Compare
One orb. Three apps' worth of work, done in the background.
Most people on iPhone capture into Voice Memos, Reminders, and Notes, and pre-decide which one each thought belongs in. Amanu lets you stop pre-deciding.
Who the default stack is for
Anyone with an iPhone. It's free. It's everywhere. Siri can drop a reminder on the Lock Screen. Voice Memos handles a long ramble. Notes is the catch-all when you're not sure.
If you already trust yourself to remember which app to open, and to come back later and process Voice Memos, the default stack is fine.
Who Amanu is for
People who don't want to pre-decide. People whose best thoughts arrive mid-walk, mid-school-run, mid-shower, when picking the right app is the friction that loses the thought.
You speak once. Amanu sorts. The reminder lands in Reminders. The event lands in Calendar. The thought lands in your timeline.
How they compare, side by side
| What you need | Amanu | the default stack |
|---|---|---|
| Number of apps to open | One — the orb on the Lock Screen | Three (Voice Memos, Reminders, Notes) plus Calendar |
| Pre-classification required | No — you speak, Amanu sorts after | Yes — you decide app first, then capture |
| Voice → reminder with time | Automatic from one sentence | Siri handles it; Voice Memos does not |
| Voice → calendar event | Automatic | Manual re-entry from a Voice Memo, or one-shot via Siri |
| Voice → journal note | Automatic — kept in private timeline | Voice Memos audio, or transcript copy-pasted into Notes |
| People mention tracking | Automatic — soft people graph | None |
| Cost | Free to capture; talk-back on a paid tier | Free |
Where Amanu wins
You stop losing things in Voice Memos. There's a reason Apple's own forums are full of "how do I turn this voice memo into a reminder" threads with no clean answer. Amanu's whole job is that conversion.
Reminders get the right time, the right location, the right person, from one sentence. No tap-tap-tap to set the date.
You get a journal you didn't have to remember to write. The bits you said become a timeline you can read back later.
Where the default stack wins
It's free, it's pre-installed, and Siri's one-shot reminders are genuinely sharp. If your capture life is "remind me to take the bins out", the default stack handles it.
It works offline for basic capture. Amanu needs a connection to triage.
The honest call
If your captures are simple and few, stay with the defaults.
If you're losing things in Voice Memos and your Reminders list is half-full of "untitled" notes you can't decode, Amanu is the layer that's missing.
Common questions
Why can't I just use Siri for everything?
Siri is one-shot. You ask, it acts, it forgets. It is brilliant for "remind me to take the bins out" but breaks down on "I had a long day, work was hard, I am worried about Thursday's pitch, oh and remind me to call Mum at 5" — Siri picks up one thing, the rest is gone. Amanu holds the whole sentence and pulls each piece into the right app.
Do my Amanu reminders show up in Apple Reminders?
Yes. If you enable the Reminders mirror in Settings, every reminder Amanu captures lands in your Apple Reminders list (a dedicated "Amanu" list by default), with the time, location, and person attached. Same for Calendar events.
What if I want to keep using Voice Memos for some things?
You can. Amanu is additive. Most users keep Voice Memos for music ideas, lecture recordings, or anything where the audio file itself is the artefact. Amanu replaces the workflow where you said "I want to remember this thought" — not the workflow where you said "I want to keep this audio".