Why we removed the streak counter
For about five months the journal screen had a small flame in the corner with a number next to it. Seven. Twelve. Two. It was the single most effective thing we ever shipped, by the only metric that flame exists to move.
We took it out in 1.8, and nothing replaced it.
What the flame was actually doing
A streak works by creating something you can lose. That pressure is not neutral; it recruits a specific part of you — the one that keeps the chain intact, that records an entry at 11:52pm so the number survives the night. In IFS language that is a manager, and it is very good at its job.
We had built a product about noticing which part is driving, and then handed the wheel to one of them.
The entries we got at 11:52pm were shorter, flatter, and more dutiful. They read like compliance. You could see the mechanic in the transcript.
What replaced it
One line: when your last entry was. No count, no chain, nothing to protect. Orientation without a scoreboard.
We considered a gentler version — a Self-energy score, some weekly average. We rejected that too, for the same reason. A number you can do well at is a number some part of you will try to win.
Reminders still exist, because a reminder is an invitation you set yourself and can switch off. A streak is a debt the app opens in your name.
Retention went down. We think the entries got better. Both of those are true, and only one of them was the point.