ThreadBoard for iPhone and iPad

A quiet place for the loose threads you carry around in your head.

ThreadBoard is a small, private notebook for thoughts that would otherwise rattle around all day. Catch them, file them, star the ones that matter, finish them, move on. No account, no server, no tracking. Everything stays on your device, and it works fully offline.

Install ThreadBoard from the App Store. It needs iOS or iPadOS 15 or later.

Getting started

The first time you open ThreadBoard it asks you to name your themes: the areas of your life you want to keep track of. Work, Home, Music, Ideas, whatever your head is juggling. Give each one a name (up to fifteen), tap the coloured dot to change its colour, and tap Start weaving. You can rename, recolour, add or remove themes at any time later.

Catching threads

A thread is anything on your mind: a task, an idea, a promise, a nagging thought. Type it into the box at the top, pick a theme with the chips below, and tap Catch it (or press Return). It is out of your head and on the board.

Threads wait in Open Threads, newest first, each with its theme and how long it has been waiting. Tap a theme chip to see one theme at a time; tap it again to return to All. The search box below the chips finds threads by their text.

Double-tap the text of any thread to edit it. Tap Return to save.

Focus: pick three

The section at the top is your focus list: Today: pick three (or This Week, depending on your reset setting). Tap the star on any open thread to pull it into focus, or drag it. On a touch screen, touch and hold a thread before dragging. Drag a focus item back onto Open Threads to unpin it, or onto another focus item to swap their order.

Three is the limit, deliberately. An empty slot is a decision, not a failure. On each thread you can also tap the tick to mark it done, the arrow to send a focus item back to Open Threads, or the cross to let it go.

The reset

ThreadBoard resets itself at 11:59pm, either every night or every Sunday, your choice in Settings. The reset archives whatever you finished and clears the done list, ready for a fresh slate. You also choose what happens to starred focus items: Stars stay (they hold their place until you finish or unstar them) or Stars clear (the slots empty at each reset, ready to re-pick).

If ThreadBoard is not open at 11:59pm, it catches up the next time you open it and files everything under the correct day or week.

Settings

Tap the small gear in the top-right corner. Everything saves as soon as you change it.

Skin: Classic (quiet, editorial serif) or Aurora (frosted glass over slowly drifting colour).
Appearance: Dawn to dusk follows your clock through the day; Light offers four pastels; Dark offers four rich darks.
Themes: rename, recolour, add or remove. If you remove a theme that still holds threads, ThreadBoard asks what to do: delete the threads with it, or re-file them one by one. Nothing is lost by accident.
Reset: daily or weekly, and stars stay or clear.
Archive: View Archive shows every past day or week and what you closed in it. Print current saves the current board as a simple text file. The share sheet opens, so you can save the file to Files, AirDrop it, or send it from any app.
User Guide: Open the User Guide shows a short guide inside the app, with no internet needed.

Back up and restore

In Settings, tap Back up to save your whole board to one file. The share sheet opens, so you can save the file to Files, AirDrop it, or send it from any app. To bring it back, Tap Restore, then choose a backup file from Files. Restoring replaces everything on the board you are using, so ThreadBoard asks you to confirm first.

Use this to keep a safe copy, to move a board to a new device, or before deleting and reinstalling the app.

Reset the app

To start again from the first screen, open Settings and tap Reset app, then confirm. This removes all your threads, themes and settings from this device and cannot be undone, so back up first if you want a copy.

Your data

ThreadBoard keeps your board inside the app on this device. It is not in iCloud, and your iPhone and iPad keep separate boards. Use Back up to keep a copy of your own, and to move a board between devices.

Deleting ThreadBoard deletes the board that is inside it, so back up first if you want to keep it. Your board is saved as you go. There is nothing to press to save.

Everything you write stays on your device. ThreadBoard has no account, no server, no analytics and no tracking. Read the privacy policy.

The whole idea, in one paragraph

Your head is for having ideas, not holding them. Catch a thread the moment it crosses your mind and file it under a theme. Star the most important threads to bring them into focus, never more than three. Get them done and move on. The reset archives what you finished and clears the slate, and the archive quietly proves you are making progress.