Also in the box: tasks, Apple Calendar, a Chrome extension that can save your X bookmarks, templates, Mermaid diagrams, and a fast native app built on Tauri.
Free on Mac, with no trial or time limit. iPhone and iPad on the App Store: reflect.app
Free on Mac, with no trial or time limit. iPhone and iPad on the App Store: reflect.app
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Sync with iCloud Drive or Git. Your choice, your account.
Bring your notes with you: import from Reflect Classic, or open an existing Markdown folder (like an Obsidian vault) in place, with its links and attachments.
Bring your notes with you: import from Reflect Classic, or open an existing Markdown folder (like an Obsidian vault) in place, with its links and attachments.
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On iPhone and iPad, capture is fast.
Record meeting-length audio memos with cleaned-up transcripts. Save links from the share sheet. Add a quick note with Siri.
Everything lands in today's note.
Record meeting-length audio memos with cleaned-up transcripts. Save links from the share sheet. Add a quick note with Siri.
Everything lands in today's note.
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AI chat is built in, with your own key. Ask across all your notes and get answers that cite their sources.
Use OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, or a local model. Requests go straight to your provider. Mark a note private and AI never sees it.
Use OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenRouter, or a local model. Requests go straight to your provider. Mark a note private and AI never sees it.
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Because your notes are just files, your AI agents can use them too.
Point Claude Code or Codex at your notes. Install the Reflect skill in one click, and agents can search and read your whole graph from the terminal.
Point Claude Code or Codex at your notes. Install the Reflect skill in one click, and agents can search and read your whole graph from the terminal.
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Your notes are ordinary Markdown files.
No Reflect account. No Reflect cloud database. Open them in any editor and back them up however you like.
They'll outlive any app, including ours.
No Reflect account. No Reflect cloud database. Open them in any editor and back them up however you like.
They'll outlive any app, including ours.
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We built the notes app we always wished Apple Notes was.
Beautiful, connected by backlinks, instant to search, and every note is a plain Markdown file your AI agents can read.
Reflect Open is out of beta today. Open source, free on Mac, and on iPhone and iPad.
Beautiful, connected by backlinks, instant to search, and every note is a plain Markdown file your AI agents can read.
Reflect Open is out of beta today. Open source, free on Mac, and on iPhone and iPad.
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The shape of Reflect is still there: daily notes, backlinks, tasks, search and chat with your notes.
The important difference is underneath. Your data lives in ordinary files, the app works offline, and the code is open for anyone to inspect or change.
The important difference is underneath. Your data lives in ordinary files, the app works offline, and the code is open for anyone to inspect or change.
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Today we’re releasing Reflect Open, a complete rewrite of Reflect for the age of AI.
It’s local-first and open source, and every note is stored as a Markdown file on your computer.
It’s local-first and open source, and every note is stored as a Markdown file on your computer.
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Good news for our iPad users: you’ll notice the app is now much faster!
Last week we announced a move to SQLite across our iPhone and desktop apps, and today we’ve brought that same update to iPad.
Take it for a spin!
Last week we announced a move to SQLite across our iPhone and desktop apps, and today we’ve brought that same update to iPad.
Take it for a spin!
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Today we have a major update that has made Reflect a lot faster 🏃♂️
Over the past year, a lot of our time has gone into rewriting the entire frontend codebase to be powered by SQLite. We quietly launched this across iOS, web, and macOS desktop over the last two weeks.
In short ter load times, and we should handle massive note collections without issue (no more reloading issues on mobile!).
Also included in this release:
– Claude 3.7 Sonnet support for our AI assistant
– An in-line PDF preview that lets you view PDFs within the macOS app
– Persistent search results.
📱App rewrite in SQLite
We’ve completed a full rewrite of the database layer powering our apps. With this update we're moving to a new database technology called SQLite, which should boost performance, reliability, and increase storage capacity.
You will experience noticeable improvements in app stability and responsiveness. For example, when you open Reflect on iOS it should now load almost instantly.
If you have used our iOS app before in the past and got frustrated from constant reloading issues, give the app another whirl again. This update should resolve all of that!
This rewrite was a massive undertaking and we are incredibly pleased with the result. We'll link to a technical write-up in the comments for anyone curious.
✨ Claude 3.7 Sonnet Added to AI Features
Anthropic recently released Claude 3.7 Sonnet and it made quite the splash. The new model is significantly better at following instructions and general reasoning, making it an even better note-taking assistant. We’ve added this new model to Reflect’s AI assistant.
If you have the model set to Default or Anthropic, you’re now using Claude 3.7 Sonnet in Reflect! Give it a try by highlighting some text and selecting the ✨ icon or using the cmd j shortcut.
📑 PDF Preview in Mac
Reflect’s Mac app now lets you preview PDF files you have attached in your notes. From this preview you can download, print and copy the text to use as needed.
🔎 Persistent Search Results
When you use Reflect’s Advanced Search, the results will now persist if you close the search and come back to it. If you’d like to clear the results, just click the “Reset” button.
Over the past year, a lot of our time has gone into rewriting the entire frontend codebase to be powered by SQLite. We quietly launched this across iOS, web, and macOS desktop over the last two weeks.
In short ter load times, and we should handle massive note collections without issue (no more reloading issues on mobile!).
Also included in this release:
– Claude 3.7 Sonnet support for our AI assistant
– An in-line PDF preview that lets you view PDFs within the macOS app
– Persistent search results.
📱App rewrite in SQLite
We’ve completed a full rewrite of the database layer powering our apps. With this update we're moving to a new database technology called SQLite, which should boost performance, reliability, and increase storage capacity.
You will experience noticeable improvements in app stability and responsiveness. For example, when you open Reflect on iOS it should now load almost instantly.
If you have used our iOS app before in the past and got frustrated from constant reloading issues, give the app another whirl again. This update should resolve all of that!
This rewrite was a massive undertaking and we are incredibly pleased with the result. We'll link to a technical write-up in the comments for anyone curious.
✨ Claude 3.7 Sonnet Added to AI Features
Anthropic recently released Claude 3.7 Sonnet and it made quite the splash. The new model is significantly better at following instructions and general reasoning, making it an even better note-taking assistant. We’ve added this new model to Reflect’s AI assistant.
If you have the model set to Default or Anthropic, you’re now using Claude 3.7 Sonnet in Reflect! Give it a try by highlighting some text and selecting the ✨ icon or using the cmd j shortcut.
📑 PDF Preview in Mac
Reflect’s Mac app now lets you preview PDF files you have attached in your notes. From this preview you can download, print and copy the text to use as needed.
🔎 Persistent Search Results
When you use Reflect’s Advanced Search, the results will now persist if you close the search and come back to it. If you’d like to clear the results, just click the “Reset” button.
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🎙️ We’ve added an in-line voice transcriber to Reflect. It lets you transcribe text in real-time, anywhere in your notes.
Hit the Option key twice (or press Option + Space) to toggle the transcriber on and off. On Windows, use Alt instead of Option.
Hit the Option key twice (or press Option + Space) to toggle the transcriber on and off. On Windows, use Alt instead of Option.
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We just released OCR text for images and PDFs saved in Reflect!
That means Reflect’s search can now index the text inside any new files you add. You’ll also need to have “Labs” turned on in your preferences.
That means Reflect’s search can now index the text inside any new files you add. You’ll also need to have “Labs” turned on in your preferences.
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Today we are releasing Reflect Webchat – a free Chrome extension that lets you chat with any webpage.
Use it to summarize information on a page, pull the recipe from a YouTube video or anything else you can think of!
(Download link in comments)
Use it to summarize information on a page, pull the recipe from a YouTube video or anything else you can think of!
(Download link in comments)
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✨☑️ We made a custom prompt that turns your notes and transcripts into actionable plans.
Make plans out of:
1. Voice notes
2. Meeting transcriptions
3. YouTube video transcripts
4. Saved articles and readings
Link to prompt in comments!
Make plans out of:
1. Voice notes
2. Meeting transcriptions
3. YouTube video transcripts
4. Saved articles and readings
Link to prompt in comments!
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Having an AI assistant in our notes lets us adopt an "append-only" philosophy of note-taking.
If AI can organize, format and search notes for us, there is no need to spend time cultivating our notes. Instead, we can keep freely adding new information without having to clean the some things AI can do within your notes:
- Format and summarize text
- Extract key-takeaways and action items
- Generate proposals or articles
- Chat with collections of your notes
- Fix and edit your writing
- Perfectly translate text
- Conduct research on a topic
- Automatically add backlinks
- A lot more!
We also have some custom AI prompts for note-taking you can copy from the comments.
If AI can organize, format and search notes for us, there is no need to spend time cultivating our notes. Instead, we can keep freely adding new information without having to clean the some things AI can do within your notes:
- Format and summarize text
- Extract key-takeaways and action items
- Generate proposals or articles
- Chat with collections of your notes
- Fix and edit your writing
- Perfectly translate text
- Conduct research on a topic
- Automatically add backlinks
- A lot more!
We also have some custom AI prompts for note-taking you can copy from the comments.
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All of your research should happen in your notes.
💾 Start by finding a mechanism to save each information source.
For example:
Save links → Chrome Extension
Lectures and interviews → Voice Transcriber
#️⃣ Next, organize your research with tags.
Add a unique tag to each topic so you can easily find it later.
You can also format and condense large chunks of text using AI, which works particularly well for voice transcriptions.
🔎 Now you can search and chat with your research.
Filter your searches using tags to narrow down the information. Use semantic and fuzzy searching to find information even if you don’t know the exact words.
You can also chat with your research notes—the AI will use your specific research as context for its responses.
💾 Start by finding a mechanism to save each information source.
For example:
Save links → Chrome Extension
Lectures and interviews → Voice Transcriber
#️⃣ Next, organize your research with tags.
Add a unique tag to each topic so you can easily find it later.
You can also format and condense large chunks of text using AI, which works particularly well for voice transcriptions.
🔎 Now you can search and chat with your research.
Filter your searches using tags to narrow down the information. Use semantic and fuzzy searching to find information even if you don’t know the exact words.
You can also chat with your research notes—the AI will use your specific research as context for its responses.
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We’ve added a Pomodoro Timer to Reflect New Tab, as well as a few iPhone wallpapers you can download (link to each in comments).
The Pomodoro Timer starts a standard 25min focus session. Once complete, a soft tone lets you know it’s time for either a long or short break.
The ow many you’ve done, and lets you reset, pause or skip sessions.
We’ve also created some Reflect wallpapers for iPhone that anyone is free to download! You can download each from the Google Drive link in the comments.
The Pomodoro Timer starts a standard 25min focus session. Once complete, a soft tone lets you know it’s time for either a long or short break.
The ow many you’ve done, and lets you reset, pause or skip sessions.
We’ve also created some Reflect wallpapers for iPhone that anyone is free to download! You can download each from the Google Drive link in the comments.
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Today we are announcing a major upgrade to our encryption – encrypted images and files.
We’ve also released some fun things like a lock-screen activity widget, offline images, deep-links that let you open specific pages within Reflect and more.
🔒 Encrypted Assets
Assets you end-to-end encrypted. That means any image or file you add to a note can only be decrypted and viewed by you.
▶️ Lock screen activity for audio notes
When you record a voice note from Reflect’s iOS app, it now shows the recording activity from your lock screen. There’s also a convenient “Stop” button for when you’re finished.
🔗 Deep links
Deep links allow you to open specific pages or notes within Reflect, directly from external applications. Jump straight to the exact note or page you need, saving time and reducing clicks.
🗂️ Offline Assets
In addition to the new encryption, assets like images and files can now be added to notes when you're offline. As soon as you go online again, they’ll be uploaded.
Images are also now cached, meaning they can be viewed when offline as well.
🔎 Image zoom on iOS
You can now zoom into images you add into Reflect’s iOS app.
After adding an image, either by pasting it in or using the image button on the sliding menu, simply tap on the image to expand. You can then pinch or double tap to zoom in and out.
We’ve also released some fun things like a lock-screen activity widget, offline images, deep-links that let you open specific pages within Reflect and more.
🔒 Encrypted Assets
Assets you end-to-end encrypted. That means any image or file you add to a note can only be decrypted and viewed by you.
▶️ Lock screen activity for audio notes
When you record a voice note from Reflect’s iOS app, it now shows the recording activity from your lock screen. There’s also a convenient “Stop” button for when you’re finished.
🔗 Deep links
Deep links allow you to open specific pages or notes within Reflect, directly from external applications. Jump straight to the exact note or page you need, saving time and reducing clicks.
🗂️ Offline Assets
In addition to the new encryption, assets like images and files can now be added to notes when you're offline. As soon as you go online again, they’ll be uploaded.
Images are also now cached, meaning they can be viewed when offline as well.
🔎 Image zoom on iOS
You can now zoom into images you add into Reflect’s iOS app.
After adding an image, either by pasting it in or using the image button on the sliding menu, simply tap on the image to expand. You can then pinch or double tap to zoom in and out.
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Reflect's voice transcriber can pick up system audio.
This lets you transcribe things like videos and meetings while you have your headphones in. The transcriber will pick up the audio you hear, along with anything you say.
Make sure:
1. You are using Reflect's macOS app
2. in your preferences
Then do a test!
Try playing a YouTube video with your headphones on or your computer speakers muted. It should still pick up audio levels and transcribe what's playing.
This lets you transcribe things like videos and meetings while you have your headphones in. The transcriber will pick up the audio you hear, along with anything you say.
Make sure:
1. You are using Reflect's macOS app
2. in your preferences
Then do a test!
Try playing a YouTube video with your headphones on or your computer speakers muted. It should still pick up audio levels and transcribe what's playing.
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Turn your notes into a personal CRM that collects all of the people you meet.
Here's how:
Step 1 – Capture new contacts in your notes.
Right after meeting someone new, log the encounter in your daily note. Backlink the contact's name.
Step 2 – Add additional info and Within their newly backlinked note, add any info about them you'd like to remember. This could include their email, where they work, their title, etc.
Step 3 – Backlink to that note each time you meet or mention that person.
When you encounter that person again (a meeting, a task involving them, etc.), backlink to their note just like you did in Step 1.
You'll then be able see what days and notes are related to that person.
Step 4 – View and search all of your contacts
By adding #person tags to your contacts, you'll be able to easily pull up a list of all the people you meet.
You can also use the tag through the advanced search. For example, apply the tag and search "Founder" to see everyone you know who has started a company!
Here's how:
Step 1 – Capture new contacts in your notes.
Right after meeting someone new, log the encounter in your daily note. Backlink the contact's name.
Step 2 – Add additional info and Within their newly backlinked note, add any info about them you'd like to remember. This could include their email, where they work, their title, etc.
Step 3 – Backlink to that note each time you meet or mention that person.
When you encounter that person again (a meeting, a task involving them, etc.), backlink to their note just like you did in Step 1.
You'll then be able see what days and notes are related to that person.
Step 4 – View and search all of your contacts
By adding #person tags to your contacts, you'll be able to easily pull up a list of all the people you meet.
You can also use the tag through the advanced search. For example, apply the tag and search "Founder" to see everyone you know who has started a company!
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We've long thought that the browser’s default new tab screen was fairly wasted real-estate, and that this is a shame given how often you see the screen.
Today we’re sharing with you our answer to that, Reflect New Tab, a free Chrome extension that replaces the default new-tab widget dashboard.
Think of this dashboard as something similar to your iPhone lock screen widgets that you can customize and move around as you see fit.
You can see an overview of your day, upcoming meetings, your team's different time zones, the weather, and of course your top links.
You can install it here from Google’s Chrome Store: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/reflect…
Once you’ve installed Reflect New Tab, open a ‘new tab’, and you’ll see a beautiful new personal dashboard.
Choose from widgets that let you:
• Compare international time zones
• View an aggregate view of calendar events for the day
• See how old you are in days, months or years
• View the local weather report
• Track progress through the calendar year
• See recently visited websites
• Bookmark favorite websites you regularly visit
Use the search box at the top to get smart suggestions based on your past searches, or search with Google and Perplexity.
The edit button on the right lets you rearrange and configure the widgets. When editable, they float similar to apps on your iPhone. Individual widgets have multiple layouts you can play around with, and the ⚙️ icon lets you edit the settings for each.
You can change the visual layout using the ⚙️ button on the right. This lets you choose a theme, font and background gradient.
This tool is entirely free and we don't collect any analytics, or see/store any of your data.
You might ask, well, what has this got to do with Reflect, a note-taking product? For us, we've built this not just for our own enjoyment, but as a marketing tool to spread the word about Reflect. We also made sure to outsource the development of it to the talented folks at @LueStudio, so that building it didn’t distract from our core focus.
We hope you enjoy Reflect New Tab! We’ve been using it for several weeks and love it 🫶
Today we’re sharing with you our answer to that, Reflect New Tab, a free Chrome extension that replaces the default new-tab widget dashboard.
Think of this dashboard as something similar to your iPhone lock screen widgets that you can customize and move around as you see fit.
You can see an overview of your day, upcoming meetings, your team's different time zones, the weather, and of course your top links.
You can install it here from Google’s Chrome Store: chromewebstore.google.com/detail/reflect…
Once you’ve installed Reflect New Tab, open a ‘new tab’, and you’ll see a beautiful new personal dashboard.
Choose from widgets that let you:
• Compare international time zones
• View an aggregate view of calendar events for the day
• See how old you are in days, months or years
• View the local weather report
• Track progress through the calendar year
• See recently visited websites
• Bookmark favorite websites you regularly visit
Use the search box at the top to get smart suggestions based on your past searches, or search with Google and Perplexity.
The edit button on the right lets you rearrange and configure the widgets. When editable, they float similar to apps on your iPhone. Individual widgets have multiple layouts you can play around with, and the ⚙️ icon lets you edit the settings for each.
You can change the visual layout using the ⚙️ button on the right. This lets you choose a theme, font and background gradient.
This tool is entirely free and we don't collect any analytics, or see/store any of your data.
You might ask, well, what has this got to do with Reflect, a note-taking product? For us, we've built this not just for our own enjoyment, but as a marketing tool to spread the word about Reflect. We also made sure to outsource the development of it to the talented folks at @LueStudio, so that building it didn’t distract from our core focus.
We hope you enjoy Reflect New Tab! We’ve been using it for several weeks and love it 🫶
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Earlier this year, we released a tasks manager on Reflect’s desktop and browser app. Today we’re happy to announce we are extending that to our iPhone app.
Our tasks manager is designed to be a simple aggregation of the tasks across your notes. You can create new tasks, s, and schedule tasks for the future.
Our goal isn't to build a fully fledged task manager (we recommend other great apps like Things for that), but we decided to add a basic aggregate view so tasks don’t get buried in your daily notes.
✅📲 Tasks on the iPhone app
You’ll notice a new ‘Tasks’ tab on the iPhone app (if you don't see it, update the app). Here you can view and manage all of your tasks.
Like on the desktop app, the tasks you put in your daily notes will appear as current, past or overdue.
If a task is prefixed under a bullet in your daily note, then we'll use that as a label in the aggregate view.
Tap on a Task to schedule it, delete it, or pull up the note it exists on. These options are also available when you add a Task using the “+” button.
The dropdown menu accessed by the 3 dots in the top right corner lets you filter and archive tasks.
Remember, you can add a Task to any note using the mobile editing menu by tapping the checklist icon until the Task circle appears. This also converts list items into tasks.
Like with your notes, tasks are end-to-end encrypted. While this does have a drawback of interoperability, the advantage is that you can be sure no one else can read them.
🛠️ Other updates
• Major mobile app performance update
• Sharing links to Reflect is now much faster
• Fix graph switching keyboard shortcut
• Fix bug where audio memos required an app refresh to appear
• Auto-scroll to search results
Keep an eye out for more updates. The team is hard at work improving transcriptions for meetings and attachment support.
Our tasks manager is designed to be a simple aggregation of the tasks across your notes. You can create new tasks, s, and schedule tasks for the future.
Our goal isn't to build a fully fledged task manager (we recommend other great apps like Things for that), but we decided to add a basic aggregate view so tasks don’t get buried in your daily notes.
✅📲 Tasks on the iPhone app
You’ll notice a new ‘Tasks’ tab on the iPhone app (if you don't see it, update the app). Here you can view and manage all of your tasks.
Like on the desktop app, the tasks you put in your daily notes will appear as current, past or overdue.
If a task is prefixed under a bullet in your daily note, then we'll use that as a label in the aggregate view.
Tap on a Task to schedule it, delete it, or pull up the note it exists on. These options are also available when you add a Task using the “+” button.
The dropdown menu accessed by the 3 dots in the top right corner lets you filter and archive tasks.
Remember, you can add a Task to any note using the mobile editing menu by tapping the checklist icon until the Task circle appears. This also converts list items into tasks.
Like with your notes, tasks are end-to-end encrypted. While this does have a drawback of interoperability, the advantage is that you can be sure no one else can read them.
🛠️ Other updates
• Major mobile app performance update
• Sharing links to Reflect is now much faster
• Fix graph switching keyboard shortcut
• Fix bug where audio memos required an app refresh to appear
• Auto-scroll to search results
Keep an eye out for more updates. The team is hard at work improving transcriptions for meetings and attachment support.
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Our notes are getting a lot better at surfacing information for us.
Here are a few examples in Reflect you might not know about:
1. Similar notes – if there are notes closely related to the one you're working in, we display them on the righthand sidebar.
2. Suggested idebar will also display backlinks you might have forgotten to add.
3. Merge notes – if you create a new note that has the same title as an existing one, you'll be prompted to merge them.
4. Semantic and Fuzzy Search – include related search terms and phrases when looking for information in your notes.
💡Bonus Tip: resurface a random note by typing 'Go to a random note' in the advanced search.
Here are a few examples in Reflect you might not know about:
1. Similar notes – if there are notes closely related to the one you're working in, we display them on the righthand sidebar.
2. Suggested idebar will also display backlinks you might have forgotten to add.
3. Merge notes – if you create a new note that has the same title as an existing one, you'll be prompted to merge them.
4. Semantic and Fuzzy Search – include related search terms and phrases when looking for information in your notes.
💡Bonus Tip: resurface a random note by typing 'Go to a random note' in the advanced search.
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We’ve added GPT-4o to Reflect!
You’ll notice our AI assistant, AI chat, and voice transcriber are all substantially faster. They also have a much higher context limit.
You’ll notice our AI assistant, AI chat, and voice transcriber are all substantially faster. They also have a much higher context limit.
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We’ve added support for non-U.S. keyboards in Reflect. This makes it much easier for international users to navigate the app using keyboard shortcuts.
By default, Reflect will automatically detect the keyboard language your system is set to. If you’re multilingual, it even works different languages.
The exception is when you are using Reflect in Safari, so we’ve also added the ability to manually select the language in your preferences.
💡Tip: click on the question mark next to your profile name in the lower left, then click “Keyboard shortcuts”. Here you’ll be able to see what the custom shortcuts are for your language.
By default, Reflect will automatically detect the keyboard language your system is set to. If you’re multilingual, it even works different languages.
The exception is when you are using Reflect in Safari, so we’ve also added the ability to manually select the language in your preferences.
💡Tip: click on the question mark next to your profile name in the lower left, then click “Keyboard shortcuts”. Here you’ll be able to see what the custom shortcuts are for your language.
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Our voice transcriber captures both your system audio and microphone input.
This allows you to transcribe YouTube videos or podcasts as you watch them, easily adding your own voice insights as you go.
This allows you to transcribe YouTube videos or podcasts as you watch them, easily adding your own voice insights as you go.
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Reflect is now live in the iOS App Store 🥳
The app is functionally the same as our TestFlight app,
but we recommend uninstalling the old app and downloading the new one from the App Store (link in comment).
We’ve also made a handful of other improvements since our update last and fixes:
- GPT-4 Turbo added to AI models in Reflect
- Re-enable macOS level audio recording (i.e. record Zoom meetings)
- Fix backlink picker highlighting for note aliases
- Improve case-sensitive alias matching
- Fix backlink matching for emojis
- Do not auto-create tags from pastes
- Localize non-US keyboard shortcuts
The app is functionally the same as our TestFlight app,
but we recommend uninstalling the old app and downloading the new one from the App Store (link in comment).
We’ve also made a handful of other improvements since our update last and fixes:
- GPT-4 Turbo added to AI models in Reflect
- Re-enable macOS level audio recording (i.e. record Zoom meetings)
- Fix backlink picker highlighting for note aliases
- Improve case-sensitive alias matching
- Fix backlink matching for emojis
- Do not auto-create tags from pastes
- Localize non-US keyboard shortcuts
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It's new release day!
We've got a handful of new features, performance improvements and bug fixes to share with you.
1. 🔗 Updated backlink picker
We’ve improved both the design and the order of the backlink picker. Whatever you type after [[ now appears as bold text in the l also notice the overall ordering of suggested backlinks is much better. This makes it a lot faster to find the note you are looking for.
💡 Tip: you can also use relative dates like [[Thursday]] or [[1 week from now]].
2. ↔️ Added forward and back buttons
We’ve added forward and back buttons on the desktop, web and iPad apps.
3. ☑️ Toggle tasks and checklists on mobile
On our mobile iOS app, tapping the checkbox button on the editor menu will toggle between checklists and tasks.
🛠️ Other new updates and bug fixes
- Added support for custom protocols (e.g., Things://)
- Enabled history navigation buttons on iPad
- Introduced task creation via API (use ‘+’)
- Enhanced performance for pages with many incoming backlinks
- Improved handling of remote images—images now re-upload automatically when dragged from a browser
- Implemented scrollbars in dark mode
- Enhanced meeting sorting across multiple calendars
- Adjusted positioning of the pop-up account menu when resizing the sidebar
- Fixed an aliasing issue causing duplicate entries
Right now we are working on a couple large projects for the mobile app, including adding tasks and a major performance update. We are also in the process of getting added to the app store 🤞
We’re also testing Claude (instead of GPT4) and working on the virtualization of incoming backlinks, which will play a big role in improving performance.
Keep an eye on our updates!
We've got a handful of new features, performance improvements and bug fixes to share with you.
1. 🔗 Updated backlink picker
We’ve improved both the design and the order of the backlink picker. Whatever you type after [[ now appears as bold text in the l also notice the overall ordering of suggested backlinks is much better. This makes it a lot faster to find the note you are looking for.
💡 Tip: you can also use relative dates like [[Thursday]] or [[1 week from now]].
2. ↔️ Added forward and back buttons
We’ve added forward and back buttons on the desktop, web and iPad apps.
3. ☑️ Toggle tasks and checklists on mobile
On our mobile iOS app, tapping the checkbox button on the editor menu will toggle between checklists and tasks.
🛠️ Other new updates and bug fixes
- Added support for custom protocols (e.g., Things://)
- Enabled history navigation buttons on iPad
- Introduced task creation via API (use ‘+’)
- Enhanced performance for pages with many incoming backlinks
- Improved handling of remote images—images now re-upload automatically when dragged from a browser
- Implemented scrollbars in dark mode
- Enhanced meeting sorting across multiple calendars
- Adjusted positioning of the pop-up account menu when resizing the sidebar
- Fixed an aliasing issue causing duplicate entries
Right now we are working on a couple large projects for the mobile app, including adding tasks and a major performance update. We are also in the process of getting added to the app store 🤞
We’re also testing Claude (instead of GPT4) and working on the virtualization of incoming backlinks, which will play a big role in improving performance.
Keep an eye on our updates!
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What's the Reflect team been working on?
🔍 Improving AI semantic search reliability
🚀 Testing Claude (instead of GPT4)
🔗 Improving backlink picker (see screenshot)
⚡ Virtualization of incoming backlinks (improves performance)
🍎 Submitting iOS app to App Store
We've also rojects in the works:
📱 Major improvement in iOS app performance
📝 Tasks on iOS (relies on performance work mentioned above)
🔍 Improving AI semantic search reliability
🚀 Testing Claude (instead of GPT4)
🔗 Improving backlink picker (see screenshot)
⚡ Virtualization of incoming backlinks (improves performance)
🍎 Submitting iOS app to App Store
We've also rojects in the works:
📱 Major improvement in iOS app performance
📝 Tasks on iOS (relies on performance work mentioned above)
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1
27
💡 Want to improve the way you think?
Discover free weekly note-taking workflows to:
- Instantly capture thoughts
- Process information effortlessly
- Use AI to take better notes
- Improve your habits and productivity
- A lot more!
👇 Join below
Discover free weekly note-taking workflows to:
- Instantly capture thoughts
- Process information effortlessly
- Use AI to take better notes
- Improve your habits and productivity
- A lot more!
👇 Join below
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Transcribe a Stream of Consciousness in your notes, and AI will organize it for you.
It will even give you some advice to improve your day! All while you make your morning coffee ☕️
It will even give you some advice to improve your day! All while you make your morning coffee ☕️
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Our brains are fantastic at generating ideas, but they are often fleeting.
Here's how to quickly save and organize ideas within your notes, so you never lose that brilliant thought.
Here's how to quickly save and organize ideas within your notes, so you never lose that brilliant thought.
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Each morning, we like to sit down and write the Morning Pages.
These notes are a stream of consciousness – a brain dump of fears, worries, thoughts, anxieties, and ideas.
It's the most therapeutic and productive way to start your morning.
These notes are a stream of consciousness – a brain dump of fears, worries, thoughts, anxieties, and ideas.
It's the most therapeutic and productive way to start your morning.
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We've been collecting some favorite custom AI prompts and templates for note-taking.
Here's how to apply them (link to spreadsheet in comments).
Here's how to apply them (link to spreadsheet in comments).
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Most of us keep a to-do list of some kind in our notes each day.
Here are some tips to get more out of your to-do lists ✅
Here are some tips to get more out of your to-do lists ✅
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Have you tried the Top of Mind note-taking pattern?
It's one of the easiest ways to take incredibly effective notes.
It's one of the easiest ways to take incredibly effective notes.
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Is your note-taking frictionless?
Your notes should flow from you to the page with the least amount of friction possible.
Writing is not the outcome of thinking, it's where the thinking takes place. Only once your thoughts are out of your head can you begin to make sense of ction disrupts this process.
This principle has many knock-on effects. Not only does whatever tool you're using to take notes need to be as fast as possible, but it must never force you to make decisions when entering notes.
For example, having to make decisions like "where in this hierarchy do I put this note?", or "is this tool secure enough that I can write down this extremely sensitive thing?" cripples frictionless note-taking.
Concepts like folders and files often force a structure on our notes that works against our ability to get our thoughts out.
Your notes should flow from you to the page with the least amount of friction possible.
Writing is not the outcome of thinking, it's where the thinking takes place. Only once your thoughts are out of your head can you begin to make sense of ction disrupts this process.
This principle has many knock-on effects. Not only does whatever tool you're using to take notes need to be as fast as possible, but it must never force you to make decisions when entering notes.
For example, having to make decisions like "where in this hierarchy do I put this note?", or "is this tool secure enough that I can write down this extremely sensitive thing?" cripples frictionless note-taking.
Concepts like folders and files often force a structure on our notes that works against our ability to get our thoughts out.
0
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Using @raycastapp with Reflect let's you do things (like append to your Daily Note), without having to toggle between applications.
Here's how to get started using Raycast with Reflect.
Here's how to get started using Raycast with Reflect.
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If you've taken notes in Notion, you can easily migrate them over to Reflect.
You can export your entire Notion workspace, or choose individual notes.
You can export your entire Notion workspace, or choose individual notes.
2
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If you don't have an iPhone 15, you can still setup a shortcut using the lock-screen widget.
youtube.com/watch?v=3Nvhl2…
youtube.com/watch?v=3Nvhl2…
0
0
3
You can now transcribe voice notes using the iPhone 15 action button.
Here's how to setup the shortcut:
Here's how to setup the shortcut:
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It's been a formative year for Reflect, our note-taking company. This letter will recap what we've shipped in 2023, how the business is going, and our plans for the coming year.
What we shipped in 2023
A key focus for the year was on performance and stability. While this wasn't did a survey at the start of the year, and it was clear to us that we had some major performance instability issues, especially on iOS. So we reprioritized the roadmap to focus on this. Speed and stability are paramount - they're non negotiable.
That said, between upgrades to our database and syncing service, we also managed to ship some major features. I'm especially proud of our AI search and editing integrations. Here's what we shipped month by month:
1. January - AI palette editor
2. February - Adding iOS audio memos
3. March - Custom AI prompts, Readwise integration, iPad Testflight
4. April - Desktop and mobile app redesign
5. May - New importers, drag-and-drop bullet points
6. June - ChatGPT plugin, redesigned Chrome extension
7. July - Mobile app speed improvements by 2-3x
8. August - iPhone widget, API and automatically add backlinks
9. September - AI added to mobile app
10. October - Bug squashing
11. November - Advanced search and AI chat with notes
12. December - We're Profitable!
You can find more information about what we've shipped in our public changelog and also in Discord.
Finances
At the back of anyone's mind when they try out a new startup's service is the question, "What happens if the startup disappears?" This is, unfortunately, an all too common occurrence. Startups often go bust, raise too much venture capital, flame out, or, even in successful cases, get acquired and shut down.
People especially worry about this with note-taking apps, given how deeply they're intertwined in daily lives. We hear these worries a lot, so I want to address them.
At Reflect, we've always tried to do things a little differently. For me personally, Reflect is a very special passion project. We're not building to get acquired. We're not building to take over the world. We just want to build a modest, profitable, useful, business.
In December we finally turned a profit. Going forward I want to keep running the business at a profit. This will give us the best chance of surviving for the long term.
Whenever you want a specific outcome, the best way of achieving it is aligning incentives. This is where startups often go wrong. They hand out big grants to employees. They raise venture capital. All of which incentivize the business to go big or go home.
We've been careful at Reflect to establish the right incentives to ensure the longevity of the business. About a year ago, we raised just over a million USD through crowdfunding. We made it clear to our investors that our goal was to issue dividends instead of pursuing additional funding rounds, markups, and a liquidation event.
I believe we should revive a culture that values small businesses, profits, and dividends. I want Reflect to exemplify this, focusing on product quality and longevity. Hopefully, we can set a strong example.
Team
We have quite a small team at Reflect, but the team packs a punch. We added Sam to lead up growth in 2023, but other than that, the team has remained the same. We have Vojtech and Ocavue on engineering, Sam on growth, support, and success, and I do everything else.
At times I find it mind-boggling that our little team supports almost 4,000 customers. But that is the beauty of building a product that is, for the most part, intuitive. And building for a user base which loves getting stuck-in and self educating. And a big thanks to our customers who share their knowledge with the community on Discord.
Our new YouTube channel, as pioneered by Sam, has been a big part of this. He has published over a hundred videos showing how to use Reflect with various different use cases.
Product
Building a note-taking app is deceptively difficult. The technologies involved are highly intricate. For example, rich text editing, end-to-end encryption, offline sync, and conflict resolution are all challenging domains in their own right. Not only that, but the performance and uptime requirements are stringent.
We don’t take this responsibility lightly. Reflect plays a critical part of our customers workflow - their notes have to always be available everywhere they are at all times.
I would say, we haven’t always got this right. In 2023 we’ve had some big performance issues, especially with our mobile app. We have made strides to improve this, and this will be a continual focus until it’s completely resolved.
The other hard part of building a note-taking app is how subjective it is. Everyone thinks slightly differently, so everyone wants slightly different features. If you try and build for everyone, then you'll just end up with a bloated, slow app. As I like to say, there's no code faster than no code.
When it comes to prioritization and product development, our values have been a critical part of staying on the right path. We prioritize security and speed above all else. After that, we focus on the 80% use-case. We're not interested in building advanced features or settings pages with hundreds of customizations. There are other tools for that.
In 2024, we will continue this approach, saying no to most features. The features we do build, we will strive to make as simple as possible. And we will prioritize security and performance first.
The Plan for 2024
We've just finished our survey for 2024 where we ask our customer base for their feedback. The top feature requests were:
1. Tasks – ability to organize and manage to-do’s in a centralized place
2. Mobile app features – add meetings, advanced search, etc.
3. Data management – better attachment support and ability to organize notes
It's also clear that we still have work to do on the performance side, especially on iOS. All the snazzy AI features in the world don't matter at all if you can't get the basics right. This will be the first priority.
I hesitate to promise this, considering I've promised it for over a year and we still haven't delivered, but we are close to revamping our tasks interface. This will provide an aggregate list view of all your pending to-dos. We do not intend to build an advanced tasks product. We simply aim to cover the basics that will work for 80% of our users. We are also bringing tasks to mobile.
In terms of assets such as PDFs, we want to improve our handling of them with client-side OCRing, offline upload support, and end-to-end encryption.
No doubt other things will slip into our roadmap, but I can assure you we will always view them through the lens of our values when evaluating what to prioritize. When a new feature gets added to Reflect, it’s undergone rigorous scrutiny.
In conclusion
I can speak for the team when I say we've had a tremendous amount of fun building for all of you. We are in a privileged position, getting to do what we love every day, building for an audience that appreciates it.
Please keep giving us feedback; it helps us better serve you 🫶
Thank you!
Alex
What we shipped in 2023
A key focus for the year was on performance and stability. While this wasn't did a survey at the start of the year, and it was clear to us that we had some major performance instability issues, especially on iOS. So we reprioritized the roadmap to focus on this. Speed and stability are paramount - they're non negotiable.
That said, between upgrades to our database and syncing service, we also managed to ship some major features. I'm especially proud of our AI search and editing integrations. Here's what we shipped month by month:
1. January - AI palette editor
2. February - Adding iOS audio memos
3. March - Custom AI prompts, Readwise integration, iPad Testflight
4. April - Desktop and mobile app redesign
5. May - New importers, drag-and-drop bullet points
6. June - ChatGPT plugin, redesigned Chrome extension
7. July - Mobile app speed improvements by 2-3x
8. August - iPhone widget, API and automatically add backlinks
9. September - AI added to mobile app
10. October - Bug squashing
11. November - Advanced search and AI chat with notes
12. December - We're Profitable!
You can find more information about what we've shipped in our public changelog and also in Discord.
Finances
At the back of anyone's mind when they try out a new startup's service is the question, "What happens if the startup disappears?" This is, unfortunately, an all too common occurrence. Startups often go bust, raise too much venture capital, flame out, or, even in successful cases, get acquired and shut down.
People especially worry about this with note-taking apps, given how deeply they're intertwined in daily lives. We hear these worries a lot, so I want to address them.
At Reflect, we've always tried to do things a little differently. For me personally, Reflect is a very special passion project. We're not building to get acquired. We're not building to take over the world. We just want to build a modest, profitable, useful, business.
In December we finally turned a profit. Going forward I want to keep running the business at a profit. This will give us the best chance of surviving for the long term.
Whenever you want a specific outcome, the best way of achieving it is aligning incentives. This is where startups often go wrong. They hand out big grants to employees. They raise venture capital. All of which incentivize the business to go big or go home.
We've been careful at Reflect to establish the right incentives to ensure the longevity of the business. About a year ago, we raised just over a million USD through crowdfunding. We made it clear to our investors that our goal was to issue dividends instead of pursuing additional funding rounds, markups, and a liquidation event.
I believe we should revive a culture that values small businesses, profits, and dividends. I want Reflect to exemplify this, focusing on product quality and longevity. Hopefully, we can set a strong example.
Team
We have quite a small team at Reflect, but the team packs a punch. We added Sam to lead up growth in 2023, but other than that, the team has remained the same. We have Vojtech and Ocavue on engineering, Sam on growth, support, and success, and I do everything else.
At times I find it mind-boggling that our little team supports almost 4,000 customers. But that is the beauty of building a product that is, for the most part, intuitive. And building for a user base which loves getting stuck-in and self educating. And a big thanks to our customers who share their knowledge with the community on Discord.
Our new YouTube channel, as pioneered by Sam, has been a big part of this. He has published over a hundred videos showing how to use Reflect with various different use cases.
Product
Building a note-taking app is deceptively difficult. The technologies involved are highly intricate. For example, rich text editing, end-to-end encryption, offline sync, and conflict resolution are all challenging domains in their own right. Not only that, but the performance and uptime requirements are stringent.
We don’t take this responsibility lightly. Reflect plays a critical part of our customers workflow - their notes have to always be available everywhere they are at all times.
I would say, we haven’t always got this right. In 2023 we’ve had some big performance issues, especially with our mobile app. We have made strides to improve this, and this will be a continual focus until it’s completely resolved.
The other hard part of building a note-taking app is how subjective it is. Everyone thinks slightly differently, so everyone wants slightly different features. If you try and build for everyone, then you'll just end up with a bloated, slow app. As I like to say, there's no code faster than no code.
When it comes to prioritization and product development, our values have been a critical part of staying on the right path. We prioritize security and speed above all else. After that, we focus on the 80% use-case. We're not interested in building advanced features or settings pages with hundreds of customizations. There are other tools for that.
In 2024, we will continue this approach, saying no to most features. The features we do build, we will strive to make as simple as possible. And we will prioritize security and performance first.
The Plan for 2024
We've just finished our survey for 2024 where we ask our customer base for their feedback. The top feature requests were:
1. Tasks – ability to organize and manage to-do’s in a centralized place
2. Mobile app features – add meetings, advanced search, etc.
3. Data management – better attachment support and ability to organize notes
It's also clear that we still have work to do on the performance side, especially on iOS. All the snazzy AI features in the world don't matter at all if you can't get the basics right. This will be the first priority.
I hesitate to promise this, considering I've promised it for over a year and we still haven't delivered, but we are close to revamping our tasks interface. This will provide an aggregate list view of all your pending to-dos. We do not intend to build an advanced tasks product. We simply aim to cover the basics that will work for 80% of our users. We are also bringing tasks to mobile.
In terms of assets such as PDFs, we want to improve our handling of them with client-side OCRing, offline upload support, and end-to-end encryption.
No doubt other things will slip into our roadmap, but I can assure you we will always view them through the lens of our values when evaluating what to prioritize. When a new feature gets added to Reflect, it’s undergone rigorous scrutiny.
In conclusion
I can speak for the team when I say we've had a tremendous amount of fun building for all of you. We are in a privileged position, getting to do what we love every day, building for an audience that appreciates it.
Please keep giving us feedback; it helps us better serve you 🫶
Thank you!
Alex
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3
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Looking to start a note-taking habit in 2024?
Here are some tips to make daily note-taking a breeze 😌
Here are some tips to make daily note-taking a breeze 😌
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26
From our annual review, 51% of customers said they would feel very disappointed if they could no longer use Reflect.
1
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This week we are spending some time reflecting on the last year and looking ahead to 2024.
Here's a system you can use in your notes to set and track your goals and resolutions in the New Year.
Here's a system you can use in your notes to set and track your goals and resolutions in the New Year.
3
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We're officially profitable! 🥳
Last year, we set a goal to become profitable by the end of 2023 – a milestone we have now successfully reached.
What does this mean for Reflect? It means we're here for the long haul!
Many startups rely on venture financing, pushing them into a el. We want to do things differently. Our aim is to grow sustainably and steady, building a useful product along the way.
We are semi-bootstrapped, and the investors we do have are looking for dividends rather than an exit. Again, this aligns incentives towards sustainable growth that will give Reflect true longevity. It ensures that both product quality and the company will continue to thrive. In other words, your notes are safe with us.
Our entire team wants to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey so far.
We have lots of fun developments coming in the next few months and into 2024! 🫶
Thanks,
Alex
Last year, we set a goal to become profitable by the end of 2023 – a milestone we have now successfully reached.
What does this mean for Reflect? It means we're here for the long haul!
Many startups rely on venture financing, pushing them into a el. We want to do things differently. Our aim is to grow sustainably and steady, building a useful product along the way.
We are semi-bootstrapped, and the investors we do have are looking for dividends rather than an exit. Again, this aligns incentives towards sustainable growth that will give Reflect true longevity. It ensures that both product quality and the company will continue to thrive. In other words, your notes are safe with us.
Our entire team wants to extend a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has supported us on this journey so far.
We have lots of fun developments coming in the next few months and into 2024! 🫶
Thanks,
Alex
18
9
491
Use your notes as a Content Management System (CMS).
Here is a simple system for tracking your writing ideas and drafts in Reflect.
Here is a simple system for tracking your writing ideas and drafts in Reflect.
1
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Each day we've been finding new possibilities with our AI chat feature.
Here is a deeper dive on a few of them, including how to chat with a research paper 🧠✨
Here is a deeper dive on a few of them, including how to chat with a research paper 🧠✨
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Lastly, we now suggest similar notes in the right hand sidebar.
This is extremely useful for forming associations between similar notes you might otherwise have missed.
Like semantic search, this is based on the semantic meaning of your notes.
This is extremely useful for forming associations between similar notes you might otherwise have missed.
Like semantic search, this is based on the semantic meaning of your notes.
1
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🗣 Chat with your notes using AI (Beta)
Our new AI chat feature lets you talk directly with your notes. You can even filter the information beforehand to have it laser focus on certain notes.
It feels like chatting directly with your brain.
Our new AI chat feature lets you talk directly with your notes. You can even filter the information beforehand to have it laser focus on certain notes.
It feels like chatting directly with your brain.
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🕵️♂️ Semantic Search
Not sure what exactly you’re looking for?
Our semantic search will help you find specific information within your notes, without needing to remember the exact words.
Not sure what exactly you’re looking for?
Our semantic search will help you find specific information within your notes, without needing to remember the exact words.
1
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🔎✨ Reflect now lets you search and talk to your notes using AI.
We’ve added advanced filtering, semantic search, and an AI chat that calls on your notes for information.
We’ve added advanced filtering, semantic search, and an AI chat that calls on your notes for information.
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Curious when to use a backlink vs. a tag?
Here's a few tips if you're new to using these methods of organizing notes.
Here's a few tips if you're new to using these methods of organizing notes.
0
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17
Thanks Kris! This is probably the most helpful instructional workflow we have for that, although the tagging video might also be interesting.
youtube.com/watch?v=vOgEYo…
youtube.com/watch?v=vOgEYo…
0
0
0
How do you take notes?
Sharing personal notes is an intimate act – you're showing someone a piece of your brain after all!
Here's what @samclaassen's notes typically look like each day.
Sharing personal notes is an intimate act – you're showing someone a piece of your brain after all!
Here's what @samclaassen's notes typically look like each day.
2
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It’s release Tuesday! Today we’re announcing:
✨AI access in our mobile app
📅 iCal integration
📡 Offline status indicator
Reflect’s AI palette is now available on iOS!
This gives you full access to GPT-4 right from your pocket ✨📲
To access the AI palette on the mobile any note within the app
2. Tap on the ✨ icon
3. Select the prompt you’d like to run
Like on the desktop and browser apps, you can also clone and save your own custom prompts.
📅 In this update we’ve also added the ability add events from iCal into Reflect!
📡 Lastly, we now show you when a note has been changed whilst offline, and the changes pending to sync.
✨AI access in our mobile app
📅 iCal integration
📡 Offline status indicator
Reflect’s AI palette is now available on iOS!
This gives you full access to GPT-4 right from your pocket ✨📲
To access the AI palette on the mobile any note within the app
2. Tap on the ✨ icon
3. Select the prompt you’d like to run
Like on the desktop and browser apps, you can also clone and save your own custom prompts.
📅 In this update we’ve also added the ability add events from iCal into Reflect!
📡 Lastly, we now show you when a note has been changed whilst offline, and the changes pending to sync.
4
11
228
We give the option to merge pages currently. By 'automatically de-duplicate', do you mean to do this without clicking in?
1
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✨ AI can now automatically add backlinks to your notes.
This is a huge leap in the world of networked note-taking 🔗
This is a huge leap in the world of networked note-taking 🔗
11
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Reflect’s API is now live 💻
Here’s how to access it and some things you can use it to accomplish:
Here’s how to access it and some things you can use it to accomplish:
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To install the widget:
1. Make sure you have the latest version of Reflect on Testflight
2. Press and hold down on your lock screen
3. Tap "customize" and select your lock screen
4. Tap “add widgets” and select Reflect
youtube.com/watch?v=3Nvhl2…
1. Make sure you have the latest version of Reflect on Testflight
2. Press and hold down on your lock screen
3. Tap "customize" and select your lock screen
4. Tap “add widgets” and select Reflect
youtube.com/watch?v=3Nvhl2…
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You can now transcribe voice notes directly from your lock screen using Reflect’s new iOS widget.
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Do you journal daily?
It might be the most impactful (and enjoyable) habit you build.
youtube.com/watch?v=R0HUpt…
It might be the most impactful (and enjoyable) habit you build.
youtube.com/watch?v=R0HUpt…
0
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6