Help when you need it.

There is a writing toolbar just above the keyboard whenever the cursor is in the body of a note. Aa opens Heading, Subheading and Paragraph; next to it are one-tap buttons for a bulleted list, a numbered list and a checklist. The button for the shape your cursor is already in is highlighted.

That toolbar is As Told’s own — it is not a row added to Apple’s keyboard, and it appears only while you are writing. Aa also holds Writing help, a short reference to every shape and the shortcut for it.

Six structures: Paragraph, Heading, Subheading, Bulleted list, Numbered list, and Checklist. That is the whole vocabulary — there is deliberately no bold, italic, underline, colour, highlight, font or alignment control. A note is meant to stay a note.

Tap the list button, or type the marker at the start of a line — - for a bullet, 1. for a numbered item, - [ ] for a checkbox. Return carries the list onto the next line, and Return on an empty item ends the list and puts you back in ordinary prose.

Numbering continues by itself as you press Return, and applying Numbered list to several lines at once numbers them in order. Tap a checkbox to tick it; ticked items stay where you put them rather than being sorted to the bottom.

Yes — and from a browser, a document, an email, or another notes app. When you copy from an app that describes its formatting to the clipboard, As Told reads that description and keeps every structure it has: headings, subheadings, paragraph breaks, bulleted and numbered lists, checklists, and tables.

This is clipboard compatibility, not an integration. As Told is not connected to ChatGPT, Claude, or any account of yours — it never sees anything beyond the text you copied.

Exactly the structures listed above, and nothing else — because those are the only shapes a note has. Pasting cannot add formatting the editor does not otherwise have.

If the clipboard carries only plain text, it is pasted precisely as it arrived and nothing is inferred from it. A short line is not promoted to a heading because it looks like one; guessing would be rewriting your note.

Yes. A pasted table is kept as a table and drawn as a grid while you read the note. Tap it and it opens full-screen, so a table too wide for a phone can still be scanned column by column.

As Told has no table editor: you cannot create one from a toolbar, add a row, or sort a column. When you tap into the note to edit it, the table shows as the plain rows it is actually stored as — ordinary text you can change like any other line.

Because As Told has nowhere to put it. Bold, italic, colours, fonts, and page layout are inline styling rather than structure, and the editor has none of it by design. Those parts simplify to plain text on the way in. Your words themselves are never changed — nothing is reworded, reordered, or removed.

Open a note and tap the microphone at the end of the writing toolbar. Speak normally, then tap Done. As Told transcribes what you said and puts it into the note as ordinary, editable text.

Wherever the cursor is. Put it mid-paragraph and the transcript lands there; if you were just reading the note rather than typing in it, the text is added to the end. There is no separate voice-note library and no transcript screen to visit afterwards.

Yes. A clear, standalone command — “Heading”, “Subheading”, “Bullet list”, “Checklist”, “Next item”, “New paragraph”, “End list” — shapes what you say next. Ordinary speech that merely mentions one of those words (“my checklist is getting too long”) is left alone. See the full list →

English, Telugu, and Hindi — plus the natural mix between them, like Telugu + English or Hindi + English. You can switch languages mid-sentence, and each language comes back in its own script. See multilingual voice →

No. It adds punctuation, capitalization and paragraph breaks so a spoken thought reads like written language, and stops there. It does not translate, summarize, paraphrase, polish, or grammar-correct. Your slang, your names, your repetitions and your filler words stay in.

Yes. The first time you finish a recording, As Told explains that the audio goes to OpenAI to be turned into text, that nothing else from your note is sent, and that the recording isn’t kept — then waits for you to continue or cancel. You answer once and it doesn’t ask again. Read the full privacy detail →

Typing, editing, browsing, search, and the calendar all work offline. Only the transcription step needs a connection, because the audio is sent securely to be turned into text. If you’re offline when you finish a recording, As Told won’t lose it silently — you’ll get a clear option to retry or discard.

No. Open the app and start writing. There is no sign-up, email, or password — and therefore nothing tying your notes to an identity.

Locally, in the app’s own storage on your iPhone. Search and the calendar run against your own device, which is why they work without a connection.

Not in this version. There is no cloud copy of your notes and no device-to-device sync, so the device backups you already use are the way to keep a copy. Deleting the app deletes its notes with it.

Go to Profile → Settings and turn on Lock with Face ID. It is off unless you turn it on. When it’s on, your notes are covered before iOS takes its app-switcher snapshot and revealed only after you authenticate; your device passcode works as a fallback.

Go to Profile → Settings → Theme and choose Light, Dark, or Use device settings. “Use device settings” follows your iPhone automatically.

Right after you swipe to delete, an Undo appears for a few seconds — tap it and the note comes back exactly as it was. Once that window closes the note is gone, and because there is no cloud copy there is nowhere else to recover it from. If it matters, it is worth having a device backup.