Each time you start a session, AlcoLog shows you one line of motivation: either a quote from a collection of 31, or one of your own motivational notes. Your note then stays on Home for the whole session as a reminder of why you’re tracking. This tutorial covers writing your notes, collecting and curating the quotes, and choosing the mix.
# Step 1. Open Quotes & Motivational Notes
Tap the Settings tab, then tap Quotes & Motivational Notes. The screen has two cards: Quote Collection at the top and Motivational Notes below.
Quote Collection shows Collect them all! with a counter (for example 12 / 31) and a progress bar. A new quote appears each time you start a session, and the counter goes up as you see new ones. Below it is a Show Quotes switch.
Motivational Notes shows Your Notes with how many you’ve written against your slots, a Show Motivational Notes switch, the Motivational Note Chance picker, and a Manage Notes button.
At least one of Show Quotes and Show Motivational Notes has to stay on, so there’s always something to show when you start a session.
# Step 2. Write your own notes
Tap Manage Notes. The Motivational Notes screen lists your notes, numbered. Tap Add Note to add one and type your own line, up to 120 characters, then tap Save. If you save an empty note, AlcoLog keeps the suggestion shown in the field instead.
Free users can save up to 5 notes; Premium gets 10 slots. A few notes come pre-filled so you’re never starting from nothing; they’re marked Pre-filled and don’t take a slot. The counter under the list shows how many slots you’ve used.
Each note has a row of actions:
- Edit: change the text.
- Hide (or Show): takes a note out of rotation without deleting it, so you can bring it back later.
- Show in: choose Both modes, Tracking only, or Sober Mode only. Useful if a note only makes sense while you’re drinking less, or only while you’re not drinking at all.
- Delete: removes the note for good, after a confirmation.
# Step 3. Collect and curate the quotes
The quote counter fills up as you see new quotes at the start of your sessions. There’s also a hidden golden quote waiting to be found.
Once you’ve seen all 31, tap Open Reward to claim the collection. Premium users can open it straight away. After that, the button becomes Quote Manager.
In Quote Manager, every quote is listed with its number, text and author. Tap a quote to hide it (the eye icon turns into a slashed eye) and it won’t appear when you start a session. Tap it again to bring it back. At least one quote must stay visible. Hidden quotes count as seen on the collection counter, so hiding one never keeps you from the reward.
On Home, once the collection is open, the quote card shows which quote you’re looking at (for example “Quote 4 of 31”); tap that to jump back to this screen.
# Step 4. Tune the mix
Back on Quotes & Motivational Notes, the Motivational Note Chance picker sets how often a note appears instead of a quote when you start a session. It runs from 10% to 100% in steps of 10, and the default is 50%.
Set it to 100% to always see one of your notes, or lower it for more quotes. To see only quotes, turn Show Motivational Notes off instead. To see only notes, turn Show Quotes off.
# Step 5. Where they appear
- Home, at the start of a session. The quote or note picked for this session appears on Home. A note stays for the whole session; tap Next Note on its card to cycle through your other notes.
- Apple Watch. Start a session on the Watch and the quote or note shows on the wrist first, and your iPhone shows the same one. It closes by itself after about 5 seconds; touch it or turn the Digital Crown and it stays until you tap Skip.
- Notifications, if you turn on Motivational note alerts under Motivational Reminders in Alerts. These send your notes, not the quotes, and pick a different random note each time.
- The Your Note widget, if you add it to your Home Screen (see widgets and Live Activities).
In Sober Mode there are no sessions, so your notes work differently: they show on Home, when a craving hits, and as alerts on the evenings you used to drink (see using Sober Mode). Notes set to Tracking only are marked Not shown in Sober Mode there.
# What’s next
The wider alerts and notifications tutorial covers what else fires during a session. For how the app looks and feels, see customizing display, haptics, and session control.