About Letters Unsent
A home for words never sent
Read anonymous letters, or share one of your own.
No account required, and no popularity metrics.
In an introduction to their Unsent Love Letters project, Esther Perel and Mary Alice Miller describe the release and clarity that writing can bring, even when a letter is never sent.
Spaces have emerged to hold unsent words:
- r/UnsentLetters
- The Unsent Project
- various instagram accounts like unsent_letters_to
- The Unsent Letter Mailbox in New York City
- Letters Anonymous (web app with manual content moderation by creator)
- Unsent Letters (web app)
- Post Secret (something close to a confessional, but seems more postcard-y than letter-y and is actually analogue, not digital)
So why make this new platform?
As an artist turned engineer, I wanted my first user-driven full-stack application to be something meaningful - a space that honours a wider range of human experience, rather than a single context. Not just romantic love, but grief, gratitude, anger, regret, bitterness, joy, and everything in between. (You can find out more about me here on my personal website.)
To me, the letter format itself holds a gentle kind of power. There is something especially moving about words that have never found their way to their person, for one reason or another. And in a time where it sometimes seems like brevity and performance are often the things we optimise for, writing and reading letters asks for more of us - but sometimes it can offer something deeper in return.
I hope people find comfort here - in reading these letters, or in sharing their own - knowing that others, too, carry words left unspoken.
Before releasing a letter, you can protect it with a private token so you can edit or remove it later. A letter released without a token cannot be managed afterwards. Learn more about ownership tokens.
This space welcomes letters of diverse content, tones and subjects. However, this is also a public space. To keep it safe for everyone, please write with compassion (for yourself and others) and avoid the following:
- publicly sharing identifying details that could expose someone's identity (for example: what appears to be full names, addresses, phone numbers, emails etc)
- sexually explicit or pornographic content
- descriptions of non-consensual activity
- graphic descriptions of violent or traumatic detail
- vitriolic and abusive speech
- praise for extremist ideologies
- suicidal intentions or thoughts detailing instructions or methods of self-harm
- any of the above involving minors
Submissions containing this content won't be accepted.
You're welcome to reach out if you come across these situations:
- If you're convinced your letter doesn't violate any of the above but you still have issues submitting.
- If you read a letter and you think it should not be displayed publicly.
- If you're convinced any of the disallowed content above should be reconsidered.
Note: You'll see some sample letters tagged as "AI gen." These were generated using AI to demonstrate the range of emotions and relationships that can be explored here. They may be gradually removed as more letters are shared by visitors.
Letters Unsent will be a continually evolving space. Care, transparency, and restraint guide how Letters Unsent grows.
Anonymity
- No accounts are required to submit a letter.
- No account name, email address, or contact details are requested.
- An optional intended recipient and sign-off become part of the public letter, but submissions are not linked to an account or personal profile.
Ownership tokens: Before releasing a letter, you can choose a private token as anonymous proof of ownership. Anyone with that token can edit or remove the letter, so keep it somewhere safe. The token cannot be recovered or added after release. Without it, I cannot verify ownership and the letter should be treated as permanent in the archive on this site.
AI-assisted Writing
At the moment, letters are submitted through Release A Letter with the help of Cove (the AI presence). This experience is enabled by a third-party provider, OpenAI.
Moderation & Safety
Letters in the final conversational stage with Cove (AI presence on Release page) are checked against the Submission Guidelines to prevent abuse, harm or aggravated distress. Content that violates those named safety boundaries will not be published.
What Is Stored
TL;DR: The final letter, its public details, and its submission date are stored. If you protect it, a one-way hash of your ownership token is also stored. AI-assisted conversations are not kept by me. A non-AI submission option is planned.
The final letter, its optional intended recipient and sign-off, and its submission date are stored in an external database.
If you protect a letter via a token, the database stores a one-way hash used to verify the ownership token, not the token itself. You can also choose to save the token in this browser profile on this device. That local copy remains on the device and can be lost if browser storage is cleared.
Conversations that happen during AI-assisted writing are handled differently.
- They are processed server-side to generate a response.
- They are not saved to a database owned or controlled by me - so your conversation with Cove disappears once the browser tab is closed.
How OpenAI requests are configured
I use the data controls provided by OpenAI's Responses API to limit how AI interactions are handled. This includes:
- not saving Cove conversations to a database I own or control
- setting the
storeparameter tofalseon API calls, which prevents response objects from being retained for later retrieval where supported (see OpenAI's data controls documentation) - not opting in to share inputs, outputs, or evaluation data with OpenAI
Storage outside my control via OpenAI
According to OpenAI's API data policy, prompts and responses may be retained in abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days by default, or longer where required by law. I do not control this behaviour, nor do I have access to Modified Abuse Monitoring or Data Residency controls.
In the Future
In the next iteration, an alternative option to submit via a standard form will be added for those who want to submit without AI involvement (see "Roadmap & Features"). Moderation will still be applied to maintain safety according to Submission Guidelines.
Your Choice
Sharing here is, of course, always optional. If something doesn't feel right, you're free to leave without submitting anything. You can also reach out to discuss anything.
Letters Unsent is more than an archive - it's a living project I'm tending over time. (You can view the changelog here.)
Here's a little of what I've planned so far:
Core functionality:
- non AI-assisted submission option
- filters, sort and search on submitted letters (based on time, themes, emotion and relationship type for example)
- potentially letters that have been sent can also be included, with labelling
Experience & atmosphere (without accounts or personal profiles):
- personalised experience while on this website
- personal letter draft drawer
- a sense of community without all the usual noise
I ultimately aim to move beyond functionality without sacrificing usability - for this place to feel simple, yet alive.
Suggestions, comments or feedback for this platform (for example, what the build priorities should be, features, guideline considerations) are welcome - please reach out via any of the contact channels in the section just below.
You can get in touch about anything related to this website here in these ways:
- anonymous contact form: via Tally forms
(Form responses are forwarded to my email. Tally's policy covers their service operation, not responses submitted via the form.) - email: dear@letters-unsent.com