Capture everything · Recall anything · Act on what matters.
What Slate is
Slate is a Recall engine. Its one job: let you instantly find, understand, and continue anything you ever put into it — without remembering where you saved it, what it was called, or whether it was a note, a PDF, or a voice memo. You only remember the idea; Slate handles the rest.
The promise: Capture everything · Recall anything · Act on what matters.
It is not a folder system, a knowledge graph, or a workspace platform. It's the fastest way to capture, remember, and act on information.
The shape of the app — three pillars
| Pillar |
Question it answers |
| Today |
What matters right now? |
| Library |
What do I know? |
| Actions |
What needs my attention? |
There are exactly three tabs. Search and Capture float above all of them — always one tap away.
Capture
A + button is available everywhere, always one tap away.
- Note — give it a title (optional — Slate names it from the text if you skip), add bold / italic / underline / strikethrough formatting, and @mention people from Contacts.
- Action — a task or reminder, with a full date/time/repeat/flag toolbar and an Apple Reminders-style Details sheet. Toggle list mode to make a checklist.
- Voice note — tap Speak and talk: live on-device dictation streams into the editor (nothing leaves the iPhone); tap Stop then Capture.
- Photo · PDF · Link — planned.
Speed is the point. You drop the thought in; on-device intelligence understands it (title, category, project, tasks, people) and files it as a real note or action.
Search (Recall)
Search is the main way you use Slate — it is Recall. It feels like Spotlight: fast, always available, always useful. You search the way you remember, not with keywords:
- "What was I working on before WWDC?"
- "Show me everything related to casaHealth."
- "What actions are due this week?"
Answers are composed by on-device Foundation Models, grounded only in your real records and cited — tap a cited note or action to open it. Falls back to a deterministic, still-grounded answer when Apple Intelligence is off.
Today
The default screen. Helps you pick up where you left off:
- Continue Working — your most recently edited note or active project, one tap to resume.
- Due Today — tasks, follow-ups, and waiting-on items that need attention.
- Active Projects — recently active projects with what was recently discussed.
- Recent Captures — the latest notes and voice notes.
- People — upcoming birthdays (next 2 weeks) and who you're overdue to reach out to. Tap a face to open them in Strands.
Apple Notes stores information. Today restores context.
Library
Everything you've captured.
Notes
Captured text becomes a note with a title, category, and (when present) a project and extracted tasks. Filter by category — the row only shows categories you've actually used. Switch between list and masonry view. Hold any note to edit or delete.
Projects
Projects are collections of related information, not folders. Derived from your notes' project field — no folders to build.
Project workspace:
- Overview — a project write-up note; tap to open and edit.
- To-dos — add project tasks inline and check them off.
- Notes — notes filed into the project; Add starts a new one right inside.
- Roadmap — add lightweight phases and tap a circle to mark it done. The Template menu seeds phases; picking another adds to what's there.
- Archive — when a project's done, ⋯ → Archive; its notes stay recallable.
- Bugs — report a bug inside the project. Each bug shows a stage dot: Open → In progress → Monitoring → Resolved. Bugs live only inside their project.
Actions
Actions track attention, not just tasks.
- Tasks — "Finish Recovery v2," "Call Mike."
- Follow-ups — one-tap "Create Follow Up."
- Waiting On — what you're blocked on ("Mike → review Recovery v2"). A key differentiator: visibility into what you're waiting for.
Actions are project-aware — "Finish Recovery v2" knows it belongs to casaHealth and shows supporting notes. Actions from notes: Slate spots actionable lines and offers "Create Actions →" with one tap (the note stays intact).
Apple Reminders — two-way sync: turn it on in Settings → Integrations and reminders flow both directions. Completing in either place checks it off in the other.
AI
AI exists for one purpose: improve Recall. It does not generate content for show or organize your life.
- AI Search (Ask Slate) — understands natural, memory-based questions, grounded + cited.
- Capture understanding — reads each capture for title / category / project / tasks / people.
- Every answer is sourced ("learned from your May 19 memo") and can be edited or forgotten. If unsure, falls back to the real note.
Strands integration
Slate reads the people from Strands (your relationship app) over a private on-device channel. The names you tag and ask about are real — with their relationship, when you last talked, their birthday, and the memories Strands holds.
- Today card — upcoming birthdays and who you're overdue to reach out to.
- Tagged people appear with their real photo everywhere.
- Tap a tagged person → sheet with their Strands one-liner, memories, and Message / Call / FaceTime / Note buttons (touch logged in Strands automatically).
- "Remember in Strands" — on a note that mentions someone, one tap files it as a memory on that person in Strands.
Privacy
- Intelligence runs on-device — your content doesn't leave your iPhone.
- iCloud sync (your private database) keeps Slate backed up and following you to a new device.
- Any feature that would send data off-device is an explicit, opt-in decision.
Living document — updated as features ship.