🚀 Setup Guide
Getting Started with Inwardly
Welcome to Inwardly. Getting set up takes less than two minutes. Here is everything that happens from the moment you open the app for the first time — creating your account, onboarding, and finding your way around.
👤 Creating your account
When you first launch Inwardly, you will be taken to the sign-up screen. You have three ways to create an account:
Email & Password
Enter your email address and choose a secure password. You will receive a confirmation email from noreply@goinwardly.app.
Sign in with Apple
One tap using your Apple ID. Your email can be hidden using Apple's private relay feature.
Sign in with Google
Connect your Google account for quick, passwordless sign-in on any device.
Already have an account?
Tap "Sign in" at the bottom of the sign-up screen to switch to the sign-in form. Forgot your password? Tap "Forgot password" on the sign-in screen and we will email you a reset link.
📖 Completing onboarding
After creating your account, Inwardly walks you through a short onboarding flow — three screens that take about 30 seconds.
- 1Privacy first. This screen explains that your journal entries are encrypted on your device before they are stored. No one — including the Inwardly team — can read your entries. Tap "I understand" to continue.
- 2Building your habit. A few tips on how to make journaling stick: write at the same time each day, keep entries honest rather than polished, and aim for consistency over length. Tap "Sounds good" to continue.
- 3Reminder notifications. Inwardly asks if it can send you a daily reminder to write. You can choose a time that suits your routine, or skip this step entirely and enable notifications later in Settings.
You can revisit all of this later.
Notification time and permission can be changed any time in Settings → Notifications.
🗂️ Understanding the tab bar
Once you are in the app, the bottom tab bar is your primary navigation. It has five items:
- Home — Your daily dashboard. Shows your streak, today's writing prompt, recent entries, and AI highlights.
- Journal — A chronological list of all your entries. Switch to calendar view to browse by date.
- Compose (center pill) — The glowing circular button in the centre. Tap it to start a new journal entry from anywhere in the app.
- Insights — Your AI-powered emotional dashboard. Weekly reviews, pattern detection, and mood analytics.
- Settings — Account, notifications, appearance, privacy, and subscription management.
