Minutes

Minutes records audio for as long as you need, including when the iPhone is locked. Octarine transcribes each recording on the device and saves it as a Markdown note. If you have connected an AI provider, it can also turn the transcript into a summary, key points, or action items.

Open Minutes

Minutes is a destination in the bottom navigation. If it isn't one of your three tabs, open it from More, or move it into the tabs from More → Customize. See Navigating the App.

The Minutes page lists your recordings. Use the search button to filter them, or the import button to bring in an existing audio file.

Record

Tap the red record button at the bottom of Minutes. The recorder shows a timer, a live waveform, and its current status.

• Tap pause to pause, then resume to continue.
• Tap the red stop button to stop and save the recording.
• Tap the trash button twice to discard the recording.
• Tap the chevron in the top-left corner to hide the recorder and keep recording. A floating pill lets you pause or reopen the recorder from anywhere in the app.

Recording continues when you lock the phone or switch to another app. While it runs, the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island show a Live Activity with the timer. On iOS 17 and later, you can pause, resume, or stop from there. If you stop from the Lock Screen, Octarine shows a Recording saved message with Open the next time you return to the app.

If another app takes over the microphone, for example a phone call, the recording pauses. Tap resume when you're ready to continue.

You can also start a recording from outside the app with the octarine://record link, for example from a Shortcut.

Transcription

Recordings are transcribed on the iPhone with Whisper, the same engine used for dictation. Your audio never leaves the device. Transcription runs in the background, so you can leave the recording and come back when it's done.

Transcription needs a downloaded Whisper model. If you haven't downloaded one, the recording shows Download the transcription model. Tap Download and transcribe to get it. To change the model size or the language, open Settings → Dictation. The Small model is recommended for languages other than English.

If transcription doesn't finish, tap Try again.

Review a Recording

Tap a recording to open it. Tap the title to rename it. Switch between:

• Summary: AI notes generated from the transcript.
• Transcript: the full text in timestamped paragraphs. Tap a paragraph to jump playback to that point. The paragraph being played is highlighted.

The player at the bottom has a scrubbable waveform, buttons to skip back or forward 15 seconds, and a speed control that cycles through 1×, 1.25×, 1.5×, and 2×.

Tap More actions to:

• Open in editor to edit the recording's note directly.
• Share audio.
• Copy transcript.
• Transcribe again to run transcription again, for example after changing the model or language.
• Delete recording, which removes both the note and its audio file.

AI Notes

Once the transcript is ready, the Summary tab offers:

Action	What it writes
Summary	A short summary of one to three paragraphs
Key points	Up to ten bullet points
Action items	A to-do list, with owners and dates when they were mentioned
Clean up	A clean, readable version of the transcript
Ask…	Anything you ask for, such as "Draft a follow-up email"

Each result is saved as its own section in the note, above the transcript, and is written in the transcript's language. You can regenerate, copy, or remove a section.

AI notes use the provider and model selected under Settings → AI. If no provider is connected, tap Set up AI. See AI Writing and Insights. The transcript is sent to the selected provider only when you run an AI action.

Files on Disk

Each recording is a regular Markdown note stored in .octarine/recordings/. That folder is kept out of Library, the same way Inbox captures are. The audio is saved separately as an .m4a file in .attachments/Recordings/.

.octarine/recordings/Voice note 2026-10-19 09.30.md
.attachments/Recordings/<id>.m4a

The note's frontmatter records the audio file, duration, recording time, and transcription status. The transcript and AI notes are ordinary Markdown sections in the body. Recordings therefore sync with the rest of a cloud workspace, and they can be found by Search and Ask Octarine.

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