The Line and the Family Line
A phone number for our stories.
Every call adds to an archive: your own, one given to someone else, or one begun for a child with a parent’s consent. The voice, the words written out, and a book that grows with every call, ready to download again whenever you like.
Works on any phone, even a landline. No app to download.
Giving it? After checkout, we ask who it’s for.
How it works
Three steps, and nothing to install.
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Get the number
For yourself or someone you love. Tell us who’s recording, and we mail a card with the number and extension.
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Call any time
Day or night, from any phone. Nobody answers. Just talk after the beep.
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It’s recorded, dated and written out
Every call is saved with its transcript. Family you add can listen and download while the plan runs and for 90 days after. What you download is yours to keep.
What you hear
A short greeting. A beep. Your story.
- A short greeting. The first call also asks your consent to record.
- Press 1 if you’d like a question to answer.
- Just talk after the beep, in your own words. A pause to think is fine; about thirty seconds of silence ends the recording. Call back anytime, as many times as you like.
Who it’s for
One number. A different reason to call.
For a child
Family fills the archive with their voices before the child can talk.
For yourself
A journal you keep by calling, from any phone, the moment something happens.
For a parent or grandparent
Their stories in their own voice, recorded anytime, written out and bound.
What comes with it
Their voice, their words, and a book.
A card for the fridge.
Every yearly plan and session comes with a 5×7 card, mailed in a plain envelope, plus a printable copy by email as soon as signup is done, so calling can start right away. The number and extension are on the front, so nobody has to look them up.
Every story, bound and printed.
The book is included with every plan. You choose which stories go in, and you can download a new edition as often as you like, so next week’s, next month’s or next year’s can hold more than the one before.
Print a real copy.
Once there’s enough to bind, you get print-ready files and a short guide for ordering through Amazon KDP. No extra charge.
A Line that changes hands.
Every Line also names a successor: someone you choose to receive the archive after you’re gone. When that time comes, they write to us, and a person here handles the handover.
Free guides from Vividly.
Fill-in booklets to help you get more from a Line, or simply learn something new about someone you love.
Pricing
Choose your line.
The Line
$99 a year
For one voice: a trip, a year, a life.
One storyteller. Book download included, as many times as you like.
Family Line
$149 a year
A parent and a child, or any two, each with their own extension.
Two storytellers, each with their own extension and archive. Book download included, as many times as you like.
Every yearly plan comes with a printed card for the fridge, mailed to you, with the number and the extension for that person’s archive. Every Line also includes our free guides, fill-in digital books to help you get the most from it, ready in your portal.
Every plan renews automatically. Cancel anytime. The year you’ve paid for keeps running to the end.
Prefer to pay monthly? The Line is $19 a month and comes with a printable card by email. Cancel anytime.
Questions
What people ask before they join.
Can I buy this today?
Yes. The Line is $99 a year, or $79 for the first year while the founding places last. Family Line covers two storytellers for $149 a year — each with their own extension and their own archive — and the Voice File adds a USB drive for each of them at the end of every year, for $249 a year. Monthly is $19. Every plan renews automatically, and you can cancel anytime. Whatever has been recorded stays downloadable in ordinary formats while the plan runs and for 90 days after it ends.
Is there a person on the other end?
No, and that is deliberate. A greeting plays, then a tone, and the storyteller talks for as long as they like. Nobody is listening in, nobody is waiting, and there is no appointment to keep.
People generally say more to a recording than to someone sitting across from them. A pause to think is fine. If the line goes silent for about thirty seconds the recording ends, keeping everything they said, and they can call back and carry on.
How long does it take to set up?
A few minutes. You pay, enter the storyteller’s name and phone number on the next screen, and their number and extension are issued straight away. The card for the fridge is printable immediately.
After that there is nothing to set up. They call when they want to, and the archive fills at whatever pace suits them.
What if the storyteller isn’t comfortable on the phone?
Then it helps to know there is nobody to be uncomfortable in front of.
Nobody answers the Line. There is no interviewer, no appointment, and nothing to get right. They dial the number, enter their extension, hear a short greeting and a tone, and then talk. The recording does not interrupt and does not ask a follow-up. A pause to think is fine; about thirty seconds of silence ends the recording, and they can simply call back.
Most people who dislike the phone dislike being heard on it. There is nobody on the call at all — who can listen afterwards is a separate choice, and it is theirs.
What if they get emotional, or won’t answer something?
Nothing on the Line pushes. There is nobody asking a follow-up, so a subject that stays closed simply stays closed.
Any question can be skipped. On a call, they can press 3 to skip it for now, or 9 to skip it for good; a question that came by text can be skipped by replying SKIP. Skipped for good, it is not asked again. On the Line nothing is read out unless they press 1 to ask for a question. Anything they would rather nobody heard can be set to private in the portal. Family with access to the archive can also write questions of their own, and the Line says who asked.
Some of the best material arrives after a pause, and a pause to think is fine. About thirty seconds of silence ends the recording, keeping what was said, and they can call back whenever they are ready.
Who owns the recordings?
The storyteller, whoever paid for it. Once they have an email address the archive is in their name, and they choose who can listen, who can manage access, and who it passes to. Until then, the person who gave it holds it in trust for them. For a child under 18, their parent or guardian holds the archive until they turn 18.
What if they stop calling?
Everything already recorded stays theirs — the audio, the transcripts and the archive, downloadable in ordinary formats.
When the paid time runs out the line stops taking calls. Listening, reading the transcripts and downloading carry on for 90 days after that, so there is time to download everything, and whatever has been downloaded is theirs to keep.
Can I give this as a gift?
Yes. Buyer and storyteller are separate from the start: you get the receipt, they get the recordings and the archive.
If it is a surprise, a checkbox at signup holds back the email and text that would otherwise tell them about it, so you can hand it over yourself.
What cannot be held back is the consent. They agree to being recorded in their own voice on their first call, and nobody can do that for them. The one exception is a child under 18, where a parent or guardian agrees for them.