Frequently asked questions

Kept is an app for the greeting cards you can't bring yourself to throw away. Photograph a card with your phone and Kept straightens it, keeps the message written inside, and files it by date and by who sent it — so a shoebox of cards becomes a collection you'll actually open.

No. Kept Cards at kept.cards is an app by Liha LLC that archives the greeting cards you receive: you scan them, and it keeps them. The company at keptcards.com sells new greeting cards and is not connected to us.

Scan the ones you want to remember into Kept Cards, then decide about the paper with a clear conscience. Many people keep a few favorites in a box and recycle the rest once the front and the handwritten message are saved. Each card is filed by date and by who sent it, so the collection stays organized as it grows.

Kept does it for you. Each card is filed by the date you received it, who sent it, and the occasion, such as a birthday, Christmas or a wedding. Search finds a card by any of those, or by a word in the handwritten message. No binders, no boxes sorted by year.

Photograph each card with Kept the day it arrives, the front and the inside with their writing or drawing, and it is saved with the date and their name. Years later you will have every card they ever made you in one place, in order, and you can share the collection with them when they are grown.

Kept is free to download, and free to use for an archive of up to 20 cards — with everything included: scanning, search, sharing, export and handwriting transcription. If your collection outgrows that, Kept Unlimited is $19.99 a year and removes the limit.

No. Kept Unlimited belongs to your account, not your device. Subscribe once — through the App Store on iPhone, Google Play on Android, or on the web — and every device you sign in to is unlimited.

Open the Scan tab and tap Take Photos. Lay the card on a flat surface — a plain, darker background helps the edges stand out — and photograph the front and the inside. Kept finds the edges and crops each one clean. You can also choose photos you've already taken.

That's the whole point. The front is nice, but the handwritten message is what matters. Kept stores the front and the inside together, so the note is never separated from the card.

A Google account or an Apple ID. Kept has no passwords of its own — you sign in with one of those, and your cards are tied to that account.

Yes. A Google account isn't the same as a Gmail address — you can create a Google account using any email you already have (a work address, Outlook, Yahoo, and so on). Likewise, an Apple ID can use any email. Sign in with whichever one is tied to your email.

If someone plans to share cards with you, choose Share My Email instead. Sharing is matched by email address, so a hidden (relay) address won't match the invitation sent to your real one. If you've already signed in with a hidden email, Kept shows you the address to give the person sharing.

In Settings, open Shared with and enter the email address of the person you want to share with. That grants them permission. Then tap the share icon to send them an invitation message with a link to the app. Once they sign in with that exact email, your cards appear for them.

No — Kept never sends email on your behalf. Entering their address only grants access. You send the invitation yourself (by text, email, or however you like) using the share icon, which opens your phone's share options with the message ready to go.

To see your cards inside Kept, they need to sign in with a Google account or Apple ID that uses the email you invited. If they have neither, they can create a Google account with their existing email address in a couple of minutes. Alternatively, invite an email they already use with Google or Apple. Anyone can also open a backup file you send them in the web viewer, no account needed.

Download Kept and sign in with the same email address they invited. Their cards will be waiting. If you'd rather not install the app, you can view a backup file they send you at kept.cards/viewer.html.

Yes. In Shared with, tap Remove next to their email. They lose access immediately.

Only you, and anyone you've explicitly shared with. There's no feed, no followers, no public profiles, and no strangers. Kept doesn't sell your data or show ads.

Your scans are stored securely in the cloud so they're safe if you lose your phone and available on any device you sign in to. Only your account (and people you share with) can access them. See the Privacy Policy for details.

When you save a card, the image of the message inside is sent to an AI model (Anthropic’s Claude), which types it out for you. The text is searchable, you can correct it, and you can translate it. We don’t look at your cards, and under Anthropic’s terms what we send isn’t used to train its models. Free accounts include this — it isn’t held back for subscribers.

In Settings, tap Export all cards. Kept packages your whole archive into a file you can save to Files, AirDrop, or keep anywhere you like. You can import it later, and anyone can open it in the web viewer. Your cards are never locked in.

Deleting your account permanently removes your cards and your account. Kept asks you to export a backup first so nothing is lost by accident. If people had access to your cards, they lose it. Deleting your account does not remove cards that others shared with you — those belong to their owners.

Yes. Kept is on the App Store for iPhone and on Google Play for Android. On a computer, use Kept in the browser at kept.cards. Sign in with the same account on each and your cards are there.

Yes. Sign in with the same account on any device — iPhone, Android or a computer — and your collection is the same everywhere. Use the same sign-in method too: Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google are different accounts, so an archive started with one won’t appear if you sign in with the other.