Speaking, typing, and pasting

From the Speak List user guide · updated 2026-10-20.

Voice (Speak)

• Tap Speak; the microphone starts when the sheet is ready.
• Say one item, pause, say the next. Pauses create separate items.
• Quantity in speech or text: milk (2).
• The welcome screen (shown whenever you have no lists, and anytime via Settings → About → Welcome screen) has four doors and a link: the big Speak a list button, Read out a list (hear any list), Quick add (type or paste) beside View lists (go to your lists), and an underlined Templates link under the examples.
• Where to open Speak: the welcome screen's Speak a list, New list on the home screen, and Add items → Speak inside any list (same Speak surface everywhere; the welcome screen is also reachable anytime from Settings → About → Welcome screen).
• While creating, you can tap the List name row to set or change the name before you finish (it also updates live as you speak or type).
• Under VoiceOver, voice capture is fully supported; focus rules pause the mic when you explore controls so the mic does not record VoiceOver’s own speech as list items.
• Noisy places (a busy store, a kitchen fan, traffic): the pause that normally enters each item may never be detected — your words just sit in the box. Tap Add (above the microphone button) to enter them yourself; if wrong words get in, remove that entry with its ✕ in the list. The microphone button pauses and resumes listening — pausing keeps the words, and speaking again continues the same item.

Hearing what the mic heard (feedback)

While you speak, you can choose how the app confirms each item (on the Speak surface’s sound options, and related controls in Settings):

• Read back — speaks the item so you know it was heard.
• Beep — a short sound.
• Vibrate — a gentle haptic (can combine with the others depending on the toggles you leave on).

Updating the app keeps your saved feedback choices; it does not reset them to a fresh-install default. If Read back is unexpectedly on, check the Speak sound options. VoiceOver's capture confirmation has its own accessibility behavior; do not assume an update turned on Read back for everyone.

Read-back speed in Settings is Slow / Normal / Fast (how quickly items are spoken back after you say them). That is separate from reading speed on the read-aloud player.

Also in Settings → Voice: Speak opening tip — when On, Speak starts by saying how to use it; when Off, no opening tip is spoken. This switch also applies with VoiceOver. The tip switches itself off after three completed plays and explains how to turn it back on. If you turn it back on yourself, it stays on.

Turning VoiceOver on during recording pauses the mic automatically; the unfinished phrase is discarded, but entered items remain. Tap the mic to resume.

Spoken notifications or other unwanted speech: VoiceOver may read another app's notification aloud while the mic is listening. Use headphones so VoiceOver speaks through them instead of the phone's speaker. This workaround has been tested on the owner's phone. If a notification or other unwanted speech becomes an entry, tap that entry's ✕ to remove it. You can also turn on an iPhone Focus, such as Do Not Disturb, while dictating to silence unwanted notifications. Check its allowed people, apps, and time-sensitive notifications. Focus does not silence VoiceOver itself: control labels and other system speech may still be heard. Moving VoiceOver focus to a Speak control pauses the mic so its label can be heard without being recorded. That is different from an external notification spoken while focus remains at the listening spot. The app cannot reliably pause for every external spoken notification; do not describe automatic prevention as fixed.

Quick add

• Type or paste lines. One line → one item.
• The welcome screen's Quick add opens Type / Paste. Its Paste button puts copied text into the box so you can check or edit it first; it does not add items immediately. Tap Add or the keyboard's Done to add the box contents. iPhone may ask for permission to paste.
• Tap the adjacent ⓘ for the Paste explanation.
• Good for a grocery note from Messages or Mail.

Details (structured add)

Use the Details tab (or Add with details inside a list) when you want one item at a time with fields:

Tapping Details hides the captured list to give the editor more space. The whole item-count row toggles Show list and Hide list; hiding the list does not remove its items.

• Name — what the item is called.
• Details type — changes with list category: Quantity (shopping), Dose and time (medications), Sets, reps and rest (exercise), Reading and unit (health log), or Plain text when that fits. Tap the type row to switch when offered.
• Notes (optional) — free text (“organic”, “take with food”).
• Reminder — tap the bell row (Set reminder) for the same calendar sheet as ⋯ → Set reminder on the list (date/time or quick preset).

Add next saves this item and clears for another. Clear entry abandons the current row without saving. While capturing, the pencil on any row opens Details with that row loaded. On a saved list, the row pencil opens the same fields full-screen.

Quick add and Speak stay faster when you only need names (and inline (2) quantities in text).

Plain-text rules (paste / share / restore)

Edit entire list as text is different: its boxes show names and amounts, not saved notes, dates or reminders. Unchanged names keep those details; renaming or removing an item can lose them, with a warning before saving. Use the item's Details editor to rename without losing them. Saving cancels alerts for removed items; if cancellation cannot be confirmed, the app does not finish replacing the list. Check Reminders if it reports a scheduling problem. Enter the list title in its separate name field. You can type note, date and reminder fields on an item's line as described below. Omitted fields retain saved details only for unchanged names. Removing a field marker is not a way to clear a saved reminder or note; use Details or Reminders instead.

• Every non-empty line becomes one item (blank lines are ignored).
• To name the list: put the word list anywhere on the first line (“Costco list”, “list Costco”, “test list for workout”), or put > (or ＞) at the start or end of the name line (Costco >).
• Amounts: parentheses work in ASCII or full-width form, e.g. Milk (2) or Chinese-style full-width parentheses. Also accepted when pasting: milk x2, milk - 2, and milk, 2 (when the part after the comma looks like a quantity).
• Bullets and numbering from other apps are cleaned off automatically: - , • , * , 1. , [ ] , check marks, and similar.
• Done items: [x] (or [X]) at the start of a line, or common check symbols.
• In Restore, shared-text import, Type / Paste and Edit as text, optional note/reminder fields go on the same item line after > , for example: Milk (2) > note: organic > remind: YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM Replace the date/time placeholder with your chosen date and time. A one-time reminder is kept only if that time is still in the future. Keep note: and remind: in English, with a space on both sides of each > separator. The list type in parentheses after the list name can be in your language; this does not apply to the field markers. A date can be entered as > due: YYYY-MM-DD using your chosen date.
• Lists shared from Speak List keep their names automatically (our share format).

If you don’t name the list

If you paste, type, or speak lines without a name marker — no word “list”, no > on a name line — nothing is lost:

• Every line still becomes an item.
• A new list borrows its name from the first item. A note that starts with “milk” becomes a list called “milk”, with milk as the first item — rename it anytime.
• On Speak / Quick add create, that auto-name is trimmed; very long first items are shortened (about 40 characters) with an ellipsis; if nothing usable is there, you get a dated name like List · Jul 28.
• The list’s type is General unless you chose a type (or set one from text — below).
• When you add lines inside a list you already have, they are only items — the list keeps its own name. There is no “rename from first line” on append.

Import preview (share-in and some paste paths)

When text is shared into Speak List (or opened through some import screens), you usually get a preview before anything is saved:

• A switch — First line = name / All lines = items — lets you decide whether the first line is the list title or just another item.
• A tip reminds you that > or the word list on the first line marks a name.
• Speak / Quick add create is immediate — no review stop, since you already saw every item as you added it. A review appears only for a pasted multi-line batch (with Reverse order) or when the batch repeats a name (so you can keep or drop the repeats). The list is named automatically (marker on first line, or first-item auto-name).

Setting the list type from text

On a name line, you can add the type in parentheses after the name — for example Costco list (Shopping) or > Meds (Medications & Supplements). Without it, new imports arrive as General (change type later from the list’s ⋯ menu). Recognized type names work in any of the app’s seven languages. Parentheses that are not a known type stay part of the name (“Trip plans (June)” keeps its parentheses).

If the name is already taken

If you create a list whose name matches one you already have, the app asks before doing anything:

• Add these items to the existing list, or
• Make a separate list (you can accept a numbered name like “Costco 2”, or type a new one).

Nothing merges silently.