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 shapes on the toolbar: Paragraph, Heading, Subheading, Bulleted list, Numbered list, and Checklist. Three more arrive with your text rather than from a button — links, tables and code blocks — because those are things you paste or type, not styles you apply.

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 checklist item. 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. A checklist item has a circle beside it — tap the circle to tick it, and 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.

It stays code. A fenced block is drawn as a card — monospaced, indented exactly as it was written, syntax-coloured, with the language named and Copy Code in the corner. Long lines scroll sideways instead of wrapping.

If a plain-text paste is obviously code, As Told will recognise it and fence it for you. When it isn’t certain the text is left exactly as it arrived, and Paste as Code is there when you want it anyway. Aligned text — a directory tree, an ASCII diagram — is kept as a plain-text block so its columns stay lined up.

As Told does not run, compile, lint, or complete code. It just refuses to destroy it.

Yes. A web address you type or paste stays tappable, and a link you copied with its own wording keeps that wording. There is no link button, no URL sheet, and no link previews — editing a link means editing its text, like every other line. Copying a note out again keeps both the words and the destination.

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.

Yes. Tap the microphone in the header on Home and As Told starts listening straight away — no blank note first, no keyboard rising. When you tap Done, the transcript arrives as an ordinary note. Cancel, silence, or a failure leave your timeline exactly as it was, because no note is created until there are words to put in one.

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 — a missed command is recoverable, a phantom one rewrites your note. See how voice works →

As Told does not ask you to choose a language before recording. Voice transcription is designed for multilingual speech and code-switching: speak in one language, switch mid-sentence, or mix them the way you normally do, and each language comes back in its own script rather than being translated. Accuracy does vary by language, accent, recording conditions, and how much the languages are mixed.

Before each release, As Told is measured against a set of representative single-language and mixed-language flows — currently English, Telugu, Hindi, English + Telugu and English + Hindi. Those are quality benchmarks, not the only languages you can speak. 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. Tap Pause, take as long as you need, then Resume — it stays one continuous recording, and only the time you were actually speaking counts towards the five-minute limit. A call, Siri, leaving the note, or the app going to the background all finish the recording and transcribe it rather than throwing it away.

As Told keeps that recording on your iPhone and offers Retry or Delete Recording, so a dropped connection is not how a thought gets lost. If the app closes before you answer, you are offered it once more the next time you open As Told.

Nothing is uploaded in the background while it waits, and there is still no recordings library. The recording is removed as soon as a transcript arrives, as soon as you delete it, and in any case within 24 hours.

Yes. The first time you finish a recording, As Told explains that the audio goes to OpenAI to be turned into text and that nothing else from your note is sent — 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.

Up to five minutes, which is roughly seven or eight hundred spoken words. If you reach it, As Told finishes the recording and transcribes it rather than throwing it away — tap the microphone again to keep going, and the next transcription lands wherever your cursor is. Voice is for speaking a thought into a note, not for recording a meeting.

As Told includes up to 60 minutes of voice transcription each month. Most people won’t need to think about it. If you reach the limit, As Told will tell you when voice becomes available again, and everything else — typing, editing, search, the calendar — keeps working normally.

Open the note and tap Share in the top-right corner. The iPhone’s own share sheet appears, so a note can go to whichever apps and services are already available on your device. As Told adds no destination picker of its own.

Where the destination can take it, yes: headings, lists, checklists, tables, links and code arrive as themselves. Somewhere that only accepts plain text gets plain text, with links written out so the destination isn’t lost. Sharing never changes the note you shared.

No. There is no As Told link, nothing hosted, and no record kept of what you shared or where it went. The note is handed to the sheet, and where it goes from there is between you and the app you chose.

Home is the recent library: Today, then the Previous 7 Days. Each group shows its first few notes, with Show all underneath when there are more. Nothing is deleted or hidden for good — anything older is one tap away under Browse older notes at the bottom of Home, which opens the complete timeline.

That link appears only when something is actually older than a week. If you don’t see it, Home is already showing everything you have.

Tap the calendar in Home’s header. A dot under a day means you wrote something that day, and a busier day shows up to three. Tap a day and its notes are listed right under the month; it opens on today. Use it when you remember when you wrote something, and search when you remember a word from it.

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. Deleting As Told deletes its local notes; offloading the app instead, from iPhone Storage in Settings, keeps them. A device backup or transfer may restore them later, depending on your Apple backup settings.

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.