiment with Generational Story’s platform features. It may be upgraded to Standard, Lifetime or Legacy album at any time.

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Generational Story gives you the unique opportunity to plan the interview in advance or simply let the conversation flow.
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Plan the Interview in Advance
Before the interview, you may type in your own questions or select from our curated bank of questions. During the interview, once one question is completed, the software will advance to the next question in the queue. You always have the option to skip questions or go off-script and label later. You may end your recording session any time and pick up again where you left off.
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Letting the Conversation Flow
Sometimes spontaneous opportunities arise to archive a unique experience or story. Perhaps you'd like to record a story told at a dinner table or allow the respondent to reminisce. Simply open the Generational Story app and select the 'custom recording' option to easily capture the moment.

Doing several interviews?  
Create your own custom template(s) to quickly add to new albums in a single click. For instance you might have one for young adults and another for older couples.

It’s a good idea to allow plenty of flexibility in the respondent's answers. This allows the respondents to reflect on unique experiences important to them. In fact, it is sometimes beneficial to suggest different directions the respondent could take the question before you start recording to stimulate the conversation.

As an example, below are the questions from the ‘Get Started’ category with some suggestions of how a respondent may choose to respond in parentheses:

Tell me your full name and where you were born.

What do you remember about your grandparents? (stories, songs, traditions)

Tell me about your parents. (personality, parenting style, sense of humor)

Tell me some things about your childhood. (friends, summer activities, talents, funny memory)

What are your most vivid memories of school? (favorite teachers, subjects, activities, best and worst subjects, how you felt about school)

What meaningful relationships have you had?(If they have a spouse, suggest talking about how they met or advice on a successful marriage.)

What words of wisdom can you share with family and friends? (relationships, values, religion, education, money management)

If this were your last conversation with your family, what would you tell them?

Assure the respondent that it will be a relaxed conversation:
No preparation is necessary.
Recorded clips can be shared or kept private at his/her discretion.
It will be enjoyable.

Being camera shy is a common initial reaction. However, once the recording begins, we find that virtually everyone opens up. In fact, you’ll likely discover that your most reticent subjects don’t want to quit recording! It is actually fun - and healthy - to reflect on the past.