There’s something magical about hearing a story from the voice of the original storyteller. The melody of their voice, their points of emphasis, the word choices that are uniquely them.

While you might be the type who has lots of videos and voice memos on your phone at the ready to Artifct, others of us might be more of the spontaneous variety. 

Our newest update to the Artifcts app is going to support you as you capture these stories. 

Update the Artifcts App Today: Record Audio and Video Directly in the App! 

Next time you open the Artifcts app, you’ll see an update is required. Accept it, wait moments, and voila, you’ll have our brand new recording feature. (Haven’t downloaded our app yet? Eek! Here you go for iOS/App Store and Android/Google Play.) 

When you click to create a new Artifct—or add a new media file to an existing Artifct—you will be able to choose to record audio or video in the moment.  

And we went a step further, too, to remove any frustration by making it simple to: 

• Trim your recording to fit the file size available for your Artifct.
• Compress your recording if you want to make room for longer recordings.
• Strip out the video to keep the audio only.
• Download your recording to your device to edit later.

Here’s a case when “a picture is worth 1,000 words.” In the pictures that follow, we show you what it looks like step by step to record a video within the Artifcts app when you are creating a new Artifct.

Try it out and see what you think! 

Next time you’re inspired, or a friend or family starts telling a great tall tale, grab your phone, open up the app and record.

Don’t worry if your story runs long. You will have an option to trim it, compress it, or save it to your device in its entirety before trimming the best part to include in the Artifct. You can always link later in your Artifct to the full hour-long saga if you wish for posterity!

Need inspiration? The options are endless. Here are a few from the Arti Community: 

• • • Ghost stories: Grandpa telling a ghost story + photo of the person who was a ghost.
    • Attic cleanout: Auntie Tess holding up an old gown + recording of her talking about her Broadway debut (Broadway Street in Kansas City, Missouri, that is).
    • Get cookin’! Photos of the recipe card, key ingredients, and end result + video explaining how to wrap the dumpling just so.

As always with all of the features of Artifcts, but especially major new deliveries like this one, we love and appreciate your feedback. You can contact us at Hello@Artifcts.com.

###

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Our new QR code stickers make fast work of sorting through and organizing all that ‘stuff.’ Once you purchase a set, you can grab your Artifcts sticker sheets, get cozy in that attic, den, basement, or maybe even family member’s home, and start Artifcting and stickering, zero interruptions to search out a printer. Before you know it, you’ll have added valuable stories to your Artifcts collection and instantly and meaningfully organized all those items. 

"Our mission at Artifcts is to help you connect the stories of life with the objects that you’ve collected, accumulated, and inherited. Now with Artifcts QR stickers we’ve made it that much simpler to keep track of your ‘stuff’ and your memories, too," said co-founder and CEO Heather Nickerson.

Don't believe us? Hear from someone who's helped 10s of 1,000s of people to get through it all while trying to preserve those memories.

All Artifcts QR code stickers are weatherproof, and we include 1 inch and 1.5 inch circles in each bundle. You can use them from our mobile app or desktop, both are ready and waiting to support you.

• • • From your browser, look for QR code scanning feature on desktop in the top panel in the plus (+) menu.
    • On mobile, simply open your camera and scan to start. Either way, we'll walk you through the steps and have FAQs ready and waiting based on thoughtful testing by a sample of Arti Community members.

Give It a Try Today!

Learn more and click to buy the sticker bundles today on Amazon.com. And please let us know what you think!  You can add reviews on Amazon and write to use directly at Hello@Artifcts.com.

_________________

Helpful resources as you get started and continue enjoying Artifcting:

Past Artifcts Product Updates

Artifcts Quick Start Guide

Artifcts Inspiration Checklists

###

© 2024 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Dr. Seuss did say, “Oh, the places you’ll go!” And now at Artifcts we’ll help bring light to your life’s journey with a timeline view of your Artifcts collection. You may even discover you forgot to Artifct items related to whole periods of your life. College? What college? 

Many applications, from Google Photos to specialized genealogy software to Facebook, offer timelines, but they often are rigid in terms of editing and lose the context that Artifcts offer when they simply place photos, for example, in sequential order or display SOME information while leaving other (documents, photos, ...) in separate, disconnected galleries. We view the Artifcts timeline as the ultimate way to future proof your history by revealing gaps in the life moments you've captured.

A Peek Inside the Making of Timelines, with the Artifcts Greenhouse

Last month we launched the Artifcts Greenhouse. A greenhouse is a protected place where things grow, experimental hybrids go from dream to reality, and more. That’s Artifcts – growing, experimenting, creating something new. Artifcts Greenhouse members help to shape the newest features coming to the Arti Community over the next year to bring you more fun and more value.

This intimate group of Arti Community members has expertise and interests spanning downsizing and decluttering, insurance and estate planning, genealogy, parenting, photo organizing, and more. Each member tested the timelines independently and joined a group discussion about the pros and cons of timelines. The reaction was ... well, judge for yourself, with this screenshot of some highly ENTHUSIASTIC  feedback with our survey:

Give Timelines a Try

You will find your timeline by visiting your homepage and choosing "My Artifcts." You'll see the timeline option marked with a yellow "New!" We know that if you are new to Artifcts and only have a few of your own, your timeline will be a bit sparse. You can always check out the public Artifcts in our founders' timelines for inspiration - @Heather and @Ellen have shared many Artifcts over the past two years.

As you explore this new feature we hope you'll enjoy the built in features that go with it to provide you valuable ways to put your timeline to work for you:

• • • Annual and decade views
    • Newest-to-oldest, oldest-to-newest
    • Drag to reassign an Artifct to a different year
    • Add time period notes

We have great FAQs based on our Greenhouse testing and a quick video ready for you as well.

Timeline view is for now, only on desktop at Artifcts.com. It will be evolve further in the months to come. We’d love your feedback at  Hello@Artifcts.com on timelines and on past features and improvements we've introduced.

Happy Artifcting!

###

© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

As Artifcts wrapped up year two—Happy Birthday, Artifcts!—we squeaked in a few feature upgrades in response to more than two dozen Artifcts concierge sessions this summer and many times that in email exchanges, workshops, and other in-person events with members of the Arti Community. In turns out, folks were feeling the need to be a bit more precise with both what they were reading about here on Artifcts and what details they captured in their own Artifcts.

With these product upgrades over to you to put to good use, we've now set the stage perfectly as we step into year three of Artifcts with some major new product features and services coming your way this fall. More on that soon! For now, enjoy these feature upgrades!

STAY IN THE KNOW

Love typewriters? Fancy a trip to Portugal? Enjoy genealogy? Want to know when a new Artifct is shared that speaks to subjects you love? Now you can with keyword alerts!

As always, you’re in control of whether you receive these alerts by email (and how often) and/or as pop-up notifications on the app and desktop versions of Artifcts.

Create personalized alerts >

ADD CAPTIONS TO YOUR PHOTOS

Please do not say you’re still writing on the backs of pictures?! We get it. Sometimes you simply only have time to mention who is who, the name of a building or site, or other key details and writing on the back is better than nothing at all! We can help you!

Now at Artifcts, take less tahn a minute to Artifct that pic and tell not the story behind that photo, but feel free to add captions to photos you Artifct, too. And don't worry, if you ever download those photos to Excel or PDF, the captions will be there, too!

Edit one of your Artifcts to include captions >

BE PRECISE TO SAVE YOURSELF HEADACHES AND TIME

Sometimes you know-ish, how much something is worth.  

And other times you have the receipt or appraisal (and you even added those to your Artifct's “Documentation” section), and you’d like to include the specific value in your Artifct for insurance, estate planning, tax or other purposes. We hear you! Now you can include the precise value in your Artifct, too! 

Edit one of your Artifcts to record its financial value >

If you need a helping hand or a refresher, remember to check our FAQs and our Tips Videos on YouTube. And if you have feedback or ideas to share, please write to us at Hello@Artifcts.com.

_________________

Helpful resources as you get started and continue enjoying Artifcting:

Past Product Updates

Quick Start Guide

Inspiration Checklists

###

© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Reading time: 3 minutes 

We’ve been on a non-stop learning journey with new and old members of the Arti Community all year.

We started with passionate genealogists, then innovators in longevitech, and onward to photo organizers, estate planners, and those moving, downsizing, and/or decluttering (along with the pros who help them). On top of all that has been the precious one-on-one time with families and individuals concierge Artifcting their prized collectibles, one-of-a-kind pieces, and sentimental mementos.

An overarching lesson from this all is that sometimes the devil really is in the details. So, we focused there – the details. Check out the newest updates, and you’ll see what we mean.

Product Updates, Spring 2023: Devil in the Details  

SHARE DOCUMENTATION

Now when you share an Artifct privately with individuals, circles, or lists, you can choose to share the Artifct's private documentation, too. This is perfect when you ... 

• • Scan a bundle of old letters together as a PDF that you want your siblings to be able to access and read them anytime; 
  • Write up your genealogy research notes and family history and share with your extended family;  
  • Want to file an insurance claim, with the photos, receipt, and appraisal report so your insurer can process the claim faster and with fewer questions;
  • Include the original high resolution photo file and want to allow others to access it and print or use themselves.

So many scenarios, each now supported with (optional) documentation sharing. Just click the box to include documents the next time you share an Artifct. You can revoke this decision instantly, too. Simply click ‘Share’ again and delete the share that includes the documentation. Done!

GIFTING OCCASIONS 

New parents, new retirees, new homeowners, those experiencing grief – so many occasions for which Artifcts is a beautiful, fun, and lasting gift. Now you can choose the occasion of your Artifcts gift so that the gift email, as well as the printable gift card, match the mood.

Give it a try this Mother’s Day for any of the moms in your life! Sure beats another candle. Gift memberships are 30% off now through Mother's Day.

Buy now ->

COLORING AND HIGHLIGHTING 

The thoroughness and creativity of genealogists begs each of us to rise to our A games. For genealogists colors carry meaning: one color for the “maternal” side of the family, another for “paternal,” and so on. In addition, those black and white details can start to make your attention wander. What story can’t use a little “color,” really?  

Now you can select the font color as well as a highlight color to emphasize key details in any Artifct story. 

Create an Artifct and try it out ->

MORE DETAILS IN CIRCLES

Invite-only circles are quickly gaining popularity. They provide community with whom and around whatever theme you care about without the noise of social media, the boredom and sad experience of a shared drive or long document, or the disorganization of chats and emails. 

We’ve heard about private circles organized around:

• • Family, e.g. all my cousins, aunts, and uncles, to reunite old and share new family heirlooms;  
  • A love of travel, and the friends who you can count on to Artifct all the great details so you can follow in their footsteps (and shops!);  
  • Membership groups, like chruch groups and local seniors villages who love to story-share through Artifcts; and
  • Collections. One woman told us she invited all her friends and acquaintances who collect Star Wars memorabilia. A man in Denmark created a circle just for his wine-loving friends. 

We upgraded circles so you can now see and easily follow individual circle members, see a note from the circle creator about why the circle exists, and quickly sort to see your favorite Artifcts within the circle and those you have contributed. 

Create a circle -> 

We have an open door.  

Is there something you wish Artifcts could do or help you with? Is there a feature driving you a bit crazy or confusing you in any way? You can write us a Hello@Artifcts.com. And be sure to catch up on past product updates, too!

_________________

Helpful resources as you get started and continue enjoying Artifcting:

Quick Start Guide

Inspiration Lists

FAQs & Videos on YouTube

###

© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Artifcts in lieu of flowers is a concept born from the Arti Community. We are each the keepers of unique moments in one another’s lives. No one person can possibly be our own personal keeper of all of our memories and stories. No device for that matter either! Today we’re proud to announce the launch of what we have lovingly named “In Remembrance.”  

_________________

It has always been possible to create and share Artifcts privately. Now with Artifcts “In Remembrance” anyone can create an Artifct and share it with someone who is grieving a loss. It's a meaningful gift for someone who is greiving, whether the loss was yesterday, a year ago, or many decades in the past.

Choosing to share an Artifct “In Remembrance” sends a non-editable copy of the Artifct, marked with a black ribbon, to the Special Artifcts Collections of the individuals, circles, or sharing lists you select. Recipients need only a free account to access these Artifcts.  

They will be able to view and download any photos or video and audio snippets you include in the Artifct, too. Maybe they will frame your photo! No need for messy storage and sharing here, there, and everywhere, email, text messages, share drives, chat groups, or temporary memorial sites.   

How Can "In Remembrance" Help You? 

If you have experienced grief, you know that the waves of pain and near paralysis that wash over you as the minutes, hours, and days go by can be all encompassing. With the best of intentions, people may gift you mementos, photos, stories and memories, and more. But it can be hard to recall them when you need them most. And you are only one person! So many people grieve the loss of a single person. What about all of them? 

Through In Remembrance, the objects, photos, video clips and more of our loved ones and the stories behind them can be shared with us so they are accessible from anywhere and at any time we need them. Grief has no timetable. Neither do Artifcts. 

Beyond Grief: Artifcts are About Life 

The reason traditional estate planning is dead is that it has nothing to do with happiness or helping you live a fulfilled life. [...] What about planning to build the life you will ultimately leave behind when you die? - Daniel Scott, Forbes  

Daniel got it right. What is life about if not the moments that make it up? Legacy planning is what estate planners now look to to help people be prepared in life and thoughtfully build that life. 

Artifcts supports preparedness in life, too. We capture together the categorically valuable items we collect – the art, jewelry, collectibles, and more – and equally important the items that mean something to us because of the stories, personality, and life lessons and wisdom they impart today and long after we’re gone.  

For every Artifct you create, we’ve included a small prompt “In the Future” - what are your wishes? What do you want to become of this object? Is it a family treasure to keep always? Will you donate it or bequeath it to a loved one? Consider that to ensure pieces of your legacy live on as you’d wish. 

Bonus: You can also now let us know what we should do if your account is inactive for more than a year after your membership lapses and, ultimately, if you'd like to contribute to research via Artifcts! Check it out in your Account Profile under Security & Longevity> Preserve Your Artifcts.

The entirety of your Artifcts collection is a piece of your legacy, too. Make sure you preserve your Artifcts by naming your Legacy Contacts so we can ensure your digital Artifcts live on as you’d like them to as well. 

For more tips and how-tos, download the Artifcts Guide, "Helping You Be Better Prepared in Life and Providing After-Loss Support."     

###

© 2023 Artifcts, Inc. All Rights Reserved.