Welfare Check contacts are notified faster
When a Welfare Check timer reaches zero, your contacts are now emailed within about two minutes of the deadline instead of up to fifteen.
- Reduced the delay between a Welfare Check timer running out and your contacts being emailed, from up to fifteen minutes down to about two. This matters most on short timers, where the old delay could be a large share of the whole countdown.
Security updates and stronger pre-release safety checks
A security and reliability pass updated the third-party software the site runs on, brought the automated pre-release verification suite back online, and added a new safeguard that inspects everything sent to your browser for private credentials.
- Applied security updates across the third-party software the site runs on, clearing every known high-severity advisory.
- Added an automated safeguard that inspects every file your browser downloads for private credentials before a new version can go live, so keys meant to stay on our servers cannot reach your device unnoticed.
- Brought the automated verification suite back online, so every change is now checked against the full test suite, a security audit, and a live page check before it reaches the site.
- Strengthened the automated safeguard covering account reactivation: when a proof-of-life check-in arrives after an account was mistakenly marked final, the account status and its history record are verified to update together.
Welfare Check, account deletion, and a note-deletion fix
Introduced Welfare Check — a simple wellness timer you can start any time — plus self-service account deletion and a fix for deleting unsaved notes.
- Added Welfare Check on your dashboard: start a countdown, add the emails of people who should check on you, and hit go. Stop it any time; if it reaches zero, those people get a friendly wellness note asking them to check in on you. It's completely separate from your final messages and never sends them.
- Welfare Check offers 1, 6, 12, and 24-hour timers plus a custom length, and shows a live countdown you can stop with one click.
- When a Welfare Check timer reaches zero, the card now updates on its own to confirm your contacts were notified and offers a one-click way to start a new one — no page refresh needed.
- Added a Welfare Check overview page with guides for common situations — living alone, solo travel and hiking, elderly parents, night-shift and lone work, chronic illness, and a plain-language dead man's switch — so you can see if it fits your needs before signing in.
- Added a Delete Account option in profile settings that permanently removes your account and all associated data — DeathNotes, recipients, check-in schedule, and generated eulogies and obituaries — behind a typed confirmation, with an email confirming the deletion.
- Fixed note deletion: you can now delete a note that still has unsaved edits instead of being told to save a note you were trying to discard.
v1.6 ·
Privacy, safety, and account-integrity hardening
A security and privacy pass strengthened data isolation across your notes, contacts, and check-in records, made recovery from a mistaken finalization more reliable, and reinforced contact privacy.
- Strengthened data-isolation safeguards so your notes, contacts, and check-in records stay scoped to your own account.
- Made recovery from a mistaken finalization more reliable: when a check-in reverses an incorrect finalization, the account and its audit record now update together, so the history is always complete.
- Reinforced contact privacy and added rate limiting to the add-contact flow.
Clearer credit choices and a more consistent, accessible interface
A design-consistency pass brought the same headings, buttons, cards, and selection controls to every page, surfaced the bundle savings everywhere credits are sold, and enlarged a few mobile tap targets.
- The three-credit bundle now shows its "best value" savings everywhere you can buy credits, including inside the eulogy and obituary Customize dialogs.
- The eulogy examples page now offers the same one-tap path into the eulogy builder that the other eulogy guides already use.
- Recipient and note assignment lists now share one consistent, keyboard-accessible selection control.
- Enlarged mobile tap targets on the page-not-found screen and editor controls to meet accessibility sizing.
- Standardized page headings, hero text, cards, and status messages across the site so every page reads as one design.
Planning templates, mobile accessibility, and clearer purchase notifications
DeathNote opened nine practical planning templates to the public, connected each one safely to the private editor, tightened the shared mobile footer, and made credit-purchase notifications immediate and dependable.
- Launched a public planning-template hub and nine substantial template pages using the existing DeathNote design system, with distinct visual identities and richer guidance for each plan.
- Added focused reflection questions and practical review reminders so every template remains useful as circumstances change.
- Added realistic fictional note examples to every planning guide so visitors can see what useful detail looks like before opening the private editor.
- Preserved the chosen template through authentication, kept existing notes untouched, and opened each selected template in a separate named note.
- Hardened template prompts so passwords, private keys, recovery codes, full account numbers, device secrets, and safe combinations stay out of DeathNote.
- Removed horizontal overflow across the public shell on narrow phones and tablets while preserving named, keyboard-accessible footer destinations.
- Added immediate purchase notifications and made paid writing credits more dependable.
More dependable obituary writing, payments, and international discovery
Obituary writing became more resilient from first draft through payment and recovery, while multilingual discovery and production safeguards were tightened around the complete experience.
- Retry incomplete obituary drafts safely.
- Regenerate short eulogy drafts.
- Expanded obituary guidance across 49 languages.
- Added a one-time invitation reminder for people who joined through a friend.
- Kept obituary social previews consistent across languages.
- Enforce a full-eulogy floor on generation (250 words).
- Return unused writing credits automatically after refunds or disputes.
More forgiving eulogy revisions
More forgiving eulogy revisions. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Use a lenient word floor for eulogy customize.
- Keep footer Privacy & Terms reachable on mobile.
- Public-page copy — shared-pool wording, sourced price, sign-up CTAs.
- Protected credit purchases from repeated requests and made localized pages retry safely.
- Prevented incomplete eulogies when a writing request reaches its limit.
- Normalize grief writer credit callouts.
A direct path to sympathy flowers
A direct path to sympathy flowers. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Use live Florist One affiliate link; drop visible disclosure line.
- Correct Florist One sympathy URL (guessed .asp path 404'd).
- Sympathy flowers affiliate CTA on eulogy landing.
Safer relationship handling and clearer legal pages
Safer relationship handling and clearer legal pages. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Harden relationship logic — self-referral guard + ILIKE wildcard escape.
- Data: backfill high-confidence invite attribution + correct over-reach.
- Redesign: legal pages (privacy, terms) with hero + TOC + prose.
Safer account finalization
Safer account finalization. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Restore finalization race guard and locked account status.
- Add obituary age guardrails.
Writing credits became giftable
Writing credits became giftable. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Add reusable shared credit gift flow.
- Auto-confirm email check-in links.
A cleaner mobile footer
A cleaner mobile footer. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Remove mobile footer bottom gap.
Align homepage accessibility labels
DeathNote shipped 6 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by align homepage accessibility labels.
- Align homepage accessibility labels.
- Clean Tagalog library translation tail.
- Made library, eulogy, and obituary discovery more dependable.
- Normalize DeathNote email branding.
Move overview verification into dashboard rail
DeathNote shipped 5 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by move overview verification into dashboard rail.
- Move overview verification into dashboard rail.
- Clarify shared AI credits on eulogy page.
- Show shared AI credit note on obituary pages.
- Share one AI credit pool across eulogy and obituary.
- Harden library obituary link coverage.
The obituary writer reached every supported language
The obituary experience expanded across all supported locales with fact-conscious generation, substantial guidance pages, and the same careful writing and discovery standards as the eulogy product.
- Published 15 obituary guides across all 49 supported languages.
- Added fact-conscious obituary writing guidance and substantial examples.
The obituary guidance series went live
The obituary guidance series went live. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Mark obituary blog post published.
- Draft obituary blog series.
- Tighten obituary fact coverage.
- Add obituary credit checkout.
Safer obituary dates and more dependable drafts
Safer obituary dates and more dependable drafts. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Cap obituary death date at today.
- Accept short obituary drafts.
- Made obituary credit usage safe under repeated requests.
- Expand obituary SEO content and FAQs.
- Normalize obituary page width.
- Add obituary writer and translated SEO surface.
One cohesive eulogy resource library
One cohesive eulogy resource library. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Library: unify eulogy toolkit + 17 guides into one cohesive panel.
- Clean library metadata marker leakage.
- Repaired translated library titles and descriptions.
Check-ins no longer risk false finalization
Check-ins no longer risk false finalization. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Reverse false death-note finalization on check-in.
A simpler free core with pay-per-use writing help
DeathNote retired subscriptions, made notes, recipients, and scheduling free, and moved assisted eulogy and obituary writing to a shared daily allowance plus simple one-time credits.
- Clean up eulogy payments and subscription teardown.
- Polish eulogy credit checkout.
- Ship localized eulogy pages.
- Preserve eulogy drafts through checkout.
- Guard eulogy promo code setup.
- Enable eulogy promo codes.
- 9 more eulogy keyword pages + global FAQ currency fixes.
- 4 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Easier verification-date selection
Easier verification-date selection. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Add verification date picker gutter.
- Harden verification date picker edges.
- Pin verification date picker above trigger.
- Render verification date picker inline.
- Anchor verification date picker.
- Stabilize verification date picker.
A more dependable dashboard
A more dependable dashboard. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Resolved the remaining dashboard loading and interaction issues.
Tighten public page design rhythm
DeathNote shipped 4 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by tighten public page design rhythm.
- Tighten public page design rhythm.
- Drop redundant DeathNote suffix from page titles to prevent template doubling.
- Re-enable promotion codes on Premium checkout.
- Simplify premium checkout path.
Pin profile plan badge to card corner
DeathNote shipped 8 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by pin profile plan badge to card corner.
- Pin profile plan badge to card corner.
- Align eulogy generation timing copy.
- Normalize eulogy history tag labels.
- Preserve loading toast ids.
- Prune verified manual review items.
- Prevented library pages from falling back to an invalid content source.
- Expand six phase manual review checklist.
- 1 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Tighten editor header spacing
DeathNote shipped 8 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by tighten editor header spacing.
- Tighten editor header spacing.
- Normalize shared frontend shells and primitives.
- Verify downgrade paths and clear multi-note signoff.
- Add tier-specific billing gratitude emails.
- Tighten editor and dashboard note status UI.
- Remove multiple notes blog draft.
- Standardize public and protected page layouts.
- 2 additional product refinements shipped this day.
More than one letter
Multiple notes, note-specific recipients, immutable delivery snapshots, and safer terminal delivery turned DeathNote into a place for every message a person may need to leave.
- Harden dashboard auth and fallback loading.
- Clarify multi-note manual signoff checklist.
- Add multi-note release signoff checklist.
- Harden multi-note rollout verification.
- Clean multi-note recipient contracts.
- Add multi-note lifecycle management.
- Add multi-note entitlement downgrade handling.
- Add note recipient assignment storage.
- 3 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Clearer, more accessible status colors
Clearer, more accessible status colors. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Normalize semantic status contrast.
- Inline print logo for preview reliability.
- Move note media out of rando.
- Add CJ message to root layout, update personal notes rule.
- 1 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Tighten eulogy mobile layouts
DeathNote shipped 4 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by tighten eulogy mobile layouts.
- Tighten eulogy mobile layouts.
- Prevented malformed translations from reaching public eulogy pages.
- Clean up active translation backlog.
Add Persian (fa) and Hebrew (he) library translations — 18 languages, 34,146 pages
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by add Persian (fa) and Hebrew (he) library translations — 18 languages, 34,146 pages.
- Add Persian (fa) and Hebrew (he) library translations — 18 languages, 34,146 pages.
- Blog: add first post — 30,000 pages in 16 languages.
Russian language support
Russian language support. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Add Russian translation integration.
A more reliable signed-in header
A more reliable signed-in header. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Kept signed-in navigation current as sessions change.
- Add Facebook OAuth provider to sign-in and sign-up.
- Expanded supported sign-in providers.
- Add LinkedIn OAuth provider to sign-in and sign-up.
- Add Microsoft (Azure) OAuth provider to sign-in and sign-up.
Fresher dashboards and more reliable email links
Fresher dashboards and more reliable email links. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Kept dashboard data fresh and repaired account links sent by email.
Safer sign-in, confirmation, and password recovery
Safer sign-in, confirmation, and password recovery. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Overhaul auth flows for email confirmation and password reset.
- Normalize icon sizes in profile page.
- Remove select-none from Input to prevent keyboard freeze.
- Harden auth error messages across all flows.
- Auth security hardening.
- Normalize Pulse page mobile responsiveness.
Add password change dialog on profile page
DeathNote shipped 6 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by add password change dialog on profile page.
- Add password change dialog on profile page.
- Align alert icon and text with grid layout.
- Add POST handler for Apple OAuth callback.
- Add password reset flow and redirect-after-login.
- Add OAuth avatar support to user button.
- Add React Email auth templates for consistent branding.
Cleaner links across every supported language
Cleaner links across every supported language. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Replace 73 doubled legacy-legacy slugs with legacy across all languages.
Confirmation clicks became reliable
Confirmation clicks became reliable. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Kept confirmation progress intact while the page updates.
The eulogy writer
A guided writing experience made it easier to begin a eulogy, shape the tone, edit the result, and preserve earlier drafts without taking ownership of the writer's voice.
- Icon centering and dark mode contrast improvements.
- Responsive editor toolbar buttons for saved badge space.
- Mobile responsive button text and layout.
- CSP wildcards and eulogy history flickering.
- Eulogy history auth error handling and React key warning.
Clearer, more accurate product promises
Clearer, more accurate product promises. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Remove additional misleading claims found in gap review.
- Remove misleading marketing claims across all pages.
Print preview shows content only, hides UI chrome
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by print preview shows content only, hides UI chrome.
- Print preview shows content only, hides UI chrome.
- Simplify: remove print preview modal, use native browser print directly.
More readable informational alerts
More readable informational alerts. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Alert info variant contrast - use dark text on light background.
Broken library links recover gracefully
Broken library links recover gracefully. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Comprehensive fallback for phantom library URLs.
- Resolve 404 crawl errors for library URLs.
Remove emojis from email templates, clean up headers
DeathNote shipped 4 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by remove emojis from email templates, clean up headers.
- Remove emojis from email templates, clean up headers.
- Left-align email logo and reduce emoji sizes.
- Add contextual emojis to email headers + fix footer.
- Implement email notification coverage expansion.
Save status now reflects meaningful writing
Save status now reflects meaningful writing. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- First meaningful save detection (empty note created on signup).
- First note save notification using auth.ts pattern.
- Debug: add logging to note saved notification for troubleshooting.
A stronger guided eulogy experience
A stronger guided eulogy experience. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Make Eulogies Great Again.
Remove gray sidebars from email templates
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by remove gray sidebars from email templates.
- Remove gray sidebars from email templates.
- Standardize toast notification punctuation for professionalism.
Add personal note for November 24, 2025 to about page
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by add personal note for November 24, 2025 to about page.
- Add personal note for November 24, 2025 to about page.
- Add emoji indicators to new user signup email subject.
Expanded and validated customer email journeys
Expanded and validated customer email journeys. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Apology email campaign and mass email link validation rule.
- Email System Expansion: Add 24h final warning and memorial toggle notifications.
- Add welcome email for new user onboarding.
Slow down invite button pulse animation to 2s per cycle (8s total)
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by slow down invite button pulse animation to 2s per cycle (8s total).
- Slow down invite button pulse animation to 2s per cycle (8s total).
- Add pulsation animation to invite button for improved discoverability.
A letter that waits for the right moment
The editor, proof-of-life schedule, recipients, and careful delivery system came together as one complete promise.
- Remove fluff.
- Remove fluffy language.
- V1.3 release.
- Cleaning up.
Music player on authenticated pages only
Music player on authenticated pages only.
- Music player on authenticated pages only.
A calmer two-column account overview
A calmer two-column account overview. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- 3 column to 2 on user overview page.
- Green dot fix using absolute parent.
- Made the account overview faster without showing stale information.
Cleaner branding and a new comparison guide
Cleaner branding and a new comparison guide. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Kill all emojis, easter egg standardization. new competitor page: afinalmessage.com.
A simpler contact page
A simpler contact page. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Contact us page. removing US. simplifying.
- Duplicate easter egg toast. standardization.
- Standardizing widths and grids as a gold standard. using 01-utils.ts again. nice.
Cleaner keyboard focus in the editor and invitations
Cleaner keyboard focus in the editor and invitations. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Editor focus outline and invite contact focus input field outline removal.
- Unsaved note badge location and full width on mobile. ok. i'm outey.
- Remove spacing in invite modal. made toast notifciatoin for failed verification more elegant.
- Removing contact count badge cause it was useless, putt invite contacts in line with filters. standardizing invite contact modal to not look janky.
- Spacing and layout fix. modal icon button fixes on responsive. normalization of badges globally.
- Email check on invite user to not fire email if user exists.
A more direct contact experience
A more direct contact experience. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Contact us clean up. removing breadcrumbs.
- Social sharing icons on contact us. fixing letters footer.
- Letter bottom call out. fix. print preview modal button fix.
- Standard badge for letters page. fixing date on mobile view. mobile view buttons below table. new oauth atlassian and linkedin.
- 13 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Remove footer navigation links from homepage
DeathNote shipped 8 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by remove footer navigation links from homepage.
- Remove footer navigation links from homepage.
- Restructure trust features: 5 icons above main heading.
- Refine timing page content and styling.
- Increase trust feature icon sizes.
- Comprehensive timing page final review and security hardening.
- Comprehensive timing page review and improvements - Complete.
- Standardize timing showcase page to match site consistency.
- 6 additional product refinements shipped this day.
A simpler verification status card
A simpler verification status card. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Simplifying verification status card.
- Remove verification streak.
- Restoring lost public files.
- Adding a few more founding members. standadrizing.
- Slgiht fixes to contact page. now. it's done.
- Text update foundign members.
- 6 additional product refinements shipped this day.
A calmer, more predictable account experience
A calmer, more predictable account experience. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Removed live polling, quotes, auto update page.
- Security on email.
Simple 24-hour proof-of-life check-ins
Simple 24-hour proof-of-life check-ins. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Implement simplified 24-hour check-in system.
A more personal avatar interaction
A more personal avatar interaction. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Implement professional avatar hover system with audio feedback.
- Add: bypass security layer for debugging 500 errors.
- Add debug endpoint and enhanced error logging.
One unified place to manage contacts
One unified place to manage contacts. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Unified contacts settings page with comprehensive UX optimization.
Public discovery without exposing private content
Public discovery without exposing private content. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Comprehensive SEO optimization - protect private content, enhance public pages.
- 1 additional product refinements shipped this day.
A new DeathNote help reference
A new DeathNote help reference. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Add DeathNote Wiki link to about page.
Verification streaks became visible
Verification streaks became visible. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Add verification streak badge with 8-hour intervals.
- Sequential File Organization & Architecture Optimization.
- Remove hover effects from footer link, match text styling.
Proof-of-life history became dependable
Proof-of-life history became dependable. This project day also delivered the customer-facing improvements listed below.
- Repair broken Proof of Life History chart.
- Increase top padding on main content area.
- Optimize global header layout and remove unnecessary home button.
- Match title spacing between homepage and how-it-works page.
- Remove all underlines from global header navigation.
- Remove mouse-over underline from global navigation.
- 8 additional product refinements shipped this day.
Redesign dashboard overview cards with professional styling
Redesign dashboard overview cards with professional styling.
- Redesign dashboard overview cards with professional styling.
Redesign How It Works page to match homepage styling
DeathNote shipped 2 customer-facing improvements on this project day, led by redesign How It Works page to match homepage styling.
- Redesign How It Works page to match homepage styling.
- Reduce How DeathNote Works title box size to match homepage.
The first blank page
DeathNote began as a blank application and a clear promise: help people prepare private messages for the people they care about.
- Established the first working application shell.
- Set the foundation for private notes, trusted recipients, proof-of-life check-ins, and eventual delivery.