● Lumen · for ADHD, autistic & AuDHD minds

Help that doesn't shout.

Lumen is a small companion that lives in an app on your phone. It remembers what you tell it, walks you through your routines, and follows through on reminders — calmly, predictably, and only as loudly as you want.

Join the waitlist How it works

Placeholder Lumen — 3D character design in progress.

Built for ADHD · Autistic · AuDHD adults

Platform iOS first, Android to follow

Status Closed cohort · waitlist open

Data Local-first on device

§ 01 · Why we're building this

Most reminder apps were designed by people who don't need them.

They assume you'll see the notification. That you'll act on it. That a single ping is enough. They assume you have a steady working rhythm, that your sensory baseline is the same as everyone else's, and that "a little personality" makes them more engaging — not more exhausting.

We don't think any of that holds up if you have ADHD. Or if you're autistic. Or if you're both, which most of us are, even when nobody told us.

Lumen is built around a different set of assumptions.

01 One ping is not always enough — and sometimes one is too many.
02 Personality should be a setting, not a default.
03 Routines aren't templates. They're how you survive Tuesdays.
04 A companion should be predictable, not surprising.
05 Help that overwhelms isn't help.

§ 02 · Principles

These are load-bearing, not aesthetic.

Every decision in Lumen — visual, behavioural, technical — comes back to one of these. They're listed first, so you know what you're getting.

01
Configurable everything.

Animation, sound, voice persistence, language style, reminder pacing — all of it. Defaults are calm. You opt up, never the other way around.
02
Predictability over surprise.

Lumen walks out of its house. It doesn't just appear. Behaviours are announced. No "delightful" randomness unless you ask for it.
03
Literal language, if you want it.

A toggle for plain, direct speech. Lumen won't get cute about your 3 PM appointment unless you've told it that's welcome.
04
Persistent, with a ceiling.

Reminders escalate until you acknowledge them. They also stop when you say "I'm in flow" — and they never run away in the background.
05
Sensory-safe by default.

No flashing. No strobing. No sounds without your permission. The OS reduce-motion setting is honoured before you open the app.
06
No surprise emotional demands.

Lumen won't ask how you're feeling unless you've said it's welcome. Check-ins are opt-in and scheduled, not sprung.

I don't need an assistant. I need something that remembers what I forgot to remember — and doesn't make a big deal of it.

From early user interviews

§ 03 · How it works

Four things, well.

Lumen is not trying to be every app on your phone. It does a small number of things, and it tries to do them in a way you can rely on.

Photo A bedroom in soft morning light, with sheer curtains diffusing the sun and a phone resting on a side table.

No. 01

Reminders that follow through.

Tell Lumen, by voice or text, what you need to do and when. It schedules the whole escalation ladder up front — so even if you close the app, lose service, or your phone falls asleep, the reminders still arrive. They stop the moment you say done. They also stop the moment you say "I'm in flow", which is the part most apps forget about.

The escalation has a ceiling you set yourself. Once is once. Persistent is persistent. Never an open-ended pile-up.

Photo An uncluttered wooden desk with a mug of coffee and a small open notebook, warm afternoon light across the surface.

No. 02

Routines you can run on autopilot.

Define a morning routine, a shutdown routine, a transition between activities. Lumen learns the steps and walks you through them — slowly, in order, at your pace. Skip a step and it keeps going. Tell it to pause and it pauses. Tell it tomorrow looks different and it adapts without losing the rest of the routine.

Routines are how some of us survive Tuesdays. We treat them as load-bearing infrastructure, not as a feature.

Photo An open paper notebook with handwriting in pen, photographed from above on a warm wooden surface.

No. 03

Memory you can trust.

Tell Lumen something once — your pharmacist's name, your sister's wedding date, the way you like meetings framed — and it remembers. Recallable in plain conversation. Editable in plain settings. Stored locally on your device, not on someone else's server.

Nothing about you is sold, shared, or used to train a model. The whole memory layer is yours.

Photo A hand holding a smartphone gently, with the screen glowing warm against an out-of-focus interior background.

No. 04

Voice that doesn't get lost.

Lumen listens, processes on-device where it can, and replies in a voice you chose. Pick from a few we ship with, use your system default, or upgrade to a richer voice later. Quiet hours are honoured. Sounds are previewable before they're live. You can turn the whole audio layer off and Lumen still works.

Voice should be an option, not an obligation. Some days you want it. Other days you don't.

§ 04 · What it sounds like

Tuned to you, not the other way around.

The same reminder, three settings. Lumen's language style is a slider, not a personality. Pick where you want it and change your mind any time.

Literal plain, direct, no flourishes

“Your 3 PM reminder: cash the check at the bank.”

No idioms. No jokes. Says it once, clearly.
Balanced friendly, but to the point

“Hey Karin — reminder at 3 PM. Cash the check at the bank.”

A little warmth. No detour through small talk.
Playful casual, light wordplay welcome

“Hey Karin — check-cashing time. Bank's calling your name.”

For people who find the playful tone reassuring.

· Retune on the fly

Tell Lumen the setting was wrong — in plain English.

Lumen confirms what changed so you know it landed. No menu trip, no settings hunt, no second-guessing whether you said the magic words.

You
“You're being too chatty.”

Lumen
“Got it — dialling it back. Tell me when you want it warmer again.”
You
“Stop walking around. You're distracting me.”

Lumen
“Staying put. I'll let you know when something needs you.”
You
“I'm in flow — hold reminders.”

Lumen
“Holding all non-critical reminders. The 3 PM bank one is still on — say so if I should hold that too.”

Placeholder Lumen — 3D character design in progress. Voice, gait, and proportions are being designed with our research cohort.

§ 05 · The character

A small character, by design.

Lumen is animated, but it isn't trying to be your friend. It's a small visual presence — something to look at, something to tap on when you need a fidget, something that wanders out of a little house to deliver a reminder and tucks itself back when you tell it to go to bed.

You can ask it to hold still. You can ask it to be invisible. You can pick the voice. You can rename it. The default state is calm and out of the way.

In the house low-power, out of sight, available on tap
Walking out announced transition — no sudden appearance
Idle on screen still by default, animation intensity up to you
Tap-to-fidget smooth, repeatable, no surprises
Delivering voice + visual presence, gentle haptic option
Back to bed one phrase: "go to bed" — Lumen tucks itself in

§ 06 · Questions

Things people ask.

Do I need to be diagnosed to use Lumen?

No. Lumen is designed around neurodivergent patterns — sensory load, executive function dips, routine reliance, hyperfocus, persistent reminders that don't drift into the background. If standard reminder apps either feel too pushy or are too easy to ignore, Lumen is probably for you. A diagnosis isn't a gate.

Is my data private?

Conversations, reminders, learned facts, routines, and your full profile live locally on your device by default. LLM requests pass through our proxy without your account credentials attached. We don't sell your data, share it, or use it to train a model. The full privacy posture will be documented before the first cohort ships.

Why iOS first?

Apple's reminder, background execution, and voice constraints are the strictest of any platform. If we make the reminder ladder, voice round-trip, and Live Activity presence all work cleanly under those constraints, Android becomes a port rather than a rebuild. We're aiming to start Android development a few months behind the iOS launch.

How loud is the bot, really?

At default settings: text-only, stationary, no sounds, no proactive check-ins, no voice. You opt up from there. Everything sensory or social — animation intensity, voice, sound, persistence, check-ins — is configurable and previewable before you turn it on.

What happens if I'm mid-hyperfocus?

Tell Lumen "I'm in flow" (by voice or text) and it holds all non-critical reminders until you release the hold. Critical reminders — anything you've flagged that way — still come through, with an explicit confirmation that they did. The bot acknowledges every hold so you know it landed.

When does it ship?

A small first cohort goes out later in 2026. Subsequent cohorts open as we work through feedback. The waitlist is ordered, and we'll be transparent about where you sit in the line.

I'm a designer, researcher, or clinician — can I help?

Yes, please. There's a field on the waitlist form for what you do and how you'd like to be involved. We pay our research participants and credit anyone whose feedback shapes the product.

Is Lumen meant to replace therapy or medical support?

No. Lumen is a daily-living tool. It's built to help with the executive function, sensory, and routine parts of how you operate. It is not a substitute for clinical care and we'll never market it as one.

§ 07 · Join

Get on the list.

We're building Lumen in cohorts — small enough to listen, large enough to learn from. Tell us a little about how you'd use it and we'll be in touch when there's a seat.

Help that doesn't shout.

Configurable everything.

Predictability over surprise.

Literal language, if you want it.

Persistent, with a ceiling.

Sensory-safe by default.

No surprise emotional demands.