How to use

1. Getting started

Baba Biyori is an app where you visit Grandma, who lives in a house in the Japanese countryside. She spends her day following the clock on your device. It’s fine to open it and do nothing at all.

Your account

• The first time you open the app, Grandma welcomes you. Tap “Start” to create an account.
• There are three ways: Sign in with Apple (iPhone), Continue with Google, or your email address (enter the 6-digit code we send you). No password is needed.
• We never ask for your real name, age, phone number, address or location. Your nickname doesn’t need to be your real name, and you can choose it later.
• Your moods, your words for Grandma and Grandma’s bag of wisdom are kept with your account, so you can see them on a new device by signing in with the same account.

If the code email doesn’t arrive, please check your spam folder.

The screen tour

• The first time you open Engawa, the app shows you its buttons one at a time. Tap “Skip” to end it at any time. “The full guide” at the end opens this page.
• To see it again, use “Show the screen tour again” in Me.
• The first screens also show how to look around, pinch, double-tap and so on. You can see these again later with “Getting around the engawa” in Me (see Getting around the engawa).

Three tabs

• Engawa: Grandma’s house, the heart of the app.
• Calendar: what Grandma took from you (marks, skies, words), and Grandma’s notes.
• Me: Grandma’s bag of wisdom, Grandma’s words, and settings.

2. Engawa

This is Grandma’s house. Just leaving it open is enough.

Grandma’s day

Grandma lives by the time on your device, so what she’s doing depends on when you open the app.

• Morning: she wakes to the rooster, brushes her teeth at the well, sweeps the veranda and works in the vegetable patch.
• Daytime: garden work, tea on the veranda, and a little nap.
• Evening: she watches the sunset and makes dinner.
• Night: moon-viewing, then TV at the kotatsu. Late at night she’s asleep in her futon.

Grandpa, Tama the cat and creatures from the garden may drop by. The flowers, insects and snow change with the seasons.

Getting around the engawa

• Touch Grandma to open the talk. She answers with a short word, too. Touch her while she’s asleep and she’ll wake up.
• Swipe to look around (the view stays turned).
• Pinch with two fingers to see the sky; spread them to come closer to Grandma.
• Tap the patch, the well, Pochi, the shed or the house to go and look. Grandma looks that way too. (While she’s on the engawa or indoors, tapping the house doesn’t move the view.)
• Double-tap to come back to Grandma.
• In the talk, “Ask her to…” invites her for tea, to the patch, to play with Pochi and more (see section 3).

Once it gets dark, Grandma tells you, just once: “Pinch with two fingers and you’ll see more of the sky.”

Sound and voice

• Grandma’s words appear in a speech bubble above her head.
• Her voice doesn’t play while your device is in silent mode.
• Her voice is in Japanese. In other languages, the bubble shows subtitles.

Keep the screen on

Turn on “Keep the screen on” in the menu to keep the screen awake while Engawa is open (this uses more battery).

3. Talking with Grandma

Tap Grandma, or the speech-bubble button at the bottom right (“Say something to Grandma”), to start a chat.

If you leave things be for a while, Grandma may ask you something herself, like “So, what kind of day is it?” Tap “Talk” to answer from there, or “Not now” and she won’t ask for a while.

• Pick a topic: tell her you need someone to listen, chat about anything, ask what she’s doing, ask for a tip, tell her you’re tired or that something good happened, or ask about Grandpa. At night you can say good night. After her answer, choices for what comes next appear.
• Ask her to…: tap it to see where you can invite her. There are nine: “Let’s have tea”, “Let’s go to the garden”, “Dance for me”, “Let’s go to the patch”, “Let’s fold the washing”, “Let’s play with Pochi”, “Let’s heat the bath”, “Let’s have a nap” and “Let’s cook something”. Grandma goes there right away and keeps at it for a while. She doesn’t go outside after dark, and doesn’t nap at night. “Back” takes you back to the topics.
• Write in your own words, and Grandma will answer.
• Speak: talk to her with the microphone button (the app asks for microphone and speech-recognition permission the first time).
• “History” shows the chat while the app is open. It’s gone when the app closes.

Leave it with her (burn, pray, keep it yourself)

• After you’ve told her what’s on your mind, Grandma asks, “Shall I take that off your hands?” You can also just talk, and leave it at that.
• Burn it for me: she burns it in the drum in the garden. When she asks “Shall we go and burn it together, now?”, you can watch it with her, or leave it to her for later. Neither your words, nor a summary of that talk, nor anything she jotted down in it are kept. Only a fire mark and what it was about (what you picked first, such as work) stay in the Calendar, on your phone. If you left it to her, next time you come she tells you once: “I burnt what you left with me, all right.”
• Pray for it: she prays every morning. If you pick a day, it’s kept as a plan in Grandma’s notes. A charm marks it in the Calendar; if it went well, it turns into a flower.
• Keep it yourself: it stays with you. After a while, she checks in.
• You can remove a mark with “Remove this mark” on that day’s page in the Calendar. Once removed, she won’t ask about it either.

About the other day

• When a plan’s day has passed, or after something you left with her, next time you come she asks in a speech bubble after her greeting: “About the other day — mind if I ask?” What it was isn’t shown in the bubble.
• “Talk”: the chat opens and she asks how it went.
• “Not today”: she won’t ask again that day.
• “Please don’t ask about it again”: she won’t ask about it again.

Replies thought up on the spot (AI)

• Grandma answers with words we’ve prepared. When none fits, the AI on a supported iPhone (Apple Intelligence) writes a reply in her way of speaking, marked “Thought up just now”.
• This AI runs on your iPhone, and what you say is never sent anywhere.
• AI replies are text only, without her voice.
• On devices without the AI (including Android), she answers with prepared words only.
• AI replies may not be accurate, and nothing Grandma says is professional advice about health, money or anything else.

4. Today’s mood

• The first time you start a chat that day (or when she asks while you’re idle), Grandma asks once: “How are you feeling? If it were a sky, what kind would it be?” Pick Sunny (at ease), Cloudy (as usual), Rainy (a little tired) or Stormy (having a hard time), and it’s kept as your mood.
• You never have to answer. Choose “I’d rather not say”, or just talk about something else, and she won’t ask again that day.
• You can tell her your sky once until 5 p.m. and once more from 5 p.m. She doesn’t ask about the evening sky herself; tap the sky mark at the top left if you’d like to tell her.
• You can also tap the sky mark at the top left and she’ll ask. Once you’ve told her, that day’s sky shows there.
• Grandma’s sky turns to that weather, and what she says next changes too.
• Rather not say? Choose “I’d rather not say”.
• A rainy or stormy sky slowly clears after a while; in the daytime you may see a rainbow.
• Picked the wrong one? Choose “Choose the sky again” in the chat.
• After picking a sky, “Write it down” lets you leave a few words (“A word for Grandma”), typed or spoken.
• Your moods and words appear in the Calendar. No one else can see them.

5. The sky’s sound & Grandma’s rooms

The sky’s sound now

• Tap the speaker at the top right, next to “Take a break”, to play the sound of the sky right now. Tap again to stop.
• The sound changes with the season and time of day: birds, insects, rain, cicadas, frogs and more.
• It keeps playing when the screen is off. Use your device’s buttons to change the volume.

Take a break (Grandma’s rooms)

• “Take a break” at the top right (the teacup) lets you choose the sky’s sound and one of Grandma’s rooms.
• There are five rooms, and Grandma is in each: The desk by the window (to focus), The engawa (to be quiet), The tea room (to unwind), The garden (a little lift) and The tatami room at night (to sleep).
• Nothing is timed. Leave whenever you like.
• Room sounds play even in silent mode, so mind the volume.

6. Calendar

• What Grandma took from you appears in a monthly calendar: a fire for what she burnt, a charm for what she’s praying for, a flower when it went well. And the days you told her your sky or wrote a few words.
• What she’s praying for now shows above the month.
• Tap a day to open its page: Grandma’s word, what you left, what you left with her, and the sky. You can remove a mark there.
• You can also see “This month’s words”. Tap one to open its day.
• Grandma’s notes are here too. You can fix or delete them one by one.
• Days without a note are fine. Nothing changes with how many days in a row you come.

7. Me

From Grandma

• Grandma’s bag of wisdom: small everyday tips, like a warm drink or dimming the lights. Keep the ones that helped, and add your own.
• Grandma’s words: short readings about moods, tiredness, evenings and more (Japanese only). Grandma’s sayings you hear in chats collect here too. They were written by the operator of Baba Biyori from general ideas, without review by a professional, and are no substitute for diagnosis or treatment.

Support Baba Biyori

Opens “A gift for Grandma” (section 8).

General

• Language: 日本語, English, Tiếng Việt, Filipino, Português, Español, 한국어
• Appearance: light, dark, or match the device
• How you spend your time: turn “Grandma recalls words you left before” on or off. The app sends no notifications.
• Show the screen tour again; Getting around the engawa; How to use (guide)

Account

• Change username; Change email

Privacy

• Keep words off the widget: the home-screen widget shows only the picture and the weather.
• Grandma’s room: settings for the rooms’ scenes and sounds.

About

• Terms of Service
• Privacy & data: the Privacy Policy, and “Send usage records” on or off. These records say which buttons were pressed and when, to help improve the app; they never include what you write or say. See the Privacy Policy.

Log out and delete your account

• “Log out” signs you out on this device. You can sign in again with the same account.
• “Delete account” at the very bottom deletes your account. Type “DELETE” to confirm. You may be asked why, but you don’t have to answer.
• This removes your account and the moods, words and bag of wisdom stored on our servers. It cannot be undone.
• If you can’t use the app, see Delete your account for how to ask us instead.

8. A gift for Grandma

• Baba Biyori is free, and always will be. There are no ads.
• When you feel like it, you can give Grandma a gift: dorayaki (she eats it right away), accessories such as a hair ornament (she wears them from then on), or clothes such as a kappogi apron (she changes into them when they arrive). She thanks you each time.
• Each gift is a one-time payment, with no monthly charge. The price is shown before you buy.
• Payment is handled by Apple or Google. Baba Biyori never receives your card details.
• Whether or not you give gifts, what you can do in the app stays the same.
• The things you give her to wear stay on this device. For now, they don’t carry over to other devices.

9. Places to talk

• When words that may signal serious distress appear in a chat or a note, the app shows places where someone will listen (phone or text). The check happens only on your device, and nothing is sent.
• Baba Biyori cannot give counselling or a diagnosis. If you are in danger now, contact your local emergency number.

10. FAQ

11. Contact

• Email us at info@bababiyori.com.
• We’ll reply to messages in the order they arrive.