A voice notes app that keeps your thoughts as words

A voice note is a thought said out loud instead of written down. There are two kinds. Some apps keep the sound itself, as a recording to play back later. Others turn what was said into text.

VoiceFirstPlanner is the second kind. What is said is saved as a text note, so the note is the words.

The film opens on a line that a lot of good ideas could have written: “It was a good idea in the shower. By the towel it was gone.”

So the next three thoughts get said the moment they arrive, each one starting with the word note:

• “Note: the plumber said the valve is under the deck.”
• “Note: gift idea for Jo, a bird feeder.”
• “Note: packing list for the camping trip.”

Starting with the word note is what tells the planner it is a note, not a task or an appointment. Each one is saved to Notes, newest at the top, dated, in the words that were said. There is more on voice notes in VoiceFirstPlanner on its own page.

With a recording, getting to text is a second job. Here it is one step. Say note, then the thought, and the text is the note. There is nothing to convert later.

So the notes read like what was said, because they are what was said.

A recording has a catch: to find one thing later, you have to listen back through it.

With words there is no going looking. In the film, the search is opened (it is called Find anything) and one word is typed: valve. One result comes back, under Notes: “the plumber said the valve is under the deck”, with its date. One tap, and the note is open on the page.

Find anything searches the whole planner, not just the notes, and it is on every plan, the free one included.

Some thoughts stay thoughts. Others become something to do. The camping note in the film gets a checklist: tent, stove, lantern, each typed in and each with its own tick box. The note keeps its words, and gains a list to work through.

VoiceFirstPlanner runs in the browser, so voice notes on iPad work the same way they do on a phone or a computer, with nothing to install, and the same notes are on each of them.

On an iPad held sideways, Planner view shows the day on the left page and the notes on the right, under the day’s date. And with an Apple Pencil, handwriting goes into any field, notes included, and is converted to text as it is written. Planner view is part of the free plan.

Notes don’t live on their own here. They sit in the same planner as the day’s focus, the tasks and the appointments. So a thought that becomes a job gets its checklist without leaving the planner. Say it once, and it is where it belongs.

A voice note earns its keep the moment it is needed again. Four things decide whether it does:

• It is kept as words, so it can be read in a glance instead of played back.
• It is dated, so it can be placed in the week it came from.
• It can be found with one word, without scrolling or listening.
• It can turn into a job when the thought does.

The notes in the film show all four, from the plumber’s valve to the camping list.