Cleft

A voice-first note-taking app built exclusively for Apple devices, it performs on-device offline transcription and organizes dictations into summaries, to-do lists and transcripts, and can be sent to Notion, Obsidian, etc., with one click.

AI Note Taker#Voice Notes#Apple Ecosystem#Offline Transcription

Updated: 2026-10-26

What is Cleft?

Cleft is a voice-first note-taking tool (officially positioned as "Voice-first note-taking for people who think faster than they type") designed for people who "think faster than they type", and it is exclusively built for Apple devices. It performs transcription locally on the device and supports offline capture. It organizes the content you speak casually into structured notes with summaries, to-do lists and transcripts, and then syncs them to the note-taking apps you already use. The Verge called it "a really great AI voice note-taking app".

Who is it for?

Creators and thinkers who get frequent inspirations during commutes, driving or walking but don't want to stop to type.
Personal knowledge managers who use the entire Apple ecosystem, are used to putting to-do items into Apple Reminders, and store notes in Obsidian or Notion.
Privacy-sensitive users who need to quickly turn verbal ideas into structured minutes and care about data staying on their local device.
In-car users who want to safely record meeting points or random thoughts in the CarPlay scenario.
Writers and researchers who use a Markdown workflow and want voice drafts to go directly into Bear and Logseq.

Key features

Device-side Transcription

The official claim is that audio recordings are converted into text locally (Transcribes locally), allowing offline recording and transcription without uploading to the cloud.

Structured Organization

Cleft automatically identifies key points and action items, organizing fragmented spoken words into a clear structure without the need for manual formatting.

Multi-format Notes

You can switch to generate bullet point lists, paragraph-style notes, or clean verbatim transcripts close to the original words, with support for custom styles.

Apple Ecosystem Coverage

Supports iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and CarPlay, allowing you to dictate notes directly in the car using CarPlay.

Multi-app Export

The official version supports sending finished drafts to more than a dozen apps including Notion, Apple Notes, Apple Reminders, Obsidian, Bear, Logseq, Things 3, and Todoist.

Offline Availability

You can record and transcribe without Wi-Fi, and your notes are synced with encryption, emphasizing that "you own your own ideas."

How to use Cleft

First, install Cleft from the App Store (for iPhone, iPad, and Mac).
For your first use, just dictate what you want to record in three simple steps: speak it out, let Cleft organize it, and choose your note format.
Try the on-device transcription and basic structuring with the free version first.
if you need more custom styles or higher usage limits, check the official website's Pricing, with the specific free limits subject to the official page.
Since transcription is done locally and available offline, feel free to record sensitive content.
however, be mindful of the security settings of the target apps for exports outside the Apple ecosystem.
Simply select the action items from your spoken words and send them to Apple Reminders or Todoist, so that your "next steps" truly appear where you can see them every day.
For heavy writers, you can directly send Clean Transcript or Markdown to Obsidian and Logseq to retain bidirectional links, keeping your personal knowledge graph coherent.