Ask for an app just for you, and it stays yours

Some apps are for a crowd. Some are for you: a reading log, a sleep diary, a list of gift ideas that stays a surprise. Now, when you tell Vibes DIY an app is just for you, that's exactly what you get, and you still get a one-tap way to share the parts you want to show off.

Every app gets rules

Behind every app is a small set of sharing rules: who can add things, who can change them, and who can read what. Every app the builder makes now ships with them, written alongside its screens. What changes from app to app is what the rules say, and that comes from your own words.

Say "just for me", "no sharing" or "keep it single-user", and you get three things:

• The app starts private. It opens only for you and the people you let in. It's marked as an app that asks first, the same setting a diary or a money tracker gets, so it stays private until you choose to open it up.
• Everyone inside has their own space. Each signed-in person's records are theirs alone. The rules never name you as the owner; they key on whoever is writing, so they read the same for you and for anyone you invite later.
• A publish step shares one thing at a time. Pick an entry, tap publish, and that one entry is shared with everyone who can open the app. Everything else stays where it was.

A reading log, just for me

Here's how that plays out. You type: make me a reading log, just for me.

You get a log where you add books, a rating and a few lines about each one. It's private, so the only person who can open it is you. Every entry lands in your own space.

Later you let your sister in, because she reads more than you do. She signs in and gets a log of her own. Her log is hers, and yours is yours.

Then you finish a novel you loved and write the review you'd want a friend to read. You tap publish, and the app says what that means in plain words: everyone who can open this app sees it. Right now that's your sister. The rest of your log stays yours.

Months later you decide to share the app itself. Open it to anyone with the link and every visitor can read that review, while adding to the app still takes your yes. Anyone you say yes to gets a private log of their own, exactly like you and your sister. The app's sharing setting decides who can open it, and the rules decide what each person sees once they're in. The privacy guide walks through both.

Anyone can edit, too

The rules cover the other direction just as well. Ask for an app where "anyone can edit", or one with "no access control", and the builder writes rules that welcome everyone in: every signed-in visitor adds to the shared records and edits their own, and guests can join too when the app doesn't need a sign-in.

Sometimes an ask says both, like "a recipe box just for me that anyone can edit." When it does, the words that keep it to yourself win. You can always open an app up later; we start from the one you can share on your terms.

The words do the work

It's your phrasing that decides, so a few notes on how it reads:

• "Private" on its own isn't the ask. "A private chef booking" serves customers, so it gets the usual shape for an app people use together.
• A sensitive subject isn't the ask either. "A health tracker my family shares" is personal and shared. It still asks before sharing anything with anyone's followers, and it's built for the family to use together.
• "Just for me", "only me", "nobody else" are the ask. Those build the private app with a space for each person and a publish step.

If you want the full detail on how rules, channels and publishing fit together, the access rules reference is the same guide the builder reads.