FrameReply vs Skein Notes

FrameReply is an open-source chat assistant that delivers two context-aware reply ideas directly on your current messaging screen using Shortcuts and snippets. It remembers useful details about each person, supports custom personas, and adapts to your writing style. STAY IN THE CONVERSATION • Get context-aware reply ideas in an interactive Shortcuts overlay without leaving your current messaging screen. • Bring in chat screenshots or copied messages via Share Sheet or Shortcuts. The image shortcut can also capture the current screen or launch with Back Tap. KEEP THE THREAD • Automatically add new messages to an existing chat when there is a reliable match, or add them directly to one you already have open. • Memorize useful person-specific context, such as preferences, shared history, and recurring plans. • Set a Current Goal for the chat, or add one-time Reply Guidance for what you want to say next. MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU • Choose a built-in persona or create your own. Personas can learn recurring patterns from messages you send. • Get Conversation Strategy and Strategy Rationale that explain why the replies were suggested. YOU STAY IN CONTROL • AI suggestions are drafts. The app never sends messages for you; you choose what to copy and whether to edit or send it in your messaging app. • Delete a chat, remove a provider connection, or erase all local data from your device whenever you choose. REQUIREMENTS • iPhone with iOS 26 or later. • Your own API key for OpenAI, OpenRouter, or MiniMax. • Provider usage may incur charges from that provider.

Skein is a notes app for people who want to keep their own files. Your vault is a folder of plain Markdown on your device or in iCloud Drive. Skein reads and writes those files directly — the same folder you open in Skein for Mac, or in any other editor. Nothing is locked in a database, and there is no service in the middle. Write it down before you lose it The app opens on a capture field. Type the thought and send it; the first line becomes the note's title and Skein files it where you told it to. No dialog, no folder picker, no naming a file before you have written anything. Find it again Search matches titles the moment you start typing and searches inside every note once the index is ready, ranked, with the matching lines and their line numbers — tap one and land on it. The Vault filters by name, by #tag or by folder in one field, and tags are real: tap one anywhere in the app to see everything carrying it. Real Markdown, properly Headings, lists, task lists, tables, footnotes, code blocks, callouts, ==highlights== and [[wikilinks]] — read cleanly and edited as text. A keyboard bar puts the things you actually reach for above the keys, including arrows that move by character and by word, and you can choose which of them appear. Type / for a command, #for a tag it already knows. Canvas Open a JSON Canvas board, move cards, connect them, colour them and write on them. The same file, the same format Obsidian writes, so a board made on the Mac opens here and back again. It keeps your writing safe Skein keeps earlier versions of a note as you edit, so you can go back to what you wrote this morning. When the same note has been changed in two places, Skein keeps both and asks — it never picks a winner quietly. Also Share text from any app straight into your vault. Four themes, including one for reading at night. Dynamic Type throughout, and full VoiceOver support. Skein does not have an account, a subscription for the basics, a server, or telemetry. Your notes never leave your device except through iCloud Drive, which is yours. Skein for Mac is a separate app on the same purchase.