A habit tracker that uses WhatsApp for accountability

Why WhatsApp works for habits

The hard part of a new habit is rarely the first week. It's the third, when the novelty is gone and nobody would notice if you stopped. Notifications from a habit app don't help much at that point: after a few days they blend in with every other badge on your phone.

A message from a friend is different. It lands in the chat you open twenty times a day, next to people whose opinion you care about. That small social weight is what most habit trackers are missing, and it's the reason Pact sends its one important message through WhatsApp.

There's a practical reason too. Your partner doesn't have to install anything or create an account. If they have WhatsApp, they can be your accountability partner.

What Pact sends, and when

• Only to partners who opted in. Your partner switches messages on once, from the invite link you send them.
• Only after two missed days in a row of the same habit, counting the days it was scheduled. A single missed day sends nothing.
• At a time you choose, for your whole account or per habit. Evening works well: there's still time to save the day.
• A short message with the name of the habit and how many days you've missed. Nothing about your other habits, your history or your journal.

What Pact doesn't do

Pact never connects to your WhatsApp account. It can't read your chats, it doesn't message your contacts, and it doesn't post in groups. Messages go out from Pact's bot, and only to the people you invited who agreed to receive them.

Setting it up

• Create a free account and add the habits you want to keep: daily ones, a few times a week, amounts like liters of water, or things you want to cut down on.
• Add a partner in the Friends tab with their name and WhatsApp number. Pact gives you an invite link for them.
• Send them the link. They follow the steps once to allow messages from Pact's bot. From then on, they only hear from Pact when you slip two days in a row.

Pact vs habit bots that live inside WhatsApp

Some habit trackers run entirely inside a WhatsApp chat: a bot asks you every evening and you reply yes or no. That's handy if you want no app at all, but it puts all your tracking in a chat thread, and the only person watching is you.

Pact makes a different trade. Tracking happens in a proper app, with streaks, a history calendar, goals, to-dos and Apple Health on iPhone. WhatsApp is reserved for the message that has to get through: the one your friend reads.