--- title: "How Kindredly works: letters, matched by how you write" description: "Write a letter to nobody in particular; it lands first with strangers who write like you. Trade one at a time; swap names after five each way, if you both want." url: https://kindredly.io/how-it-works language: en updated: 2026-10-09 --- # How Kindredly works Kindredly is an anonymous penpal app that matches strangers by how they write. You write a letter to nobody in particular, your courier carries it to the people whose writing runs closest to yours, and when one of them writes back you've got a penpal. After five letters each way, you can trade names, if you both want to. - free: 15 strangers' letters on your desk a day, 5 new letters of your own, and the letters inside a correspondence never count - matched by how you write — never by photos or where you live - you're a number, like No. 4207, until you both choose to swap names - an iPhone app and the web, one account with Google or email - ten languages, and a translate key on your desk ## write one honest letter. There's no profile to fill in and no photo to choose. You write a letter: a line about your week, something you've never said out loud, a question you'd like a stranger to answer. Then you pick a stamp for its mood — there are 36, in six sets: confessions, almosts, late nights, small things, becoming and missing. The stamp tells a reader what kind of letter is inside before they open it. You can send five new letters a day for free. The letters inside a correspondence never count. ## it lands with people who write like you. Your courier reads the shape of your writing, not what it says: how long your sentences run, where you pause, how evenly they run, whether you ask questions, how you end a thought. Your letter lands first on the desks of the strangers whose writing sits closest to yours. Your age nudges the order a little. Where you live and what you look like never come into it. [Why prose beats profiles](https://kindredly.io/guides/words-are-your-fingerprint). ## fifteen letters a day land on yours. The same thing happens the other way round. Every day, letters from strangers who write like you land on your desk — fifteen a day on the free plan. Read them, and answer the one you can't stop thinking about. A reply starts a correspondence: just the two of you, one letter at a time. You can have five answers out at once, waiting on a first letter back; one frees up when they write back, or after a week. A letter on your desk in a language you don't read comes with a translate key. ## swap names, or don't. Nobody sees your name, your face or your profile, because there isn't one. A stranger sees a number, like No. 4207, and a face made of squares. From the fifth letter each way, either of you can enclose your name, and names are swapped only when you both have. Plenty of people stay pen pals and never do. Once you've swapped names you're kindreds, and your letters move into a room of your own. On the free plan, a room that goes thirty days without a word closes. First Class keeps every room open. ## and a bird who carries all of it. Your courier hatches from your first words and carries every letter you send. She has five coats and opinions about being ignored: three days without a letter and she's peckish, a week and she's hungry, two weeks and she goes grey. ## what's free, and what isn't. Almost everything is free: fifteen letters on your desk a day, five new letters of your own a day, your courier, and every correspondence, with no limit on the letters inside it. First Class is the paid fare: no cap on new letters, rooms that never close, voice letters (recorded in the iPhone app) and her full wardrobe. Prices are shown before you pay. ## one account, two doors. Kindredly is an iPhone app and a website. Sign in with Google or email and it's the same account on both, so your letters, kindreds and courier come with you; Sign in with Apple is iPhone-only. On Android, everything but recording voice letters works in your browser at kindredly.io. ## questions people ask. ### do I need to download an app? No. Everything but recording voice letters works in your browser at kindredly.io, and you can listen to them there. There's also an iPhone app, and it's the same account if you sign in with Google or email. ### can I read letters before I sign up? Yes. [Just look](https://kindredly.io/look) shows today's letters, no account needed. ### how many letters can I send? Five new letters a day on the free plan. The letters inside a correspondence never count, and you can have five answers to strangers waiting at once. First Class lifts the daily cap on new letters. ### what are the stamps for? Every new letter carries one of 36 stamps, in six sets, so a reader knows its mood before opening it — a confession, an almost, a late night, a small thing. ### do I have to swap names? No. From the fifth letter each way either of you can enclose your name, and names are swapped only when you both have. You can stay strangers for as long as you like. ### what languages can I write in? Ten: English, 中文, Español, Português, Bahasa Indonesia, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, 日本語 and 한국어. A letter on your desk in a language you don't read comes with a translate key. The iPhone app runs in all of them but 中文 for now; you can still write in it there. ### what happens if I stop writing? Your courier gets hungry: peckish after three days, hungry after a week, grey after two. Your correspondences stay open. Once you've traded names with someone, your room together closes if it goes thirty days without a word on the free plan; First Class keeps every room open. ## keep reading. - [is it safe?](https://kindredly.io/safety) — what a stranger can and can't see of you. - [find a penpal](https://kindredly.io/penpal) — a penpal app that matches by writing. - [your writing aura](https://kindredly.io/aura) — a free test: which of twelve writers you are. - [your first letter](https://kindredly.io/guides/first-letter-to-a-penpal) — twelve openers that get a reply. --- Kindredly is an anonymous penpal app that matches strangers by how they write. Kindredly · https://kindredly.io/