The short answer
Which app is best depends on what you want to keep. For a printed book made from spoken answers, choose Remento; for a written memoir book, Storyworth; for a voice memoir plus an illustrated children's book, Tellus; for a free interview kept in a public archive, StoryCorps; for a free archive linked to the family tree, FamilySearch Memories. To keep the recorded voice together with photos, the family tree and the rest of the family's memories in one private place, there is The Memory Palace, with a free plan.
Last checked: 12 October 2026, on each maker's own website (sources at the bottom). We make The Memory Palace, an app from a small team in Leuven, Belgium, and it is one of the six apps below. We describe the others as fairly as we can, and say where they are the better choice.
Six apps at a glance
| App | How they record | What you end up with | Family listens or adds | Free or paid (price on 12 October 2026) | Export |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Remento | A weekly prompt by email or text; the storyteller clicks the link and speaks, from any device, no app | A hardcover book with a QR code per chapter that plays the recording, and edited written stories | Unlimited collaborators who read, listen and suggest questions | Paid: $99 for the first year with one book, then $99 a year or $12 a month to keep recording | Download recordings, photos and stories; stories as text or PDF |
| Storyworth | A weekly question by email, answered in writing; by phone with automatic transcription on the Color and Unlimited plans | A hardcover book | Family and friends on the account get the stories by email and can comment | Paid: $69, $99 or $199 for the first year (Unlimited renews at $99) | E-book or audiobook download on every plan |
| Tellus | Voice recording with one button, in the browser | A written memoir and illustrated children's books made from the recordings | Share stories with family and ask family members for stories | Free to record; Lifetime $69.99, paid once | Not stated on the pages we checked |
| StoryCorps | A free app on iPhone and Android that guides a conversation recorded on the phone; StoryCorps Connect records a remote interview by video call in the browser | A recording in the StoryCorps Archive and at the Library of Congress, or only on your own phone | Share publicly, or keep it for friends and family | The app is free, with a free account | Save the interview to your device instead of uploading it |
| FamilySearch Memories | Audio stories, photos and documents in the free Memories app | An online archive linked to the FamilySearch family tree | Public by default for deceased people, private for living people | Free, with a free account | Download item by item |
| The Memory Palace | Voice recordings in the app or the browser; the weekly question: a relative gets one question by email and answers by pressing a button and talking, without an account or an app | A private 3D palace with wings and rooms, where the voice sits with the photos, videos, stories and family tree | Private until you invite someone to a room or wing; Keeper lets five family members or friends collaborate | Free plan with 1 GB; Keeper €49 a year | Full ZIP export on every plan, the family tree as GEDCOM |
Prices and features change. Check them on the maker's site before you buy.
Voice or transcript: what do you actually keep?
Most of these apps turn speech into text, and text is easy to read and to print. But a transcript is not the voice. The way a grandparent laughs before the punchline, the dialect word nobody else uses, the pause before a name: that is what grandchildren will want to hear in thirty years. So ask two questions of every app: is the original recording kept, and can I download it?
- Remento keeps the recordings. Each chapter in the book has a QR code that plays the voice behind it, and you can download the audio files from your dashboard.
- Storyworth is built around writing. On the Color and Unlimited plans the storyteller can tell stories over the phone, with automatic transcription into the book. The pricing page offers an e-book or audiobook download, but does not say whether the original phone audio is kept.
- Tellus records the voice and writes a memoir from it, chapter by chapter, and can turn memories into an illustrated children's book. It says it works in more than 95 languages.
- StoryCorps and FamilySearch Memories keep the audio file itself. There is no book; the recording is the result.
- The Memory Palace keeps each recording as a memory in a room, next to the photos and the stories it belongs to. It does not print a book. If a written, edited memoir is the goal, Remento, Storyworth or Tellus are built for that.
Can you do it with just a phone?
Yes, and often the grandparent does not need to install anything. Remento and Storyworth send the question by email (Remento also by text), and the answer starts from a link. Remento says there are no apps to download and no passwords to remember. In The Memory Palace, the weekly question works the same way: you add a relative, they get one short question by email, and they answer by pressing a button and talking, or by typing a few words. They do not need an account or an app, and they can stop at any time.
If you sit together, one phone is enough. The StoryCorps app guides you through the conversation; its own course advises holding the phone a fist's distance from each speaker's mouth. The FamilySearch Memories app records audio stories and photographs documents. And the voice recorder already on your phone does the job too, as long as you keep the file somewhere safe afterwards.
Free routes: the StoryCorps app, FamilySearch Memories, recording in Tellus, and the free plan of The Memory Palace (1 GB). Our guide to recording a family oral history interview covers the practical side: a quiet room, a test recording, and what to do with the file.
Which questions to ask
The app matters less than the first question. Start with something concrete and easy: the house they grew up in, a teacher, the first job, how they met. Our twenty questions to ask your parents are a free sheet to print, in five languages, and the ten questions to ask your grandparents work well for a first visit. If you would rather start on screen, the free family interview asks one question and two gentle follow-ups, without an account.
The family that listens along
A recording that only one person can open is half a recording. The apps differ a lot here:
- Remento includes unlimited collaborators. New stories are shared with the family when they are done, and family members can suggest questions. Content is private by default.
- Storyworth emails new stories to the family and friends on the account, and they can comment.
- Tellus lets you share stories with family and ask other family members for their stories.
- StoryCorps lets you choose whether an interview in its archive is public or kept for friends and family.
- FamilySearch Memories are public by default when they are about deceased people, and can be found by search engines; memories about living people are private. You can make a memory private yourself.
- The Memory Palace is private until you invite someone to a room or a wing. On the Keeper plan, five family members or friends can collaborate; on Guardian, as many as you like.
What happens to the recordings if an app stops?
Voices outlive subscriptions, and sometimes the companies too. Before you start, check how you get the recordings out.
- Remento: if you do not renew, you can still view and download the recordings and order more books; you only cannot record new stories.
- Storyworth: when the subscription ends, the questions stop, you get three more months to write and edit, and after that you keep access to your stories.
- Tellus: sells a one-time Lifetime plan. The pages we checked do not describe an export.
- StoryCorps: uploaded interviews go into the StoryCorps Archive and the Library of Congress, and you can also keep the file on your own phone.
- FamilySearch Memories: download item by item, and in the Family Tree app all memories of one ancestor at once.
- The Memory Palace: a full ZIP export on every plan, including the free one, and the family tree as GEDCOM. Our page what if we stop explains where your memories are stored (in the EU) and how the export works without us.
Whatever you pick: once a year, download the audio files and keep a copy in a second place, a computer or a drive in another house.
Which app suits which grandparent
- Likes to talk, and the family wants a book on the shelf: Remento.
- Likes to write, or a phone call is easier than an app: Storyworth, with phone stories on Color or Unlimited.
- There are small grandchildren: Tellus, for the illustrated children's books.
- One long conversation, side by side, and a public archive feels right: StoryCorps.
- The family tree is already on FamilySearch: FamilySearch Memories, so the voice sits on the ancestor's profile.
- The voice should stay with the photos, the family tree and the rest, privately, also in Dutch, German, French or Spanish: The Memory Palace.
- Not sure yet: start for free with the phone in your pocket and one question. You can always move the file later.
For a wider comparison, including Google Photos and FOREVER, read the best apps to keep family stories and photos together. For a closer look at the two best known, see Remento and its alternatives and Storyworth and its alternatives.
Sources
- Remento, home page: remento.co
- Remento, FAQ: remento.co/faq
- Storyworth, pricing: welcome.storyworth.com/storyworth-pricing
- Storyworth Help, when does my subscription end: help.storyworth.com/en_US/manage-account/when-does-my-subscription-end
- Tellus, pricing: tellus-yourstory.com/en/pricing
- StoryCorps, the StoryCorps App: storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-app
- StoryCorps, StoryCorps Connect: storycorps.org/participate/storycorps-connect
- StoryCorps DIY course, the StoryCorps App: diy.storycorps.org/courses/one-small-step-diy-participant-course/lessons/the-storycorps-app
- FamilySearch Memories: familysearch.org/en/memories
- FamilySearch Help Center, who can view Memories: familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/who-can-view-the-items-uploaded-to-memories
- FamilySearch Help Center, download items from Memories: familysearch.org/en/help/helpcenter/article/how-do-i-download-the-memories-photos-stories-documents-and-audio-files-about-my-ancestors
- The Memory Palace, plans: thememorypalace.ai/pricing