A reading practice
One idea a day,
and it stays.
One essay each morning, and a question about it later. Read it, keep the line that lands, and answer when it comes back, until the idea is yours to use.
Read today's essayiPhone · 3 days free on any plan
- One essay, every day.
- Questions that return until ideas stay.
- Your lines become a book you own.
Reading you keep
An essay takes three or four minutes. What happens afterwards is the part that matters.
The essay arrives, once
One piece a day, chosen along a track: how the mind works, how things get made, how ideas travel. No feed, no queue, nothing accumulating while you are away.
The question comes back
A day later, then four, then a fortnight. Answer easily and it waits longer; hesitate and it returns sooner. This is the whole difference between having read something and knowing it.
The lines you keep become a book
Hold a sentence to mark it. Marks collect into a book that is yours, readable offline, exportable, and still there if you ever stop subscribing.
Nothing here is trying to keep you
There is a run, and it is built to survive your life. Weekends are held, a missed day can be mended, and answering counts as much as reading. No badges, no levels, no notifications inventing a reason to open the app.
The measure of Hours is whether you can still explain an idea a month later. Everything else is decoration.
Start today
One essay a day is free for your first week. After that, $5.99 a month or $39.99 a year, both with three days free.
Download for iPhoneRequires iOS 16.4 or later
Privacy
Last updated 13 August 2026
Everything Hours knows about your reading lives on your phone.
On this device
Your marks, your run, your questions, and your reading history are stored locally. There is no account, and Settings can erase all of it at any time.
Purchases
Apple processes every payment. A purchase identifier is used to validate your subscription, never your reading.
Measurement
Anonymous usage signals help us see what works. If you allow tracking when iOS asks, one attribution event tells us an ad brought you here; decline, and nothing about your reading changes.
In full
What is stored on your device. Hours has no user accounts and asks for no email address. Every essay you have read, every line you have marked, every question you have answered, your run, and your settings are written to storage on the iPhone itself. Deleting the app deletes them, which is why the book can be exported first.
What leaves your device. Three things, and nothing else:
- Purchases. Handled by Apple. RevenueCat, our subscription provider, validates the receipt and tells the app whether a subscription is active. Neither receives your reading history.
- Anonymous product analytics. Events such as "an essay was opened" or "a question was answered", tied to a random identifier generated on first launch, never to your name, email, or Apple ID.
- Advertising attribution. If you tap Allow when iOS asks about tracking, Hours reports a single install-attribution event to Meta so we can tell which advert brought you here. If you decline, that does not happen, and nothing else about the app changes.
Your choices. Tracking can be turned off at any time in iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking. Everything Hours stores can be erased from within the app's own Settings. Because there is no account, there is nothing of yours on our servers to request or delete.
Children. Hours is not directed at children under 13 and we do not knowingly collect data from them.
Questions about any of this: support@gethours.space.
Terms
Last updated 13 August 2026
The short version, plainly.
The subscription
It renews until you cancel, and cancelling is yours to do any time in your Apple ID settings. A free trial converts unless cancelled before it ends.
Your book
The lines you keep are yours. Export them whenever you like; deleting the app deletes them, so export first.
The essays
Essays are for your reading. Share a line with the built-in card whenever you like; republishing whole essays is not part of the deal.
In full
Billing. Subscriptions are charged to your Apple ID and renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel in Settings → your name → Subscriptions. A free trial converts to a paid subscription unless cancelled before it ends; any unused portion is forfeited when a purchase is made. Hours Forever is a one-time purchase and does not renew.
Refunds. Apple is the merchant of record and handles all refunds directly, which is faster than anything we could do. Request one through your Apple ID purchase history.
What you keep. Essays you have already read, lines you have marked, and your book stay readable if a subscription lapses. A subscription buys access to new essays, not continued access to what you have already read.
The writing. Essays are original work and remain ours. Reading, marking, exporting your own book, and sharing individual lines are all fine. Republishing essays in whole or substantial part is not.
No warranty. Hours is provided as it is. It is a reading practice, not professional advice of any kind.
Support
Something broken, or something you wish were different. Tell us.
What helps
Your device, where you were in the app, and what happened. Screenshots help more than anything.
Purchases
For billing, Apple handles refunds directly through your Apple ID settings, faster than we ever could. Restore purchases lives in Settings.
Widgets
Today's essay on the Home Screen, without opening anything.
Touch and hold the Home Screen, tap the + in the corner, search for Hours, and choose a size. The widget shows what is waiting and taps through to it. It updates as you read, and needs iOS 17 or later.