Grape can record a voice note while your iPhone stays locked. Press the Record Voice Note control, say what you need to say, press Stop, and Grape saves the recording as a new note on its own, without opening. On Pro and Lifetime it also writes down what you said.
Record Voice Note is an iPhone control, so it needs iOS 18 or later. You can put it in a corner of the Lock Screen, in Control Center or on the Action Button. It is not on Android yet.
On the Lock Screen
Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, then choose Lock Screen. Tap the control in one of the bottom corners, search for Grape, choose Record Voice Note and tap Done.
The control shows a microphone in a ring. While it records, it turns into a red stop.
In Control Center
Open Control Center, tap + at the top left, then tap Add a Control at the bottom. Search for Grape and choose Record Voice Note. In Control Center its label reads Record, and Recording, in red, while it records.
On the Action Button
On iPhone 15 Pro and later, open the Settings app and tap Action Button. Swipe to Controls, then choose Grape and Record Voice Note. One press of the button starts a recording and the next one stops it.
Grape also has an older control called Voice Note. That one opens Grape, so the phone asks you to unlock it first, and records into a new note inside the app. Record Voice Note is the one that works with the phone locked.
Recording and stopping
Press the control and the recording starts at once, with the phone still locked. On the Lock Screen, press and hold it, the way you would the flashlight.
A Live Activity appears on the Lock Screen: a microphone in your accent color, Recording a voice note, a running timer and a round red Stop button. The line under the title says what happens next, Grape transcribes it when you stop on Pro and Lifetime, or Grape saves it as a note when you stop on Free and Sync. On an iPhone with the Dynamic Island, the island shows a red microphone and the timer, and touching and holding it shows Recording with the Stop button.
To stop, tap the red Stop button, or press the control again. The Live Activity shows a tick, Saved to Grape and how long the recording ran for about five seconds, then goes away.
A recording can run for up to 3 hours, and then it stops and saves on its own. A phone call or Siri also ends it, and what was recorded until then is kept.
Where the note lands
Grape makes the note without opening. It is called Voice note followed by the date and time, written the way you set them in Settings, General (see Change the date and time format), and it holds the recording as an audio card you can play.
It goes in the first folder of your library, the same folder things shared to Grape land in when you do not pick one. Move it wherever it belongs, like any other note. The recording and its text are ordinary note content, so with sync on they reach your other devices like everything else.
Transcription on each plan
Every plan can record from the Lock Screen. What happens after you stop depends on your plan:
- Pro: the recording is transcribed on Grape's servers, which carry on with the phone locked and Grape asleep. The transcript goes into the note under the recording, and the title becomes its opening words, unless you have renamed the note by then. It counts towards your transcription allowance like any other transcript
- Lifetime: the recording is transcribed on the phone, right after you stop, with the transcription model you set up in Settings, Models (see Add your own AI models). If iOS pauses Grape before it is done, it finishes the next time you open Grape. Without a transcription model, the note keeps the recording only
- Free and Sync: the note keeps the recording. On Pro or Lifetime you can transcribe it later from the audio card, like any recording
Notifications
On Pro, Grape can tell you when the transcript is in. Turn on AI tools and transcription in Settings, Notifications, and a notification says Your voice note is ready, with Open the note to read it under it. Tap it to open the note. If the transcription fails, it says Couldn't transcribe your voice note instead. The recording is still in the note, so open it and try again from the audio card.
Like every notification Grape's servers send, it carries no words from the note. Get notified when the AI is done covers the rest of the notification settings.
If it does not record
- Open Grape and allow the microphone to record from here. Grape needs the microphone allowed once, and the Lock Screen cannot ask for it. Open Grape, record in a note and tap Allow when the phone asks. If you said no before, turn Microphone on for Grape in the Settings app
- Grape is already recording in a note. A recording is running in a note open in Grape. Stop it there first. It works the other way round too: starting a recording in a note while a Lock Screen recording runs shows Grape is recording a voice note from the Lock Screen. Stop it first.
- It stops straight away. Keep Live Activities on for Grape: open the Settings app, then Grape, and check Live Activities. iOS stops a Lock Screen recording that cannot show its Live Activity
- There is no control to add. Controls arrived in iOS 18, so update the phone first
Related
- Record a voice note inside a note, on desktop or mobile
- Transcribe a recording or audio file
- Get notified when the AI is done
- Put Grape on your iPhone home screen for the widgets and Grape's other controls
- Grape in Shortcuts, whose Record Voice Note action opens Grape on a new note that is already recording
- Free, Sync, Pro or Lifetime