A little help
along the way.

Open Settings and choose your last working day and progress start date. The last working day is included if it is an eligible workday. You can also change the holiday schedule, PTO goal and color palette.

The app uses Monday–Friday and removes enabled holidays and scheduled days off. The overall forecast also allows for time off you plan to take but have not scheduled yet. It is designed around eight-hour workdays.

The clock counts eligible working time from 9 AM to 5 PM in your device’s local time. It pauses outside those hours, on weekends, on holidays, and on scheduled PTO days. Each remaining working day contributes eight hours before the eligible part of the current day is accounted for.

On iPhone, open Calendar and tap a future workday. On Apple TV, open Months, focus a future workday, and select it with the remote. Select the day again to remove PTO. Changes recalculate the countdown.

No. The PTO goal covers the entire planning period. Scheduling days within that goal does not deduct them twice. If you schedule more days than your goal, the scheduled days are still taken into account.

Month totals subtract PTO assigned to specific dates. The overall forecast also includes the remaining time off in your PTO goal that has not yet been assigned to a month.

Open My Countdown and sign in through Apple using the same Apple Account you use for iCloud on your devices. Enable Countdown sync on iPhone and publish its plan first. The web preview currently connects to development builds; TestFlight and App Store plans use a separate environment. The demo does not need sign-in.

Tap calendar dates to toggle PTO, or edit Your plan and choose Apply to countdown. Choose Save to iCloud to send your changes to your devices. Keep the tab open until saving finishes. Unsaved edits are held only in this tab and are lost when it closes. The website checks for updates when you return and about once a minute while visible. If another device changed the plan, you can review both copies before saving.

1. Open Next Chapter at least once.
2. Touch and hold the iPhone Home Screen, choose Edit, then Add Widget.
3. Search for Next Chapter and choose a size.
4. Touch and hold the widget, choose Edit Widget, and select Days, Hours or Minutes.

iOS controls widget refresh timing, so a widget may update less frequently than the open app.

Yes. On My Countdown, choose Sharing → Invite people or manage access. On iPhone, use Settings → Sharing. Save and sync your own plan first. Apple’s sharing window lets you invite specific Apple Accounts with view-only access and remove access later.

The recipient signs in with their own invited Apple Account, opens Sharing and pastes the iCloud invitation link, then chooses Review invitation → Accept view-only invitation. Accepted countdowns appear under Shared with you. On an updated iPhone app, they can also tap the invitation link. Shared countdowns never replace their own plan. Dates, holidays and PTO are included; stories and recordings are excluded. Shared snapshots update after the owner syncs using an updated app or uses the website. Current development builds and the web preview must use the same iCloud environment.

Yes, when you enable Settings → Countdown sync on both devices. Start on iPhone and choose Use this iPhone’s plan. Then enable sync on Apple TV and choose the iPhone plan from iCloud. Use the same iCloud Apple Account on iPhone and Apple TV’s default user. Dates, holidays, PTO and colors sync; interviews and stories do not. Changes save locally while offline. Open the other app to receive updates, or choose Sync now. If both plans change, review and choose a copy. Recovery copies let you restore locally with sync turned off. Story Studio and Home Screen widgets are iPhone features.

The apps require iOS 26 or later on iPhone, or tvOS 26 or later on Apple TV. AI drafting needs a compatible iPhone with Apple Intelligence enabled and its model available. Voice transcription also depends on supported hardware and language assets.

Next Chapter is coming soon. Both apps are planned as free downloads with worldwide availability, subject to Apple’s review and regional availability. App Store links will appear on the home page once the apps launch.

Yes. You can type and save your own words. In Settings, turn off voice as the default for text input if you prefer the keyboard. AI drafting is optional.

Keep the recording and use the retry option in its interview. Check whether speech language assets are available on your device. You can continue using typed input. Do not delete the app to troubleshoot a recording you want to keep; local recordings can be lost when the app is deleted.

Check that your iPhone supports Apple Intelligence, that Apple Intelligence is enabled, and that the on-device model is ready. Availability can depend on device, language and region. You can still write, edit and save without AI.

Delete the interview from Stories to remove its responses, drafts and associated recovery recording. A successful recording is automatically deleted after its transcript is safely saved. Device backups may retain earlier copies according to your system settings.