A private alternative to Facebook for family updates
Short answer. If you want Facebook without Facebook, you want one private place for your updates, notes, photos and videos, where you choose who sees what. Dear Moment is built for this. Everything goes on one timeline. For each moment, you choose who sees it, and family open it from a private link with no app or account. There is no feed ranking, no ads, and no public profile. It costs $39.99/year after a 14-day free trial.
Tired of Facebook?
You open Facebook to see what your friends are up to. Instead you get suggested posts, AI-generated pictures, videos from strangers, and ads between everything. The posts you actually wanted to see get lost. That isn't an accident: Meta says your feed is "selected, ranked and delivered to you by an artificial intelligence (AI) system", and that it includes suggested content and ads (Meta Transparency Center).
And somewhere along the way, posting photos of your children there started to feel wrong, even with a locked-down friends list. You're right to feel that way.
Why Facebook is the wrong home for family photos
Your attention is what Facebook sells
Facebook is free because advertisers pay for it. Meta's own annual report says: "Substantially all of our revenue is currently generated from marketers advertising on Facebook and Instagram" (Meta 10-K, 2025). What you post, like and watch, and even what you do on other websites, helps Meta show you ads. Meta says businesses "share information about people's activity on their sites with us to make ads more relevant" (Meta, June 2026).
Your posts train Meta's AI
Since 2024, Meta has used "public posts and comments, or public photos and captions" from adults in the UK to train its AI, unless you fill in an objection form (Meta, September 2024). In the EU it also uses people's questions to Meta AI (Meta, April 2025). In most other countries, since December 2025, Meta uses your chats with its AI to choose the ads you see, with no way to opt out (Meta, October 2025; Reuters). Meta says it doesn't use private messages or the accounts of under-18s for AI training.
A long record of privacy fines
- $5 billion from the US Federal Trade Commission in 2019, after Cambridge Analytica: "the largest ever imposed on any company for violating consumers' privacy" (FTC).
- £500,000 from the UK Information Commissioner in 2018 over Cambridge Analytica, the maximum under the law at the time (TechCrunch).
- €1.2 billion from the Irish Data Protection Commission in 2023, for sending Europeans' data to the US (DPC).
- €251 million from the Irish Data Protection Commission in 2024, over a breach that affected about 29 million accounts (DPC).
- €200 million from the European Commission in 2025, for failing to offer a version of its service that uses less personal data (European Commission).
What you'd still want from Facebook
Leaving Facebook doesn't mean you stop wanting to share. Most people still want three things:
- Posts, not just photos. A line about something your child said. A paragraph about how the week felt. Some photos from a day out.
- Choosing the audience. Some things are for family, some for close friends, and some only for you.
- Looking back. Scrolling back to what you wrote years ago.
Dear Moment keeps these and drops the rest.
How Dear Moment works
One timeline for everything
A moment can be a photo or video, a written note, or a voice note, which is transcribed for you. A note needs no photo. Everything lands on one private timeline, sorted by date, so you can scroll back through your family's life.
You choose who sees each moment
Say your parents should see everything about the children, your close friends should see your trips, and both should see a birthday. In Dear Moment you post each moment once and choose who sees it: your parents, your friends, both, or nobody else. Each person sees only the moments you shared with them.
Many private apps can't do this. They share a whole album, group or journal, so everyone in it sees everything, and you end up with one group per audience and copies of the same post in each.
Family need no app and no account
Each person you share with gets a private link that opens in a browser. There is nothing to install and no password to remember. They can also get an email digest of new moments weekly, every two weeks or monthly, so grandparents don't have to check.
Private by design
There are no public profiles, no suggested content and no ads, and nobody can find you who you haven't invited. Dear Moment makes money from subscriptions only, so there is nobody to sell your attention to. Your memories are stored in the EU, never sold, and never used to train AI. You can revoke anyone's link at any time, and you can ask us to export everything and leave.
Dear Moment and Facebook, side by side
| Dear Moment | ||
|---|---|---|
| Who can see a post | Only people you invite; you choose for each moment | Public, Friends, Only me or Custom, for each post |
| What people see | Only the moments you shared with them, by date | A feed ranked by AI, with suggested content and ads |
| Family need an account | No; private link and email digest | Yes |
| How it makes money | Your subscription | Advertising: "substantially all" of Meta's revenue |
| Ads | None | Yes |
| AI training | Never used to train AI | Public posts, comments, photos and captions from UK adults, unless you object |
| Text-only posts | Yes, written or voice notes | Yes |
| Memories on the anniversary | Not yet | Yes, Memories |
| Price | $39.99/year after a 14-day trial; free for people you share with | Free |
What Dear Moment doesn't do yet
- Memories on the anniversary. You can scroll back through your timeline, but Dear Moment doesn't bring back old moments on their anniversary yet.
- Big photo dumps. One moment holds up to 10 photos and videos.
- Printed books. Photo books are coming soon.
- A free plan. There is a 14-day free trial, then a subscription. The people you share with never pay.
Other options
- Day One is a mature private journal with On This Day and end-to-end encryption. It shares whole journals, and family need a Day One account. See Dear Moment vs Day One.
- 23snaps is a private family feed with status updates and up to 20 photos per post. Each post goes to all your connections or only to your partner (23snaps help).
- FamilyAlbum is a free photo and video album with ads on the free plan. It is built around photos rather than notes. See Dear Moment vs FamilyAlbum.
More comparisons: Dear Moment vs Tinybeans vs FamilyAlbum vs TinyNest.
Questions
Is there a private version of Facebook for family?
Yes. Dear Moment is a private family timeline for posts, photos, videos and voice notes. Only the people you invite can see anything, you choose who sees each moment, and there is no feed ranking and no ads. Family open what you share from a private link, with no app or account.
Can I post text without a photo?
Yes. In Dear Moment a moment can be a written note or a voice note with no photo, as well as photos and videos.
Can I share different posts with different people?
Yes. In Dear Moment you choose who sees each moment, and each person sees only what you shared with them. You post once; there is no need to copy a post into separate groups or journals.
Does Dear Moment have something like Facebook Memories?
Not yet. Your moments stay on one timeline sorted by date, so you can scroll back through them, but Dear Moment does not bring back past memories on their anniversary yet. Day One's On This Day does this, if it matters most to you.
Does Facebook use my photos to train AI?
In the UK, Meta uses public posts, comments, photos and captions from adults to train its AI, unless you fill in an objection form. It says it does not use private messages or under-18s' accounts. Dear Moment never uses your memories to train AI, and nothing you save is public.
How much does Dear Moment cost?
$5.99/month or $39.99/year in the US, £5.99 or £39.99 in the UK, and €6.99 or €39.99 in euro countries, after a 14-day free trial. People you share with don't pay anything.
Sources
- Facebook: choosing an audience, Custom audience, Memories, how Feed is ranked, Meta 10-K for 2025, AI training in the UK, AI training in the EU, AI chats and ads
- Regulators: FTC 2019, Irish DPC 2023, Irish DPC 2024, European Commission 2025, UK ICO 2018 (TechCrunch)
- 23snaps: who can see a post, posting photos
- Dear Moment: pricing and FAQ, privacy policy, our team
Try Dear Moment free for 14 days. Then $5.99/month or $39.99/year. Cancel anytime before your trial ends and you won't be charged.