How FiveClose adapts to you
By Joey Tan, FiveClose · 12 November 2026
Most apps learn about you to keep you scrolling. FiveClose learns about you so it can leave you alone: fewer notes, at a time that suits you, and a Home screen with only what you use. The one place it pays closer attention is safety, where it learns what a normal day looks like for you, so the people who care about you hear sooner when something is off.
This page says what it notices, what changes because of it, what it never does, and how to see or undo it.
The short answer
- It learns from what you do in FiveClose: when you open it, what you tap, who you reach.
- Its own notes come less often over time, at your usual time, never in your quiet hours.
- Alerts never wait: someone going quiet, a check-on or a missed "back by" always come at once.
- No ads, no feed, no AI reading your circle. Nothing is sold or shared.
- See it, forget it or switch it off under You → Safety → Personalisation.
Your first days
A new account starts simple. Home opens first, and the busier cards (your week, the month picture, the graph extras) wait until you have settled in.
- Start here at the top of Home shows the next step for you: add the first person, turn on notifications, say hi, add one more. Each step ticks itself when you do it, and the card goes after two weeks.
- If you joined from an invitation, you are shown who you are now looking out for, and how to add someone who would notice if you went quiet.
- Trips, games and Focus are suggested one at a time, when they fit: brain games if someone in your circle is 60 or over, trips if you came from one of our travel wikis, gatherings if you have a group circle.
A Home that fits you
- For today is one suggestion, not a list: reply to a wave, say hi to someone you haven't reached in a while, finish your five. It puts first the kinds of thing you actually tap, rests the ones you keep passing over, and says "That's all for today" when there is nothing to do.
- Cards you don't use fold away under "More on Home" after two weeks. Nothing is lost; open it any time.
- Say hi offers the way you usually reach each person first: a call, WhatsApp or a poke.
- Your week plans who to reach inside the minutes you choose, using what you usually do with each person (a message, a call, a meet-up).
- FiveClose opens on the tab you usually go to first.
Your people
- Each person's colour follows your own rhythm with them: someone very close is due every week, someone you keep in touch with now and then every month.
- "Needs you this week", "Quiet lately" and "Not started yet" pick out the few people worth a message now.
- Birthdays you saved come the day before, once a year.
- If you and a friend both share your location and were in the same place at the same time, FiveClose asks once "Were you with Ann?" so one tap notes the meet-up. Nothing is noted without the tap.
Places and crossing paths
Only while you share your location, and only with people who can already see it.
- Usual places are found by themselves. Somewhere you stop on two different days becomes one of your places. You, or someone close, can also pin places: Mum's favourite restaurant, the market, church.
- Told when they arrive. Someone who sees your location can ask to be told when you arrive at one of your places (once every three hours at most). If someone pins a place for you, you are told, and you can take it off under You → My places.
- A day replayed: "📍 Places and visits" on a person's card shows their places and each stop, when they arrived and left, for the last 30 days.
- Crossing paths: when you stop where someone in any of your circles stopped, FiveClose says so. If they left less than an hour before you came, you both get "You just missed Ann at the food market, by 10 minutes". If they were there on another day in the last month, you get "Ann was here 2 weeks ago", something to talk about. Their card says how often you have been to the same places. Only the place's name and how long apart are shared, never where you are now. Never on for anyone under 18; switch it off under You → My places → Crossing paths, which also forgets the list.
Turning location sharing off deletes your places, visits and crossings.
Fewer notes, at your time
FiveClose's own notes (Monday's list, birthdays, tips, news about friends, games and Focus Town) are treated as asks, and the default answer is no.
- At your time. They come at the hour you usually open FiveClose, or a time you set.
- Quiet hours are worked out from the hours you never open it (usually while you sleep), or from your sleep if you use health signs. Notes wait them out; alerts don't.
- Ignored notes back off. Four of a kind unopened in a row and that kind comes half as often; eight and it pauses, and Home asks whether to keep it. Open one and it is back to normal.
- Notes that don't help stop. If a kind of note never brings you back, it stops. It also learns whether a notification or an email works better for you.
- Nothing you would see anyway. If you open FiveClose most days, it doesn't send notes about what Home already shows.
- After time away, at most one short note each after 3, 7 and 14 days, about something real: a wave waiting, a birthday, a friend who was on. Nothing real to say, no note.
- If you use our wikis (Plant, Fish, Landmark, Coffee, Flight) with the same email, they and FiveClose never all write to you in the same week. You can switch that link off.
Under Personalisation, "Why did I get these notes?" lists the recent ones with the reason for each.
Safety that knows your normal day
The 7-day timer works for everyone. If you want more, these learn your own pattern. Each has its own switch.
- Not up yet (phone apps, with health signs): learns the time you usually get up on weekdays and at weekends, and gives more room after a nudge you didn't need. If you're not up 3 hours after, you get a nudge ("I'm up" / "Slept in today"); an hour later, your close circle.
- Quieter than usual (phone apps, with health signs): after two weeks it knows your usual gaps between signs of life, and asks your close circle sooner than 7 days if you're quiet for twice your long gap (between 1 and 3 days).
- Trips: a new time zone pauses both for two days while your days settle.
- Health signs: walking or waking up counts as "I'm OK", even with the app closed. Only "moved, at about this time" leaves the phone, never your steps or sleep.
- Smarter help suggests who is best placed to check on someone, notices slow changes in people who count on you, and helps share the caring out.
Games and extras
- Brain games get a little harder after two right and easier after one miss, so you stay at your level. Progress is only ever against your own start, never against other people.
- Focus Town grows from your own focused minutes; game bests stay on your phone.
- What you see fits who you are: under-18s see the arcade and Focus, not Time together or brain games; business owners see their business.
What it notices
- When you open FiveClose, which tab you go to, which Home cards you use.
- Which of its own notes you open or ignore.
- Who you reach, and how (call, message, meet up, poke).
- If you turn them on: health signs ("moved, at about this time"), and your location for your circle.
- If you share your location: the places you stop at and for how long, for 30 days.
The Home cards you use and how you reach each person stay on your phone. The rest stays with your own account. Full detail is in the privacy policy.
What it never does
- No ads, no feed, no endless scrolling.
- No AI model reads your circle or your messages. The adapting is plain rules you can read about here.
- Nothing is sold or shared with advertisers or other apps.
- Alerts are never held, thinned or timed: a timer running out, someone going quiet or asking for help, a check-on, a "back by", a roll call and a focus session always come straight away.
To keep making it better, we sometimes try two versions of a screen or note and keep the one that helps people more. That never touches alerts.
See it, forget it, switch it off
Open You → Safety → Personalisation. It shows what FiveClose has learned: your usual time, which notes are coming less often, which cards folded, your usual way to reach people. You can forget any one of them, set the time by hand, reset everything, or switch it off. Off means the plain app: fixed note times, nothing folded, no back-off.