The notes library

Dictations and notes

Everything you dictate into another app is also written to the Dictation history on your computer. It is on by default, so there is nothing to remember to save. Each dictation is stored with the date and time, how long you spoke for, the language, and the name of the app the text was pasted into — on this computer only. Its audio is not kept.

Notes are the other half. A voice note is what you say with the Voice notes shortcut; a typed note is one you write in the app. A note's text, and a voice note's recordings, are saved to your account as well, so they appear, and play back, on every computer where you sign in.

• Hold Right Command (Right Ctrl on Windows) to take a voice note. Settings → Voice notes lets you pick a different right-hand key.
• Press Control-Option-N (Ctrl+Alt+N on Windows) to take one hands-free, and press it again to stop.
• Press Escape to cancel a recording: nothing is typed or saved.

Opening and browsing

Open VoiceSnap Pro from its menu bar icon (the tray icon on Windows). The sidebar starts with Reminders, then All notes and your folders, and ends with History, the Trash and Settings. Notes you pin sit at the top under Pinned; everything else is grouped by day — Today, Yesterday, then the date — newest first.

Select a note to read it, edit it if the transcription got something wrong, or play its recordings. History opens the dictation history as a pop-up you can also reach from any app with Control + Option + H (Ctrl + Alt + H): search it, and paste a dictation into the app you were in. Editing changes the stored copy only — text a dictation already pasted into Gmail is not touched.

Titles, and AI titles

Every note has a title above its text. Until it has one of its own, a note is titled with its first sentence. Click the title, or choose Rename in the note's ⋯ menu, to write your own: Enter or Tab saves it and moves into the text, Escape puts it back, and clearing it brings the first sentence back.

With AI titles on, a new voice note gets a short title written by AI — a few words, in the note's language — soon after it is saved. A typed note never gets one on its own: it keeps its first sentence as its title until you rename it or ask for one. Adding to a note by voice never asks for a title. After you re-transcribe a note whose title AI wrote, it gets a new one to match. AI never replaces a title you wrote yourself. Regenerate title, in the ⋯ menu, asks for a new title for any note, typed or spoken, including one you titled yourself; it needs an internet connection and a note of at least 20 characters. AI titles do not count as AI actions.

Tags, and AI tags

Tags are labels you make yourself, each in one of eight soft colours. Press Add tag under a note's title, type to find one of your tags and tick it, or choose Create tag “…” to make a new one with the name you typed; Manage tags… opens Settings → Tags. A note shows its tags as small chips under its title, and each row of the Notes list shows up to three.

Click a tag chip to list every note with that tag. The Tagged strip under the search box shows which tag you are looking at, and its × brings every note back. Tag, in the search filters, does the same while you search.

Settings → Tags lists your tags with how many notes carry each. Make a new one there, rename one in place, click its colour dot to pick another of the eight colours, merge it into another tag — its notes get that tag instead — or delete it: its notes stay and only lose the tag. Names are kept in lower case, up to 40 characters. A note can have up to 10 tags and an account up to 100. Dictations are not tagged.

With AI tags on, a note gets up to three of your existing tags picked by AI, once: a voice note soon after it is made, and a typed note when you stop editing it once it runs to two sentences or 120 characters. AI only ever chooses among the tags you made, may choose none, and never creates a tag. It leaves alone a note that already has tags, and does nothing until you have made at least one. Change or remove what it picked like any other tag. AI tags do not count as AI actions.

Searching

The search box matches the full text of every entry, not just titles. Type a few words to find the entries that contain all of them, in any order, and put a phrase in double quotes to match it exactly. Case and accents are ignored.

While you search, choose where to look: Notes, Dictations, or All, which searches both and marks each result with its kind. The filter button next to the search box narrows the results further.

• Made by — voice or typing.
• Folder — in All notes, any folder, no folder, or one of yours.
• Date — today, the last 7 days or the last 30 days.
• Language — the language an entry was transcribed in.
• App — for dictations, the app the text was pasted into.
• Tag — notes with one of your tags.
• In an open note, every match is highlighted. ⌘G and ⇧⌘G (Ctrl+G and Ctrl+Shift+G on Windows) move to the next and the previous one.

Adding to a note by voice

Open a note and press Add by voice to start a hands-free recording that goes into that note; press it again to stop. The Voice notes shortcut, held or hands-free, adds to the note the same way while the VoiceSnap Pro window is in front with that note open — the status pill says Adding to, followed by the note's title. Anywhere else, it starts a new note.

The transcript goes on the end of the note after a blank line, and the recording becomes one more of the note's recordings, up to 50 per note. The note's player plays them back as one track, with a thin divider between each. If the transcription fails, the recording is still added, so nothing you said is lost — re-transcribe the note later to get its words.

Re-transcribing a note

Re-transcribe…, in the note's ⋯ menu, sends the note's recordings through transcription again, in order, and replaces the note's text with the result, one paragraph per recording. Pick a language, or leave it on Detect automatically — useful when a note was taken with the wrong language set.

The text it replaces is kept in version history, so nothing is lost if you preferred the old one. Re-transcribing needs an internet connection and uses transcription time like a new recording, and a note without recordings cannot be re-transcribed.

Version history

When an edit, an addition by voice, a re-transcription, an AI action or a restore changes a note's text, the text it replaces is kept as an earlier version. While you type, at most one version is kept every 10 minutes, so a long editing session does not fill the list.

Version history…, in the ⋯ menu, lists the earlier versions newest first, each with its date and the change it was kept before. Select one to read it in full, and choose Restore this version to bring it back; the text it replaces is kept as a version too. A note keeps its 50 newest versions, in your account, until the note is deleted for good. They are read from the account each time, so version history needs an internet connection.

AI actions

AI actions rework text for you. Select part of a note to work on just that; with nothing selected, an action works on the whole note. Then right-click and choose from the AI menu, press ⌘J (Ctrl+J on Windows) and type a few letters to find an action — “germ” finds Translate to German — or press the AI actions button (the sparkle) above the note.

While an action runs, the note says what is happening, such as Rewriting…, with Cancel next to it, and its text is locked until the result arrives. Actions that rework the text replace it: a message such as Rewritten · Undo takes the change back, and so does ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). The text as it was before is also kept in version history. Actions that produce something new add it below — after the selected text, or at the end of the note — after a blank line.

Dictations are read-only, so an action on a dictation, from the same right-click menu, ⌘J or the AI actions button, always saves its result as a new note and leaves the dictation as it was. A note made this way is a typed note: it gets AI tags like any other, and an AI title only if you choose Regenerate title.

• Rewrite — clearer wording, same meaning and roughly the same length. Replaces the text.
• Summarize — the key points, added below. Summarize into a new note saves the summary as a note of its own.
• Fix grammar & spelling — fixes only mistakes and leaves your wording alone. Replaces the text.
• Make shorter — about half the length. Replaces the text.
• Turn into bullet points — one point per line. Replaces the text.
• Extract action items — the to-dos, with who and when if the text says, added below.
• Translate to… — into a language from VoiceSnap Pro's language list. Replaces the text.

Your own AI actions

Settings → AI actions lists the built-in actions with a checkbox each: untick the ones you never use and they leave the AI menu and the ⌘J picker. New action adds your own: a name, a prompt that says what the AI should do with the text — “Rewrite this as a friendly email” — and where the result goes: Replace the text, Insert below the text, or Save as a new note.

Your actions appear after the built-in ones, in the order you set with the arrows next to each, and can be edited or deleted at any time. They belong to your account, stored encrypted, so every computer signed in to it shows the same menu, with the same built-in actions hidden. An account can have up to 30.

Pinning and copying

Pin keeps a note at the top of the list, on every computer signed in to your account; Unpin puts it back among the days. Copy, in the ⋯ menu, puts a note's text on the clipboard, and a dictation has a Copy button of its own. Duplicate Note makes a copy of a note, without its reminder.

Exporting your notes

Export… in Settings → Account (or File → Export Notes… on macOS) saves your notes to a folder you choose: one Markdown file per note outside the Trash, named after its title, with its tags, folder and dates at the top, plus an index.json and the recordings already on that computer. Locked notes ask for your PIN first; skip it and they are left out.

Export works on any plan, signed in or out and offline, so your notes are never held behind a subscription. The files are ordinary files on your computer and stay yours.

Folders

New folder, at the top right of the sidebar, makes a folder: type its name and press Return. File a note by dragging it onto a folder in the sidebar, or with Move to folder… in its ⋯ menu (⇧⌘M, or Ctrl+Shift+M on Windows), where you can also make a new folder by typing its name.

Folders are one level deep, and All notes still shows every note. A folder's own search looks only inside it. Rename, move or delete a folder from its right-click menu, or drag it up and down the sidebar; deleting a folder never deletes its notes, which go back to All notes. ⌘1 (Ctrl+1) opens All notes, and ⌘2 to ⌘9 your first folders.

Locked notes

Lock Note, in a note's ⋯ menu or its right-click menu, hides it behind a 4-digit PIN; the first time, you choose the PIN. A locked note shows only its title and a lock in the list, and its text stays out of search results, AI actions, Copy and the voice track until you unlock it. Locked notes never get AI titles or AI tags.

One unlock opens every locked note until they lock again: Lock now (⌘L, or Ctrl+L), ten minutes without touching one, sleep, a locked screen or quitting. Remove Lock takes the lock off a note. Settings → Locked notes changes the PIN or sets a new one if you forget it.

Reminders

Any note can carry one reminder. Click the bell in the note's header, choose Remind me… in its ⋯ menu, or press ⇧⌘R (Ctrl+Shift+R): pick In 20 minutes, In 1 hour, In 3 hours, Tomorrow or Next week, or Custom… for a date and time of your own, once or every day, every weekday, every week or every month.

With Reminders from your voice on, in Settings → AI, say it in a voice note — “remind me tomorrow at 9” — and the reminder is set on that note, with Undo and Change… on the confirmation. Only the sentences around your request go through our server to OpenAI to read the time, and a reminder set this way does not count as an AI action.

When a reminder is due, a notification says so: on macOS with Mark as Done and Snooze buttons, on Windows as a notification that stays until you deal with it. Click it to open the note. Reminders, first in the sidebar, lists them under Overdue, Today, Upcoming and Done, and its badge counts the ones that are due.

• Snooze, Skip next on a repeat, Mark as done and Remove reminder each come with Undo.
• Reminders are kept with the note in your account: mark one done on one computer and it is done on all of them.
• Moving a note to the Trash pauses its reminder; deleting the note for good removes it.
• Settings → Voice notes → Reminder notifications turns the notifications off on one computer. Due reminders always appear in Reminders.

A note in its own window

Open Note in New Window, in a note's right-click menu, gives the note a window of its own, which is handy beside the document you are writing from. It has the same title, tags, text and voice track, saves as you go, and ⌘N (Ctrl+N) there starts a new note in a window of its own.

The Trash

Move to Trash, in the ⋯ menu (⌘⌫, or Ctrl+Delete on Windows), takes a note out of the list, and the Moved to Trash · Undo message that follows brings it straight back. The trash icon in the sidebar, just above Settings, opens the Trash: deleted notes and deleted dictations together, newest deletion first, each with the days it has left. A note stays there for 30 days, on every computer signed in to your account, with its recordings and version history. Anything in the Trash is read-only until you restore it.

Restore puts a note or a dictation back where it was. After 30 days in the Trash a note is deleted for good — the note, its earlier versions and its recordings, from your computer and from your account — and its recordings leave our storage within about 10 minutes. Delete forever, and Empty Trash… for everything in it, do the same at once.

Deleting a dictation — its trash button, or ⌘⌫ (Ctrl+Delete on Windows) — moves it to the same Trash, with the same Moved to Trash · Undo message. Its Trash is on this computer only, because that is the only place dictations are kept, and after 30 days there it is deleted from this computer. Settings → Clear history… deletes every dictation at once, those in the Trash included, and leaves your notes alone. If you would rather not accumulate a history at all, turn off Keep dictation history: VoiceSnap Pro then pastes your text and keeps no new record, while existing entries stay until you clear them. The history keeps the newest 1,000 dictations on its own, not counting the ones in the Trash.

How long recordings are kept

Keep recordings, in Settings → Voice notes, decides how long voice notes keep their recordings. It belongs to your account, so it applies on every computer, and it never touches a note's text.

• Forever — the default. A recording stays until its note is deleted for good.
• 30 days — each recording is deleted 30 days after it was made, on your computers and in your account.
• Don't keep — every recording is deleted, on your computers and in your account, and new voice notes keep only their text.

Letting your AI assistant read your notes

VoiceSnap Pro can act as an MCP server — the standard way AI assistants such as Claude Desktop connect to other apps — so you can ask your assistant about your own notes. It is off until you turn on Let AI assistants read my notes in Settings → AI assistants, on each computer where you want it.

To connect Claude Desktop, press Copy setup for Claude Desktop, paste it into Claude Desktop under Settings → Developer → Edit Config, and restart Claude Desktop. Another assistant that supports MCP takes the same setup: VoiceSnap Pro's own program, started with --mcp — the copied setup holds its exact path on your computer.

• The assistant can search your notes by words, an exact phrase or one of your tags — ask it to “summarize my #clients notes” — list the most recent ones and your tags, and read a note in full. It cannot change or delete anything.
• It gets text and a few details, such as dates, the language and a note's tags: never a recording, and nothing in the Trash.
• Your dictation history is included only if you also turn on Also let them read my dictation history. Restart the assistant after turning it on, so it sees the extra search.
• VoiceSnap Pro reads the notes already on this computer and never goes online for it. VoiceSnap's server is not involved.

Where the library lives

The library is a file on your computer: on macOS in ~/Library/Application Support/VoiceSnap Pro, on Windows in %APPDATA%\VoiceSnap Pro. Dictation history exists only there and is never uploaded; the only time a dictation's text leaves it is when you run an AI action on that dictation. Notes and their recordings, your tags, folders, reminders and your own AI actions are also kept in your account on our servers, encrypted, which is how they follow you to a second computer where you sign in; earlier versions of a note are kept only there.

Your normal backups — Time Machine on macOS, File History or an image backup on Windows — cover the file on your computer, and they are the only copy of your dictation history outside the app.