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The thinking behind Halo

human firstscience informedprivate by design

Recovery is personal. Connection is human. Technology should respect both.

Halo brings research-informed principles of peer support together with thoughtfully designed technology to help people find their Circle, celebrate progress, and stay connected.

Halo is an iPhone app in early access. This page describes Halo 1.1.0 and our service as they work today. Anything still in progress is labelled.

01

people stay for people.

Recovery rarely happens alone. Some of the strongest evidence in the field points to the same idea: the people around you matter.

27studies in the 2020 Cochrane review of AA and Twelve-Step Facilitation
10,565participants across those studies
12 mothe point where continuous abstinence was measured, with high-certainty evidence

The largest review of the evidence

A 2020 Cochrane review found high-certainty evidence that clinical programs helping people engage with Alcoholics Anonymous led to more continuous abstinence at 12 months than established treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy.1

On most other drinking measures these programs performed about as well as other treatments, and they probably reduce healthcare costs.1

Why it may work

Research on AA suggests much of its benefit comes through social change: fewer people who encourage drinking, more people who support recovery, and more confidence staying sober around others.2

In a randomized trial, counseling that helped people build sober social circles was followed by more days abstinent two years later.3

Support from people who have been there

A systematic review found that support from trained peers with lived experience can help people engage with and stay in care. Effects on substance use itself are still uncertain.4

Staying connected after the start

Continuing support after initial treatment has, on average, a modest benefit.5 Support that keeps people actively engaged over a longer period tends to show more consistent results.6

The US National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism describes mutual-support groups as a valuable addition to professional treatment.7

what this evidence is, and isn’t.

These studies looked at Alcoholics Anonymous, Twelve-Step Facilitation, trained peer-support services and clinical continuing care. None of them studied Halo, and Halo isn’t any of those programs.

We use this research as a compass for design, not as proof that Halo works. Halo is peer support, not treatment, and it doesn’t replace professional care or mutual-help groups. We’ll share findings about Halo only once we’ve measured them, with members’ consent.

02

four ideas, built in.

How Halo turns what the research suggests into the everyday shape of the app.

small circles

Meaningful relationships develop through recurring interactions, familiarity, and mutual support.

In Halo you join a small Circle and keep coming back to the same people, instead of shouting into a crowd.

In the app

shared beginnings

Members can begin together, participate in common experiences, and maintain connections over time.

Each cohort is named for the New Moon it began with, and its members answer the same Daily prompt together.

In the app

personal progress

Private commitments, sobriety milestones, reflection, and celebrations help members recognize their own journey.

Your start date and journal stay on your iPhone. Milestones are claimed and kept, never earned or lost, and sharing one is your choice.

In the app

human-led, intelligently coordinated

Technology can help organize conversations and gatherings, but human connection remains the product.

Today, people do the connecting in Halo. There’s no AI companion and no chatbot. A coordination assistant for your Circle, for things like finding a time to meet, is something we’re exploring. It isn’t in the app.

Exploring, not built
Halo's Circle Daily screen: a prompt reading Show us your evening, whenever it arrives, with photos shared by members and a note that looking is just as welcome.
Circle Daily: one shared prompt for the cohort. Taking part can be as small as looking.
Halo's Milestones screen: a vertical timeline of stones from the day you began, with One Month on October 14 reached and claimed.
Milestones: a private timeline from the day you began. Each stone is claimed and kept.
03

your recovery belongs to you.

Privacy isn’t a settings page in Halo. It shapes what we build, what we store and what we leave out.

Anonymous-first participation

Join your Circle as an anonymous member, without a handle. Halo keeps your participation linked to your account so reports can be acted on and people kept safe.

Private personal commitments

Your journal, notes and sobriety start date are stored on your iPhone with iOS Data Protection and aren’t uploaded to Halo. Device backups follow your own Apple settings.

Explicit control over sharing

Nothing about your progress is shared unless you share it. When you share a milestone, Halo receives the number of days, not your start date.

No mandatory sobriety status

You don’t have to enter a start date at all. There’s no public counter to keep and nothing to lose for a quiet day.

Device-level privacy

Lock Halo with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode, if you choose. The app switcher then shows a plain Halo screen. Screenshots still work, so the people you share with matter too.

Private insights, kept apart

Today’s guidance is calculated on your iPhone. What you post to your Circle lives on Halo’s servers, separately, so your Circle can see it.

Stays on your iPhone

yours alone.

  • Your journal and notes
  • Your sobriety start date
  • Today’s guidance, calculated on the device
  • Your sign-in, in the iOS Keychain
  • Your privacy-lock setting
On Halo’s servers, when you share

shared with your circle.

  • Circle posts, replies and Daily answers
  • Photos you share
  • Private messages
  • Your voice introduction, if you record one
  • Milestones you choose to share, as days only
  • Your account and Circle membership

Messages, plainly

Messages and Circle posts aren’t end-to-end encrypted. Halo stores them, and moderators can read content that’s reported to them.

Photos

Before you share a photo, your iPhone checks it for faces: a safeguard, not a guarantee. Our servers re-encode every shared photo and remove its location and other metadata.

Leaving

You can delete your account in the app. That erases your profile and what you shared. Some safety records and short-lived backups remain, and your journal stays on your iPhone until you delete the app.

The full details are in Privacy in Halo and the app privacy policy.

04

built with intention.

Good security is mostly restraint: collect less, expose less, and make the careful path the default. Here’s how Halo is put together.

Native app

Halo is written in Swift and SwiftUI using Apple’s own frameworks. There are no third-party SDKs in the app: no ads, no tracking and no outside analytics.

Halo 1.1.0
Device security

Your sign-in lives in the iOS Keychain, kept to this iPhone and never synced. Your journal is stored with iOS Data Protection.

Halo 1.1.0
Connections

Your iPhone talks to Halo only over HTTPS, to Halo’s own server, and refuses redirects. Our servers reach the database over verified TLS.

App and service
Sign-in

Sign in with Apple only. Our server checks Apple’s signature and a one-time challenge before it starts a session. Halo 1.1.0 doesn’t ask Apple for your name or email.

App and service
Sessions

Session tokens are stored only as one-way hashes and expire after seven days. Your Apple identifier is kept as a keyed one-way code.

Service
Least privilege

The live service can’t read database tables directly. Every read and write goes through Halo’s own database functions, which check membership and blocks. Schema changes use a separate role the live service never holds.

Service
On-device insight

Today’s guidance is calculated on your iPhone from the Moon and planets, so the same inputs always give the same result. It isn’t generated by AI.

Halo 1.1.0
Minimal sharing

Shared photos are stored privately, with no public links. Reminders are scheduled on your iPhone with generic wording, unless you choose to name a milestone.

App and service
Abuse protection

Requests are rate-limited per connection and per account. For that, our database keeps a keyed one-way code of your IP address for minutes. Our hosting provider receives your IP address to deliver the service.

Service
Logging

Halo’s server code doesn’t log message text, photos or personal details. Our hosting platform keeps standard request logs.

Service

We don’t claim end-to-end encryption, certificate pinning or HIPAA compliance, because we haven’t built or formally assessed them. When that changes, this page will too.

05

AI should bring people together. not replace them.

Halo is human-first by design. There’s no AI companion, no chatbot and no simulated members. People support people.

In Halo 1.1.0 today

nothing you write goes to an AI.

  • Your posts, messages and voice aren’t sent to any AI model. A release check fails the build if an AI client appears in the app.
  • Before you share a photo, Apple’s on-device Vision framework checks only whether a face is present. Nothing about the face is kept.
Exploring, not built

help with the logistics.

  • Helping a Circle find a time to meet.
  • With everyone’s consent, carrying shared context forward so people don’t have to repeat themselves.
  • Making participation easier, for example with clearer schedules or support for access needs.
Never

what AI won’t do in halo.

  • Diagnose addiction or any other condition.
  • Try to predict whether someone will drink again.
  • Replace sponsors, counselors, peer support or treatment.
  • Act as a clinician or a crisis service.
  1. Opt-in, per featureNothing new is switched on for you. You choose, and you can change your mind.
  2. Personal by defaultWork stays on your iPhone wherever that’s possible.
  3. People stay in chargeSuggestions, never actions taken for you without a person’s approval.
  4. Policy before practiceOur privacy policy changes before any new use of your data does.

Halo isn’t a crisis service. If you or someone else is in danger, call 911, or call or text 988 in the US.

06

support shouldn’t depend on the device you own.

Today Halo is an iPhone app in English. That’s where we’re starting, not where we mean to stay.

Available now

  • Designed for VoiceOver, Dynamic Type and Reduce Motion. We’re still auditing this with people who use them.In the app
  • Take part without a camera: text, photos of your surroundings, or simply reading alongIn the app
  • This website, readable on any modern browser and screen sizeNow

On our roadmap

  • Responsive web access to your CirclePlanned
  • Android, and support for older iPhonesPlanned
  • Spanish, then more languagesPlanned
  • Optional message translationPlanned
  • Low-bandwidth Circle participationPlanned
  • Captions for live conversationsPlanned
  • Telephone accessExploring
07

our commitments.

  • people over engagement metrics.
  • privacy over unnecessary data collection.
  • evidence over exaggerated promises.
  • accessibility over exclusivity.
  • human support over artificial companionship.

human first. never alone.

Explore Halo PostCare
08

research and references.

  1. Kelly JF, Humphreys K, Ferri M. Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs for alcohol use disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2020;3(3):CD012880. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD012880.pub2 · free full text
  2. Kelly JF, Hoeppner B, Stout RL, Pagano M. Determining the relative importance of the mechanisms of behavior change within Alcoholics Anonymous: a multiple mediator analysis. Addiction. 2012;107(2):289–299. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03593.x · free full text
  3. Litt MD, Kadden RM, Kabela-Cormier E, Petry NM. Changing network support for drinking: Network Support Project 2-year follow-up. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 2009;77(2):229–242. doi:10.1037/a0015252 · free full text
  4. Eddie D, O’Connor JB, George SS, et al. Peer recovery support services and recovery coaching for substance use disorder: a systematic review. Current Addiction Reports. 2025;12:40. doi:10.1007/s40429-025-00645-8 · free full text
  5. Blodgett JC, Maisel NC, Fuh IL, Wilbourne PL, Finney JW. How effective is continuing care for substance use disorders? A meta-analytic review. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment. 2014;46(2):87–97. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2013.08.022 · free full text
  6. McKay JR. Impact of continuing care on recovery from substance use disorder. Alcohol Research: Current Reviews. 2021;41(1):01. doi:10.35946/arcr.v41.1.01 · free full text
  7. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Treatment for Alcohol Problems: Finding and Getting Help. NIH Publication No. 23-AA-7974; updated February 2025. niaaa.nih.gov

Sources checked 9 November 2026. Research findings describe the programs and services studied, not Halo. Halo offers peer support, not treatment or crisis care; if you’re in crisis in the US, call or text 988.