Sober Mode is the second way to use AlcoLog, for when your goal is to stop drinking. Instead of logging drinks, Home counts your alcohol-free days, asks for a ten-second check-in each evening, and gives you a breathing screen for the moments that are hard. Your History stays exactly as it was, and you can switch back to Tracking Mode at any time.
Sober Mode is free. The mode, the check-ins, the craving screen, milestones, the savings card, its alerts and three of its widgets need no subscription. The only Premium parts are noted in Steps 10, 11 and 13.
# Step 1. Turn on Sober Mode
During onboarding. On What brings you here?, pick Quit entirely (it’s marked Turns on Sober Mode). AlcoLog then asks When was your last drink? and Why are you stopping? (your answers become motivational notes). The Two modes, one swipe screen shows both modes, and the last button reads Start Sober Mode.
Later, from Home. Swipe across the Home screen. The other page shows A look at Sober Mode: your own history counted as alcohol-free days, with nothing changed yet. Tap Turn on Sober Mode.
Later, from Settings. Go to Settings > App Mode (the Your Mode row) and tap the Sober Mode row or turn on the Sober Mode switch. Choosing Quit entirely under Settings > Goal does the same thing.
If a drinking session is running, AlcoLog asks End your session? first. Tap End and Continue: a session with drinks in it is saved to History, and an empty one is not kept.
# Step 2. Tell AlcoLog when your last drink was
The setup screen asks When was your last drink? Your count starts the day after.
- If you’ve logged drinks before, Use my last logged drink shows that date. Tap it to use it.
- Otherwise pick Today, Yesterday or Earlier (Earlier opens a date picker).
The card below the choices shows the result before you commit: a number of days alcohol-free, Today is day 1, or Day 1 is tomorrow. Tap Continue, choose whether you want an evening reminder (Remind me each evening, with a time), then tap Turn on Sober Mode.
# Step 3. Read your count
Home now leads with a ring showing your alcohol-free days, with today’s date and a Craving button above it.
- The count is completed days. Today is still in progress, so it’s added once it’s over. If you answered Yesterday, the ring reads 0 with Today is day 1. underneath, and shows 1 tomorrow.
- Tap the ring to switch between days, hours, and days to go until your next milestone.
- The week row under the ring shows your last seven days: a face for each check-in, a small mug for a day with a drink, and a dashed circle for an alcohol-free day with no check-in yet.
To change the day your count starts, go to Settings > App Mode and set Alcohol-free since. If you check in a day as alcohol-free that falls just before your start date, the count moves back to include it.
A day stays on the calendar date where you marked it. If you travel across time zones, your check-ins and marked days don’t move to a different date.
# Step 4. Check in each evening
Tap Check in for today. The sheet asks three things:
- How was today? Pick a face: Awful, Low, Okay, Good or Great.
- Alcohol-free today? Tap Yes (or I had a drink, covered in Step 8).
- A short writing prompt with a note field (A line or two, or leave it blank). Tap Another for a different prompt. The note is optional.
Tap Check in. Home changes to Checked in, and tonight’s reminder is turned off. Tap Edit on that card to change it.
Missed a day? Tap any of the six earlier days in the week row to check it in. If you logged drinks on that day in Tracking Mode, the sheet shows what you logged instead of asking, and you can still add a mood and a note.
To send your check-in moods to Apple Health as State of Mind entries, turn on Moods to Apple Health in Settings > App Mode. See How to Sync with Apple Health.
# Step 5. Ride out a craving
Tap Craving at the top of Home. The Ride it out screen opens with a breathing circle: four seconds in, four seconds out, with gentle haptics you can feel as well as see. A timer in the corner shows how long you’ve been at it.
- The row of buttons under the circle picks one of five music loops, or silence.
- Below that you’ll see Your motivational notes and, once you have some, What helped before: notes from your good check-in days.
When the moment has passed, tap I’m through it. AlcoLog confirms Logged in History: a craving you rode out, and the craving appears on that day in History. If you drank, tap I had a drink instead, which opens the screen in Step 8.
# Step 6. Reach your milestones
Milestones land at 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 60, 90 and 180 days, at one year, and every year after that. When you open Home on the day you reach one, a celebration screen names it (for example, One week alcohol-free), shows what you’ve saved if AlcoLog can work it out, and tells you when the next one is. Tap Share to send a picture of the card, or Done to close it.
Swipe the cards under the week row to see more:
- Next milestone: how far along you are, with the date you’ll get there.
- Saved since you stopped: money, calories and units. AlcoLog works these out from your last 90 days of logging before you started. If you didn’t log much, tap Add your usual week, enter a rough count and what you usually spent, and tap Save. You can choose which source to use in Settings > App Mode under Money Saved.
- AlcoScore: your alcohol-free days count toward it, just as they did before Sober Mode. See How to Understand Your AlcoScore.
If you have motivational notes, a Your Note card is there too.
# Step 7. See your record in History
In Sober Mode, tapping any past day in the History calendar opens that day’s details in one place: its check-in (mood, note, and what was going on), any cravings you rode out (Rode out a craving at and the time), any sessions, and a Sober day switch. Your check-in notes also appear in a list you can scroll through.
See How to Read Your Drinking History.
# Step 8. If you have a drink
Tap Had a drink? Tell AlcoLog. Nothing is erased. at the bottom of Home, or answer I had a drink in the check-in and tap Continue. You’ll see Thanks for telling us.
- What stays: every alcohol-free day is kept in History. Your best ever sober streak and your total alcohol-free days are shown on this screen and don’t change.
- What was going on? (optional): tap any that fit, such as Stress, Social, Celebrating, Tired, Bored or Craving.
- What did you have? (optional): Add what you had adds a session to History, counted in your AlcoScore. If you skip it, only the not-sober mark is saved.
Tap Start a fresh count. Here’s exactly what happens: today is marked not sober in your History calendar, and your current count starts again from zero, with Day 1 is tomorrow. Home says Today is logged for the rest of the day.
Tapped it by mistake? Until midnight, Tapped this by mistake? Undo on the Home card puts your count back.
Marking an earlier day as a drinking day (from the week row) never restarts your count on its own. That day just shows as a drinking day in History.
# Step 9. Set your Sober Mode alerts
Open the Alerts tab. While Sober Mode is on, it shows a Sober Mode section:
- Evening check-in: a reminder at 9:00 PM by default. Change the time underneath. It stays quiet on days you’ve already checked in. Turning it off only stops the notification; you can still check in on Home.
- Milestones: a note on the morning you reach one.
- Morning pledge: off by default. When on, it sends “Today, I’m choosing not to drink.” at 8:00 AM, or a time you choose.
Under Motivational Reminders, Motivational note alerts sends one of your own notes on the days and at the time you set. AlcoLog suggests these from when your sessions used to start (an hour earlier), or Friday and Saturday at 6:30 PM if there’s nothing to go on.
Logging reminders, hydration reminders, location triggers and consumption alerts are hidden while Sober Mode is on. They come back as they were when you turn it off. See How to Set Up Alerts and Notifications.
# Step 10. Add a Sober Mode widget
Three widgets show your count and your week: Sober Days on the Lock Screen, Sober Progress (medium) and Sober Dashboard (large) on the Home Screen. All three are free. The older small Sober Streak widget needs Premium. See How to Use Widgets and Live Activities.
# Step 11. Use Sober Mode on Apple Watch
The AlcoLog Watch app needs Premium. While Sober Mode is on, the Watch shows your alcohol-free days and your week, with Craving and Notes buttons. Craving opens Ride it out on your wrist: tap the circle to start or pause, and the time you spend is logged in History on your iPhone. Scroll down for what you’ve saved. The complications Sober Days, Sober Corner, Sober Week and Sober Info put your count on the watch face. See How to Use AlcoLog on Apple Watch.
# Step 12. Switch back to Tracking Mode
Swipe across Home to A look at Tracking Mode and tap Switch to Tracking Mode, or turn off the Sober Mode switch in Settings > App Mode. Confirm with Turn Off.
Drink logging comes back and your goal changes to Build sober days. Your check-ins, streaks and notes stay, and History shows everything. To pick a different goal instead, go to Settings > Goal. See How to Set and Change Your Goal.
# Step 13. Export your Sober Mode record
Go to Settings > Data & Privacy and find Export Data. While Sober Mode is on, your export includes your Sober Mode record: each day, your check-ins and the cravings you rode out. The PDF also lists the milestones you’ve reached.
- Free: Export CSV includes your 10 most recent Sober Mode days.
- Premium: every day since you started, plus Export PDF, a formatted report you can share.