Someone to talk to at 3am.
Recovery is mostly the hours nobody sees — the craving at 2:40 in the morning, the day after a slip, the week where nothing feels like progress. Alder is a private companion for those hours: it counts your sober time, sits with you through an urge, and never makes you feel small for having one.
Alder is an AI companion — not a therapist or a doctor, and not a stand-in for the people who support your recovery — and it won't replace meetings, medication, or professional care.
Need help right now?
You don't need this app, an account, or anything else to reach a person.
- 1-800-484-3731 — Never Use Alone, if you're using alone
- 1-800-662-4357 — SAMHSA National Helpline, free and confidential, 24/7
- findtreatment.gov — find local care near you
- 1-800-GAMBLER — for gambling
These are US numbers. On an overdose call, ask for naloxone — many states have Good Samaritan laws for making that call. Alder is not an emergency service and no one at Alder sees your messages in real time, so if someone is in danger, call.
Not a streak app. A companion.
Counting days is easy to build and easy to resent. Alder counts them, but the point is what happens on the days the number is about to break.
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Say what you're stepping away from
Alcohol, a substance, vaping, gambling, whatever it is — pick one or several. Each gets its own clock, because progress in one place doesn't have to erase progress in another.
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Check in when you can, reach out when you can't
A short daily check-in takes under a minute. When an urge hits instead, Alder is there — at 3am, on a holiday, in a parking lot — to talk it down rather than tell you to wait.
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If it breaks, you get back up
A lapse starts a debrief, not a lecture: what happened, what came before it, what you'd want next time. The clock restarts, and your total time across every attempt keeps counting — because it happened.
Each thing you're stepping away from keeps its own quiet clock — a hard week in one doesn't erase what you've built in another, and your total across every attempt keeps counting.
Built for the hard hours.
Everything here is built to be used one-handed, in the dark, by someone who is not at their best.
A clock for each thing
Track more than one at once, each with its own count — and a running total across every attempt you've made, so restarting never zeroes out your history. You pick your targets when you first open Alder; changing them afterwards is still to come.
Talk to Alder
An owl-shaped companion that's awake when you are. It listens, it doesn't panic, and it doesn't judge you for what you tell it — at 3am, on a holiday, in a parking lot.
SOS, one tap from anywhere
A ride-it-out screen for the moment an urge peaks, plus the real phone numbers, always reachable — before you've agreed to anything and never behind a payment.
A toolbox to reach for
Short, practical things to do with your hands and your attention when waiting it out isn't enough on its own.
Progress worth looking at
Urges you rode out and milestone chips as they arrive — a plain record of what you've done, not a score.
Private by default
No account, no name, no email — your recovery record is stored on your phone, not in a database of ours. To write a reply, Alder sends your message and a slice of that record to Anthropic; the privacy policy lists exactly which fields. A discreet alternate app icon is drawn and bundled, but the control to switch it on isn't built yet, so the home screen still says Alder.
Points outward, on purpose
Alder is built to send you toward people — the ones you listed, a helpline, professional care. It's a bridge to support, never a replacement for it.
Warm, dim, and quiet.
Alder follows your phone — warm and low-contrast in the light, dark when your phone goes dark. Every screen below was shot at 3:12 in the morning, because that is the hour it was built for. No sirens, no red alarms, no cheerful shouting.
A lapse is information, not a verdict.
Most trackers treat the day you slip as the day you failed — the number goes to zero, the confetti stops, and the app becomes something you avoid. That's precisely the moment you most need to open it.
- Alder never shames a lapse. That isn't a tone preference; it's a rule the product is tested against.
- The debrief asks useful questions — what led up to it, what it cost, what you'd want to happen next time.
- Your total time keeps counting across every attempt. Eighty-seven days happened whether or not day eighty-eight did.
- Then it points outward — to the people you listed, or to help that isn't an app.
A letter, not a payout.
Nine chips, from day one to a year. Tap one you've earned and Alder writes you a short note about it.
30 days
90 days
One year- No confetti, no coins, no jackpot. Variable rewards are the wrong machinery to point at people in recovery, so there isn't any.
- They arrive quietly — and you can share one as a card, or never show anyone.
What Alder is — and what it isn't.
Recovery is a field full of people promising more than they can deliver. Here is the line, drawn plainly.
Alder does
- Keep your sober time, across one thing or several
- Talk with you when an urge hits — plain guidance in the moment, at 3am if that's when it comes
- Sit with you while a craving crests and passes, with a timer and something to do
- Give you a place to log what happened, without judgment
- Help you get back up after a lapse and keep going
- Point you toward your people, a helpline, and professional care
- Keep the crisis numbers reachable, always, for free
Alder does not
- Provide therapy, counseling, or clinical care of any kind
- Diagnose anything, or tell you how severe your situation is
- Give detox, tapering, or dosing guidance — ever, for anything
- Discourage medication, meetings, or professional care
- Shame you for a lapse, predict one, or tell you that you're cured
- Replace a person — it is not a stand-in for the humans in your life
- Watch over you: no one sees your messages in real time
One more thing worth saying plainly: medication for opioid or alcohol use — buprenorphine, methadone, naltrexone — is recovery. Alder will never suggest otherwise.
Nobody has to know you have this.
For a lot of people the risk isn't the data — it's someone picking up the phone. Alder is built around that.
- No account, no name, no email. There is nothing to sign up for and nothing to sign in to.
- A discreet app icon is planned so what's on your home screen is your business — the artwork is drawn and bundled, but the switch to turn it on isn't built yet.
- Your record is kept on your device — the clocks, the check-ins, the debriefs — and a slice of it, your last seven check-ins among them, goes out with each message you send Alder.
- No ads and no third-party analytics. Not now, not later. We don't sell or share anything.
- Delete it all, whenever — and export it first if you want to keep it.
FAQ
Is Alder therapy?
No. Alder does not provide therapy, counseling, or clinical care, and using it doesn't create a professional relationship with anyone. It's a self-help companion that keeps your sober time, sits with you through hard moments, and points you toward real support. If you're working with a professional, Alder is meant to sit alongside that — never instead of it.
Am I talking to a real person?
No. Alder is designed to be an AI companion — not a therapist or a doctor, and not a stand-in for the people who support your recovery — and to say so plainly: a standing label sits at the top of the chat screen, and it re-states what it is as time goes on. Nobody is reading your messages as you send them. That's the privacy trade: it also means Alder can't call for help on your behalf, which is why the phone numbers are always one tap away.
What happens if I relapse?
You get a debrief, not a lecture. Alder asks what happened, what led up to it, and what you'd want to do differently — and the time you'd already put in keeps counting toward your total across all attempts. Never being shamed for a lapse is a hard rule in this product, not a nice-to-have.
Can I track more than one thing?
Yes, and this was deliberate. Alcohol, substances, vaping, gambling and more can each have their own clock, so a hard week in one area doesn't wipe out what you've built in another.
Will it tell me how to detox or taper?
Never, for anything. Alder gives no detox, tapering, or dosing guidance of any kind. Stopping some substances abruptly — alcohol among them — can be genuinely dangerous, and that is a conversation for a medical professional, not an app. Alder will tell you that and help you find someone.
Does it work with medication-assisted recovery?
Yes, and it takes a clear position: buprenorphine, methadone, and naltrexone are recovery. Alder will never treat medication as cheating, and will never nudge you away from it.
Is my data private?
There's no account, no name, and no email, and your recovery record is kept on your phone — we run no database of it. There are no ads and no third-party analytics, and we don't sell or share anything. Your messages are sent to Anthropic to generate replies, along with a slice of that record. You are told exactly who and exactly which fields, and asked to agree, before a single message is sent — the consent check sits in the transport rather than the screen, so nothing can slip past it. Full detail is in the privacy policy. What we won't do is claim a kind of legal confidentiality this app doesn't have.
What does it cost?
Alder is free to use. There is an optional subscription, Alder Plus — US$9.99 per month or US$59.99 per year, billed by Apple. Plus lifts the daily limit on everyday conversation and answers with Alder's most capable model. Your counter, check-ins, urge log, milestones and the slip debrief are never paywalled. The SOS screen and the crisis numbers are never metered, limited, or put behind a payment.
When can I use it?
Alder is iPhone-first, US-first, and 18+. Leave your email and we'll get you in.
Who is Alder for?
Adults 18 and over who want private support in between the humans in their life — whether you're in a program, in treatment with professionals, going to meetings, or doing this on your own for now.
For the hours nobody else is up.
Alder is built for iPhone. Leave your email and we'll get you in.
Get early accessAlder is an AI companion — not a therapist or a doctor, and not a stand-in for the people who support your recovery — and it does not provide therapy, counseling, or clinical care of any kind. It does not diagnose, and it gives no detox, tapering, or dosing guidance. It is not an emergency service and is not monitored by a person. In an emergency call 911; in the US you can call or text 988, or reach the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. Never delay care because of something in this app. 18+.