The lanternThe technology keeping The Wick and Lamplighter alight
Start with either
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Start with either

It carriesAs designed

What a lantern carries.

When someone who uses The Wick works with someone who uses Lamplighter, lanterns go both ways between sessions. Each one is sent on purpose, and each one says who sent it.

Both ways

From the person, in The Wick

01A lantern, any time.Marked Urgent, Important, both or neither, with room to say why. Urgent ones reach the lamplighter first.
02The weekly lantern.The Wick drafts it from the week, using a template from a lens. The person reviews it and sends it, or turns on sending it for them.
03When it can’t wait.If something shouldn’t wait for the weekly lantern, The Wick stays with the person first, then suggests sending something now.

From the lamplighter, in Lamplighter

04Things sent in.A note, a practice, a check-in or a lens. Each shows in The Wick as set by the lamplighter, and the person can pause or remove it.
05A request to join.The lamplighter asks to join the person’s Wick chat. The person says yes or no and chooses how much of their recent entries to share.
06A request to transcribe.Only if everyone in the room says yes. No audio is kept. The lamplighter has 24 hours to finish their notes, unless the person gives more time. Then only the person has it.
A lantern to Ines
Flag it for Ines

Either, both or neither.

Why is it urgent?

The drive is tomorrow and I think I’m going to cancel. I’d like to talk before I decide.

Ines sees urgent lanterns first. She isn’t on call. If you’re in danger, call or text 988 in the US, or your local emergency number.

What’s in it
  • Tonight’s conversation
  • Your notes this week

Removed by you

Send to Ines
Invented example, shown as designed. Try the flags.
Up close

A lantern looks like a lantern.

In either app, the lantern opens its own boxed room, and only for lantern jobs. The Wick and Lamplighter stay rounded, as siblings.

The barLamplight across the top means a lamplighter is involved, like the bar that shows your screen is being shared. It appears for lantern jobs and nothing else.
The boxAnything the lantern carries between you is a framed box, in either app: a lantern, a request.
The glassA lens is never boxed. It’s rounder than either app, and glass, because it changes how the light falls, not what’s in the room.
CobaltWhat the person chose, Urgent and Important included, in The Wick’s color.
Their wordsSet as they wrote them, in the reading face.
RemovedShows that something was taken out, never what.
When it can’t wait

It stays with them first.

When The Wick sees something a lamplighter would want to know before the weekly lantern, it doesn’t hand the moment off. It slows down and stays with the person, then suggests sending something now. The person decides.

  • Support comes first, in the conversation they’re already having.
  • The suggestion is a question, and “Not now” is always there.
  • If they say yes, they still choose what goes in.
The WickOnly R. sees this

I can’t stop going over tomorrow. I don’t think I can do the drive.

That’s a lot to carry tonight. Let’s slow down first. What’s the part that feels heaviest right now?

Saying it out loud to him. Every version ends badly.

You don’t have to settle it tonight. Ines would probably want to know about this before Thursday. Would it help to send her something now?

A lantern to Ines
Start a lanternNot now
Invented example, shown as designed.
Ines would like to join this conversation
What can Ines see while she’s here?

Ines sees only what’s said from now on, and nothing from before.

Let Ines inNot now
Invented example, shown as designed. Try the choices.
A request to join

Let them in, or don’t.

A lamplighter can ask to join the person inside The Wick. The request arrives boxed, through the lantern, and the person chooses whether to accept and how much of their recent entries to share.

  • With a lamplighter in the room, The Wick answers only from what was shared.
  • When the lamplighter leaves, the person keeps the chat, and what they shared goes back with them.
  • The lamplight bar stays on screen the whole time.
A request to transcribe

Transcripts, with everyone’s yes.

A session can be transcribed only if everyone in the room agrees. No audio is kept. The lamplighter has 24 hours with the transcript to finish their notes, unless the person gives more time. Then it goes to the person’s Wick, and only they have it.

From Ines, your lamplighter
Transcribe this session?
  • Nothing is recorded. No audio is kept.
  • Ines can use the transcript for up to 24 hours to finish her notes. After that, only you have it, in your Wick.
  • While it transcribes, a speech service and the model hear the session.
  • Everyone in the room has to say yes.
Yes, transcribeNo
NextLensesHow the lantern brings a practice into both apps.