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What it actually takes.

Three things you probably want to do. What each one requires today, on the phone you already have. What each one requires with Captrieve.

These are not edge cases engineered to make other tools look bad. They are ordinary things people want to remember at the right moment. The question isn't whether your phone is capable. It's whether you're going to sit down and do all of this.

The idea in the shower

A melody, a sentence, a solution to the thing you've been stuck on. You want to catch it before it's gone and have it waiting when you get to the piano – not in a pile of unlabeled voice memos.

Without Captrieve
  • 1Dry off enough to handle your phone without destroying it.
  • 2Open Voice Memos (or Notes, or whatever you use).
  • 3Record or type the idea.
  • 4It sits in a pile with every other unlabeled memo.
  • 5Later, at the piano, remember the memo exists.
  • 6Find it – scroll the pile, hope you know which one it is.
  • 7Listen through several to find the right one.
Realistic outcome: You don't do steps 5–7. The memo exists forever, unheard, in the pile.
With Captrieve
  • 1Tap the Captrieve button (assignable to the action button).
  • 2Speak the idea.
  • 3Tap "When I get to the piano" – one tap on a saved location.
  • 4Finish your shower.
  • –When you sit down at the piano, it pops up.
Total time: Under 30 seconds. Done before the idea finishes arriving.

The question for the doctor

You noticed a medication side effect on Wednesday. Your appointment is Thursday. You want the question to be there when the doctor asks if there's anything else – not gone, the way it always is.

Without Captrieve – Apple Reminders
  • 1Open Reminders.
  • 2Create a new reminder.
  • 3Type the question as a task.
  • 4Tap the location option.
  • 5Search for or enter the clinic address.
  • 6Set arriving vs. leaving.
  • 7Save.
  • 8Hope it fires. Reminders users call delivery a coin flip.
  • 9If it doesn't fire, remember it anyway – which was the problem.
Also: You interrupted whatever you were doing on Wednesday to type a task. And you could only set one trigger. And there was no room for the full context – just a task label.
With Captrieve
  • 1Tap the Captrieve button.
  • 2Speak the question – in full, the way you'd say it.
  • 3Tap "When I arrive somewhere," select the clinic.
  • –Thursday, when you walk through the clinic door, it reminds you.
Also: Capture three more questions the same way over the next week. They all show up at the same moment. You walk in prepared.

The errand on the way home – but only if it's after 5

There's a thing you need to pick up. The store is on your route home. You want the reminder to fire when you leave work – but only on a workday, after 5 PM, not on weekends when you're leaving for other reasons.

Without Captrieve – Apple Reminders
  • 1This is not possible in Apple Reminders.
  • –Reminders supports one trigger per item. "Leave work" is the trigger. "But only after 5 PM" cannot be added.
  • –You could accept that it fires on weekends and holidays too. Or you could set a time reminder at 5 PM and miss it because you're not leaving yet.
Realistic outcome: You either get a reminder that fires at the wrong times, or you don't set it because it won't work right.
With Captrieve
  • 1Tap the Captrieve button.
  • 2Speak the errand.
  • 3Set cue: "When I leave work."
  • 4Add condition: "But only after 5 PM."
  • –Fires exactly when it should. Never when it shouldn't.
Also possible: Add a 20-minute delay so it fires when you're close to the store, not the moment you step outside.

The thing to remember at your desk – set up once

You keep forgetting to check something when you sit down at your computer. You want it to pop up every time you're there, without setting a new reminder each day. And you have a different thing for your piano, and a different thing for your kitchen.

Without Captrieve – iOS Shortcuts
  • 1Open Shortcuts. Find Personal Automations.
  • 2Tap the + to create a new automation.
  • 3Choose NFC as the trigger type.
  • 4Hold your phone against the tag to register it.
  • 5Name the automation.
  • 6Add a Show Notification action.
  • 7Type the reminder text into the notification body.
  • 8Save.
  • 9Repeat from step 1 for the piano. And the kitchen.
  • 10When the thought changes, find the automation and edit it.
Also: No inbox. No snooze. No way to browse what you've set up across locations. Each automation is a separate artifact you manage forever.
With Captrieve
  • 1Tap the Captrieve button.
  • 2Speak the thing.
  • 3Tap "When I tap an NFC tag." Hold the phone to the tag.
  • –Name the tag "Desk." Done.
  • –Repeat for piano and kitchen – same three steps each.
  • –All of it lives in your inbox. Edit any capture in place.
Total setup: About two minutes for all three locations, including placing the tags.

Get Captrieve

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Pay when you believe it.

Twenty retrieves, no credit card, no account. After that, $7.99 keeps it forever.

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