Here’s Request a Moment from the receiving end. A message turns up from a daughter or a cousin with a question and a link: “What do you remember about the house on Station Street?” You tap it, answer on your phone, and that’s the whole job.
From the sending end, it’s a way to collect memories from family who are never going to download another app. You ask one question and send one link. They answer by voice, video, photo or a few written lines in their phone’s browser, and nothing goes into your story until you’ve seen it and said yes. Here’s how it works from both ends, including what to do when Uncle Pete says the link “doesn’t work”.
How to collect memories from family with one link
You can send a request from any story you own, once you’ve confirmed your email address. Only the owner can ask, so if you’re an Editor on your sister’s story, the request has to come from her.
- Start from the story. In the app, tap the Request tile in the story’s people row. On the web, use the Request a Moment button on the story.
- Pick a chapter, if you like, or leave it on Anywhere in the story.
- Write your question. On the web, Need ideas? suggests questions that suit the kind of story, and Add another question lets you ask up to eight at once. The phone sends one question per request.
- Choose the answer types on the web: Video, Voice, Photo and Written. Leave them all on (the phone app does that for you). Some people will happily talk for five minutes and refuse point-blank to be filmed.
- Choose One person or An event. One person gets a personal link; an event link comes with a QR code a room full of guests can scan.
- Send it however you normally would: text, email, WhatsApp. Copy message on the web (or Share with a message in the app) wraps the link in a ready-made line: “Hi Nan, it’s Sam. I’d love to hear your answer to this one…”
The link is shown only once, so copy it before you close the screen. If it goes missing, Get a new link to send in the phone app makes a fresh one and switches the old one off.
A personal link isn’t strictly for one person. It takes five answers by default and up to 20, so you can drop one link into the family group chat and collect voice messages from family without chasing each sibling separately. It stays open for 14 days by default, up to 90, and you can change both on the web. Recordings can run to five minutes: enough for most stories, and nearly enough for Dad’s directions to anywhere.
An event link takes 100 answers by default (up to 500), with recordings of up to 90 seconds, and on the web you can Download QR for printing. See how to collect wedding guest messages with one QR code.
What the person you asked sees
In a chat, the link preview says “{First name} asked you a question” over a generic picture. It doesn’t show the question, the story or any of your photos, which is handy in a group chat with 14 cousins in it. (If you used Copy message, the question is in the text of the message itself, so word it for the room.)
Tapping it opens a page in their phone’s browser. At the top it says “{First name} asked you”, with your question underneath and the name of the story it’s for. Then they choose how to answer, from the types you allowed: Leave a voice message (recorded right on the page), Write it down, Add a photo (camera or camera roll) or Record a video (opens the phone’s camera).
They type their name so you know who it’s from, and tap Send. Under the button, the page tells them no app or account is needed, and that you see their answer first and choose whether to add it. People tend to relax about a voice message once they know it isn’t going straight to the whole family.
Someone sent you a link?
Then there’s nothing to download. You can record a message without an app, straight from the page the link opens.
- Read the question and pick how to answer. Voice is the easy one: tap, talk, stop. The first time, your browser will ask to use the microphone, so tap Allow.
- Type your name and tap Send. Your answer goes to the person who asked, not to the group chat, and they decide whether it goes into their story.
- On Android, if you opened the link from Facebook or Messenger, the camera there may only take photos. Tap Open in Chrome on the page to record a video, or choose one you’ve already recorded. Voice and written answers work fine where you are.
- Thought of something else afterwards? While the link is still open, you can send another answer.
- If the page says the request has expired or is complete, ask whoever sent it for a new link.
- Already on A Moment With? If the person asking added your email, or picked you from their people in the app, the request also shows under Asked of me, in the app and on the web.
Reviewing what comes back
Answers wait on the Request a Moment page on the web (the phone app calls it Moment Requests). Play or read each one, then choose Add to story or Decline. There’s no approve-all button, so a wedding’s worth is a job for a cup of tea. Each request also shows how many people have opened the link, started an answer and sent one, which settles most “did you get my message?” conversations.
An answer you add becomes an ordinary moment in the story, credited to the name they typed. It counts towards your storage, not theirs, and only once you add it. Answering doesn’t make anyone a member of your story, so if you’d like Nan adding things herself, use Invite people (the Add tile on the phone) to add her as an Editor. She’ll need an A Moment With account for that; the free plan is fine.
Who sees an answer once it’s added
An added answer takes the story’s sharing setting:
- People: you, anyone you’ve added to the story, and your connections.
- Public (paid plans): anyone signed in to A Moment With who has the link. Public stories can also turn up in search inside the app.
- Private: the answer goes in as a Private moment, which means just you until you change it.
Like any moment you own, you can change an answer’s setting afterwards. The person who answered doesn’t automatically get to see it, or the story: they’ll see it later only if they’re already in that audience, say as one of your connections on a People story. Answers still waiting for you are seen by you alone, so in a group chat nobody sees anyone else’s reply. More on this in who can see your stories.
Good first questions
When you ask family for memories, ask for a scene, not a summary. “Tell me about your childhood” gets the short version. These do better:
- What did Christmas look like at your place when you were a kid?
- What was your first car, and where did it break down?
- Is there a recipe you make from memory? Talk me through it.
It’s a good way to ask grandparents questions remotely, too: send one, keep the rest for next month, and find plenty more in questions to ask your grandparents. For a milestone birthday, add the date in Upcoming and start the request from there. It fills in “Would you record a birthday greeting for {name}?” as one link that takes 20 answers. Send it to the family, not the birthday person (here’s the whole idea).
What it costs
The free plan includes 5 requests in total, enough to try it on the people you most want to hear from. Premium (from A$9.99 a month) and Legacy+ let you send as many as you like, and answering is always free. If you’re expecting a lot of video, watch your storage: the free plan has 0.5 GB, and a request is capped to what your plan has room for. Voice messages take far less space, and they’re often the better answer anyway. There’s more in how the plans compare.
So pick a story, think of one question you’d genuinely like answered, and send it to one person. If the first minute is about the weather, keep listening.
Prefer the app? Get A Moment With on the App Store or Google Play.
