Two uses for couples
One is a card just for the two of you. One person creates it and sends the link to the other, and you add a sticky note on each anniversary, or on any day at all. Lighter than a letter and longer lasting than a chat.
The other is a celebration card friends write together. For a secret first-anniversary gift, or to collect messages to show at a proposal. The two differ completely in who creates it and who gets the link, so decide which one it is before starting.
As a record for the two of you
Use the canvas. Place notes in date order from top left to bottom right and it becomes a timeline on its own. The trick is to write the date on the first line of each note. “March 14, the day we walked to the station under one umbrella”: a date and one scene together, and on day 100, reading from the top, that day comes right back.
Give each person one note color. One yellow, one sky blue. You can tell who wrote what without reading the name, and from a distance the two colors alternate down the page. The name field can hold the nickname you use for each other instead of a real name.
Add photos from that day as stickers. Pick one from your phone through the sticker tool, place it next to the note and shrink it, and the words and the picture from that day sit in one spot. One photo per note, in date order, and it becomes an album.
Opened on a desktop, you can also draw with the pen. A heart, what you ate that day, two wobbly faces. No skill required at all. A bad drawing is funnier six months later. Drawings only go up when you press save, so do not close the window after drawing.
There is no need to write every day. One note while making up the day after a fight, one on a night alone on a business trip. Ten notes in a hundred days is plenty. Forcing it turns it into diary homework.
Long distance
It suits couples whose calls never line up because of time zones or distance. Add a note before bed and the other opens it in the morning. If you both have it open at the same time, a note one of you just added shows up on the other's screen a moment later, and it feels like being together without saying a word.
A surprise card from friends
Anniversary gifts and proposal support are organized by friends. Make a separate chat without the person who will receive it. Never post in a group room both of them are in. Anyone with the link can open it, and the surprise ends the moment you pick the wrong room.
For a proposal, the one proposing usually asks their own friends. To include the other side's friends too, quietly contact just one of them and hand them that side. The more people who know, the more ways it leaks.
With about fifteen friends from both sides, the canvas; past twenty, the list reads better. If it will be shown on screen at the proposal, bring a laptop and open it full screen, or save the image in advance onto a tablet. Restaurants and outdoor spots often have no signal. With a saved copy you can show it whatever happens that day.
Managing the link during a surprise
- Do not open it on a device you share with your partner. The living room tablet, the laptop you take turns on: the address stays in the browser history. Only on your own phone.
- Deadline two days before the anniversary. Friends pile in on the last night. Give yourself a day of slack to finish saving the image.
- Put “do not tell [name], ever” in the announcement. It sounds obvious, but leave it out and someone lets it slip over drinks.
- Do not save the link in shared notes or folders. Until the day before, your own messenger's “send to myself” is safe enough.
Anniversary message examples
With couples, the problem is cringe. There is one fix: drop the adjectives and put in one concrete scene. “The day you tilted the umbrella toward me” lasts longer than “I love you”. Do not copy the examples; swap in a scene that is yours. More for other occasions in Messages.
100 days
- The thing you said most in 100 days was “I am hungry”. Let us keep eating together.
- My palm was sweating the first time we held hands. I still get embarrassed thinking about it. Happy 100 days.
- I thought 100 days was short, and I already cannot quite remember the time before you.
One year
- I have not forgotten how your voice shook when you confessed a year ago today. Keep shaking like that next year and the year after.
- The best thing I did this year was date you, and my biggest regret is not saying it sooner.
- There were days we fought, but thank you for calling first that night. Next time I call first.
Long distance
- It is a shame your day passes while I sleep. But if I put it here you read it in the morning, so here are three things that happened today.
- I said I would not run at the airport next time. I will probably run again.
From the one proposing
- I dragged in all your friends just to show you this one screen. They each said their piece, so read to the end. The last line I will say out loud.
- I prepared a long speech, but I will forget it all when I see your face, so I am writing it here. Let us live together.
From friends to the couple
- Seeing you two together is just nice. If you fight, either of you can call me, but make up between yourselves.
- I remember your face after the first time you introduced them, saying “this one is a bit different”. You were right. Congratulations.
- I am hosting the wedding. Calling it right here, in advance.
- Glad it worked out, but come to our meetups now and then. You can come as a pair.
Things to watch out for
- There is no password. Even a record for two, anyone who knows the address can open it. Assume the link could end up anywhere and be careful with very private things.
- Editing and deleting only work on the device and browser you wrote with. A note written on a phone cannot be fixed on a laptop. For a long-running record, each of you should pick one main device.
- Save the image on each anniversary. A free service run by one person cannot promise permanent storage. Save once at 100 days and once at a year, and those files become the album. Printing and framing is covered in Print and frame.
- For proposal support, do not drag in people the recipient would find awkward. With a boss or a distant acquaintance in the mix, the reader cannot cry comfortably. Fewer is fine; keep it to close people.