MOSSLET

In this quick episode, we share our newest feature—a privacy‑first ✏️ spell checker for your private journal—and walk through how we’ve built AI into MOSSLET without turning your thoughts into training data. From journaling prompts and handwriting OCR to mood insights and image safety checks, we explain exactly what gets sent, where it goes, and how we keep your words yours. 🌱

Extended Show Notes (full description):
In this episode, we pull back the curtain on how we’re building AI that helps without harvesting inside MOSSLET, our small, bootstrapped, privacy‑first social network with a private journal at its core. 🌿

We cover:

• Our new spell checker ✏️ for your private journal, and why we designed it to help you write better without profiling you
• How journaling prompts work with just a single mood word 😊 instead of your full journal history
• What happens when you upload a handwritten journal page 📷: image → text → immediate deletion
• How mood insights use dates, mood labels, and word counts—never your raw entries 💭
• Our three‑layer privacy approach: send only what’s necessary, process and delete, and contractual protection with data_collection: "deny"
• How we use local AI models ⚙️ (via Bumblebee in Elixir) as a fallback so many requests never leave our own servers
• Why we haven’t moved AI fully into the browser yet—and what would need to change for that to make sense 💻

If you’ve ever wondered, “How can a journaling app use AI and still be private?”, this episode walks through the real technical and product decisions behind our answer.

👉 Try MOSSLET and experience privacy‑first AI for yourself: https://mosslet.com

Have questions or want us to dive deeper into the technical side? Reach out—we’re building this in public and are happy to talk about how it all works under the hood.

In a world where every thought shared online becomes data to be harvested, Journal is a small act of rebellion.

Today we're introducing Journal — a completely private space for reflection built right into MOSSLET. Plus, we're catching you up on major platform updates including Discover, RSS feeds, our referral program, and accessibility improvements.

What You'll Learn

• Platform updates: Discover, RSS, referral program, and more
• Why we built a private journaling space inside a social network
• How Journal's privacy screen protects your thoughts in shared spaces
• The AI features that help without harvesting your data
• How end-to-end encryption keeps your entries unreadable — even to us

Recent Platform Updates (January 2026)

🌿 Discover & RSS Feeds — Browse public community posts and subscribe via RSS
💳 New Pricing Options — Subscriptions (monthly/annual) or lifetime payment, with Affirm plans in US
💸 Referral Program — Earn 30% recurring + 35% on lifetime (real money via Stripe)
✈️ Smart Sharing — Paper airplane icon, sidebar indicators, content warnings
🦖 Accessibility First — Keyboard navigation, screen reader support, semantic HTML
⭕ Circles — Groups renamed for a warmer, more personal feel
📸 Better Uploads — HEIC, WebP support with real-time progress
🐜 Bot Defense — Protection against automated spam and abuse

Pricing That Works For You

• 14-day free trial on all subscription plans
• Monthly or annual subscriptions — cancel anytime, no hassle
• Lifetime payment — pay once, own your account forever
• Affirm payment plans available in the US for annual and lifetime tiers

Journal Features (v0.12.0)

✍️ Write freely — Optional titles, 120+ mood options, automatic word count tracking
📚 Organize with Books — Group entries into themed collections
📈 Writing streaks — Build consistency with daily streak tracking
⭐ Star favorites — Mark meaningful entries to revisit later
🔒 Privacy screen — One-tap content hiding with countdown timer
✨ AI journaling prompts — Get inspired without sharing your history
🔮 Mood insights — Pattern analysis that never reads your actual words
📷 Handwritten upload — Digitize paper journal entries with AI

How Privacy Actually Works

Unlike other platforms, Journal entries are encrypted with your personal key before they ever reach our database. We store functional metadata (dates, word counts, book assignments) but your actual writing — titles, content, moods — exists only as encrypted noise.

Even we can't read what you've written.

AI features are designed privacy-first:

• Prompts generated using only your current mood
• Insights based on dates and word counts, never content
• Handwritten photos processed once, then immediately deleted
• Zero training on your personal data

Why This Matters

Whether you're processing something difficult, practicing gratitude, tracking creative projects, or just need somewhere to dump your thoughts at the end of a long day — Journal is your private corner of the internet.

A place where your reflections stay yours. Where AI helps without harvesting. Where privacy isn't a marketing claim — it's a cryptographic reality.

Ready to start journaling? Join MOSSLET today!

Episode Timeline:

• 0:00 — Opening: The world our kids are growing up in
• 0:45 — Platform updates: Discover, RSS, referrals, pricing and more
• 3:00 — Why we built Journal
• 4:15 — Core Journal features walkthrough
• 6:45 — AI that respects your privacy
• 9:15 — How encryption actually works
• 10:45 — A small act of rebellion

Links:

• MOSSLET: https://mosslet.com
• Journal announcement: https://mosslet.com/blog/articles/12
• Referral program details: https://mosslet.com/referrals
• All updates: https://mosslet.com/updates
• Open source code: https://github.com/moss-piglet/MOSSLET — Verify our privacy claims yourself
• Why Open Source Matters: Our code is completely open source. You don't have to take our word about encryption, privacy-first AI, or data handling — you can inspect the code yourself and verify that we do exactly what we say we do. Transparency isn't optional when you're asking people to trust you with their thoughts and memories.

Mosslet -> privacy-first social network
Sign up today while we’re in beta to save 60% off your first year with FRIENDS60

Connect with us on Mosslet!
Mark -> @mark -> https://mosslet.com/profile/mark
Isabella -> @justagirl -> https://mosslet.com/profile/justagirl

Learn more about identity graphs (and surveillance capitalism)
The Social Dilemma -> watch it now on Netflix!
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism -> a book! -> Shoshana Zuboff
Don’t Be Evil -> another book! -> Rana Foroohar

Have feedback on this episode?
👉 Leave a voicemail here

Mosslet — website
Substack — newsletter

Have feedback on this episode?
👉 Leave a voicemail here

We're back with our latest episode! Mark dusts off the podcast voice and talks Metamorphic updates (a new AI feature 🦾). We've also got an incredible Valentine's Day Special 💌 and subscription tiers for everyone — even free!

Metamorphic
Metamorphic - Transform your online life
Open source repo - Metamorphic (v1, not in production, but great resource for anyone looking to make a privacy focused social network with Elixir)
Sponsor us today and support privacy by default for everyone!
The incredible Yue Li (who designed our amazing logo 😍)

Valentine's Special 💌
Sign up today for a paid subscription before 2/14/2024 to receive 25% off your subscription for the lifetime of your account. 🥳

Trauma Resources
Your Body Keeps the Score - NYT Bestselling Book
The Myth of Normal - Gabor Maté

Mark opens up about everything, from Metamorphic's code base to discussing the effects of trauma and narcissistic abuse, how to recover, and the parallels to entrepreneurship and the latest supreme court rulings.

Metamorphic
Metamorphic - Transform your life.
Open source repo - Metamorphic
Sponsor us today and support privacy by default for everyone!
The incredible Yue Li
Petal.build

Valentine's Special 💌
Sign up today for a paid subscription before 2/14/2024 to receive 25% off your subscription for the lifetime of your account. 🥳

Trauma Resources
Your Body Keeps the Score - NYT Bestselling Book
Know My Name - Chanel Miller
It's important to note: that you don't always "think" with trauma. It's often just felt in your body, because your body and mind are one and always in communication with each other. You cannot heal from trauma without feeling your body, listening to it, and allowing it to be and heal.

Narcissistic Recovery Resources
The Narcissistic Trauma Recovery Podcast - Podcast
Narcissistic Recovery Programme - Caroline Strawson
How to Recover from a Narcissist - Lee Harris

Valentine's Special 💌
Sign up today for a paid subscription before 2/14/2024 to receive 25% off your subscription for the lifetime of your account. 🥳

The Social Dilemma - on Netflix (until you actually want to watch it 🤪)
Why Metamorphic? - from Metamorphic (because we're not biased 👀)
The Social Construction of Reality - Bookshop (because it was just advertising 😇)

Metamorphic has some incredible non-profit partners, check them out and support their work!

• The Land Institute
• Wild Salmon Center
• Pacific Forest Trust
• SAVE

Special thanks to Transistor.fm! If you are thinking about starting a podcast or already have one, you couldn't find a better hosting provider.