They receive a question in their — a private space online, just for your family and loved ones. They answer in their own voice: about you, about their recipes, about a town that no longer exists. The whole family listens, reacts, and asks their own questions. We turn it into a collection your family will treasure now, and for years to come. What’s an archive? A private page on the internet that belongs to your family and loved ones. The recordings are kept there — you can’t find it by searching, and only the people you invite can open it.
Just you and a good question today.
No rush. There's no right answer. When you're ready, tap the green button and just talk.
One day you'll wish you'd asked. Today, you still can.
— the reason this company exists
Silver Lining isn't only about what's kept. It's about what happens now — a loved one who feels asked-after and adored, and a family that finds its way back into each other's weeks, no matter the distance between you.
A question waiting every morning says we want to hear from you. He answers it, swaps it, or leaves it.
A daughter in London, a son in Perth, a grandchild in Cape Town — all in the same archive, all close.
Up to ten people listen, react, and ask their own questions. Not a solo chore for one person.
The nickname, the near-marriage, the reason he left home — every answer a small "I never knew that."
Years from now these recordings will be irreplaceable.
Nothing complicated for Gran to install. Nothing complicated for you to learn.
One question a day, waiting in her archive. She can answer it, swap it for a different one, or leave it for another day.
"What was the first song you remember dancing to?"
Tap to start
She talks for a minute or two — about her father, about the recipes, about a town that no longer exists.
"What was the first song you remember dancing to?"
Tap when you're finished
It is saved to the archive — voice, transcript and summary — and everyone you invited can hear it.
"What was the first song you remember dancing to?"
Our prompt library is rich — but some questions are yours alone. Send Grandpa a question in your own words, even in your own voice. It arrives in his archive like a letter, waiting for whenever he's ready.
Grandpa, what do you remember about the day I was born?
"Grandpa, what do you remember about the day I was born?"
Tap to answer Katie
Our prompts library is built from research into hundreds of family experiences. It surfaces the moments that matter — and the ones nobody thinks of.
Some days it is the daily question. Other days it is a recipe, an old photo finally explained, or a message meant for one grandchild. Silver Lining holds all of it.
The quantities she never measures, the tricks she never wrote down — a koeksister recipe in Ouma's own voice, no cookbook can replace it.
He talks through a photograph — who's in it, what was happening, how it felt. The context only he can give.
A message for one child, grandchild or sibling — theirs to keep, and to replay whenever they need to hear that voice again.
Where the important things are — the details obvious to him now that nobody would know to ask later.
Every recording type is available any time they open the app. Nobody is locked into the daily question — there is always a “Share something else” button to record whatever is on their mind that day.
We're a values-based business. We never train AI on your family's voices. Ever.
No card details today. Nothing to enter, nothing to pay. Your 7-day trial starts the moment you sign up. And when you do subscribe, we never see your card details. Payment is handled entirely by a regulated payments provider — your card goes straight to them, never to us. We only ever see the last four digits, so you know which card is on file. Nothing else reaches our servers, ever.
One for them, one for you. Print the first, write their link and code on it, and hand it over with the phone.
What the archive is, what arrives each morning, and the fact that nothing is ever scored. Space to write their link and code.
Open the PDF (38 KB) →Setting up, sending the link, inviting everyone, and the one setting that decides whether the whole thing keeps going.
Open the PDF (40 KB) →Birthdays, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas — the presents get harder every year, and “don’t get me anything” makes it harder still.
This one isn’t another thing to dust. You set it up — it takes a few minutes, and it’s all done on your phone. All they ever do is talk.
What arrives on the day is a question waiting for them, and the fact that their family wants to hear the answer.
One price covers everyone, so it’s a gift to the whole family — the sister in Perth and the grandchild who’s too small to know what to ask yet.
Set it up for themI’ve always been interested in how easily the small details of people’s lives get lost over time — the stories, the voices, the everyday things that rarely get recorded.
Most of what we keep are fragments: photographs, documents, recipes, old messages. They capture moments, but not always the person behind them.
Silver Lining was built to help families preserve more of those living stories in a simple, ongoing way — short voice notes, small reflections, and everyday memories stored over time.
The idea is simple: instead of waiting for “someday,” capture things as they happen, in small and natural ways.
It’s not about replacing anything you already do. It’s just a way to keep more of the voice, perspective, and texture of the people you care about.
Silver Lining is designed for exactly that. There’s nothing complicated to install, no app store, no account for them to create. You sign up, then send them one link. That link is their home forever — they bookmark it or save it to their home screen, enter a PIN and it opens ready to record. No passwords. No menus to navigate. Just a question and a big green button.
Yes, and it’s how a lot of families start. You sign up and do the setup yourself — there’s nothing for them to install or create, so nothing can go wrong on the day. Then you send them their link whenever you’re ready: on a birthday, at Christmas, or over a cup of tea while you’re sitting with them.
If you’d rather hand over something on the day, set it up and show them the first question on your own phone. There’s a printable one-page guide you can put in the envelope too.
You get a separate family portal link — different from the recording link. Share it with anyone in the family or friendship circle (up to 10 people). They log in with their email and code, and they can browse every recording, read transcripts, and listen any time. They can leave written comments that Dad sees.
Yes — and this is one of the things families love most. There’s a dedicated "Recipe" category. She names the dish, adds photos of the finished meal or handwritten recipe cards if she wants, and then just talks through how she makes it — the quantities she never measures, the tricks she’s never written down. The whole thing is transcribed and searchable. A koeksister recipe in Ouma’s own voice is something no cookbook can ever hope to replace.
That’s exactly what the "Photo Memory" category is for. He uploads an old photograph — a wedding, a street that no longer exists, a family braai from 1974 — and then records himself talking through it. Who’s in it. What was happening. What it felt like. The photo and the voice note are stored together, permanently. Context that would otherwise never be known, saved forever.
Yes. Family members can leave a ❤️ or a written note on any recording. When your cousin in London hears Ouma talking about her first job and leaves a note saying how much that story meant — that becomes a part of the archive too. It turns a one-way recording into a real conversation across generations.
Absolutely. Any family member can send a custom question straight to their archive — typed or recorded as a voice note. They see it the next time they open the app. “Gogo, what do you remember about your wedding day?” or “Oupa, tell us about your first car” — the things you’ve always meant to ask but never found the right moment for.
Yes — he records in whatever language feels most natural to him. The voice recording is always preserved exactly as spoken, in his own language and accent. Our AI transcribes in Afrikaans and other South African languages, though the accuracy varies by language. The recording itself is always perfect regardless — what matters most is his voice.
Your family does. Full stop. We are a custodian, not an owner. At any time you can download a clean zip file containing every recording, every transcript, every photo and every AI summary — yours to keep on a hard drive forever. If Silver Lining ever shut down, you would have lost nothing.
The archive becomes a memorial. Everything stays available to the family circle, exactly as they left it. You can keep it running for ease of access — R99 a month for the whole family — or download everything and cancel. There is no pressure and no deadline. The recordings will not be deleted without your instruction (subject to our Terms & Conditions).
No. Your family’s voices are never used to train any AI model — ours or anyone else’s. Transcription happens through a sealed pipeline and nothing is retained by the AI providers after processing. This is a hard line we will not cross, and it is written into our terms.
We never quiz him, never mark an answer right or wrong, never demand a reply. One tap swaps the question for a different one, and leaving it costs nothing. The prompt library leans deliberately on deep-memory cues — childhood, songs, smells, places — which research suggests stay reachable far longer than recent memories. A session is short, has no correct answer, and ends whenever he wants it to.
Very little. Each voice recording is compressed audio — a 3-minute recording uses roughly 1–2MB. Most family members would use under 50MB a month just browsing and listening. It works well on standard home Wi-Fi or a mobile data plan.
Only the people you personally invite to the family portal. You control the list completely — add someone, remove someone, any time. Nobody outside your invited circle can access anything. The archive is completely private.
Start in the next five minutes. Send them the link tonight — by breakfast, they'll have their first question.