Annotations & Voice Notes
Health data tells you what happened; annotations let you record how it felt. Courier treats them as first-class records: they render in the Think timeline and dispatch to endpoints like everything else.
Capturing a thought
Tap the floating Annotate button (available across the main tabs):
- Typed — write a short note, send.
- Dictated — hold to record; Courier transcribes and shows the text for editing before anything is sent.
Annotations are timestamped and appear in the Think tab as a timeline you can scroll through alongside your issues.
Where annotations go
Annotations dispatch to subscribers of kind note. Set one up first (Desk → Subscribers → Add, kind = Annotation) — the capture sheet will remind you if none exists. With multiple note subscribers, the capture sheet lets you pick the destination.
The canonical note payload (see data reference) carries the text, creation time and whether it came from typing or audio. As with any subscriber, a transform script can reshape it — e.g. into a Markdown blockquote for your daily note.
Transcription
Three options, configured in Desk → Transcription Service:
- On-device — used whenever the system supports it. Nothing leaves the phone.
- Apple's speech service — the system may route transcription through Apple when on-device isn't available.
- Your own service — any OpenAI-compatible transcription endpoint (URL + model + API key). The key is stored in the Keychain. In this mode the audio itself is uploaded to the service you configured — that is your choice and clearly labelled in-app.
The notes archive
Desk → Notes Archive keeps every annotation locally and permanently — Courier never uploads it anywhere on its own. From there you can:
- Export all annotations as a JSON file (share sheet).
- Clear the local archive (the copies you dispatched remain on your endpoints).
- Delete individual notes.
Voice notes from Shortcuts
The Audio Thought Shortcut action accepts an audio file, transcribes it with your configured method and dispatches the text — handy for Action-button or Apple Watch workflows. See Shortcuts.