Where this stands
KeptNote for iPhone and Apple Watch is coming to the App Store. It is not there yet. This article describes how it works on the watch.
Complications
A complication is a small piece of KeptNote on a watch face. Touch and hold your watch face, press Edit, and choose KeptNote for a complication slot. It comes in four shapes: circular, corner, inline and rectangular.
- Idle, it shows the KeptNote shell. The rectangular one says Record a meeting. When meeting reminders are on, it adds Next meeting 2:00 PM. It shows a time, never a title.
- While a recording runs, it shows the time, and the clock counts on its own. The circular one draws a ring that fills once a minute. The inline one reads Recording 12:04.
- While a recording is paused, it shows a pause glyph and the time it stopped at, for example Paused 12:04.
Tap a complication to open KeptNote. It opens on the recording screen while you record, and on Ready otherwise. It matches the water you chose under Reef. See The Reef setting and Always On.
The Smart Stack
KeptNote has a card for the Smart Stack. It rises when it is useful: from five minutes before a meeting on your calendar, until ten minutes after the meeting starts, and while the watch records. The meeting part works only when meeting reminders are on in KeptNote on the iPhone.
While your iPhone records, the Live Activity appears in the Smart Stack instead, with Mark and Pause or Resume. There is only ever one KeptNote card.
The KeptNote control and the Action button
The watch has one control named KeptNote. Its description reads Starts a recording, or marks the moment while one runs. Idle, it says Record. While you record, it says Mark. You can put it in Control Center or the Smart Stack.
On Apple Watch Ultra, choose this control as the Action button’s action. One press starts recording at once, and shows Discard for ten seconds. A press while you record marks the moment. A long press is the system’s, not KeptNote’s.
The iPhone’s Stop control also shows on the watch, because it works in the background.
Siri
Each phrase names the app. Say any of these to Siri on the watch.
- Start recording in KeptNote or Record a meeting in KeptNote. Siri says Opening KeptNote. Tap Record to start. It does not start by itself, so nobody records by accident.
- Mark this moment in KeptNote or Mark that in KeptNote. It marks without opening anything. Siri says Marked at 14 minutes.
- Stop recording in KeptNote or Stop KeptNote. Siri asks Stop and write the note? before it stops.
- How long have I been recording in KeptNote or How long is my KeptNote recording. Siri answers with the time.
Siri never says a meeting title.