What does the “bucket” in Bucket mean?

It’s the idea that small things add up. In Bucket, everything you log — food and drink, fragrance and chemicals, exertion, stress — adds a little to a bucket, more if it was strong or long, and fades over the following days. When too much lands close together the bucket overflows, and that’s when symptoms tend to show up. Your bucket shows how full you are today as a percentage and a word: low, moderate, high or near overflow.

How can I track reactions that come a day or two later?

Log what happens and let Bucket look back for you: it checks for things that come before a symptom anywhere from the same day to about three and a half days earlier — the delayed reactions that are easy to miss in a list. It only shows a pattern once it has turned up many separate times, still holds after allowing for your sleep and tiring days, and holds in both halves of your diary. It describes what tends to follow what; it never says what caused it.

How long before Bucket shows patterns?

It depends on what you log, not on a set number of days: Bucket shows a pattern once there’s enough in your diary to stand behind it, so it won’t show you one it can’t back up. Your bucket itself works from day one.

Do I have to use AI in Bucket?

No. Bucket’s smart logging is off until you turn it on. With it on, a note you write or a photo you choose is read once to fill in your entries for you to check, and is not stored. Everything else, including the bucket and the pattern-finding, runs on your phone.

Does Bucket work without signal?

Yes. Logging, your bucket, your history and your patterns all work offline in Bucket. Anything that needs the internet, like smart logging, catches up when you are back online.

Is Bucket medical advice?

No. Bucket is a diary, not a medical device: it never diagnoses, treats or tells you what to do. It shows what tends to come before your symptoms in your own records: things to look into, and to take to the clinicians who know you.

How the bucket works

Low
under 25%

Moderate
25–55%

High
55–85%

Near overflow
85–100%

1. Log the small things

Note what you eat and drink, what you were exposed to, how hard you pushed and how you feel — by tapping, typing or speaking, on your iPhone or Apple Watch.

Everything that might load you: food and drink, fragrance, smoke and chemicals, alcohol, caffeine, heat, work shifts, exercise, stressful days — body and mind counted separately.
How you feel: a symptom with a 0–10 slider and a word, or one tap for “How are you?”. A symptom that lasts can be followed as one episode — worse, same, better, over.
Without typing: speak it (works with no signal), use a widget, Siri or your Watch, or scan a barcode or ingredient label.
Smart logging, if you turn it on: write “two glasses of wine at dinner, headache after” and it becomes a drink and a symptom for you to check before anything is saved.
Added for you: sleep, steps and heart data from Apple Health; weather, pollen and air quality for your rough area; work shifts from your calendar.

Gaps are fine. There are no streaks, badges or reminders to keep logging.

2. Watch your bucket

Everything you’re exposed to, eat, drink and do puts something into your bucket — more if it was strong or long, though twice as long isn’t twice as much. Symptoms don’t fill it: they’re what you’re watching for.

Monday

A strong fragrance. Some flushing at lunch, then it settled.

41% Moderate
Tuesday

Leftover stew for lunch. Monday hasn’t drained yet. Hives by the afternoon.

63% High
Wednesday

Nothing new — another long day caring for her mum. It tipped over.

85% Near overflow

Shauna’s week as Bucket sees it. Shauna is a made-up sample person, built into the app.

It drains. On a quiet day it drains faster than it fills. Half of each load fades every couple of days and it’s gone after about ten — and resting needs nothing logged. Things you mark as “This helps me” can take a little off. Try a sample bucket to see it fill and drain.

It overflows. When too much lands close together it overflows — and that’s when symptoms tend to show up, sometimes a day or two after whatever tipped it.

100% is yours. At first the bucket uses a standard estimate, the same for everyone. After a couple of weeks of logging and a handful of symptoms, it moves to where your own symptoms usually start. And if it doesn’t match how you feel, tell it — your body’s answer wins over the sum.

3. See what tends to come first

Bucket looks for things that tend to come before a symptom: within a couple of hours, the next day, or a few days later — up to about three and a half days.

The bar is deliberately high. A pattern only appears once it has turned up many separate times, more often than chance would explain, still holds after allowing for your sleep and tiring days, and holds in both halves of your diary. Each one shows its evidence:

Strong fragrance tends to be followed by flushing the next day.

9 of 12 times · 7 separate episodes · held in both halves of your data · still there after accounting for your sleep

Findings describe what tends to follow what. They never say what caused it, never predict, and never tell you what to do. If one isn’t useful, one tap hides it.

4. Take it to your appointment

Bucket keeps your appointments with the reason you’re going and the questions you want to ask, then helps you note what was said afterwards. For a specific appointment it can write a plain summary of what you’ve logged — the figures counted on your phone, from your own diary — headed with a reminder that patterns in your records show what tends to follow what, not what causes it.

You can also export your whole diary as a documented file, any time.

Where it all lives

Your diary stays on your iPhone and in your own iCloud. We have no copy and can’t read it. The privacy policy explains the few things that do leave your phone, and why.