# Beam

> Beam is a private home-screen widget for two people, on iPhone. One person sends a
> photo, GIF or video; it appears as an animated widget on their partner's home screen,
> without either person opening an app. One pairing at a time — no feed, no followers,
> no ads and no third-party tracking.

- Website: https://widgetbeam.app/
- App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id0000000000
- Platform: iPhone, iOS 17 or later. No Android and no web app.
- Category: social networking / relationships / home-screen widgets
- Language: English
- Operated by an independent developer from Almaty, Kazakhstan
- Last updated: 2026-07-28

## What Beam is for

Beam exists for one relationship at a time. Instead of posting to an audience, you send
a moment to exactly one person and it lands where they will actually see it: the iPhone
home screen. The widget is the product — the app is mostly where you send from and reply.

## How it works

1. **Pair.** One person creates an invite in the app; the other opens the invite link
   (`https://widgetbeam.app/i/<CODE>`) or types the eight-character code. Beam allows one
   active pairing at a time.
2. **Send a moment.** Pick a photo, GIF or video, add a caption, send. The animation is
   generated on the device, not on a server: Beam packs the frames into a custom font,
   which is what allows an iOS widget to animate without a background process.
3. **It appears.** A push notification wakes the partner's widget and the moment starts
   playing on their home screen. Replies (emoji, sound stickers, voice notes) happen in
   the app.

## Features

- Animated home-screen widget from a photo, GIF or video
- Small and large home-screen widget sizes
- One active pairing — two people, no friends list, no discovery
- Captions on moments
- Emoji reactions, limited to one per person per moment
- Sound stickers — short recorded audio reactions
- Voice notes, post soundtracks and standalone voice messages (audio plays in the app;
  iOS widgets cannot play sound)
- Shared albums both people can add to and reorder
- Ping — a lightweight "thinking of you" nudge that isn't attached to any moment
- Days-together counter based on a date the couple chooses, not the sign-up date
- Push notifications, separately switchable for moments and for reactions/replies
- Sign in with Apple

## Privacy facts

- No advertising identifiers, no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs, no location
  data, no contacts access.
- Content is visible only to the two paired people. Media is delivered over short-lived
  signed URLs that expire.
- User content is not used to train machine learning models, and data is not sold or
  shared.
- Data lives on self-hosted servers in Helsinki, Finland (Hetzner): metadata in a
  self-hosted Convex database, media in self-hosted object storage. All traffic is HTTPS.
- Third parties are limited to Apple (Sign in with Apple, push delivery) and Hetzner
  (hosting). That is the complete list.
- Accounts and all their content can be deleted from inside the app
  (Profile → Delete Account). Ending a pairing stops all sharing, and past pairings stay
  isolated from any new one.

## Common questions

**Is Beam the same as a photo-sharing app?** No. There is no feed and no audience — one
moment goes to one person, and the main surface is the home-screen widget rather than a
timeline.

**Does the widget really animate?** Yes, in both widget sizes, from GIFs and video.

**Do you need to open the app to see a new moment?** No — the widget updates itself when
a push arrives.

**Can Beam be used with several people?** No. One active pairing at a time.

**Is Beam on Android?** No. iPhone only; it is built around iOS home-screen widgets.

**Is Beam free?** Current pricing is shown on the App Store listing, which is the
authoritative source. There are no ads regardless.

## Pages

- [Home](https://widgetbeam.app/): what Beam is, how it works, features, FAQ
- [Privacy Policy](https://widgetbeam.app/privacy): exactly what is collected, stored and
  shared
- [Terms](https://widgetbeam.app/terms): terms of use

## Contact

- Support, data requests, safety and abuse reports: dauletkaliuly@gmail.com