Questions people
actually ask.

What's the difference between Captrieve and a reminder app?

A reminder app is a task list. You stop what you're doing, type the task, and configure its one trigger by hand. In Apple's case that trigger can be a time, a place, or getting in the car – it has been able to do that since 2011. Captrieve starts a step earlier, at the thought itself: Speak it before it escapes, then cue it by time, place, Wi-Fi network join, Wi-Fi network leave, NFC tag, nearby Bluetooth device, on or off charger, or Do Not Disturb or Focus mode – alone or in combination, with conditions and delays, and in the case of geofencing, you can even get notifications X minutes in advance of arrival. More importantly, Captrieve's whole job is capture and retrieval. That single purpose makes it worth developing a habit around it, and makes developing that habit easier. When a tool does one thing, you remember to use it.

Doesn't Apple Reminders already do location reminders?

Yes – arriving and leaving a place, since 2011, plus getting in or out of the car. If a plain location-triggered task list covers your needs, use it – it's free and already on your phone. Here is where it stops. It requires you to stop what you're doing, type a task, and configure its one trigger by hand – there is no capturing a voice note, a melody, a half-formed idea. One trigger per item – no "when I leave work, but only after 5 PM," no "20 minutes before getting home," no "Target or Walmart, whichever comes first." No NFC tags, no Wi-Fi networks, no arbitrary Bluetooth devices, no charger, no Focus mode. Nothing for connecting you with someone in your care, to know if they are up and about, or oddly not. And delivery of geofenced Reminders is famously unreliable because as great as geofencing is, and Captrieve supports it, it is affected by the weather, your location, and even how much battery your phone has left. Captrieve exists for everything else.

Couldn't I build this myself with iOS Shortcuts?

Some of it, yes – but do you? In all the time you have had that option, have you taken the time, in a moment of inspiration, to take the several unfamiliar steps you don't really understand to try to capture the thing you can't keep in mind while concentrating ot creating the shortcut? What Shortcuts asks of you is the work Captrieve does for you. To set up a single NFC-cued reminder in Shortcuts: open the app, create a Personal Automation, select NFC, hold the phone to the tag, name the automation, add a notification action, type the thought text, save. That is eight steps for one thought. To add a time condition – "but only after 9 PM" – you add a conditional action block and wire it manually. To add a second trigger – "or when I arrive home, whichever comes first" – you build a second automation. Each thought is a separate engineering project, maintained by you, by hand, indefinitely. There is no inbox, no snooze, no lifecycle – just a notification that fires and disappears. If you want to change it later, you find the automation, edit, and save. Shortcuts proves your phone can do this. Captrieve is the product that makes amazing functionality available without requiring you to become a tech-knowledgeable feature developer. See exactly what each approach requires →

I'm on Android – didn't Google have location reminders?

Perhaps due to the reliability issues mentioned above, Google discontinued them. Google removed them when Keep's reminders migrated to Google Tasks in late 2025 – they can no longer be created or received. Captrieve resurrects this capability for you.

What's a retrieve?

A retrieve is the moment a capture comes back to you – when the cue fires and the thought you stored finds you. The free tier gives you 20 of these. After that, a one-time purchase gives you unlimited retrieves forever.

Why does the free tier cap on retrieves rather than captures?

As we've shown, capturing the idea is easy, and not where the value lies. The value is in delivering the idea back to you when it will be most useful.

What happens to my captures if I delete the app?

Everything is stored locally on your device. Deleting the app deletes your captures. Back up your phone before deleting if you want to restore them later. On the Connected tier, the very little (and securely encrypted) data kept on the server is deleted within 30 days of cancellation.

Why is location triggering less reliable in some places than others?

Location accuracy depends on what signals are available: GPS satellites work best outdoors with a clear sky, cell towers provide good coverage in most areas, and Wi-Fi networks help indoors near known networks. Dense urban areas with tall buildings can interfere with GPS. Just being indoors seriously reduces GPS signals. Underground locations have no GPS at all. iOS and Android do the best they can with what is available. Captrieve works with what the device provides – it has no access to signals the device cannot receive.

My Wi-Fi cue didn't fire when I arrived. What happened?

Your phone does not generate events for every network it sees, only when you connect to a network, or lose connection. If you are near multiple networks and your phone auto-selects a different one, consider OR a geofence cue as a fallback.

How do I set up an NFC tag?

Select "When I tap an NFC tag" as your cue type, then hold your phone against the tag when prompted. Captrieve reads the tag's unique identifier, without the tag needing any special programming. You can name the tag – Desk, Car, Work, Backyard, Nightstand, anything you like. NFC tags are readily available for as little at 15 cents a piece, and do not have to be programmed to work with Captrieve.

Does NFC work in the background, or do I have to open the app first?

On Android, NFC tags can wake Captrieve automatically. On iOS, NFC requires either the app to be open or a lock screen NFC shortcut to be configured. These are decisions made by Google and Apple. On iOS, one swipe to the lock screen shortcut and a tap on the tag is the full gesture.

What if I want a retrieve to fire while I'm still on my way somewhere, not when I arrive?

Set a geofence arrival cue on your destination with a generous radius – 5 to 15 miles rather than 100 feet. The cue fires when you enter that radius, while you are still traveling. This is the right approach for "call home to let my spouse know I'll be there in 15 minutes" – set a large geofence on home, and it fires while you're still driving. Experiment with the radius to find the lead time that works for your commute.

What if after using the NFC feature for a while, the places I've put them become cues for my brain and I don't need the app for those things any more?

Then you spent a few dollars on some small stickers and permanently improved your memory in a way that had eluded you for years. That is not a failure. That is the product working at its best. You spent a few dollars on an app and some NFC stickers and permanently improved your memory in a way that has eluded you for years. Congratulations!

Captrieve is designed to make itself unnecessary, one habit at a time. The tag on your nightstand was never the point – the bedtime routine that no longer requires a reminder is. Keep the tags where they are. Tap them anyway. Something else worth remembering will come along.

Where do people put NFC tags?

Anywhere that represents a meaningful context. Common locations: front door, bedside table, kitchen counter, medicine cabinet, bathroom mirror, home desk, work desk, piano, guitar case, recording desk, workbench, car dashboard, bicycle handlebar. Temporary uses: airplane seat armrest, hotel desk, temporary locker. Tags are inexpensive enough to treat as disposable if you accidentally leave one behind somewhere.

What is the Connected tier?

Connected is a subscription layer that lets you share retrieves with people you trust who also have Captrieve. It is designed for family members and caregivers for someone who needs a little non-invasive monitoring. Let's say that Grandma uses Captrieve with NFC tags to mark when she takes her meds, or has breakfast. It's a very simple motor habit for her to just put her phone on the tag by the med, or in the kitchen, or the bathroom, or wherever. Then you get to see that she is up and about (or not so you call to check in on her), that she has taken her meds, that she has been in the bathroom a long time, or many times, and so on. The Solo tier is a one-time purchase with full local functionality. Connected adds the network layer on top.

If I subscribe to Connected and then cancel, do I lose everything?

No. Your local captures and cues are fully unaffected – they live on your device and nothing about them changes if you cancel your Connected plan. Connected features stop immediately: presence events stop routing, shared captures stop flowing, connected people are notified the sharing relationship has ended. This happens within seconds of cancellation, not at the end of the billing period. After any 12 consecutive months of Connected subscription, Solo is yours permanently – no further payment needed, ever. If you haven't yet reached 12 months, you revert to the free tier unless you separately purchased Solo.

Why does Connected require a subscription when Solo is a one-time purchase?

Because Connected requires a backend to route presence events and shared captures between devices. That backend has real ongoing costs for secure push notification infrastructure. A one-time purchase doesn't recover those costs. A subscription does. Solo has no ongoing backend costs, so we don't charge you forever even though you get to keep using Captrieve forever.

Does the caregiver need a separate account from the person they care for?

Yes. Both the caregiver and the person being cared for have their own Captrieve accounts and their own subscriptions. If the caregiver is not a family member, it is customary for the family to pay for their subscription. Both users get the full app. The caregiving layer connects them. Neither has a stripped-down experience. If the caregiver leaves your employment, you cancel just their subscription.

Can Captrieve send a text message to my caregiver when I leave the house?

Not automatically – iOS and Android both prevent apps from sending SMS without the user tapping Send. That is a deliberate platform constraint, not a Captrieve limitation.

There are two good answers depending on what your caregiver uses.

If your caregiver uses Captrieve: when you tap your front door NFC tag, a presence event notification goes to their Captrieve immediately – "Left home, 10:47 AM." No text message needed. This is the more reliable path and requires nothing from you beyond the tap you were already making.

If your caregiver does not use Captrieve: Captrieve can bring a pre-written text to your attention at exactly the right moment. Your caregiver writes the message during setup – "Heading out, will check in later." When you tap the door tag, a prompt appears: "Let [name] know you're heading out?" One tap opens your phone's Messages app with the message and recipient already filled in. You tap Send. Two taps total, at the moment you were already leaving.

Does Captrieve send my location to a server?

No. Location permissions are used only to evaluate cues you have set. Your location is processed on-device and never transmitted. This is true even on the Connected tier – presence events are timestamped NFC taps, not GPS coordinates.

What does the Connected tier's backend actually store?

Encrypted relay payloads for presence events and shared captures, and presence log entries for connected pairs. The server holds ciphertext only and cannot read your capture content or your presence event details. When you revoke a connection, the key is invalidated immediately. When you cancel your subscription or delete your account, server-held history is deleted within 30 days. Deleting the app from your phone does not trigger server deletion – the server has no way to know you deleted the app. To guarantee your server data is removed, cancel your subscription or delete your account from within the app first.