CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — November 28, 2025 — In a state known for passing stories down through generations, a new West Virginia–built app is taking aim at a very 2025 problem: we’re capturing more moments than ever, but spending less and less time actually living them.
Heirloom: Capture What Matters, a mobile app created in Clarksburg, is designed to let people document their lives without posting to social media — and without the endless, anxiety-inducing scroll that usually follows. [1]
The app was spotlighted this week by local station WBOY 12 News in a segment titled “WV ‘Heirloom’ app launched to encourage disconnecting from social media,” later distributed nationally via Yahoo’s tech and news platforms. [2]
A local startup taking on a global social media problem
The launch of Heirloom lands at a moment when Americans are rethinking their relationship with their phones and feeds.
- A new poll from the American Psychiatric Association released this year found that 50% of U.S. adults say they’ve actively cut back on social media use in 2025, even though 62% report feeling anxious without their phones. [3]
- Globally, the typical internet user now spends around 2 hours and 20+ minutes a day on social platforms — a sizeable slice of waking life devoted to scrolling. [4]
- Just this week, a new health study reported that taking a one‑week break from social media was associated with lower anxiety, depression and better sleep, reinforcing calls for healthier digital habits. [5]
- At the same time, a fresh survey highlighted in People magazine shows more than half of Americans feel lonely or emotionally disconnected, with loneliness closely tied to stress, fatigue and depression. [6]
For many people, social media has quietly turned into a personal archive — photos, notes, milestones — but that archive lives inside an attention economy that’s constantly trying to pull us back in. That’s the tension Heirloom is built to address.
On its website and app store listings, the team behind Heirloom frames the problem bluntly: it has never been easier to document life, but staying present while you live it is getting harder. [7]
What is Heirloom and how does it work?
Heirloom describes itself as a private, personal feed for your real life — something that looks familiar to anyone who has used Instagram or Facebook, but is built for an audience of one: you. [8]
Instead of posting to followers, users capture “Moments” inside the app. A recent WBOY segment explains that people can tap a “Create a moment” button to save something they want to remember — typically by snapping or adding a photo and pairing it with a short note. Those entries live in Heirloom’s private timeline rather than on a public social network. [9]
According to its Google Play and Apple App Store descriptions, the app currently offers: [10]
- A familiar social-media-style interface, but private
You scroll a feed of your own Moments, just like any other app — but there are no public likes, comments or follower counts. - Powerful search for your life
Heirloom lets users find old memories by date, free‑text search and tags, making it easier to track down a specific trip, milestone or ordinary Tuesday. - Daily “Featured Moments”
Each day, the app surfaces a past memory to revisit, encouraging people to reflect on their own stories rather than on strangers’ highlight reels. - Cloud backup
Moments are stored in the cloud, so they can be accessed from different devices. - A privacy‑first stance
Both the website and Google Play listing emphasize that Heirloom does not sell user data to advertisers and is designed as a private journal, not an ad‑driven social network. [11]
On Android, Google’s data safety panel notes that the app may collect personal information and photos or videos to power its core features, but it reports no data shared with third parties and gives users the ability to request data deletion. [12]
Built in Clarksburg, designed for anyone who’s tired of doomscrolling
Behind Heirloom is Heirloom LLC, a small company registered in Clarksburg, West Virginia. State business filings list Andrew Walker as both manager and organizer of the LLC and of the tradename “Heirloom App.” [13]
Posts from a West Virginia startup accelerator highlight Walker as the app’s founder and note that he has spent more than 15 years working in and around social media, studying how people actually use platforms like Facebook and Instagram in their daily lives. [14]
One insight kept coming up: across ages and backgrounds, people use social platforms as a personal log of their lives — even if the constant engagement, comparison and algorithmic noise make them feel worse.
Heirloom tries to keep the useful parts of that experience — an easy place to save photos, milestones and everyday moments — and strip out everything else: the ads, the arguments in the comments, the pressure to craft a perfect public image.
Features coming soon: “On This Day” and shared memories
The team is also using the launch to preview a roadmap that leans into memory‑keeping and family storytelling.
According to Heirloom’s site and app store pages, upcoming features include: [15]
- “On This Day” memories
A daily throwback that resurfaces posts from the same date in past years, similar to what people are used to seeing on Facebook — but again, only for the user (or people they choose). - Optional sharing and legacy tools (Premium)
Users will be able to selectively share specific Moments with family members and friends, or even “pass down” memories so loved ones can access them in the future. - Expanded cloud storage (Premium)
For people who use Heirloom as a long‑term life journal or photo log, paid plans will add more storage.
That focus on family and legacy is already resonating with early users. In a recent App Store review, one user called Heirloom a “unique way to chronicle your life” and said they’d love to have their parents use it so they could learn more about them — exactly the kind of inter‑generational storytelling the app is aiming for. [16]
Part of a wider push toward healthier tech habits
Heirloom’s launch is not happening in a vacuum. Around the world, there are signs that people — especially younger users — are getting more intentional about how they use their phones.
- An American Psychological Association article reviewing recent research found that limiting daily social media use led to measurable improvements in young adults’ mental health, including reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms. [17]
- A global poll this year reported that about half of adults have already cut down on social media usage, even as many still rely on their phones for information and support. [18]
- A July survey of children and teens in multiple countries found that around 40% of 12‑ to 15‑year‑olds are now taking self‑imposed breaks from digital devices to protect their mental health — an 18‑percentage‑point jump since 2022. [19]
- Media analysis using global tracking data suggests that daily social media use has actually fallen by nearly 10% since 2022, especially among teens and young adults, as many report fatigue with low‑quality, “dopamine‑heavy” feeds. [20]
All of this lines up neatly with what Heirloom is betting on: a growing audience of people who still want the convenience of a digital life log, but don’t want to be tethered to traditional social media to get it.
Who Heirloom is for
Although the app is in its early days — Android analytics sites say the APK has only been available for a few weeks and downloads are still in the dozens, not thousands [21] — Heirloom is clearly positioning itself for several kinds of users:
- People on a digital detox
If you’ve deleted Instagram or X but miss having a simple place to save photos and notes, Heirloom gives you that without the temptation to “just check the feed.” - Parents and grandparents who want to leave a record
With upcoming sharing and legacy features, the app is courting families who want to pass down stories, not just shoeboxes of fading prints. - Journaling fans who hate blank pages
The familiar, feed‑style interface can be less intimidating than a blank notebook; snapping a photo and adding a couple of lines may be easier than sitting down to write a full entry. - Anyone living through big life changes
Moves, health journeys, new jobs, grief, recovery — many people already build private “photo dumps” of these seasons inside their camera roll. Heirloom gives that instinct structure and search.
Crucially, the app doesn’t pretend to eliminate screens from daily life. Instead, it asks a subtler question: if you’re going to pick up your phone anyway, what are you opening — a public feed built to keep you scrolling, or a private space that helps you remember your own story?
How to download Heirloom
As of today, Heirloom: Capture What Matters is available on both major mobile platforms:
- Android (Google Play) – Listed under Lifestyle, with the description emphasizing documenting life without distractions and a privacy‑first approach. [22]
- iOS (Apple App Store) – Available in multiple regions and languages, with the same core feature set and privacy notes indicating that the app may collect an email address and user content (photos/videos) to support its functionality. [23]
The company’s website, GetHeirloom.app, also links directly to both stores and reiterates the app’s core promise in four simple words: “Your life is worth remembering.” [24]
The bigger picture
Heirloom is still a small, local startup — built out of Clarksburg, refined in an accelerator cohort, and boosted this week by coverage from a regional TV station. But the problem it’s trying to solve is enormous and global.
If recent research holds, more of us will be experimenting with week‑long social media breaks, cutting back on doomscrolling and looking for ways to feel less lonely and more grounded. [25]
Whether Heirloom becomes the go‑to app for that shift remains to be seen. But its existence is one more sign that the next phase of digital life may be less about chasing attention — and more about quietly, carefully remembering our own.
References
1. play.google.com, 2. tech.yahoo.com, 3. www.psychiatry.org, 4. datareportal.com, 5. www.upi.com, 6. people.com, 7. play.google.com, 8. play.google.com, 9. tech.yahoo.com, 10. play.google.com, 11. play.google.com, 12. play.google.com, 13. apps.sos.wv.gov, 14. www.linkedin.com, 15. getheirloom.app, 16. apps.apple.com, 17. www.apa.org, 18. www.psychiatry.org, 19. www.theguardian.com, 20. www.ft.com, 21. www.appbrain.com, 22. play.google.com, 23. apps.apple.com, 24. getheirloom.app, 25. www.upi.com
