MindLake on iPhone

Get the app

The iPhone app is in testing and comes to the App Store at launch. If you’ve been invited to test it, install it through Apple’s TestFlight app. It needs iOS 18 or later.

The phone works on the vault your Mac uses, so set up MindLake on your Mac first and keep the vault in iCloud Drive.

Connect your vault

1. Open MindLake on your iPhone and tap Connect your MindLake vault at the top of the list.
2. In the Files picker, go to iCloud Drive and choose your vault’s folder: the one named at the bottom of the sidebar on your Mac.
3. Confirm the folder, and your notes appear.

If you choose a folder that holds several vaults, the phone lists them all, and you can switch between them from the folder menu at the top left. The phone remembers the connection, and checks for changes when you open it, when you pull down on the list, and every 15 seconds while it’s open. Settings, in the ⋯ menu, can refresh, rebuild from the vault, or disconnect it.

If that folder also has notes outside any of its vaults, Settings ▸ Vault shows a button such as Move 4 loose notes into Work, which moves them into the vault you’re using so they sync with your Mac. It only appears when there are notes like that.

Notes on the phone

• The list groups notes by date, with pinned notes first. The ⋯ menu switches between a list and a gallery, and filters by type or time.
• The folder menu at the top left opens Tasks, Schedule, Sources, Canvases and Lists, and filters by folder or tag.
• Tasks opens on Mine, with a switch above the list for Mine, Waiting on others and Everything. Mine shows the tasks with your name on them and those with nobody’s; Waiting on others shows the ones with someone else’s. Your name is the one in Settings ▸ You ▸ Your name, and without one the list shows everything. Tasks are grouped into Overdue, Today, Upcoming, No date and Backlog, and the eye button at the top shows the done ones too.
• The search bar at the bottom looks through titles, text, summaries, transcripts and participants. While you search, the new-note button beside it becomes a ✕: one tap clears the search, hides the keyboard and brings the whole list back.
• The editor shows Markdown formatted as you type, like the Mac. The first line is the title.
• Swipe a note right to pin it, or left to delete it; lists and canvases pin the same way. Long-press a note to pin it, move it to another folder, share it or delete it. Pins and moves sync back to your Mac.

Lists and canvases

Lists and canvases open with the same look as on the Mac, and take simple edits. Tap the pencil to edit:

• Lists: tap a cell to change its text, flip a checkbox, or pick a select chip. Saved sorts and filters apply, as on the Mac.
• Canvases: drag a box to move it, or tap a text box to change its text. Everything else in the file is kept as it was.

Adding columns, rows, boxes and connectors is done on the Mac. Schedule shows the next 14 days from every calendar on your iPhone, with join links.

Capture on the go

The button at the bottom right makes a new note. Hold it and drag to choose: up for a recording, up and left for a note, left for a task. Settings ▸ New button ▸ Single tap creates sets what a plain tap does; it starts as New note.

In Tasks, the bar at the bottom adds a task in plain words, picks out dates, priority and tags, and files it in your Tasks Inbox note.

Shortcuts and links

Siri, the Shortcuts app and Spotlight can start a capture with three actions: New Note, New Task and Record. Each opens MindLake ready to write or record. The same three work as links, for a Home Screen shortcut or another app:

There are no Home Screen widgets yet.

Record and transcribe

Recording carries on when the screen locks. While you record, the phone shows a live draft of the words where it can; the full transcript with speakers is written after you stop. The note is saved straight away and the transcript follows. Settings ▸ Transcription decides what transcribes it:

Whichever you pick, the audio is saved in your vault beside the note, so your Mac can always transcribe it. If the phone hasn’t downloaded its model, Leave It for My Mac skips the download and hands the recording to your Mac.

What stays on the Mac

The phone covers notes, tasks, your schedule, sources, canvases and lists. These are Mac-only for now:

• The AI assistant and Chats, the Graph, Contacts, Snippets and Organise.
• The command bar, dictation into other apps, screenshots, the menu bar, the notch and the teleprompter.
• The Whisper speech models, and filler trimming: on the phone, transcripts show every word as it was said.
• Reviewing a transcript: fixing words and naming speakers.
• Recording the other side of a call. The phone records its own microphone.
• Editing locked notes. The phone opens them read-only, with Face ID or your passphrase.
• Publishing to the web, and sharing into MindLake from other apps. Save to MindLake in the share menu is on the Mac only.