Coleva

Coleva is an iPhone personal CRM and relationship journal for keeping track of people, places and shared moments. Type or dictate short entries, and on-device intelligence sorts out people, relationships, dates and other details; changes can be undone with one tap. A map displays connections among people, places and things in colour-coded groups. Birthday reminders, check-in nudges and plain-English answers from your notes help you revisit useful details. The free plan supports up to 20 people and includes journal capture, the map, birthdays and Ask Coleva. Coleva Plus costs $3.99 a month or $39 a year and adds unlimited people, important-date reminders, calendar-synced nudges, AI assist, career and location trails, photo avatars, app lock and custom map colours. Notes, diary entries, relationships and attached photos are stored on the iPhone. Optional Cloud Assist for Plus can send limited text or profile information to OpenAI’s API when enabled in Settings, and can be switched off. Coleva requires iOS 26.0 or later.

Coleva combines journal entries, relationship mapping and reminders in an iPhone app, with a free plan for up to 20 people. Check its iOS requirement and backup approach, and note that optional Cloud Assist can send limited information to OpenAI when enabled.

Coleva suits iPhone users who want a personal record of relationships and important dates, with reminders and searchable notes. People who prefer local storage may value that the app says it does not operate a server holding user content.

Coleva is an iPhone relationship journal that organizes notes around people, places and events. It suits people who want a private, personal record of their connections rather than a broad, multi-device contact system. Its journal and map are distinctive strengths, but the free plan’s 20-person limit and the absence of a separate backup service narrow its appeal.

Overview

Type or dictate a short entry and on-device intelligence extracts people, relationships, dates and details; a one-tap undo lets you reverse an extraction. This turns journal notes into organized relationship context without requiring a separate filing routine. The trade-off is that Coleva is built around recording memories, not managing a large contact database.

A colour-coded map connects people, places and things, while birthday lead-time reminders, check-in nudges and plain-English answers from notes help make that stored context useful later. The combination is strongest for users who want to remember personal details and act on them, rather than simply store contact information.

Key features

Journal capture accepts typing and dictation. Coleva’s on-device extraction and undo make the process more controlled than relying on automatic filing alone. Ask Coleva can answer questions in plain English using the user’s notes; Plus adds AI assist and, for subscribers without Apple Intelligence, an optional Cloud Assist setting that may send limited text or profile information to OpenAI’s API. That option can be disabled at any time.

Privacy protections are unusually central to the product: people, relationships, notes, diary entries and attached photos are stored on the iPhone, and Coleva says it operates no server holding user content. Its policy says there is no account, analytics, advertising or tracking SDK. Optional contacts and calendar access are read on-device rather than uploaded. A recorded place name may be sent to Apple’s Maps geocoding service, and the app does not request or use device location.

These controls do not remove the need to consider backups. Coleva offers no separate sync or backup service; its data is included in normal iPhone backups. That is a reasonable fit for someone already relying on iPhone backups, but not for a user who expects Coleva itself to provide recovery or cross-device continuity.

Pricing

The Free plan costs nothing and includes up to 20 people, journal capture, the living map, birthdays and Ask Coleva. It is a useful way to keep a small personal circle organized, but the cap makes it a poor fit for anyone expecting the app to grow into a comprehensive relationship database.

Coleva Plus costs $3.99 a month, billed monthly, or $39 a year, billed yearly. Both Plus plans include unlimited people, important-date reminders, calendar-synced nudges, AI assist, career and location trails, photo avatars, app lock and custom map colours. Plus is the practical choice once 20 people is too restrictive or when calendar-linked follow-ups and the additional organization tools matter. The yearly plan lowers the effective monthly cost compared with paying month to month, while the monthly option avoids committing to a year.

Platforms

Coleva is available only for iPhone and requires iOS 26.0 or later. That requirement rules it out for Android users and for iPhones that cannot run that version. Optional permissions include microphone, speech recognition, contacts, calendars, Face ID and notifications, so users can choose which connected functions to enable.

Who it's for

Coleva is best for iPhone users who want a private journal that turns personal observations into searchable, mapped relationship context and timely reminders. It is less suitable for people who need Android or web access, a separate sync and backup service, or room for more than 20 people without a subscription.

Pros and cons

• Pro: On-device extraction, local storage and the ability to undo an extraction make journal-based organization both useful and controlled.
• Pro: The map, conversational note answers and follow-up reminders connect remembering details with acting on them.
• Pro: Cloud Assist is optional and can be switched off, while the app’s stated privacy approach avoids accounts, tracking SDKs and server storage of user content.
• Con: The free plan stops at 20 people, so a larger circle requires Plus.
• Con: There is no separate sync or backup service, and the iPhone-only iOS 26.0 requirement limits device choice.
• Con: Optional Cloud Assist can send limited text or profile information to OpenAI, which may not suit users who want all processing to remain on-device.

Alternatives

Personal CRM Software is a useful place to compare products if Coleva’s iPhone-only focus or 20-person free cap does not fit.

• Contacts+ Personal CRM is a better fit for users who want Android, web and API availability, daily sync and a free allowance of 1,000 contacts; its free plan includes one account.
• Dextr suits users who want an iOS and macOS option with unlimited contacts, AI organization, relationships and tags, reminders, places and events on its free plan.
• KeepContact is another iOS choice, with a smaller free allowance of 15 contacts and three reminders.
• Kinu is worth considering for users who want Android, iOS and web access plus free encrypted backup; its free plan allows up to 10 people and has no cross-device sync.
• Revere offers unlimited people, notes and reminders on its free plan, and supports iOS and macOS.
• SoonCall is a more narrowly focused iOS option for planning and tracking catchups with five meaningful relationships on its free plan.
• Yenesow may suit users who want a free iOS relationship assistant and map, with its free plan capped at five connections and monthly conversations and weekly nudges and plans.
• Hilo is a free iOS alternative with no subscriptions.

Verdict

Choose Coleva if you want an iPhone-based relationship journal that turns brief entries into organized memories, a visual map and useful follow-up prompts. Its locally stored content and optional cloud processing give privacy-conscious users control, but the 20-person free ceiling, iPhone-only support and reliance on normal iPhone backups are real constraints. For a larger circle, Plus removes the people limit; for cross-platform access or a dedicated backup service, another app is the better choice.