# Tonota — Private On-Device Voice Memos

> Private On-Device Voice Memos (iPhone/iPad app by 菁 吴.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tonota/id6775595589 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [菁 吴](https://appshunter.io/developer/1175896364)
- Category: Utilities, Productivity
- Price: Free
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 17.0 · 25 MB
- Languages: American English, German (Germany), Chinese (Simplified, China)
- Released: 2026-06-09
- Data updated: 2026-08-04
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/tonota/id6775595589/reviews.md

## What is Tonota?

Tonota is a privacy-first voice memo app that records and transcribes entirely on your device — no account, no internet connection, and nothing ever leaves your iPhone.

Key features:
- One-tap recording with automatic on-device transcription (powered by WhisperKit and Apple's Neural Engine), plus an optional real-time live dictation mode — and you can switch between the two modes on the fly, just for the current session
- Tap-to-play transcripts: place the cursor on any sentence and play from that exact moment, with the current line highlighted as it plays; edit, select, and copy the transcript freely (re-transcribe older memos to add timestamps)
- Long recordings transcribe in segments with a live progress percentage, so you can see how far along a long file is
- AI Tools on your transcripts — translate, summarize, extract to-dos, rewrite, or polish, all on-device; edit the built-in tools, toggle them on/off, and add up to 5 of your own custom tools (with a custom icon). Results stream in live as they're generated
- Choice of language models, including Apple's built-in system model on Apple Intelligence-capable devices (no download, no storage) alongside downloadable on-device models (MLX/Qwen family)
- On Apple Intelligence devices, freshly transcribed memos get a cleaner auto-generated title, in the language you spoke
- Apple Watch app: record right from your wrist for up to 2 hours per session — even offline, in the background, or with your iPhone locked or away; recordings are captured locally on the watch, then synced to your iPhone and transcribed automatically. Tonota stops safely and tells you why if storage runs low or the session is interrupted. Browse recent memos and play audio (play/pause, ±15s) on the watch
- Start recording from anywhere: long-press the app icon (Quick Action), run a Shortcut or automation ("Start Recording" / "Stop & Save Recording"), or tap the Tonota control in Control Center / on the Lock Screen (iOS 18+)
- Switch the app language in-app (English / German / Simplified Chinese) or follow the system — the interface updates instantly, no restart required
- Auto-detects 10 languages, with the option to pin a specific language for accuracy
- Edit titles and transcripts, play back original audio, copy text, re-transcribe, and share via the system share sheet
- Interrupted transcription recovery: if the app is force-quit mid-queue, unfinished transcriptions are detected on next launch and can be resumed with one tap
- Pause, resume, or cancel speech/translation model downloads, with friendly network-error messages and a one-tap connection check; the model list hides models too large for your device's memory
- Custom folders (shown as a tag in the memo list), real-time search across titles and transcripts, and multi-select batch actions with select-all (move to folder — including creating a folder inline — or delete)
- Guided onboarding that recommends the right speech model for your device, with simple one-tap downloads and management of speech/translation models
- Optional auto-export of transcripts (.txt) and original audio to a folder of your choice
- Clean, light "lavender" interface, available in English, German, and Simplified Chinese

Tonota requires iOS 17 or later and an iPhone 12 (A14 chip) or newer. The Control Center / Lock Screen control requires iOS 18 or later. The Apple Watch app requires a paired Apple Watch running watchOS 10 or later. The built-in Apple system model requires a device with Apple Intelligence (iOS 26+).


## Version history (last 5 releases)

### v1.9 — 2026-07-30

This update brings AI Tools to Tonota — your transcripts can do a lot more than translate now.

· AI Tools menu: translate, summarize, extract to-dos, rewrite, or polish — all on-device, one tap
· Add up to 5 of your own custom AI tools, each with its own icon
· Watch results appear live: the sheet opens instantly and streams text as it's generated
· Use Apple's built-in system model (requires Apple Intelligence) — no download, no storage, ready instantly
· Reasoning models' "thinking" is now folded away by default; see just the clean result, with the model name shown under the title
· A smarter model list that hides models too large to run on your device

Thanks for using Tonota — we'd love your feedback

### v1.8 — 2026-07-01

This update brings AI Tools to Tonota — your transcripts can do a lot more than translate now.

· AI Tools menu: translate, summarize, extract to-dos, rewrite, or polish — all on-device, one tap
· Add up to 5 of your own custom AI tools, each with its own icon
· Watch results appear live: the sheet opens instantly and streams text as it's generated
· Use Apple's built-in system model (requires Apple Intelligence) — no download, no storage, ready instantly
· Reasoning models' "thinking" is now folded away by default; see just the clean result, with the model name shown under the title
· A smarter model list that hides models too large to run on your device

Thanks for using Tonota — we'd love your feedback

### v1.7 — 2026-06-17

Tonota comes to Apple Watch! Raise your wrist and record — no need to reach for your phone.

· Apple Watch app: record right from your wrist, even offline; recordings sync to your iPhone and transcribe automatically
· Browse recent memos and play audio on the watch (play/pause, ±15s)
· Switch the app language in-app — English / German / Chinese, no restart, follows system by default
· Folder tags in the memo list: see at a glance which folder each memo belongs to
· Live dictation no longer closes itself — your result is saved, so you can read it before tapping Done
· Pause, resume, or cancel model downloads, with friendly errors and a one-tap "Check network"

Thanks for using Tonota — we'd love your feedback

### v1.6 — 2026-06-11

##  What's New

**Start recording without opening the app**
Tonota can now start a recording from wherever you are: long-press the app icon and tap "Start Recording" (Quick Action), run it from the Shortcuts app, or trigger it through a personal automation (e.g. when your car's Bluetooth connects). Quick-launched recordings open the full-screen recorder and are saved to All Memos.

**Stop & save, hands-free**
A second App Intent — "Stop & Save Recording" — stops the active recording, saves the memo, and closes the recorder. Chain it with "Start Recording" in a Shortcuts automation for fully hands-free capture. Running it with no active recording shows a friendly "No active recording" message instead of creating an empty memo.

**Control Center & Lock Screen button (iOS 18+)**
A new Tonota control can be added to Control Center or the Lock Screen for one-tap recording, powered by a new Control Widget extension.

**Interrupted transcriptions can now be resumed**
If you force-quit the app while several transcriptions are queued, Tonota no longer leaves them in a wrong state. Each memo's transcription state is now persisted (queued / processing / completed / failed / interrupted); on next launch, interrupted work is detected and a banner offers a one-tap Resume that re-transcribes the affected memos with live progress ("Transcribed x of y"). Interrupted and failed memos also show a Retry button in the detail view.

**Move memos in bulk**
Multi-select on the home list now offers "Move" alongside "Delete." A new picker sheet lets you move the selection into an existing folder, a newly created folder, or out to All Memos — with a per-folder memo count and a confirmation toast.

**A proper About page**
Settings now links to an About page with the app version, a short note from the developer, and links to the website, GitHub, and feedback email.

##  Improvements

- Shortcuts names, Quick Action titles, and all new UI strings are fully localized in English, German, and Simplified Chinese.
- Quick-launching on a cold start now shows a "preparing" overlay while the speech model loads, instead of failing or mis-prompting for model setup.
- Stop button restyled (darker, clearer affordance); multi-select checkboxes switched from circles to squares.
- Fixed an audio-session race where stopping a recording and immediately starting a new one (easy to hit via Siri) reported "Recording unavailable" — the recorder now briefly retries.
- Fixed cold-start Quick Action incorrectly showing the "One more step" model-setup prompt when a model was already installed.
- Fixed a modal-presentation bug where canceling the quick recorder could land on the Settings page.

### v1.4 — 2026-06-09

No release notes.

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-04.*