spitballYou can use your iPhone’s Action button to start recording a thought in Spitball. Press and hold it again to finish and save the recording. You need an iPhone with an Action button; you can still record inside the app on other supported iPhones.
Set it up once
- Install Spitball and open it. Allow microphone access when you’re ready to record. Allow speech recognition if you want a transcript.
- Open Spitball’s Action button setup guide. Follow the instructions to choose Spitball’s capture shortcut.
- In your iPhone’s Settings, open Action Button, choose Shortcut, and select the Spitball shortcut.
- Try a short test: press and hold the Action button, say a thought, then press and hold it again to save.
Apple’s Action button guide explains the system setting. The names and placement of settings can vary with your iOS version.
Keep the first capture short
You don’t need to turn an idea into a finished plan while recording. Say the thing you want to remember and enough context to recognize it later. “Ask Rameez about a Friday client recap” is easier to revisit than “the thing we discussed.”
For your first test, check that both the recording and the transcript appear. Speech recognition needs the supported on-device language resources to be available. A saved recording and a completed transcript are separate steps.
What if nothing happens?
Check that the Action button is set to Shortcut and that the selected shortcut belongs to Spitball. Hold the button rather than giving it a quick tap. Open Spitball once after installing an update if the shortcut isn’t appearing.
If you can record but cannot see a transcript, check the app’s speech permission and try again with the app open. Your audio remains the original record of what you said.
No Action button? You can still capture.
Open Spitball and use its recording control. The Action button is a shortcut into capture, not a requirement for using the app.
See Action button support for more help, or install the Spitball beta to try it.