Small apps, built on the science of purpose.
LiPurposeFe is an independent studio that turns research on purpose into apps for ordinary moments.
Pharus: Track Your Sense of Purpose
Rate how purposeful you feel on a 1–100 scale, then capture the moment your way: write it, sketch it, say it, film it, snap it, or breathe through it. Every log lands on a timeline that shows how your sense of purpose is evolving, with an opportunity to see the contexts in which that evolution is happening. Create or join Purpose Crews to cultivate purpose alongside people you care about, to support, motivate, and even contribute to each other’s work. No ads, no streak-guilt, no feeds ranking you against strangers. Free.
A small family of apps, all built on one idea.
Invariably
Invariably holds every LiPurposeFe world in one place — plus a view none of the standalone apps can show on their own: how your sense of purpose shifts from one everyday domain to the next. $0.99/month, with a 1-week free trial.
Aliis
A place to log the small ways you show up for others — a ride given, a shift covered, a hard conversation had — and, over time, see the shape of who that makes you. Private and on-device, with no account and nothing tracked.
Worthwhile
Got an hour back? Tell Worthwhile how long you have and what kind of time you want, then pick an idea and go. Keep the moments that were worth it, and see what other people do with their free time. Free and private, with no account.
Keep
Moments fall like stars, and you catch the ones you'd keep. Over time Keep reads your sign: what you reach for, and why. Play today's drop, play the same sky as a friend, or start a circle. Then turn a star into a plan for this week and look back at all you did. No account and no ads.
A few ideas from the purpose literature that shape how we build.
Pleasure and purpose are different, and both count.
Psychologists separate hedonic wellbeing, which is about comfort and enjoyment, from eudaimonic wellbeing, which is about growth and purpose. Our apps help you notice both, without ranking one above the other.
Purpose grows from small, repeated choices.
Research on purpose describes its development less as a single revelation and more as a direction that forms gradually through consistent, everyday decisions.
Purpose may be more about when than what.
A sense of purpose comes and goes. Noticing when you feel it may matter as much as knowing what your purpose is.
Every app we build starts from the same idea: noticing what a moment gives you is more useful than scoring it. So we design for reflection, not a scoreboard. There is no leaderboard to climb, only a clearer sense of your own day. We would rather build a few apps well than many apps badly, so LiPurposeFe will stay small. That is fine with us.
LiPurposeFe was started by a researcher who has spent years studying how people build a sense of purpose, and wanted to see whether that research could live inside small, everyday apps. Most of what we know about purpose lives in academic papers that ordinary people never read. We wanted to take a few of those ideas and put them somewhere people already spend time, like a free hour, a trip to the bookshop, or a game that takes a minute to play, so the research could be useful, not only interesting.
Short essays on purpose, pleasure, and the ordinary places in between.
Discovering the When of Purpose
On releasing Pharus, the joy of building it, and an app made for noticing when purpose shows up.
Read the note →Have a question, or a project in mind?
We would love to hear from you. Reach us any time at the address below, and we will get back to you personally.
hello@lipurposefe.com