Questions about Documented, answered
Fact-checked · Checked against 6 sources · See the sources
- Documented is a private record one parent keeps on their own phone. The other parent is never invited, never notified and has nothing to log into.
- It costs $17.99 a month or $179.99 a year after seven free days. If you stop paying, every entry you wrote stays readable, searchable and verifiable.
- Each entry is sealed with a SHA-256 hash chain and an independent RFC 3161 timestamp. Only the hash leaves your phone, and it cannot be turned back into what you wrote.
- What is the Documented custody app, and who is it for?
- What does Documented cost?
- Where do my entries live, and who can read them?
- How do sealing and timestamps show when an entry was written?
- How do I export my record or get it to my attorney?
- What is different on iPhone and Android?
- Who makes Documented, and is there an account to manage?
- Frequently asked questions
What is the Documented custody app, and who is it for?
Documented is a custody app for one parent: a private record of how you show up for your kids, written at the time and sealed the moment you save it. It is for a parent who may one day need to show what happened, to an attorney, a mediator or a judge, and who wants that record to be believable.
It is not a shared app. The other parent does not get an account, is not told the record exists, and is not contacted when you name them in an entry. There is no messaging, no shared calendar and nothing to agree on. If you need a channel for talking to the other parent, our comparisons of custody apps set out which apps do that and how they differ from a one-parent record.
What can go into an entry?
Text, photos, video, voice notes, receipts and screenshots of message threads. Voice notes are transcribed on the device, so you can search what you said later. Receipts are read for the amount and the date. Each child has their own record, and an entry can name anyone who was there, a grandparent, a teacher, a therapist, each with a role you pick or type.
Is it only for bad days?
No, and it works better when it is not. A record that holds only incidents reads like a case being built. One that also holds the ordinary days, the school run, the dentist, the bedtime that went fine, looks like a life, which is what it is. Our guide on how to document for a custody case covers what to write and how often.
What does Documented cost?
$17.99 a month, or $179.99 a year, which works out at $15.00 a month. The first seven days are free. You are billed through the App Store or Google Play, not by us, and that is the whole price list. There are no ads and no tiers to compare.
What happens when the trial ends and I do not subscribe?
Nothing you have written is taken away. Your entries stay on your phone, and you can still open, search and verify every one of them. What stops is adding new entries and exporting, until you subscribe. We will not hold a record you may need in a live matter behind a payment.
How do I cancel?
From your phone, because the store holds the subscription. On iPhone, Apple's cancellation steps are: open Settings, tap your name, tap Subscriptions, choose Documented and tap Cancel Subscription. On Android, go to subscriptions in Google Play, choose Documented and tap Cancel subscription. Deleting the app does not cancel a subscription on either store; Google's subscription help page says so in as many words for Android.
Where do my entries live, and who can read them?
On your phone. There is no account and nothing to sign into, so there is no profile on our side holding your record. We cannot read your entries, and we do not store them, unless you switch on sharing with your attorney.
Three things can leave your phone on their own, and none carries a word you wrote. When you seal an entry, its hash goes to the timestamp authority. A count of which screens you use goes to our analytics provider, and you can switch it off in Settings. If you allow location, the coordinates go to Apple or Google to be turned into a street address. Our privacy policy lists each one and what it contains.
What does attorney sharing send?
It is off until you switch it on. When you connect an attorney, each entry you seal is encrypted on your phone to that attorney's key before it is sent. We hold that copy and cannot open it. Disconnecting stops anything further being sent, and writing to privacy@documented.co gets what was already uploaded deleted.
Can someone who picks up my phone read it?
Not if you turn on the app lock. It uses Face ID or Touch ID on iPhone, fingerprint or face unlock on Android, with your passcode as the fallback, separately from your phone's own lock.
Does privacy mean the other side can never see it?
No, and this matters more than the rest of the section. Keeping the record on your phone keeps it away from breaches, third parties and us. It does not change what you may have to hand over yourself if you are a party to a case. Our guide on whether a custody journal is discoverable explains why, as general information, not legal advice.
How do sealing and timestamps show when an entry was written?
Two checks work together. First, each entry is hashed with SHA-256, the function defined in NIST's Secure Hash Standard, FIPS 180-4, and that hash is linked to the one before it. Change one character of an old entry and the chain stops matching from that point on, and the app says so.
Second, the hash is sent to DigiCert, an independent timestamp authority, which signs a statement that the hash existed at that moment. The format is the one set out in RFC 3161, the internet standard for time-stamp protocols. That is what makes the date something other than your word. For attorneys, our page on RFC 3161 timestamps and case preparation goes into how a token is checked.
Can I edit or delete an entry?
Not quietly. If something needs correcting, you amend it: the original stays, the correction is sealed alongside it, and both are visible. The record is tamper-evident, which means changes cannot be hidden, not that a file can never be touched. Our guide to what tamper-evident actually means sets out the difference.
How do I export my record or get it to my attorney?
You export a PDF, or you connect your attorney. The PDF comes from the Record tab: choose a date range, narrow it by category if you want, and generate it. Entries come out in order with their attachments, and the verification details sit at the back so anyone can check nothing changed after it was saved. It goes to your phone's share sheet, and we keep no copy.
Connecting your attorney sends each new sealed entry to them encrypted, so they see it as you log it. Either way, you decide what goes and when.
Will a court accept it?
We will not promise that, and be careful of anyone who does. Whether a record is admitted is decided by a judge under the rules of evidence where you are. In federal courts, Federal Rule of Evidence 901 asks for evidence sufficient to support a finding that an item is what it is claimed to be, and most custody cases run under a state's own rules, which often follow a similar pattern. What Documented gives you is a record written at the time, sealed and independently timestamped. Our guide on when a record does not help is honest about the limits. This is general information, not legal advice; ask a licensed attorney in your state about your matter.
What is different on iPhone and Android?
The record, the sealing and the price are the same. Where the record is kept is not, and it is the difference worth knowing before you start.
| iPhone | Android | |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | On the phone, synced to your own iCloud if iCloud is on | On the phone only |
| Cloud backup | Your private iCloud database, which we cannot reach | None; the app opts out of Android backup to Google Drive |
| New or lost phone | Restore from iCloud on the first screen | The record stays with the old phone |
| App lock | Face ID, Touch ID or passcode | Fingerprint, face unlock or passcode |
| Billing and cancelling | App Store | Google Play |
On Android that arrangement is the more private one and also the more fragile one. If you lose the phone, the record goes with it, unless attorney sharing was switched on and your attorney already holds the shared entries.
Who makes Documented, and is there an account to manage?
There is no account to manage: no sign-up, no password and nothing to close. Your subscription lives with the App Store or Google Play, and your record lives on your phone.
Documented is a small company, and the developer named on both the App Store and Google Play is Rise Advertising LLC. Documented is not a law firm and does not give legal advice. Our guides are written by our research team, and every claim in them is traced to a source.
For help, email support@documented.co or use the support page. A person reads every message, and we aim to reply within two business days. Privacy requests go to privacy@documented.co.
New to the vocabulary? The custody terms glossary explains the words that come up, from legal custody to a parenting plan.
Documented starts with seven free days, and everything you write in them stays yours whether or not you subscribe. Learn how it works →
What this page does not cover
- Whether your record will be admitted, or what weight it will carry. That depends on your court, your state's rules and your attorney.
- Refunds in detail. On iPhone, Apple handles refunds through reportaproblem.apple.com. On Android, write to support@documented.co.
- Anything about the other parent's apps or accounts. Documented only ever holds your side of the record.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free custody app?
Documented is free for the first seven days, then $17.99 a month or $179.99 a year. If you do not subscribe, you keep reading, searching and verifying everything you already wrote; adding new entries and exporting stop.
Does the other parent need to download Documented?
No. Documented is one parent's own record. The other parent is never invited, never notified and has no account, because there is nothing for them to log into.
Can the court see my Documented entries?
Not unless you or your attorney hand them over. Entries stay on your phone. If you are a party to a case, the other side can still ask you to produce relevant records yourself, so treat everything you write as something a judge may read.
Do I need an account to use Documented?
No. There is no sign-up and no password. The app opens straight into your record, and there is no server-side account holding it.
What happens to my record if I lose my phone?
On iPhone with iCloud on, you restore it on the new phone from the first screen. On Android there is no backup, so the record stays with the lost phone, apart from any entries already shared with your attorney.
Does deleting the app cancel my subscription?
No. Cancel from the App Store or Google Play subscription settings on your phone. Deleting the app also deletes the record stored on that phone.
Can Documented read what I write?
No. Your entries are not stored on our servers. If you switch on attorney sharing, entries are encrypted on your phone to your attorney's key before they are sent, and we cannot open them.
How we researched this
We read 6 sources for this page: our own privacy policy, the Apple and Google subscription help pages, the RFC 3161 time-stamp standard, NIST's Secure Hash Standard and Federal Rule of Evidence 901. Every answer about the app was also checked against the app itself before publishing, and a claim we could not confirm was cut. How our guides are written.
References
- Documented. (2026). Privacy Policy. Retrieved from https://documented.co/
- Apple. (n.d.). Cancel a subscription from Apple. Retrieved from https://support.apple.com/
- Google. (n.d.). Cancel, pause, or change a subscription on Google Play. Retrieved from https://support.google.com/
- Adams, C., Cain, P., Pinkas, D. and Zuccherato, R. (2001). RFC 3161: Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Time-Stamp Protocol (TSP). Retrieved from https://www.rfc-editor.org/
- National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2015). FIPS 180-4, Secure Hash Standard (SHS). Retrieved from https://csrc.nist.gov/
- Legal Information Institute. (n.d.). Rule 901. Authenticating or Identifying Evidence. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/
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Documented is a private, tamper-evident record of how you show up for your kids. This page is general information, not legal advice, and Documented is not a law firm.