Having a child is one of life’s great joys, or so I’m told. If you’re a new parent, it’s only natural that you’ll want to document and record your baby’s life. Whether it’s a daily record, or milestones like a first word or first birthday, there’ll never be a shortage of memories that need documenting. What’s more, there’s nothing that keeps an extended family together like regular updates on the newest addition(s) to the family.
Sure you can email or send photos via messaging apps to family and friends, or clutter everyone’s Facebook news feeds with the same baby pictures from 8 different angles, but there are easier, more secure, more organized, and more fun ways to do this. Here are 10 best apps that allow you to fully immerse yourself with pleasant memories of your adorable little ones, with timelines, calendars, milestones and with sharing capabilities to help keep family in the loop.
Recommended Reading: Baby Photography: 40 Photos Of Lovable Babies
1. Moment Garden
Moment Garden is a simple-to-use baby journal with a nice minimal interface and a beatuiful timeline view. One interesting feature Moment Garden has is its suggestion engine for milestones and moments. It also emails you reminders of moments from the past year, a feature it calls Moment Memories. The journal is private and you can invite friends and family to follow with granted access. [Free]
2. Peekaboo Moments
Peekaboo Moments is a basic baby scrapbook that records and presents photos and moments in your baby’s life, as well as your own thoughts. It’s not loaded with features, but it does support private sharing, and allows you to invite friends and family to contribute to your baby’s scrapbook with their own memories and photos. [Free]
3. Tinybeans
Tinybeans is a private online journal for your baby, documenting his or her life through photos, videos and milestones. It displays these moments as a calendar, which lets you see, at a glance, how your child has grown over time. Your journal is private, and only followers will be able to see it. Tinybeans will also send regular summary updates via email to friends and family of your choosing. [Free]
4. Tweekaboo
Tweekaboo saves and organises your photos and notes into a private timeline that is only shared with people of your choosing. Moments can be organised by albums or child, and you can even message moments directly to your loved one(s) as they happen in real-time. Like some of the other apps in this list, you can also create a hardcover book straight from Tweekaboo. [Free]
Platform: iOS
5. Bambio
Bambio is a slightly more structured baby journal that has categories for things like your child’s new favourite things and funny quotes. It also has a dedicated growth chart so that you can track how quickly your child is growing. Bambio doesn’t have its own sharing system, but you can share journal entries on Facebook, Twitter and through email, all directly from the app. [Free]
Platform: iOS
6. HiBaby Diary
HiBaby Diary is a lot more focused on the nitty gritty of a baby’s first year: you can record and collect information related to your baby’s breast feeding, sleep times, and so on. It also records everyday moments like most of the other apps on this list. You can even invite trusted friends and family to contribute to your diary, and each activity can be shared individually on Facebook, Twitter and by email. You can also print the diary out by going to the website. [Free]
Platform: iOS
7. Lifecake
Lifecake will turn entire folders of photos into one beautiful timeline, organized according to date and child, and can be easily and securely shared with friends and family. Lifecake will automatically share updates with chosen friends and family members; no more emailing photos or sending text messages. You can even create a photobook in Lifecake and have it delivered to your door. [Free]
Platform: iOS
8. Intoloop
Intoloop is a social timeline that can be used for anything from keeping a record of a project to, yes, recording your baby’s growth. It doesn’t have any baby-specific features, but it has a number of interesting features nonetheless. It lets you add stories to past as well as upcoming dates, supports a number of timeline themes, and lets you share your timeline only with specific people. [Free]
9. My IStory
My iStory isn’t baby-specific, but it works similarly to most of the other apps on this list. It’s a photographic journal that allows you to add notes to photographs and turn these memories into slideshows or eBooks that can be shared with friends and family. It also supports audio recordings, and has passcode authentication to keep your memories safe from prying eyes. [$0.99]
Platform: iOS
10. Mementobox
Mementobox takes a slightly different approach by dividing its journaling into three: "my birth", "my first year" and "my world". The first two are straightforward enough, letting you take note of things such as gifts recieved, milestones and immunisations, amongst others. "My world" lets you create a time capsule for your child, linking to external media such as news items, music videos and film trailers. [$4.00]
Platform: iOS
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