Guide

Visible streaks and a shareable progress history

In most habit apps, your streak is a number only you can see, and when it breaks, nobody notices if you quietly give up. In PublicHabits, your streak and the calendar behind it live on a page people who know you can open. “Don’t break the chain” stops being a private game you can walk away from and becomes a record people can see.

By Eric Payne, founder of PublicHabits · Updated October 17, 2026

Why private streaks fall apart

A streak is a great motivator right up until it breaks. Then it resets to zero, and in a private app, nobody sees it happen. There’s nothing pulling you back the next day, so one missed day turns into a missed week, and the app stops getting opened.

Visible streaks fix both halves of that problem. Keeping your streak alive matters more when people who know you can see it. And when it does break, your full history stays on the page, so a missed day costs you your streak, not your record.

How streaks work in PublicHabits

Each habit shows a streak: the number of consecutive days you’ve logged it. Log the habit today and the streak goes up by one. As long as you logged it yesterday, your streak stays alive through today, so you have until the end of the day to keep it going.

For a bad habit you’re trying to break, it works the other way around. You log a slip-up when it happens, and instead of a streak you see how many days free you’ve gone since the last one. Every day free adds to a number people who know you can see.

PublicHabits app home screen showing the Daily workout habit with a 19 day streak and a calendar tracking grid — A good habit: the streak counts days in a row.

A bad habit card for Drinking sugary drinks showing 8 days free, an October 2026 calendar with one slip-up marked in red, and the public commitment At most once per week — A bad habit: days free since the last slip-up.

See your whole routine at a glance

Once you have two or more habits, you can switch between two views, and so can people with your link. The calendar view shows a month at a time for each habit, along with its public commitment. The grid view lines up every habit against the last five days, so you can see your whole routine at a glance and page back to earlier days. Either way, every day you show up is filled in.

Grid view showing five habits, No soda, Exercise, Vitamins, Reading, and Hydration, across October 9 to 13, with check marks on completed days, day streaks, and 8 days free for No soda — Grid view: every habit across the last five days.

Habit cards showing calendar-style tracking grids with teal squares marking completed days and a daily streak count — Calendar view: a month at a time for each habit.

What happens when you miss a day

Your streak starts over and the missed day stays blank on your calendar. That’s it. Nothing is deleted and there’s no penalty. Every day you already logged stays on your page, so one missed day doesn’t erase weeks of progress.

The people watching see an honest record, not a perfect one, and they see you come back the next day. That comeback is what builds a habit.

Why the full history matters more than the streak

A streak only tells you about the current run. A calendar tells the whole story. Someone who logged 26 of the last 30 days has built a real habit, even if their current streak is 4. Because PublicHabits shows both, a single bad day never defines your record, for you or for the people watching.

A record you can’t quietly rewrite

Each habit has a public commitment: the sentence describing what you’re committing to. If you change a habit’s name or public commitment, PublicHabits automatically adds a dated note to that habit, such as User changed the public commitment from “30 minutes a day” to “20 minutes a day.” People with your link can see these notes, so you can’t quietly lower the bar. That’s what makes your streak mean something.

You can also add your own comments to a habit, to explain a missed day or celebrate a milestone.

Open the share screen in the app and tap Enable sharing.
Copy your link. It looks like publichabits.com/share/…
Send it to friends and family, drop it in a group chat, or add it to your social media bio.

Anyone who opens the link sees your display name and all of your habits, with their streaks and calendars, in a web browser. They don’t need an account or the app. You stay in control: tap Disable sharing anytime, and the link is permanently deleted. More details are in Sharing and privacy.

Start sharing your habits screen explaining that anyone with the link can view your habits, with an Enable sharing button — Sharing stays off until you turn it on.

A public PublicHabits progress page in a web browser, showing a Daily workout habit with a 19 day streak, a calendar of completed days, and a public commitment — Your streaks, as people with your link see them.

Frequently asked questions

Why share my streak instead of keeping it private?

Because a private streak is easy to give up on. When people who know you can see your streak, keeping it alive matters more. Psychologists call this the Hawthorne effect: people behave differently when they know they might be observed.

Can other people see my habit streak?

Yes, once you turn on sharing. Then anyone with your link can see your streaks and calendar history on your PublicHabits page, in any web browser, without an account or the app.

Does a missed day erase my progress?

No. Your streak starts over, but every day you’ve logged stays on your calendar, so people see your whole record, not just your current streak.

Can I track how long I’ve gone without a bad habit?

Yes. When you create a habit, choose “Bad habit.” You log a slip-up when it happens, and PublicHabits shows how many days free you’ve gone since the last one.

Can I log a habit more than once a day?

Yes. Every check-in is recorded, and each day shows how many times you checked in. Your streak counts the days you showed up, not the number of check-ins.