Productivity / Education
Sunote is a local-first AI voice note taker for iPhone. Record or import meetings, lectures, and voice memos, search transcripts, then ask its AI agent about notes and tasks or create summaries, action items, and study tools.
US App Store listing checked 27 October 2026.
Why Sunote
Record a meeting, lecture, interview, or voice memo on iPhone—or import supported audio. Sunote keeps the transcript with the note so you can find it later. Ask Sunote Agent about a note or task, create summaries and action items, or turn study notes into flashcards, quizzes, and mind maps. Your library is stored on-device by default; remote AI runs only after permission, and Sunote does not provide its own cloud sync.
Start free: one full-featured note, including AI tools.
Check current pricing: Sunote is free to download; the App Store lists current subscription options and terms before purchase.
Check the official listing for current compatibility, features, subscription terms, and localized pricing.
The short version
A recording is rarely the final artifact someone needs. They need the decision from a meeting, the explanation from a lecture, the commitment hidden in a conversation, or a way to search the idea later. Sunote is designed around that second step: make the source trustworthy, shape it into a note, then offer AI when it adds a concrete output.
I built the product across the native iPhone and Apple Watch app, its local data model, subscription flow, and the backend used for optional AI processing. This case study focuses on the product and engineering choices that shaped the release, including the parts that are deliberately constrained.
Product loop
Record live audio, import an M4A or MP3 file, save a web page, add a photo, or start with written text.
Turn speech into a transcript, then use optional AI tools to produce summaries, key points, action items, and study material.
Keep the result in a searchable library with folders, tags, Markdown notes, widgets, and note-specific conversations.
Product surface
The feature set is broad, but it is built around a narrow promise: help a person recover the useful part of something they already heard, saw, or wrote.
Follow speech as it becomes readable text, or bring an existing recording into the same note workflow. On supported devices and languages, speech recognition may run on-device.
Search notes and tasks, ask contextual follow-up questions, and get summaries or action items. Review suggested note and task changes before applying them.
Create flashcards, multiple-choice and short-answer quizzes, and mind maps from a lecture, recording, or saved note.
Use folders, tags, search, smart titles, and a Markdown editor to make captured material easier to revisit and edit.
Start a voice note from your wrist, then continue working with it on your iPhone.
Your note library stays on-device by default. Remote AI runs only when you choose a feature and give permission.
Engineering choices
Notes, audio, photos, transcripts, and AI outputs are stored on the device by default. SwiftData holds the structured library while recordings and images use local files.
Tradeoff: The tradeoff is explicit: Sunote does not provide its own cloud sync or backup. That keeps the ownership model simple, but deleting the app or losing a device can remove local content. Export and sharing therefore matter as product features, not cleanup tools.
Core note creation, editing, and local storage do not depend on remote generation. Before remote AI work begins, the app asks for permission and sends only the content needed for the selected feature through a server-side proxy.
Tradeoff: This produces a clearer privacy boundary, but it also creates a second product state. The interface has to remain useful when the network, an AI provider, or a quota is unavailable. Local-first is not the same claim as fully offline.
A recording, imported audio file, photo, web page, and written note arrive through different ingestion paths. They still need to feel like one product once the content is saved.
Tradeoff: The shared note model reduces duplication and gives AI features a stable target. The cost is more work at the edges: each source needs its own permissions, failure states, and content-extraction rules without leaking that complexity into the editor.
Sunote is free to download, and one full-featured note is included. The App Store listing shows current subscription terms and localized pricing before purchase.
Tradeoff: A subscription boundary is part of the user experience, not an afterthought. The free allowance must be genuinely useful, while entitlement checks, retries, and restored purchases need to fail in a way that does not erase local work.
Privacy boundary
The main note library stays on the device. Remote AI runs only after permission and uses the content needed for the selected feature, not a background copy of the whole library. Requests pass through a Sunote Cloudflare Worker with App Attest and server-side controls. Raw audio is not sent to the text model for note summarization.
No traditional account required to start
No Sunote-managed cross-device sync
Optional AI after a permission step
Local export remains part of the ownership model
Technical layer
SwiftUI
Native interface across the main app and settings
SwiftData
Local notes, folders, tags, and task models
Apple Speech
Speech recognition for recording and transcription flows
WidgetKit
Widgets and Live Activities for quick access
StoreKit 2
Subscription purchase, entitlement, and restore flows
watchOS
Companion capture and note access on Apple Watch
Cloudflare Workers
Server-side AI proxy, queueing, and request controls
App Attest
Device attestation for supported production requests
Meet Ask Sunote Agent
An AI assistant for notes and tasks, designed to help you follow up on key details.
No release notes were published for this version.
Release notes and dates follow the official App Store version history, checked 27 October 2026. View the current listing.
What the project demonstrates
Building Sunote required more than wiring a model to a text field. It meant designing a durable local note model, reconciling audio and transcript state, making subscription access understandable, and keeping optional AI from becoming a hidden dependency.
The strongest technical lesson is that trustworthy AI features start around the model: where the source came from, what the user allowed, what happens when a request fails, and how the result can be checked. That is also the part of this project I would carry into another consumer productivity product.
Common questions
Sunote is an AI voice note taker for iPhone. Record or import meetings, lectures, interviews, and voice memos; search the transcript; and use optional AI tools to create summaries, action items, flashcards, quizzes, and mind maps.
Yes. Record an in-person meeting with your iPhone or import a supported audio file. Sunote creates a searchable transcript, and optional AI tools can turn the note into a summary, key takeaways, and action items.
Yes. Record or import a lecture, then use the saved note to create flashcards, multiple-choice or short-answer quizzes, and a mind map from the study material.
Ask Sunote Agent can search notes and tasks, answer contextual follow-up questions, summarize material, and help create or edit notes and tasks. Review suggested changes before applying them. Remote AI features require an internet connection and your permission.
No. Sunote records live audio in the iPhone app and can import supported audio files; it does not connect to meeting apps as a bot. For an online meeting, import a recording into Sunote afterward.
Sunote is free to download and includes one full-featured note with AI features. The App Store listing shows current subscription options, terms, and localized pricing before purchase.
Sunote is designed for iPhone users who capture meetings, lectures, interviews, or voice memos and want searchable notes, transcripts, summaries, action items, or study tools in one local-first library. It is a personal note workflow, not a Sunote-managed cloud-sync service.
No. Core note creation, editing, and local storage are designed not to depend on remote AI. On supported devices and languages, speech recognition may run on-device. Remote AI generation and other online services require a connection, and local-first is not a promise that every feature works offline.
The main note library is stored on the device by default. Sunote does not provide its own CloudKit, iCloud, cross-device sync, cloud backup, or recovery service. Apple controls device-backup behavior, so users should export or share important notes before deleting the app or changing devices.
No. This is the developer portfolio case study. Product features, compatibility, pricing, and current availability are governed by the official Sunote site, the installed release, and the App Store listing.
See the released product
Use the official listing for current compatibility, feature limits, subscription terms, and localized pricing.