THAW
Write a note. Freeze it.
Whoever gets it has to thaw it.
Want to thaw a note? Thaw is free on TestFlight: write up to 140 characters, freeze them under frost or leaves, and warm the glass with a thumb until the words come through. Join the beta (version 1.0 (3); this invitation is good through January 19, 2027).
This build, tell us about: Could you read the note before you cleared the ice? · Did your thumb feel like it was melting the ice? · When you sent a note to a friend, did it open on their phone, still frozen?
Thaw is for iPhone. On iPhone Duo, the card sits on one screen and the choosing on the other.
HOW TO THAW
Write and freeze
Up to 140 characters on a cream card. Tap Freeze it and frost grows in over the words.
Warm it, crack it or scrape it
Hold a thumb on the glass and it melts in a soft circle; lift off and the frost creeps back. Tap to crack the ice. Swipe fast to scrape a band clear.
Read it
When enough is clear, the fog lifts, two soft notes ring and the words come through.
THE FROST, UP CLOSE
- Thaw it by thumb warmth, by cracking, or by scraping
- Tilt your iPhone and the meltwater runs downhill
- From October 15 to November 30, a second cover: a pile of cut-paper leaves to sweep away, with an acorn or a beetle sometimes underneath
- Share a picture of the frozen note and a link from the share sheet; the words travel inside the link
- A widget for the Home Screen and Lock Screen: tap it to warm the frost over the newest note you opened
- Soft sound and haptics as the ice clears
- No accounts, ads or tracking, and the app never connects to the internet
The frost is drawn by the app, never copied from a plate. Wilson A. Bentley spent forty years photographing snow crystals and window frost on black glass, and his public-domain photographs were our reference. They are kept by the NOAA Photo Library and the Library of Congress.
The leaves are cut from paper in four shapes you may know from a Texas yard: live oak, cedar elm, red oak and sycamore. Notes are set in American Typewriter, which comes with your iPhone, and every sound is made on the spot by the studio's own synthesizer.