iPhone, iPad and Mac

The mobile app is a complete recorder on its own: it captures audio, transcribes live on the device, and keeps a browsable library. You do not need a Mac.

If you have one, the two halves join up.

How it works

Both apps read and write one folder. The phone writes finished recordings into an Inbox inside it; the Mac watches that folder, takes what appears, runs it through the full pipeline — better transcription, speaker names, summary, filing — and puts the result back.

The audio file is written first and a small description of it last. That ordering is the whole trick: cloud folders materialise files gradually, so "the audio exists" does not mean "the audio is complete". The Mac waits for the description before touching anything, and never imports half a recording.

Setting it up

The zero-configuration path:

• On the Mac, leave the default folder — iCloud Drive/Transcripts.
• On the phone or iPad, choose Set up for me and pick iCloud Drive.

Both sides now point at the same place with nothing typed. Recordings made on the phone appear on the Mac within a minute or two of landing.

If you'd rather use OneDrive, Dropbox, or a folder on a NAS, use Choose a folder on the phone and point the Mac at the same place in Settings ▸ Destinations. Any service that appears in the iOS Files app works, because the handoff is a folder rather than an integration — there is no account to connect and no permission to grant.

What the phone does on its own

• Records with the screen locked or another app in front.
• Shows a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island while capture runs.
• Transcribes live, on the device, so you can read along.
• Keeps everything if the Mac never picks it up.

The live transcript from the phone is deliberately marked as a draft. The Mac re-transcribes from the audio, because it can do a better job with the whole file than the phone can do a sentence at a time — and when it does, it replaces the draft in place.

Next: Settings