Start from private, share on purpose
Every entry belongs to one space: PRIVATE stays with you, PUBLIC can reach people you have added, PROJECT keeps a body of work together, and ADVISOR holds material tied to a trusted voice. Sharing is never all-or-nothing — you choose entry by entry.
A good rule: write first, file second. Get the thought down without editing yourself for an audience, then decide where it lives. Processing an argument belongs in PRIVATE. Your grandmother's bread recipe and the reason she made it every Sunday belongs where your family can read it.
What families usually want shared
Family stories and origins. Recipes with the story attached. Advice meant for one person — a child, a spouse, a sibling — written while you can still explain the reasoning. Practical knowledge nobody wrote down: who to call, how a thing was fixed, why a decision was made.
What people rarely want shared: grief in progress, health worries, money strain, anything about a third party who never agreed to be written about. Those are exactly what a private journal is for.
How to raise it with loved ones
Ask before you share, not after. A short message works: "I'm keeping a journal, and some of it is really for you — stories and advice. Would you want to read those as I write them, or would you rather get them later?" Both answers are fine, and knowing which one you have changes what you write.
Agree on the boundary out loud. Say plainly that most of the journal stays private and that this is not a slight — it is what keeps the shared entries honest. People accept a closed door far more easily when they know it is the door and not them.
Ask consent when someone else is in the story. If an entry describes a family member's illness, divorce, or mistake, check with them before it goes to anyone else. If they say no, keep it private and write your own side of it instead.
Doing it in the app
Add people in FAMILY VAULT or MY FRIENDS — nicknames make the list readable at a glance. Once someone is added, they can reach the entries you filed for sharing, and nothing else. Private entries are never included, in search, in ASK A FRIEND, or in inheritance.
For relatives who will not sign in to anything, print a keepsake: the chosen entries come out as a bound-ready document you can hand over. FUTURE LETTERS covers the entries meant for a specific date rather than for now.
Review it once a year
Relationships change. Set one date a year to reread what you have shared, move anything that no longer fits back to PRIVATE, and remove people who are no longer part of that circle. Sharing you revisit stays trustworthy; sharing you forget about does not.