User Voices
Feedback from Early Testers
Simple Memo is still actively improving with daily feedback from early users and beta testers. The voices we've received in private channels are anonymized and summarized below by theme, along with our responses and related resources.
Public App Store Review
Below is a customer review published on the App Store. Unlike the anonymized beta summaries later on this page, this quotes what was actually posted, translated from the original Japanese, with a link to the source (App Store). The current Japan App Store overall rating is ★4.1 from 27 ratings.
Input is incredibly smooth
"The flow really matters when you use a notes app — your thinking gets tangled, or the next idea surfaces while you're still writing the last one. This app is genuinely smooth: a fresh blank screen appears the instant you tap Send, so I especially want people who've only ever used the iPhone's default apps to try it. It's rare to be able to keep thinking and outputting this actively without breaking your train of thought. And if you ever want to look back, you can search your history, which makes thinking flow even better. Being able to use it without any hesitation is really great." (Translated from the original Japanese.)
About this page
Feedback shown here was received during the beta and early-release period through messages and direct conversations. Voices are summarized and abstracted so that no individual can be identified — no names, handles, or contact details are included. When multiple testers raised similar points, we describe the underlying theme rather than any single source. Answers and plans are as of when we received the feedback (the beta and early-release period); where something has changed since, we note it in the card. What we plan now is on the public roadmap.
Theme 1: First Impression
📥 "Onboarding felt low-friction"
Multiple testers reported that the email-and-verify flow felt fast and low-friction, with verification emails arriving immediately. Minimizing onboarding friction is a top design priority, so this validates the intended behavior.
⚡ "Tap response feels fast"
Testers consistently described the tap-and-send experience as "fast" and "stress-free." Our published 0.4s launch (warm, iPhone 16e) / one-tap send numbers are not marketing targets — they're implementation constraints that the UIKit-based architecture is built to meet, and the feedback confirms this is felt in practice.
🔑 "One-tap recognition is the win"
Several testers highlighted how quickly the app gets you to a "ready-to-type" state. Removing as many micro-steps as possible from "open → type" is a deliberate design constraint, and it shows up as the lowest-friction part of the experience.
📥 "Stops notes from becoming write-only" / "Doubles as an email draft"
"It stops my notes from becoming write-only," "I use it as an email-draft pad too," and "even if I clear the email, the app still has it" — feedback we received from testers. A capture app is wasted if the captured thought has no path back to you. Simple Memo deliberately gives you two ways back: your own email inbox and the in-app history (the history keeps the 100 most recent memos).
🚀 "No detours on the way to writing my first memo"
"I didn't get lost during sign-up — I could start using it right away," and "overall it was easy to use." The path from "open the app" to "send your first memo" is one of the UX decisions we guard most carefully. Every additional setting screen creates hesitation, so the initial flow at the time was deliberately reduced to three screens (email → verification code → memo) — folder setup, preference toggles, and other one-time choices were intentionally moved out of the critical path so testers could come back to them later. Hearing "I just started using it" was the signal that the trade-off was working. (Today the app opens straight to the memo screen and asks for your email address the first time you send a memo.)
⏱ "Under 1 minute from download to first memo — autofill on the verification code was a delight"
"Download → email → verification code → paste in → ready, all under one minute, no errors," and "the verification-code autofill was a wow moment." For the OTP input we set iOS's AutoFill hint (`textContentType: .oneTimeCode`), so when iOS suggests a code that arrived by email, you can tap it in the keyboard suggestion bar — no manual copy/paste (whether iOS suggests it depends on iOS and your mail app). Tiny detail, but the gap between "I had to copy-paste" and "I didn't even need to copy" is huge on first run. We never quite know if details like this land until testers spell them out.
🖥️ "Works great as an iPhone-to-other-devices text bridge"
A discovered use case: "It's an easy way to get text from iPhone to a Windows PC — there are real situations where this beats the alternatives." The flow is: write on iPhone → send to your own email → open the message on the PC's mail client → copy the text. Effectively a cross-platform clipboard.
Context: Apple's Universal Clipboard only works between devices on the same Apple ID, so the iPhone-to-Windows / -Linux / -ChromeOS gap is a real one. By keeping the app's job to "write a memo to your own email," we inherit email's cross-platform reach for free — any device that receives your email becomes a paste target. We hadn't been explicit about this use case in our copy; thanks to testers discovering it independently, we're adding it to the use-case gallery.
Context: Apple's Universal Clipboard only works between devices on the same Apple ID, so the iPhone-to-Windows / -Linux / -ChromeOS gap is a real one. By keeping the app's job to "write a memo to your own email," we inherit email's cross-platform reach for free — any device that receives your email becomes a paste target. We hadn't been explicit about this use case in our copy; thanks to testers discovering it independently, we're adding it to the use-case gallery.
🌙 "Catch the day's stray thoughts at night — the email-as-inbox win"
A discovered workflow: "Because I always check my inbox, by the time I'm winding down at night I get to revisit whatever crossed my mind during the day — that alone makes this useful." Memo apps often go unopened for days; email gets checked daily. Riding on that existing daily path is the value, not the app itself.
How it connects to the design: One reason we pin the output to "your own email" is exactly this — overlap with a path you're already walking. You don't have to remember to open the app; the thought already arrives where you'll see it. Adding this scenario to the use-case gallery too.
How it connects to the design: One reason we pin the output to "your own email" is exactly this — overlap with a path you're already walking. You don't have to remember to open the app; the thought already arrives where you'll see it. Adding this scenario to the use-case gallery too.
🔗 "The 'return to the app and enter the code' button made a good impression"
What we heard: "Nothing confusing during sign-up — I registered with my Google account," and "the button in the verification email that takes you back into the app and enters the code is a really nice touch."
Context: The easiest place to stumble on first run is the round-trip of "read the code from the email, switch back to the app, type it in." We bridge that with a button in the verification email that returns you to the app and carries the code across, minimizing app-switching and copy/paste (paired with iOS one-time-code autofill). "I didn't get lost" tells us that collapsing this round-trip is doing its job.
Context: The easiest place to stumble on first run is the round-trip of "read the code from the email, switch back to the app, type it in." We bridge that with a button in the verification email that returns you to the app and carries the code across, minimizing app-switching and copy/paste (paired with iOS one-time-code autofill). "I didn't get lost" tells us that collapsing this round-trip is doing its job.
Theme 2: Observations & How We Responded
🔇 "Send sound doesn't always play"
What testers reported: The send sound didn't always play.
What to check: Check Silent Mode on the device and the send sound setting in the app.
Confirming delivery: Sound alone does not confirm email arrival. Check for pending sends and look in the recipient inbox. For the sound setting, see FAQ "Can I turn off the send sound?"
What to check: Check Silent Mode on the device and the send sound setting in the app.
Confirming delivery: Sound alone does not confirm email arrival. Check for pending sends and look in the recipient inbox. For the sound setting, see FAQ "Can I turn off the send sound?"
📜 "Terms page initially blank"
What testers reported: The Terms page rendered as a blank screen on first load; a browser reload brought it back.
Status at the time: Possibly an intermittent in-app WebView issue on first cold load — we were investigating it. A reload reliably recovers the page. If you spot it, please contact us.
Status at the time: Possibly an intermittent in-app WebView issue on first cold load — we were investigating it. A reload reliably recovers the page. If you spot it, please contact us.
🔍 "'Search anytime to come back' was ambiguous"
What testers reported: The welcome memo says "you can always come back via search," but the wording was ambiguous: testers wondered whether "search" meant the app or the email client, and ended up looking for a search bar inside the app. They also noticed there's no link from the delivered email back to the app, which compounded the confusion.
Design at the time: "Search" there referred to your email client (Gmail / Apple Mail / etc.). Simple Memo deliberately scopes itself to "capture," and outsources "organize / search" to the email client you already use every day.
What we planned: The wording was genuinely misleading, and we planned to make the welcome copy explicit — something like "search in your email client." The in-app history list also lets you revisit past memos, but onboarding didn't surface it well; we planned to improve both. (Since then, the app no longer sends a welcome memo automatically when you finish setup — your first memo is one you write and send yourself. Today you can find sent memos with your mail app's search, and pull down the list in the History screen to reveal a search field for the recent memos kept there.) See the FAQ and email management tips for the current workflow.
Design at the time: "Search" there referred to your email client (Gmail / Apple Mail / etc.). Simple Memo deliberately scopes itself to "capture," and outsources "organize / search" to the email client you already use every day.
What we planned: The wording was genuinely misleading, and we planned to make the welcome copy explicit — something like "search in your email client." The in-app history list also lets you revisit past memos, but onboarding didn't surface it well; we planned to improve both. (Since then, the app no longer sends a welcome memo automatically when you finish setup — your first memo is one you write and send yourself. Today you can find sent memos with your mail app's search, and pull down the list in the History screen to reveal a search field for the recent memos kept there.) See the FAQ and email management tips for the current workflow.
⌨️ "Email field can be hidden by the keyboard on sign-up"
What testers reported: On the sign-up screen, tapping the email field sometimes leaves it hidden behind the keyboard. Retrying can show it correctly — the focus position felt unstable.
Cause: Incomplete keyboard-avoidance behavior — the ScrollView insets and SafeArea /
What we planned at the time: A fix in the next minor UI-fix release, explicitly scrolling the focused field above the keyboard. (A later update fixed it, including when the keyboard height changes after it appears.) Thanks for the report.
Cause: Incomplete keyboard-avoidance behavior — the ScrollView insets and SafeArea /
keyboardLayoutGuide constraints weren't aligned on focus, so the active field could land below the keyboard.What we planned at the time: A fix in the next minor UI-fix release, explicitly scrolling the focused field above the keyboard. (A later update fixed it, including when the keyboard height changes after it appears.) Thanks for the report.
Theme 3: Requests & Future Direction
📨 "How to organize hundreds of memos"
The question: "If I send 10 memos/day, that's 300/month. Doesn't there need to be an organization tool?" A fair point — capture is fast, but downstream organization is a separate problem.
Our answer at the time: We deliberately keep "organization" outside the app, designing it to compose with what your mail client already does well — Gmail filters, labels, search operators, and AI features (Gemini / Apple Intelligence). See our blog post on email management tips and the use-case gallery for concrete workflows.
Our answer at the time: We deliberately keep "organization" outside the app, designing it to compose with what your mail client already does well — Gmail filters, labels, search operators, and AI features (Gemini / Apple Intelligence). See our blog post on email management tips and the use-case gallery for concrete workflows.
🔗 "Send to Obsidian or other targets"
The request: "What about sending to Obsidian — maybe let users pick the destination?"
Stance at the time: We deliberately kept "send to your own email" as the only path. Adding a destination picker re-introduces the "decide where this goes" friction that Captio originally cut out. Routing memos from email into Obsidian or Notion is fully workable as a downstream workflow — see the email management post or our Obsidian comparison. Since then, Simple Memo can also append memos to a note in your Obsidian vault; the email destination is still a single address.
Stance at the time: We deliberately kept "send to your own email" as the only path. Adding a destination picker re-introduces the "decide where this goes" friction that Captio originally cut out. Routing memos from email into Obsidian or Notion is fully workable as a downstream workflow — see the email management post or our Obsidian comparison. Since then, Simple Memo can also append memos to a note in your Obsidian vault; the email destination is still a single address.
📋 "Partial copy from history"
The request: History-list "copy whole memo" works, but a "copy partial" option would be useful when piping into an AI chat.
Status at the time: Like the original Captio, it was whole-memo copy only. We hadn't fully considered the AI-chat handoff use case, and said we would consider it for the roadmap. (Today, long-pressing a sent memo in History opens the share sheet, where you can copy the whole memo or pass it to another app.) If you have a specific use case or desired UX, please share via contact.
Status at the time: Like the original Captio, it was whole-memo copy only. We hadn't fully considered the AI-chat handoff use case, and said we would consider it for the roadmap. (Today, long-pressing a sent memo in History opens the share sheet, where you can copy the whole memo or pass it to another app.) If you have a specific use case or desired UX, please share via contact.
💾 "A Save button — keep it in the app without emailing"
The request: "I'd love a way to keep a memo inside the app without sending it as email." A draft pad for memos whose destination or timing hasn't been decided yet.
Our thinking at the time: Agreed — a Save action would expand the use case without breaking the Captio-style core (one-tap send stays the default). (Since then, Premium's option to save only to Obsidian keeps a memo in your vault without sending email.) At the time we said we would consider "Don't send, just keep" as a UI addition. If you have a specific shape in mind (where the save icon lives, how a saved memo gets sent later, etc.), please share via contact.
Our thinking at the time: Agreed — a Save action would expand the use case without breaking the Captio-style core (one-tap send stays the default). (Since then, Premium's option to save only to Obsidian keeps a memo in your vault without sending email.) At the time we said we would consider "Don't send, just keep" as a UI addition. If you have a specific shape in mind (where the save icon lives, how a saved memo gets sent later, etc.), please share via contact.
✏️ "Bold the first line so subject/body split is obvious"
The request: "I figured out that the email subject/body split happens at the first newline, but bolding the first line in the memo editor would make it obvious as you type."
Behavior at the time: Line 1 becomes the email Subject; lines 2+ become the Body. It's documented in the FAQ and usage guide, but there was no inline UI hint while typing.
What we said then: Bumping the first line's font-weight, or adding subtle "Subject / Body" affordances inline, looked like a low-cost improvement, and we said we would consider it for the roadmap. The point that the boundary should be visible while typing is exactly right.
Behavior at the time: Line 1 becomes the email Subject; lines 2+ become the Body. It's documented in the FAQ and usage guide, but there was no inline UI hint while typing.
What we said then: Bumping the first line's font-weight, or adding subtle "Subject / Body" affordances inline, looked like a low-cost improvement, and we said we would consider it for the roadmap. The point that the boundary should be visible while typing is exactly right.
💬 "What if the destination were a Slack channel's post-by-email address?"
A user-suggested workflow: "What if the destination were a Slack channel's post-by-email address? Memos would auto-collect inside Slack."
The answer: It fits the current single-destination design, but we have not tested it. On Slack's paid plans you can set up a dedicated email address for a channel, and emails sent to it are posted there. With Simple Memo's destination set to that address, memos would be posted to that channel. The destination is verified with a code, so the verification email would arrive in that channel first. Because we have not checked this, including the verification step, we don't present it as a confirmed setup. It applies the same idea as the Send-to-Obsidian card above: keep the app a single-destination pipe and leave organizing to the mail client or other tools.
Caveats: This Slack feature is on paid plans, and workspace owners and admins can restrict who may create these addresses. For setup, see Slack's help article.
The answer: It fits the current single-destination design, but we have not tested it. On Slack's paid plans you can set up a dedicated email address for a channel, and emails sent to it are posted there. With Simple Memo's destination set to that address, memos would be posted to that channel. The destination is verified with a code, so the verification email would arrive in that channel first. Because we have not checked this, including the verification step, we don't present it as a confirmed setup. It applies the same idea as the Send-to-Obsidian card above: keep the app a single-destination pipe and leave organizing to the mail client or other tools.
Caveats: This Slack feature is on paid plans, and workspace owners and admins can restrict who may create these addresses. For setup, see Slack's help article.
🤖 "An entry point to AI chat"
The request: "I've gotten into the habit of piping every memo into an AI chat, so I'd love a clearer entry point — whether it'll be a paid feature or land later, I couldn't tell from the current UI."
Our answer at the time: Simple Memo didn't include built-in AI features then (since July 2026, if you set up the Obsidian integration and turn on AI Auto-Tagging, on-device AI adds a title and tags). The intended pattern is "email → forward/paste into your AI client" or "tap-copy from history → paste into ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini." See "AI vs. memo apps" and "ChatGPT memo workflow" for the current playbook.
What we said then: This connects directly to the "partial copy from history" card above; we said we would consider a clear AI hand-off (one-tap from history, system share sheet, etc.) for the roadmap, with the paid vs. free split undecided. (Today, long-pressing a sent memo in History opens the share sheet, from which you can pass it to another app.) If you have a specific use case (which AI, what data, what action), please share via contact.
Our answer at the time: Simple Memo didn't include built-in AI features then (since July 2026, if you set up the Obsidian integration and turn on AI Auto-Tagging, on-device AI adds a title and tags). The intended pattern is "email → forward/paste into your AI client" or "tap-copy from history → paste into ChatGPT / Claude / Gemini." See "AI vs. memo apps" and "ChatGPT memo workflow" for the current playbook.
What we said then: This connects directly to the "partial copy from history" card above; we said we would consider a clear AI hand-off (one-tap from history, system share sheet, etc.) for the roadmap, with the paid vs. free split undecided. (Today, long-pressing a sent memo in History opens the share sheet, from which you can pass it to another app.) If you have a specific use case (which AI, what data, what action), please share via contact.
🔎 "Add in-app search across history"
The request: "Sent emails staying as history is valuable — being able to look back on them later. Adding search would deepen the satisfaction as the archive grows."
Our thinking at the time: Initially we outsourced "organize / search" to your mail client (Gmail's operators are powerful). But "I want to glance over my own captures, right here in the app" is a different need — and a real one. The Theme 2 card about welcome-copy ambiguity was about wording; this is specifically about adding an in-app search UI.
What we said then: We would consider incremental search over the history list (title + body). (Since then, History has a search field: pull down the list to reveal it and search the recent memos kept there by keyword.) If you have specific wishes (scope, date filters, etc.), please share via contact.
Our thinking at the time: Initially we outsourced "organize / search" to your mail client (Gmail's operators are powerful). But "I want to glance over my own captures, right here in the app" is a different need — and a real one. The Theme 2 card about welcome-copy ambiguity was about wording; this is specifically about adding an in-app search UI.
What we said then: We would consider incremental search over the history list (title + body). (Since then, History has a search field: pull down the list to reveal it and search the recent memos kept there by keyword.) If you have specific wishes (scope, date filters, etc.), please share via contact.
🧭 "Reconsider the send / settings button placement"
The request: Several testers suggested rethinking button placement — "the send button feels more reachable just above the keyboard (we're used to that from LINE and ChatGPT-style apps) rather than top-right," "if send moves down, put settings top-right and keep history alone in the top-left so each entry point is obvious," and "the settings icon location takes a beat to find."
Our thinking at the time: The classic Captio model put send in the top-right, which we inherited. But modern chat UIs (Messenger, ChatGPT, Claude) place send directly above the keyboard, and that's the muscle memory of newer users. The right answer likely varies by user. The "settings icon is hard to find" point, though, is a separate visibility issue we can improve regardless.
What we said then: We would consider (1) a settings toggle for send-button placement (top-right vs. above-keyboard), and (2) clarifying the visual roles of top-left = history / top-right = settings, while keeping the spare look. Share specific preferences via contact.
Our thinking at the time: The classic Captio model put send in the top-right, which we inherited. But modern chat UIs (Messenger, ChatGPT, Claude) place send directly above the keyboard, and that's the muscle memory of newer users. The right answer likely varies by user. The "settings icon is hard to find" point, though, is a separate visibility issue we can improve regardless.
What we said then: We would consider (1) a settings toggle for send-button placement (top-right vs. above-keyboard), and (2) clarifying the visual roles of top-left = history / top-right = settings, while keeping the spare look. Share specific preferences via contact.
📓 "I'd use it for journaling — let me edit from history, and add templates"
What we heard: "It feels well-suited to journaling," "I find myself wanting to edit from the history," and "templates would be nice." Used as a daily log, being able to re-edit a past memo or start from a reusable format would cut the friction of getting started.
Design at the time: The app scopes itself to "write and send (capture)"; once sent, the memo is committed on the email side, so in-app re-editing wasn't supported, and templates weren't implemented.
What we said then: Journaling / daily logs are a great fit, so we said we would consider two items for the roadmap: (1) duplicate / re-edit from history, and (2) templates for common openings (date headers, standard section titles), without sacrificing the spare feel. If you have specific template examples in mind, share them via contact. Related: use cases.
Design at the time: The app scopes itself to "write and send (capture)"; once sent, the memo is committed on the email side, so in-app re-editing wasn't supported, and templates weren't implemented.
What we said then: Journaling / daily logs are a great fit, so we said we would consider two items for the roadmap: (1) duplicate / re-edit from history, and (2) templates for common openings (date headers, standard section titles), without sacrificing the spare feel. If you have specific template examples in mind, share them via contact. Related: use cases.
💴 "Free is 3/day — is it really worth paying for?" — candid feedback
The point raised: "With a 3-sends-per-day free cap, would anyone really pay? If not, another memo app would do" — feedback that goes straight to the core of our value proposition, and we're grateful for it.
Our take: The value isn't "feature-for-feature vs. other note apps" — it's that the memo is output as an email to yourself. The people who get the most from it tend to:
・Send to Gmail for easy later search (powerful operators surface old memos instantly)
・Automate Gmail stars / filters for to-do management (the inbox itself becomes task management)
・Keep memos in the cloud even if the device breaks — automatic backup (Apple Notes does this via iCloud too, but email persists independent of any single app)
— benefits rooted in the email backbone that a standalone note app can't easily replicate. Conversely, for people who don't use these integrations, the free tier is often plenty — and we'll say so honestly.
What we said then: That this "why email / why pay" story didn't land on first glance was on us, and we said we would articulate the concrete benefits better on the home page and in use cases and email management tips. Thank you sincerely for the candid feedback.
Our take: The value isn't "feature-for-feature vs. other note apps" — it's that the memo is output as an email to yourself. The people who get the most from it tend to:
・Send to Gmail for easy later search (powerful operators surface old memos instantly)
・Automate Gmail stars / filters for to-do management (the inbox itself becomes task management)
・Keep memos in the cloud even if the device breaks — automatic backup (Apple Notes does this via iCloud too, but email persists independent of any single app)
— benefits rooted in the email backbone that a standalone note app can't easily replicate. Conversely, for people who don't use these integrations, the free tier is often plenty — and we'll say so honestly.
What we said then: That this "why email / why pay" story didn't land on first glance was on us, and we said we would articulate the concrete benefits better on the home page and in use cases and email management tips. Thank you sincerely for the candid feedback.
How we handle feedback
Feedback received during beta and early-release periods is used in summarized, non-identifying form (as on this page) to inform improvements, FAQ entries, and guides. We don't reproduce direct quotes or anything that could identify the source. If you ever want a piece of feedback removed, just contact us and we'll edit or remove it promptly.
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First impressions, friction points, feature requests — any granularity is welcome.
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