Valeska 1.29: a calmer start, and numbers from your records

Valeska 1.29 is on the App Store. It brings together versions 1.25 to 1.29 in one update. Most of it came from watching people use the app on a hard day. We made the start shorter, logging quicker, and the whole app calmer. We also changed how the on-device AI works, so every number it shows you comes straight from your own records.

A shorter start

Setting up Valeska used to take nine steps. Now it takes two screens, and then you are on Home.

The first screen is called "Before you start." It gives you three short points: Valeska is not a medical device, drug notes come from public FDA data, and you should call 911 in an emergency. You can open the full note if you want to read it all. It also tells you the price up front: free for 7 days, then $4.99 once. If you used Valeska before, you can restore from your backup right there.

The second screen asks one question: "What would help today?" Pick one goal. Add a name if you like, or skip it. If you are helping someone you care about, tell us who they are. That is all. Your conditions, allergies, and which tools you use can wait until they matter.

You do not have to give a name at all. If you skip it, the app just says "you." The one place we ask for a name is the Emergency card, so a responder knows who it is for.

Home then shows a "Start here" card with a few first steps, like logging a symptom or writing a question for your doctor. Once you have saved something, the card goes away.

Logging a symptom is quicker

Tap a symptom tile and a small form opens. Tap a number from 0 to 10, check the time, and tap Save. If you want more, "Add details" holds where it hurts, notes, photos, and timing.

If you logged the same symptom in the last 30 days, the scale starts at the number you used last time. A short line tells you so: "We started at 7, like last time. Tap a number to change it." If you have not logged it lately, it starts at 5.

The Symptoms page now puts logging first. You see your tiles, then today's entries, then your trends and the body map. Your own symptom names come first in the tiles. To delete an entry, swipe it left. To edit one, press and hold it.

Calm by default

Calm mode now covers the whole app, and it is on from the start for new profiles. In calm mode there are no streaks, no percentages, no red "missed" bars, and no goal cheers. You see plain counts instead. On Meds, for example, one card might read "Taken 27 of 28 doses in the last 7 days. 1 skipped by choice."

If you already use Valeska, your profile keeps the setting it had. You can turn calm mode on or off any time in Settings, and every page changes right away.

We also went through the words in the app. Old lines about accounts, syncing, and cloud plans are gone. The app now says plainly where your records live: on your phone, and in your own backup if iCloud is on.

Short examples on empty screens

The first time you open Symptoms, Insights, Meds, Visit Prep, or Questions, you see one small example of what that screen will do for you. The data in it is made up, and it looks made up. There is one sentence and one button to get started. The example goes away as soon as you save your first real entry, and it never shows a streak or a score.

Questions from a caregiver

Caregiver sharing has ended. If someone sent you questions before it ended, those questions now live in your own Questions list. Each one has a quiet note, like "From Mom, sent before sharing ended."

They stay out of your visit summary, the PDF, and the appointment brief until you tap Keep. You can also edit a question, mark it asked, or remove it. Your visit, your list.

Summaries with numbers from your records

This is the biggest change in 1.29. It affects the Health summary and the Visit Prep summary.

Before, Apple's on-device model wrote those summaries in its own words. That read well, but a model can get a number wrong. A wrong number in a summary you hand your doctor is not okay with us.

Now the summary is built from your own entries. The AI only picks which facts matter most. The app then writes every line, and every number, name, and date in it comes from your records. If the AI picks something your records do not support, we drop it. If it picks nothing useful, you get the plain summary instead.

You will see this line under the summary: "Chosen by Valeska AI · Numbers from your records · Not medical advice." When there is not enough to go on, the summary says "Not enough entries yet to say." We would rather say that than guess.

Other AI text in the app got a stricter check too. A number in a sentence has to belong to the symptom or medicine that sentence names. All of this still runs on your phone. Nothing is sent to an outside service.

Siri writes only what you said

You can ask Siri to log a symptom, add a question, or add an appointment. Now Siri saves only what you actually said.

• A question keeps your own words.
• An appointment never gets a time you did not give.
• A symptom gets a strength only if you said one. "A 3 day migraine" is not a 3 out of 10.
• Before it saves an appointment, Siri reads it back with the day: "Dr. Lee on Tuesday, November 12 at 9:30 AM. Save it?" If you say no, nothing is saved.

Label scanning checks the dose

When you scan a medicine label, Valeska now checks the dose, the schedule, and the form against the label text and a drug database before it fills anything in. A dose is filled in only if it is printed on the label. If a part could not be read, the form tells you which part, so you can type it yourself.

Siri and Spotlight, only if you want it

There is a new switch in Settings: "Let Siri and Spotlight find my records." It is off until you turn it on.

When it is on, searching your iPhone or asking Siri can find your symptom names, how severe they were and when, medicine names, the first words of your questions, and your appointment titles, times and places. Your notes, answers, and photos are never added.

Phone search does not use App Lock. So while App Lock is on, this switch stays off. If you turn the switch off, we remove your records from search and from Siri's suggestions on your phone. You can read the details in our privacy policy.

The smaller things

• Weather insights start off for new profiles. Valeska asks for your location only when you turn weather on in Settings.
• The backup card no longer covers the top of the page. "Not now" hides it for 7 days. Settings always shows the real state of your backup.
• "Show full Home" and "Make Home yours" wait until you have saved something.
• The guest-pass card is gone, because the server it needed is gone.
• The name box on Home now opens Settings cleanly.

Still only on your phone

None of this changed the basics. There is no account and no server. Your records stay on your phone and in your own encrypted backup. Valeska is free for 7 days, then $4.99 once. It does not diagnose or treat anything. It helps you keep track, and it tries to be right about what you told it.