How If I'm Not Back works
Letters for the people you love, kept sealed and private while you answer our check-ins, and sent only once every safety step has passed.
3 minutes to read
If I'm Not Back keeps letters for the people who matter to you. You write them now, in your own words, and choose who gets each one. We check in with you on a rhythm you choose. As long as you answer, nothing is ever sent.
If you go quiet, we do not send anything at once. We try to reach you by email, text message and phone, ask the people you trust, and wait. Only when every step agrees, and a final check confirms it, do your letters go out.
What happens if you go quiet
Each step starts only when the one before it has ended without an answer from you. Your page shows the same steps on a timeline, with the dates for your own settings.
Check-in
When your rhythm comes round, we email you. One press on I'm here says you are fine and starts the next rhythm.
Time to answer
We wait for your answer for the time you set.
Reminders
Reminders go out by email and text message, spread over your reminder period.
Phone calls
We call you inside the hours you chose. Press 1 during the call and you are checked in.
Trusted people
If your settings ask for it, we ask the people you trust what they know. If one of them says you are fine, everything stops. See trusted people.
Final warnings
Last warnings on every channel during the final waiting period.
Final check
Every step must really have happened before anything is sent. Until then your letters stay sealed.
Letters delivered
Each letter goes to each of its recipients once, by email, text message or both. See what recipients get.
Your privacy
Your letters and their files are encrypted and stay sealed until they are delivered. The final check looks only at the steps, never at your words: when each message went out, whether it was delivered, and what your trusted people answered. Nobody reads your letters.
Please never put passwords, bank details or other secrets in a letter.
Questions
What if I am in hospital or travelling without signal?
Pause your check-ins before you go, for up to 90 days. If you could not, the chain takes days or weeks, depending on your settings, and any sign from you on the way stops it. Trusted people who know where you are can also say that you are fine.
Can a letter be sent by mistake?
Every step must pass first, each one waits for its time, and a final check confirms the whole chain before release. A message that could not be delivered, or a trusted person who says you are fine, stops the plan, and nothing is sent.
What if FuturePostman is down for a while?
Every running deadline moves later by the length of the outage. You never lose time because we were away.
Do the recipients know about the letters?
No. They hear nothing from us unless your letters are released. Only your trusted people, if you added any, get an email when you start, to ask if they accept.
Can I change my letters later?
Yes. While all is well, or while check-ins are paused, you can write, change and delete letters, recipients, trusted people and settings at any time.
- Set up your If I'm Not Back planFrom the first page to a running plan: choose your rhythm, confirm your phone, write your letters, add trusted people if you like and pick a pass.
- Check-ins and safety stepsHow often we check in, how to answer, how to pause, and what each safety step does before any letter can be sent.
- In the appIf I'm Not BackOpen your plan.