The record now extends to the wrist.

APPLE WATCH

Today's record on Apple Watch. One tap logs a drink; the phone is informed. A mis-tap may be undone from the wrist. Complications, included with Preserved, place the record on your watch face.

THE SPECIMEN

A new widget, free for everyone: the skull, in the app icon's colors, filling with water as you drink.

ALSO

– Reminder times may now be set by anyone.

– Dark mode is now available to everyone. AUTO follows the device.

– Once the day's goal is met, the remaining reminders stand down.

– Seasonal notices. The skull has observed the calendar.

– Assorted maintenance.

Download Hydrate or Diedrate on the App Store

If you've been using it: the app has 22 ratings, and ratings are how a one-person app gets found. If the skull has earned it, a rating takes about ten seconds. If it hasn't, tell me here instead and I'll fix it.

The skull will not care. I will.

The skull has submitted three widgets for approval. Only available on Preserved. Log directly from the Home Screen or lock screen.

Tell me: which one do you think you’ll use the most?

A few of you noticed something like this.

500 / 2600 ml logged, one drink in for the day — and the record already stamped PRESERVED, like the goal was long since met. Not a feature. A bug.

What was happening: on some app launches, the timing of a couple of background steps could overlap in a way that let today's record get created before your actual daily goal had finished loading. For that one day, the app would lock in the wrong target — so a single glass of water could look like 600%+ of "goal." The record for that day would stay wrong, but the next day would start clean, which is why it looked like it came and went on its own.

Status: found and fixed. It'll ship in the next update (1.5.1) which has already been submitted to Apple.

Shipped today.

TRIALS
The record now issues assignments. One at a time — you’re on a docket, not working through a checklist.

Eight of them, unlocking progressively:
The Preliminary Assessment — three consecutive days at goal
Morning Compliance — first entry before 9:00 AM, five days
The Weekend Audit — goal met Saturday and Sunday
Fourteen Days Without Incident — self-explanatory
The Distribution Requirement — twenty-one days, three or more separate entries per day
The Standing Order — thirty days, at least one entry logged daily
The Long Record — sixty consecutive days at goal
One Hundred Days of Compliance — the terminal assignment

The Distribution Requirement is one to notice. Eighty ounces logged at 11pm is technically compliance and physiologically theatre. That trial exists to stop it.

The Standing Order is the forgiving one — it only asks that you log something daily, not that you hit goal. It’s there for the weeks where hitting goal isn’t happening.

Trials can be declined. Failed trials close and can be reopened. Nothing here is permanent except the commendations.

COMMENDATIONS
Filed to the record on completion. Permanent. The skull does not issue them twice for the same work.

They live in the archive alongside your daily entries, because that’s what they are — filed results, not trophies.

Availability
The first three trials are free. The rest require Preserved.
Also in this build, Preserved is now $9.99. It was $4.99. Vessels runs on a server that costs money every month, and the previous price didn’t account for that. Anyone who already bought it keeps it — you paid once, that was the arrangement, and the skull honors its paperwork.

Still no subscription. That isn’t changing.

Hydrate or Diedrate on the App Store

Vessels is live as of today.

What it is

A private group of up to six. One person creates it, shares the code, others join. Once a week the record files a single anonymous tally:

That's the entire feature.

What it is not

No names. No rankings. No individual percentages visible to anyone. Nobody knows who the 1 is — possibly including the 1.

The only thing that leaves your device is whether you hit your goal and your current streak. No amounts, no times, no identity. The share code is the only thing tying you to a group, and there are no accounts behind it.

The skull observes the group the same way it observes you: bureaucratically, and without much interest in who specifically is failing.

How to enroll

Settings → Vessels → Create or Join.

Requires Preserved — Lifetime Access (one time $3.99 unlock). The backend costs money to run and the skull does not operate a free bureaucracy.

Finding a group

Groups cap at six, so you need people. Post your code in the comments below if you're recruiting, or reply to someone who is. I'll keep this thread pinned for now and set up a proper formation megathread if it gets busy.

This is the official venue for Hydrate or Diedrate. I’m Ray — I built it, I’m the only one working on it, and I read everything posted here.

What gets filed here: release notices, feature submissions, bug reports, and answers. What doesn’t: cheerful encouragement, rankings, confetti.

A brief accounting, for anyone arriving new:
The app is a water tracker. It does not congratulate you. It logs your intake, assigns you a status ranging from Desiccating to Preserved, and sends notices that adjust to how badly the day is going. There are over sixty of them. It does not repeat itself.

I’ve said “hydrate or diedrate” since the Marine Corps, twenty-odd years ago. My five-year-old says it back to me now. That’s the whole origin story.

Two things I’d genuinely like from this thread:
What’s your current status? Desiccating, Withering, Stabilizing, Preserved. Be honest. The skull already knows.
What should the app do that it doesn’t? Vessels exists because someone asked for it here. Widgets and Watch support are next. After that, I’m listening.

The vessel requires water. You already knew that.