Voxbrief App Icon Voxbrief

Help & Support

Documentation, FAQ & Troubleshooting for Voxbrief

Welcome to Voxbrief support. Voxbrief is designed to be completely autonomous, private, and effortless to use. Below you'll find answers to common questions, setup guides, and troubleshooting tips.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Voxbrief require an internet connection?

No. Voxbrief runs 100% on-device. Audio recording, speech-to-text transcription (via WhisperKit), and LLM copywriting (via Apple Foundation Model or MLX Swift Qwen3) execute entirely locally on your iPhone, Apple Watch, and Mac hardware. You can capture and process voice notes completely offline, on flights, or in remote areas without any cellular or Wi-Fi connectivity.

Can I record on Apple Watch without my iPhone nearby?

Yes. The Apple Watch app is fully standalone. When you record a memo while away from your iPhone, the high-efficiency AAC audio file is saved securely in your Apple Watch's local storage. As soon as your Apple Watch and iPhone reconnect over Bluetooth or local Wi-Fi, the audio transfer initiates automatically in the background via Apple's WatchConnectivity framework.

Which devices and OS versions are supported?

  • iPhone: iOS 17.0 or later (Apple Foundation Model requires iOS 26+ with Apple Intelligence).
  • Apple Watch: watchOS 10.0 or later (Series 4 or newer, SE, Ultra).
  • Mac: macOS 14.0 Sonoma or later with Apple Silicon (Apple Foundation Model requires macOS 26+ with Apple Intelligence).

What on-device AI models does Voxbrief use?

  • Speech-to-Text (ASR): OpenAI's Whisper model running on Apple CoreML via WhisperKit on the Apple Neural Engine.
  • Stage-2 Copywriting (System Default): Apple Foundation Model (via Apple's native FoundationModels framework) is used by default on supported devices with zero extra downloads and zero setup.
  • Stage-2 Copywriting (Opt-in Open-Weight): Qwen3 models (Qwen3-4B and Qwen3-0.6B) running via MLX Swift on Apple Silicon GPU can be downloaded on-demand in Settings for users desiring open-weight models or operating on devices without Apple Intelligence.
  • Local Network LLM (Optional): If you run Ollama or a local LLM server on your home network, you can optionally configure Voxbrief to route note structuring to your private LAN endpoint.

Where are my voice notes and audio stored?

All data is saved strictly inside the app's sandboxed local filesystem on your personal device. Note JSON metadata is in Application Support, and audio recordings are in Documents. Nothing is uploaded to our servers because we operate no servers.

Quick Start Guide

1. Adding Watch Complications

You can launch one-tap recording directly from your watch face:

  1. Touch and hold your watch face, then tap Edit.
  2. Swipe left to the complications customization screen.
  3. Tap any complication slot (Circular, Corner, Rectangular, or Inline) and select Voxbrief.
  4. Press the Digital Crown to save. Tapping the complication will immediately open the recorder.

2. Managing Notes on iPhone

  • Structured Markdown: View clean requirement bullets, condition lists, checklists, and tags extracted from your thoughts.
  • Audio Playback: Play back the original recorded voice memo with synchronized audio scrubber.
  • Raw Transcript: Inspect the verbatim speech-to-text transcript at any time.
  • Copy & Export: Tap the copy icon to copy formatted Markdown to your clipboard or share with Notes, Slack, GitHub, or Jira.

Troubleshooting

Watch audio is not syncing to iPhone

  1. Ensure Bluetooth is enabled on both your iPhone and Apple Watch.
  2. Ensure both devices are unlocked at least once.
  3. Open the Voxbrief app on your iPhone. iOS will prioritize queued WCSession background transfers.
  4. In the iPhone app, you can pull to refresh or navigate to Settings → Sync Status to check connection status.

Microphone permission denied

If audio recording fails with a permission alert:

  1. Open the iOS Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and select Voxbrief.
  3. Ensure the Microphone toggle is enabled.

Contact & Bug Reports

Have a question, feedback, or encountered a bug? We welcome your issues and feature suggestions on our open GitHub repository:

GitHub Issues: https://github.com/tianhaoz95/hejitech-apps/issues

Source Repository: https://github.com/tianhaoz95/hejitech-apps/tree/main/projects/voxbrief