Documentation
A plain-English guide to how your automated check-in service works. No technical knowledge required.
You set a check-in interval
Choose daily, weekly, or monthly. At the end of each interval, Notenz sends you a reminder.
You check in
Click the link in the email (or the Telegram message). Your timer resets. Everything stays locked.
If you miss a check-in, escalation begins
Example below uses a 7-day grace period. Your actual timeline depends on the grace period you set in Settings.
Vault executes
Only after your full check-in interval plus grace period passes with no response. Your encrypted notes and files are delivered to your recipients.
🔒 Your messages are locked away
When you write a note, Notenz scrambles it immediately, so nobody (not even Notenz staff) can read it. Think of it like putting a letter in a sealed safe. Only when your vault executes is it unlocked and sent to your loved ones.
📧 Your recipients confirm their email first
When you add someone as a recipient, they receive a short email asking them to click a button. This one-time step tells their email provider to trust messages from Notenz, so when the real delivery arrives one day, it lands in their inbox rather than their spam folder.
📬 Delivery when it matters
When your vault executes, each person you chose receives the messages you wrote for them, delivered directly to their email and ready to read.
This optional feature is for people who want an extra layer of protection. Instead of one person receiving your full secret message, it gets split between your selected recipients, like tearing a letter into pieces. No single piece makes sense on its own, but any 2 of your recipients can put their pieces together to read it.
Think of it like a safety deposit box that takes any 2 keys
Imagine a safety deposit box at a bank where you've cut several keys and given one to each of your trusted contacts, but the box only needs any two of those keys to open. No single person can open it alone, and it doesn't have to be one specific pair: any two of your trusted contacts can meet up and open it together. Notenz works the same way, just digitally.
What each recipient receives
An email containing their own share of the secret, which looks like a long jumble of letters and numbers. On its own, it is completely unreadable and meaningless. This is intentional.
Why "any 2" matters
If you split a secret between 3 or more people, any 2 of them can combine their shares to read it. It doesn't matter which two. So if you lose touch with one trusted contact, the other two can still unlock it together, and no single person can ever read it alone.
Each recipient receives their own email from Notenz. Each email contains their share of the secret: a long code.
One recipient selects all the code in their email and copies it (like copying a phone number: select all, then copy).
Any other recipient does the same, copying their share from their own email.
Both open notenz.com/reconstruct/ in a web browser. No account or login needed.
Each person pastes their own share into one of the two boxes on the same screen. It doesn't matter which box, and it doesn't matter which two recipients are doing it.
Click "Reconstruct Secret". For a text message, the original message appears on screen, with no data sent back to Notenz. For a file, the browser automatically starts the download, and Notenz decrypts and streams the file directly.
Files work slightly differently
When the secret is a file, Notenz doesn't split the file itself. Instead, it splits a short access token among your recipients. Any 2 of them still go through exactly the same steps above. The difference is the final result: instead of text appearing on screen, the file downloads automatically. The file is decrypted by Notenz only at that moment and streamed directly to the browser. The download link stays active for 90 days.
Why is this safe? (plain English version)
Notenz splits your secret into pieces using a well-established mathematical technique for sharing secrets, the same family of techniques used by banks and security teams to protect master encryption keys. Any 2 pieces can be combined to recover the original message, but a single piece (or even all the pieces minus one) reveals absolutely nothing about it. This isn't just hard to guess; it's mathematically impossible. Even if someone stole every file on Notenz's servers, the most they'd have is a single piece, which on its own tells them nothing.
Who should use this?
Anyone who wants to make absolutely sure no single person can act alone. For example, a business owner who wants any two of several family members or advisors to agree before accessing financial information, or someone who wants to split a password or account recovery code between several trusted people without relying on any one specific pairing.
No. When you write a note, it is scrambled into unreadable gibberish before it is saved. Notenz stores only that scrambled version, not the original words. Your message is unscrambled only at the moment it is sent to your recipients, and nobody at Notenz can read it in between.
You won't lose everything from one missed reminder. Notenz sends email and Telegram alerts together the moment you miss your check-in (SMS alerts coming soon). As long as you respond to any one of them, your vault stays locked.
When you add a recipient, they receive a confirmation email. Clicking "Confirm my email" trains their email client to trust the Notenz domain, so the real vault delivery email is far more likely to reach the inbox.
The confirmation email bounces or is never clicked, and your recipient shows as "Pending" in your dashboard with a Resend button. Fix the email and resend before it matters.
After your vault executes and your information is delivered, your vault content is retained for 30 days, giving you time to recall if it was accidental. After 30 days, all files and notes are permanently deleted from our servers and your account is closed. A minimal audit record (no vault content) is kept indefinitely as proof of delivery.
Two-Person Secret is a Pro plan feature. It requires at least two confirmed recipients, which is also Pro-only (Free plan is limited to one recipient). You can select more than two recipients for a single item, and any 2 of them will be able to combine their shares to read it.
When your vault executes, each recipient gets an email with a secure, personal download link. The file is decrypted only at the moment they download it, and Notenz never stores unencrypted files. The download link remains active for 90 days, so recipients can re-download as many times as needed within that window. After 90 days the link expires and the stored delivery copy is removed.
You have a 12-hour recall window (PRO only) after your vault executes. A recall link is sent to your registered email address immediately after execution. Clicking it invalidates all delivery links and blocks file downloads. Note: text note content is delivered via email and cannot be recalled, so recall is most effective for file attachments. After 12 hours, the window closes permanently.
Your account enters a "frozen" state with read-only access. You can view your vault and see your recipients, but cannot add or edit items. Your files and notes are retained for 30 days from the subscription expiry date, giving you time to renew. After 30 days without renewal, the account and all stored data are permanently deleted.
Yes. Your Activity Log is a tamper-proof timeline of every action on your account, including check-ins, vault changes, recipient confirmations, and vault execution events. It is immutable and cannot be edited, providing a clear record for your beneficiaries if needed.
Use Vacation Mode in your settings. Set a return date, and your vault will be paused until then: no reminders, no execution. You can also set a longer check-in interval (monthly) if you prefer a relaxed schedule.
Guardian (€6.99/mo or €63/yr) includes everything in Pro, plus:
Set up your vault in under 5 minutes. Free forever, no credit card required.
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