Guide / Capture

Capturing voice notes

Dictate a thought, review the on-device transcript, and commit it to memory — even in airplane mode.

Voice is the fastest way into SempreNotes: a thought on a walk, a decision after a call, the thing you’ll otherwise forget by dinner. Transcription runs entirely on-device through Apple’s Speech framework — your audio never touches a network.

Capturing

  1. Tap the voice button on the home screen.
  2. Speak naturally. Long dictations are fine.
  3. Stop the recording when done.

Review before commit

SempreNotes always shows you the transcript before saving. This is a covenant, not a convenience: no voice capture commits without your review. From the review screen you can:

  • Edit — fix names and proper nouns the recognizer guessed at.
  • Commit — store it as a memory with source voice and a timestamp.
  • Discard — nothing is kept, anywhere.

Offline behavior

Airplane mode changes nothing. Capture, transcription, and commit all run locally, so SempreNotes works identically on a flight, in a dead zone, or with Wi-Fi off permanently.

If the microphone is denied

Voice capture disables with a clear explanation and a shortcut to iOS Settings. Photo capture, Share Sheet import, and the brain keep working — SempreNotes never holds the rest of the app hostage to a single permission.