Documentation
How to use PrayIt
The four tabs, how rotation and schedules work, the daily devotional, and how to back up your list.
Getting Started
PrayIt isn't a to-do list — it's built to walk you through the same prayer list, a little at a time, every day. Nothing gets marked "done" and disappears forever; requests come back around on their own schedule or in rotation, the same way the people and things on your heart actually do.
Watch first
A short video on why I wrote PrayIt and how it works, step by step.
Can't see the video? Watch it on YouTube.
Why categories, not just one big list
Think of a category less as a topic (like "Family" or "Work") and more as a movement — a stretch of your prayer time with its own posture. The built-in sample list uses the classic ACTS pattern:
- Adoration — starting with who God is, before asking for anything.
- Confession — being honest with God about where you've fallen short.
- Thanksgiving — what he's already done, including a running list of answered prayers (see Thanksgiving Reminders).
- Supplication — everyone and everything else on your heart.
That's a starting point, not a rule — categories are yours to name, reorder, and use however fits how you pray. Some people do use them as topics instead (Family, Work, Missionaries), and that works fine too. If you've already built out your own categories and want to switch to ACTS later, Admin → Prayer Method → Set Up ACTS sets all four up in one tap — see ACTS Prayer Method below.
Your first few minutes in the app
- Look around the sample list first. PrayIt seeds a small demo roster on first launch so you can see a working list — a few people, a few events, some scheduled and some not — before building your own.
- Clear it when you're ready to start fresh: Admin → Delete All Data. It's just sample content, so there's nothing worth backing up first.
- Set up your categories: keep the bundled ACTS set, or go to Admin → Categories → Edit to rename, reorder, and pick which one is the default for new people.
- Add a handful of people or events: the People tab's + button. Give each one a first request right away, or leave it blank and add one later.
- Decide schedule or no schedule for each request — see the tip below.
- Optional: turn on a daily devotional in Admin → Daily Devotional to open each prayer time with a short reading.
- Go to the Pray tab and walk through it. Wherever you stop is where you'll pick back up next time.
From here, the rest of this page is a reference for each tab and feature — worth skimming once, then coming back to whenever something's unclear.
Pray
The Pray tab is the point of the app. It walks you through your prayer list one category at a time, in the order you've set. If you've turned on a devotional, that comes first — read it and tap Continue.
What each category screen shows
For the category you're on, PrayIt shows two things:
- Scheduled requests that are due today — grouped by person, and sorted with the most frequent (Daily) first.
- A page from the rotation — a handful of your unscheduled requests for this category, under an "Also praying for" heading. How many appear at once is the category's reveal size (set in Admin).
If there's nothing due and nothing in rotation for a category, it simply says so. Tap Continue to move to the next category, or Finish on the last one.
Marking a request
Tap the green circle next to a request to mark it Prayed. It drops out of view for the rest of the day. If it was a rotation item, the next one takes its place — so you can keep going as long as you like, and wherever you stop is where you pick up next time.
Swipe actions
Swipe right on a request to add an Update — a dated note on how it's going, without closing the request. Swipe left reveals Answered and Delete — a full left swipe triggers Answered (unchanged, so existing habits don't change anyone's data by accident); Delete only ever fires from an explicit tap on its own button, and it's permanent.
Show More
If a category has more unscheduled requests than fit on today's page, a Show More button reveals another batch of the same size. It's a peek ahead — marking something Prayed resets it.
Adding and editing right from here
Tap the + next to anyone's name to add a new request for them without leaving the flow. Tap a request's text (not the green circle) to open it for editing — change its schedule on the spot (e.g. Daily → Weekly, or turn scheduling off entirely so it joins rotation instead), move it to a different person or event — and thus a different category — from the Person / Event picker, or just see its stats (below).
Prayer stats
Once you've prayed a request, its edit screen shows a Prayer Stats section: when you last prayed it, how many distinct days you've prayed it, and, for unscheduled requests once there are at least four prayers to average, the average number of days between them. Counting starts from the date shown beneath the stats, so prayers from before that aren't included. Scheduled requests don't show an average — you already know their rhythm, and "Last prayed" shows if one is slipping.
To check that your unscheduled requests aren't getting overlooked, Admin → Unscheduled Prayers shows how many have been prayed in the last week, are waiting 7–13 or 14+ days, or haven't been prayed yet. A weekly request comes up every 7 days, so anything waiting longer is coming up less often than one. If those numbers are high, raise that category's Reveal at least N at a time — its edit screen shows how many days one full pass takes.
Requests that end
Some things are only for a season — a friend travelling for two weeks, a short illness. When you add or edit a request, turn on Ends on a date under Duration and pick the last day. It still comes up on its usual schedule or in rotation, with a small "Ends in 3 days" note beside it. The day after the last day, PrayIt asks "Is this one over?" the next time you open the Pray tab, with three choices: extend it (3 days, a week, two weeks, or a date you pick), Mark Answered (the usual sheet, including a Thanksgiving reminder), or delete it. Tap Later and it asks again next time you open the app; until you decide, the request keeps showing, marked "Ended".
Sharing a request
Open a request and tap Share This Request. PrayIt writes a short message — the request, who it's for, and the last day if it has one — with a link, and you send it the way you'd send any message: pick one person, several, or a group. Someone with PrayIt taps the link, then Open in PrayIt, and PrayIt asks where to add it (under the same person if you already pray for them). It arrives with the same last day, so you both stop on the same date.
It's a one-time copy: PrayIt doesn't tell you who added it, and if you change or extend yours later, theirs stays as it was. Someone without PrayIt can still read the request on the web page the link opens. The request travels inside the link — it isn't stored on this website or sent anywhere else.
Start Over
After the last category you'll see an All Done screen with a Start Over button. It just lets you walk the categories again from the top — it does not un-pray anything or rewind your place in the rotation.
People
The People tab is your roster — everyone and everything you pray for. Each row shows a name and how many active requests it has. Tap a row to open that person or event.
Two list styles
In Admin you can choose how this list looks:
- Grouped by category — sections for Adoration, Thanksgiving, General, and so on.
- Flat A–Z — one alphabetical list, sorted by last name, with an A–Z scrubber down the side to jump around quickly.
Adding someone
Tap +, enter a name, and pick a category (the default category is pre-selected). Turn on "This is an event, not a person" for things like Elders & Church or Women's ministry. You can type their first prayer request right on the same screen, or leave it blank and add requests later.
A person's detail screen
Shows their category, any notes, their Active Requests, and an Answered section once something's been closed out. From the ⋯ menu you can add a request or edit the person. Swipe an active request to delete it, or tap the seal icon to mark it answered. In the Answered section, swipe left to delete for good, or right to archive it (see Archiving).
Search
The search bar matches both names and the text of requests — so searching "salvation" finds every person with a request about it.
All Prayers
A single combined view of every request, across all people and categories. Use the toggle at the top to switch between:
- Active — everything still being prayed for
- Answered — everything closed out, with its answer note
- All — both together
- Archived — answered prayers you've tucked away (see Archiving below)
Requests stay grouped under their category and person, so it reads like a printed prayer list.
Working with an active request
Tap an active request to open it for editing — change its text or schedule, move it to a different person or event, log an update, or see its prayer stats. Swipe it the same way you would in the Pray tab: right to add an Update, left for Answered or Delete (Delete is permanent, and only fires from tapping its own button).
Managing an answered request
Swipe an answered row left to delete it for good, or right to archive it — archiving moves it out of Answered/All and into the Archived filter, without deleting it. From Archived, swipe right again to Restore it.
Sharing / exporting a list
Tap the share button in the top corner to export the current view as plain text — ready to paste into an email, a message, or a notes app, or to hand to someone else who prays with you.
Admin
Everything you configure lives here.
Categories
Tap Edit, then drag to reorder — this is the order you pray through them. Tap a category to rename it, set how many requests it reveals at a time in the Pray flow, or make it the default for new people (only one category can be the default).
Prayer Method
Set Up ACTS replaces your categories with Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication in one tap. See ACTS Prayer Method below.
People List
The Group by category toggle switches the People tab between sections and the flat A–Z list.
Daily Devotional
Pick a source — None, My Own, Spurgeon's Morning and Evening, or Streams in the Desert. With My Own selected, a Manage My Devotionals link appears. See Devotionals below.
Prayer Schedule
Balance scheduled prayers spreads your fixed-schedule requests evenly across the calendar. It's on by default. Balance Now re-runs it on demand. See Schedule balancing below.
Thanksgiving Reminders
Pick the person or event where you want answered-prayer reminders to go. See Thanksgiving Reminders below.
Security
Optionally lock PrayIt with a 4-digit PIN, with Face ID as a shortcut. See PIN & Face ID.
Backup & Restore
Export a JSON backup, or import one. Import always merges — see Backup & Restore.
Your Data
A quick count of categories, people/events, active requests, and answered prayers.
Delete All Data
Permanently removes every category, person, and request. There's a confirmation step — export a backup first.
Rotation
A request with no fixed schedule goes into its category's rotation pool. You don't see the whole pool every day — you see a page of it, oldest first, and the app remembers how far you've actually prayed.
How the page moves
Each day's page starts right after the last request you prayed through. Mark that page done and the next page begins where it left off — today, tomorrow, or next week. It doesn't matter how many you get through in one sitting.
Set the page size per category
In Admin, each category has a "Reveal at least N at a time" setting. A category with a lot of people might reveal 5; a short one might reveal 2. Show More in the Pray flow reveals another batch when you want to go further.
It never runs dry
Some people pray through a category more than once a day — that's fine. Once you've been through everyone today, PrayIt shows "You've prayed through everyone today — here they are again." and lets you keep going. Praying one of those again drops just that one and brings the next one into its place, exactly the same one-at-a-time feel as the first pass — not a big batch reveal. Do this as many times in a day as you like; it never leaves you with nothing to pray for.
Schedule balancing
When you give a request a fixed schedule — Daily, Weekly, every few days — it comes due on its own rhythm. The catch: if you add five "every 5 days" requests in one sitting, they'd all come due together every fifth day, leaving the days between empty.
What balancing does
Balance scheduled prayers (Admin → Prayer Schedule) staggers your fixed-schedule requests so that roughly the same number come due each day — across your whole list, whatever the mix of intervals. It never touches rotation requests or anything you've marked answered.
- On by default. While it's on, each new scheduled request is placed on the lightest day as you create it.
- Balance Now re-spreads everything on demand — run it whenever a day starts feeling heavy.
- Turning the toggle off then back on also re-balances everything.
Thanksgiving Reminders
An important answered prayer shouldn't just get filed away — it's something to keep actively thanking God for. Thanksgiving Reminders turn an answer (or real progress on something still open) into a standing reminder that keeps coming back around in prayer time.
Set it up once
Go to Admin → Thanksgiving Reminders → Destination and pick a person or event — often one made just for this, like "Answered Prayers," or an existing one like "General Thanksgiving." It can be any subject in any category.
Then, whenever you mark something Answered or log an Update
You'll see a toggle: "Add a Thanksgiving reminder." Leave it on (it's on by default once a destination is set) and PrayIt adds a short reminder under your destination — something like "Frank: Pray for a wife for him — married in June!" — so it's self-explanatory later, without you needing to remember the full backstory.
It keeps the same rhythm you were praying it with
If the original request had a schedule — say, every 3 days — the reminder is created on that same schedule, not dropped into unscheduled rotation. The idea: if you prayed for it every 3rd day, you'd better be thankful every 3rd day too. A request with no schedule still produces an unscheduled reminder, which simply joins rotation like anything else.
ACTS Prayer Method
ACTS is a classic, popular way to structure a prayer time: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. It's the pattern the bundled sample roster uses, and you can set it up for your own list any time.
Setting it up
Go to Admin → Prayer Method → Set Up ACTS. If you already have categories with people and requests in them, PrayIt warns you first — setting up ACTS replaces your current categories, so export a backup beforehand if there's anything you'd want back. Starting from nothing (a fresh install, or right after Delete All Data), it sets up directly with no warning, since there's nothing to lose.
- Supplication — asking on behalf of others and yourself — becomes the default category for new people, the same role a catch-all category like "General" plays otherwise.
- An "Answered Prayers" event is created under Thanksgiving, and set as your Thanksgiving Reminders destination automatically — that feature works right away instead of needing a separate setup step.
- You're offered a handful of short starter prompts for Adoration (praising God's character) so it isn't empty to start. They're ordinary requests — pray through them, edit them, or delete them like anything else.
Devotionals
When a source is set, the Pray tab opens with a short devotional — a verse and a prayer or reflection — before the categories. Choose the source in Admin → Daily Devotional.
My Own
Write your own entries in Manage My Devotionals. Each has a reference, the verse text, and a prayer. They're shown one per day, in the order you arrange them, looping back to the start after the last one. The cycle begins at entry #1 on the day you add your first one.
Bundled books
Spurgeon's Morning and Evening and Streams in the Desert are included in full (both public domain). They're keyed to the calendar, so you get the entry for today's date.
Importing your own from a spreadsheet
In Manage My Devotionals, tap Import from CSV. Build the list in any spreadsheet app and export it as a .csv with these three columns, in this order, with a header row on top:
| Column | What goes in it | Example |
|---|---|---|
Reference | The verse reference | Psalm 23:1 |
Verse | The verse text | The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. |
Prayer | Your prayer or reflection | Father, thank you that you provide… |
Imported entries are added after any you already have. A row whose reference and verse already exist is skipped, so re-importing an updated sheet only adds what's new.
Backup & Restore
Your data syncs through iCloud automatically, but a local backup is still worth keeping.
Export
Admin → Export Backup creates a JSON file and opens the share sheet, so you can save it to Files, Dropbox, or email it to yourself. It contains every category, person, request, update, and custom devotional, plus your settings (devotional source, People list style, Thanksgiving destination, schedule balancing) and where you left off in each category's rotation.
Import
Admin → Import Backup, then pick a JSON file. Import merges — it adds what's in the file and never deletes or overwrites what's already there. If the backup has a default category, your current default is un-flagged so there's still only one. Your settings and rotation position are restored only when the app is empty — a new install, or right after Delete All Data — so importing into an app you're already using never changes your settings.
Archiving
An Answered list only grows — archiving gets an old answer out of your daily view without deleting the record.
Archiving an answer
On any answered request — in People or in All Prayers — swipe right to archive it. It disappears from Answered and All right away and moves to All Prayers' Archived filter.
Restoring or deleting it for good
Open All Prayers → Archived. Swipe an archived request right to Restore it back to your normal Answered list, or left to Delete it permanently.
PIN & Face ID
Your prayer list can be personal. If you'd like to keep it private on your phone, PrayIt can ask for a 4-digit PIN every time you open it. It's completely optional and off until you turn it on.
Turning it on
Admin → Security → Set a PIN. Choose four digits and enter them again to confirm. If your device has Face ID (or Touch ID), PrayIt uses it to unlock automatically, and you can fall back to your PIN any time. There's an Unlock with Face ID switch in the same place if you'd rather type the PIN.
When it locks
PrayIt locks when you first open it and whenever you leave it and come back. It also covers the screen in the app switcher, so nothing on your list shows there. After five wrong PINs in a row, the keypad pauses for 30 seconds.
Changing or removing it
Admin → Security → Change PIN or Remove PIN. Both ask for your current PIN first.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between "Prayed" and "Answered"?
Prayed (the green circle) just means you prayed for it today — it hides for the rest of the day and comes back tomorrow on its schedule or in rotation. Answered closes the request out for good, with a note about how it was answered, and moves it to the Answered list.
I'm praying about something ongoing that will never really be "answered." What do I do?
Keep it active and use Update (swipe right in the Pray flow, or the History section on the request). Updates are dated notes on how something's going — they don't change the schedule, the rotation, or whether it's answered.
Why did a scheduled request move to a different day?
That's schedule balancing (Admin → Prayer Schedule), which is on by default. It spreads your fixed-schedule requests so no single day is overloaded. The interval is unchanged — a Weekly request is still weekly, it just may fall on a different day. Turn the toggle off if you'd rather schedules stay exactly as entered.
Should I give a request a schedule or leave it unscheduled?
Use a schedule for things you want to pray on a set rhythm — a spouse daily, a missionary weekly. Leave it unscheduled for the long tail of people and requests you want to get to regularly but not on a fixed day; those rotate a page at a time so you cover everyone over the course of a week or two.
What is ACTS, and can I set it up later if I didn't start with it?
Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication — a classic structure for a prayer time. Admin → Prayer Method → Set Up ACTS sets up all four any time, not just on a fresh install. If you already have categories with content in them, it warns you first, since it replaces what's there. See ACTS Prayer Method.
Can I move a single prayer request to a different category?
Yes — open the request for editing (tap it in the Pray flow, or from the person's detail screen) and use the Person / Event picker. It moves just that one request to whichever person or event you pick, which puts it in that person's category — the rest of that person's requests, and the person themselves, stay exactly where they were. If the destination person or event doesn't exist yet in that category, add them there first, then move the request to them.
How can I tell how often I'm actually praying for something?
Open the request for editing — a Prayer Stats section shows when you last prayed it and how many distinct days you've prayed it, plus, for unscheduled requests, the average days between prayers once there are four to average. For a bigger picture of your unscheduled requests, Admin → Unscheduled Prayers shows how long each has been waiting compared with a weekly schedule.
Where do Thanksgiving Reminders go, and can I change that?
Wherever you set it — one person or event, chosen once in Admin → Thanksgiving Reminders → Destination. Every reminder goes there, regardless of which category or person the original prayer came from. You can change the destination any time; it only affects reminders created afterward, not ones already there.
What's the difference between archiving and deleting?
Archive just gets an answered prayer out of your everyday Answered/All view — the record is still there under All Prayers' Archived filter, and you can restore it any time. Delete removes it for good, with no way to get it back short of an earlier backup.
Does PrayIt work without iCloud?
Yes. All your data is stored on the device whether or not iCloud is on — you just won't get sync to your other devices. If you're not using iCloud, export a backup now and then so you have a copy.
Does PrayIt work on iPad or Mac?
PrayIt is designed for iPhone, and that's where it's supported. A layout made for iPad is planned for a future update. Your list syncs between your devices through iCloud.
Does "Start Over" undo my prayers for the day?
No. It only sends you back to the first category so you can walk through again. Anything you marked Prayed stays that way, and your place in the rotation keeps moving forward.
Can I put a PIN or Face ID on PrayIt?
Yes — Admin → Security → Set a PIN. It's optional, and Face ID can unlock it for you. See PIN & Face ID. The PIN is per device and doesn't sync, so set it separately on each device you want locked.
How do I report a bug or ask for a feature?
Head to the Support page and send an email. Include your build number (Admin → About) and what you expected versus what happened.