Quick Start — 30 Seconds

Capture It is designed to be effortless. Here's all you need to know to get started:

• Tap the microphone button at the bottom of the screen.
• Speak naturally — say whatever is on your mind. Multiple topics, one breath.
• Tap stop when you're done.
• That's it. Your words are automatically transcribed, split into separate entries, categorised, and placed on your timeline.

You never need to tag, sort, or organise anything. The app does it all for you using Apple Intelligence running entirely on your device.

Recording & Capturing

The microphone button is your main tool. Tap it once to start recording, tap again to stop. A speech bubble animation will fly your entry onto the timeline.

You can say multiple things in one recording:

• "Paid $40 for petrol, remind me to call the dentist tomorrow, and I had a really good idea for a camping trip."

That single recording becomes three separate entries — one filed under Money, one as a Task with a due date, and one as an Idea. All automatic.

Time-aware recording: Include time references and they'll be picked up automatically.

• "Tomorrow at 3pm" — creates a task due tomorrow at 3:00 PM
• "Next Friday" — sets the due date to the coming Friday
• "Before Saturday" — due date set to Saturday
• "In 2 hours" — calculates the time from now

People detection: Mention someone by name and they're automatically tracked.

• "Sarah said she'd pick up the kids" — Sarah is linked to this entry
• "Dave owes me $50 for the tickets" — Dave is linked, filed under Money

Your Timelines

The home screen shows two timelines side by side:

• Coming Up (Action Line) — your tasks, reminders, and appointments displayed as cards on the left. These are things you need to act on. Tap any card to open its detail sheet where you can mark it done, edit, or delete it.
• Capture Stream (right side) — every thought you recorded today, shown as speech bubbles colour-coded by category. This is your thought journal for the day.

Navigate between days: Tap the day selector at the top of the Coming Up timeline to look at yesterday, tomorrow, or browse further ahead. The Capture Stream updates to match.

Tap any card or bubble to open its detail sheet with the full entry, category, linked people, companion thoughts, and more.

Cards & Categories

Every entry is automatically placed into a category by the AI:

• Tasks — things to do, reminders, appointments
• Money — expenses, payments, financial notes
• Health — symptoms, medication, wellbeing notes
• Ideas — creative thoughts, plans, inspiration
• Notes — general information, observations
• People — entries about or involving specific people

Each category has its own colour, so you can see at a glance what type of entry it is on your timeline.

Card actions:

• Tap any card to open its detail sheet
• In the detail sheet: mark done, edit, pin, delete, view linked people, see companion thoughts, and send Smart Drafts

The Vault

Swipe down on the home screen to open your Vault — a categorised archive of every single entry you've ever captured.

• Browse by category — tap any category to see all entries within it
• Search within the Vault to find specific entries
• Entries are sorted by date, most recent first

Think of the Vault as your personal filing cabinet. The timeline shows today — the Vault shows everything.

Recall — Search Your Life

Recall is your personal search engine. Ask questions about your own life and get instant answers.

How to use it: Say "vault" or "recall" during a voice recording to trigger a search. You can also search directly in the Vault using the search bar at the top.

Example questions:

• "When did I last see the dentist?"
• "How much did I spend on groceries this month?"
• "What did I say about the camping trip?"
• "When did Dave borrow money?"
• "Show me everything about headaches"

Recall searches through all your entries across all categories and returns relevant results with dates and context.

Smart Drafts

Say something that sounds like a message, and Capture It will automatically generate a ready-to-send draft.

Trigger phrases:

• "Message Sarah thanks for covering my shift"
• "Email the boss about the project deadline"
• "Text Mum to say I'll be late for dinner"
• "Reply to Dave about the weekend"

How it works:

• The entry appears on your timeline immediately
• Open the card — a draft is generated within seconds using on-device AI
• Choose your tone: Casual, Business, or Professional
• Tap Send Email or Send Text to open the message in Mail or Messages
• Tap Regenerate if you want a different version

Everything is generated on your device. Your messages are never sent to any server.

Pinned Tasks

Pin tasks that repeat on specific days. Perfect for routines, medications, chores — anything that happens regularly.

How to pin a task:

• Open any task card by tapping it
• Tap the Pin button
• Select which days the task should appear (Monday, Tuesday, Weekdays, Every Day, etc.)
• The task will now appear on your Coming Up timeline on those days

Managing pinned tasks:

• Open the dropdown menu (top-left pill) and tap Pinned
• See all your pinned tasks with their scheduled days
• Mark done for today — it will come back on the next scheduled day
• Edit days or unpin from this menu

Shared Rooms

Shared Rooms let you capture and sync with family, friends, or anyone you choose. Each room is a separate shared space with its own timeline, tasks, and theme.

Creating a room:

• Go to Settings (via the dropdown menu, top-left)
• Scroll to Shared Rooms
• Tap Create Room
• Name your room and pick a colour theme
• You'll receive a 6-character code — share this with anyone you want to invite

Joining a room:

• Go to Settings → Shared Rooms → Join Room
• Enter the 6-character code someone shared with you
• The room appears in your dropdown menu immediately

Using rooms:

• Tap the room pill (top-left of the home screen) to open the dropdown
• Tap any room name to switch to it
• Everything you capture while in a room is shared with all room members
• Switch back to Personal to capture private entries

Privacy: Your personal entries are never shared. Only entries captured while inside a room are synced to that room's members via iCloud.

Sunday Review

Once a week, Capture It offers a review of your week. This is your chance to clear completed tasks, spot patterns, and start fresh.

• The review appears automatically on your chosen day (default: Sunday)
• See overdue tasks and decide what to do with them
• View cross-category insights — patterns the AI has spotted across your entries
• Set up reminders for recurring patterns
• Archive or clean up old entries

You can change the review day in Settings → Weekly Review.

Apple Watch

Capture It works on your Apple Watch for quick voice captures on the go.

• Capture: Open the app on your Watch, tap the microphone, dictate your thought
• Tasks: See your upcoming tasks right on your wrist
• Mark done: Swipe on a task to complete it
• Complications: Add Capture It to your watch face to see your next task at a glance

Entries captured on your Watch sync to your iPhone automatically. Classification happens on your phone when it syncs.

Widgets

Add Capture It widgets to your Home Screen or Lock Screen to see today's tasks without opening the app. Widgets show today's upcoming tasks only — so when it says "All Clear", you're done for the day.

Home Screen Widgets:

• Coming Up (Medium) — shows your next few tasks on a mini timeline
• Coming Up (Large) — shows more tasks in a detailed list view

Lock Screen Widgets:

• Rectangular — shows your next upcoming task with its title and time
• Circular — shows the time and icon of your next task
• Inline — shows a brief task summary in the inline slot

Widget Room Settings:

• By default, widgets show your Personal tasks only
• Go to Settings → Widget to toggle which rooms appear in your widgets
• Enable or disable individual rooms — great for turning off Work on weekends or Family on weekdays
• Personal tasks are always shown and cannot be turned off

To add widgets: long-press your Home Screen or Lock Screen, tap the + button, search for "Capture It".

Siri Shortcuts

Use Siri to capture thoughts completely hands-free — perfect when driving, cooking, or exercising.

• "Hey Siri, capture a thought" — starts a voice capture
• "Hey Siri, what's coming up in Capture It" — reads your upcoming tasks

Works with AirPods: If you're wearing AirPods or any Bluetooth earbuds, Siri and voice recording will use the AirPods microphone. Totally hands-free capture from anywhere.

You can also set up custom Siri Shortcuts in the iOS Shortcuts app for more advanced automations.

Themes

Capture It features five dynamic colour themes. The background shifts based on the time of day — brighter during daytime, deeper at night.

• Ocean — deep blues (default)
• Midnight — dark navy and indigo
• Ember — warm reds and oranges
• Forest — rich greens
• Amethyst — purple tones

To change your theme: Open the dropdown menu (top-left pill) and tap a colour circle, or go to Settings → Appearance to see all themes with labels. The change is instant and applies across the entire app.

Each shared room can also have its own theme, so when you switch rooms, the app's look changes to match.

Language Support

Capture It works in any language. Speak in Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Korean, Chinese, Arabic, or any of the 17 supported languages — every feature works exactly the same.

Behind the scenes, on-device translation converts your speech to English for intelligent classification, time detection, and task recognition. Your entries are always displayed in your original language.

To change your language: Go to Settings → Language and select your preferred language. Speech recognition and all intelligence features will adapt instantly.

Supported languages:

• English (Australia, US, UK, Ireland, Canada, India, South Africa)
• Japanese, Spanish, French, German, Italian
• Portuguese (Brazil), Korean, Chinese (Mandarin)
• Hindi, Arabic

Translation happens entirely on your device — no data is sent to any server. Language packs are downloaded automatically by your iPhone when needed.

Tips & Tricks

For faster, better recordings:

• Include dollar amounts — "$45 groceries" is instantly categorised as Money
• Use health keywords — "headache", "took medication", "feeling tired" → filed under Health
• Say "remind me" — triggers a task with intent detection
• Mention times — "at 3pm", "tomorrow morning", "next week" → auto-detected
• Name people — "Tell Sarah", "Dave said" → people are linked automatically
• Say multiple things at once — the AI handles splitting them up

Companion thoughts:

• Say "after the doctor's appointment, I need to pick up the prescription" — the prescription entry links to your existing doctor appointment
• Phrases like "on the way home from", "before the", "after the" trigger companion linking

Power user tips:

• Swipe down on the home screen to jump straight into the Vault
• Long-press on the room pill to see room details — code, members, and owner info
• The Capture Stream scrolls back — flick right to see earlier recordings from today
• Pin your most important daily tasks so they never slip through the cracks
• Toggle room visibility in Settings → Widget to keep your widget focused — turn off Work rooms on weekends

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Capture It work offline?

Yes. Voice transcription, AI classification, and all core features run entirely on your device. You don't need an internet connection. The only feature that requires internet is Shared Rooms syncing.

Is my data private?

Absolutely. Nothing leaves your device unless you explicitly use Shared Rooms (which syncs via your iCloud account). There are no third-party services, no analytics, no tracking. See our Privacy Policy for full details.

Do I need Apple Intelligence?

Capture It works best on devices with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 16 and later, or iPhone 15 Pro). The AI handles topic splitting, classification, Smart Drafts, and Recall. On devices without Apple Intelligence, basic features still work with fallback templates.

Can I use AirPods to record?

Yes! When AirPods (or any Bluetooth earbuds) are connected, the app automatically uses the AirPods microphone for recording. Combined with Siri Shortcuts, this gives you fully hands-free voice capture.

How do I delete an entry?

Open the entry by tapping its card or bubble, then use the delete option in the detail sheet.

Can I change the category of an entry?

The AI categorises entries automatically and is usually very accurate. Categories are determined by the content of what you say.

What happens if I delete the app?

All local data is removed. If you had Shared Rooms, those rooms continue to exist for other members, but your local copy is gone.

How many rooms can I create?

There's no limit. Create as many rooms as you need — one for family, one for flatmates, one for a project, etc.