Skip to main content
Widgets are available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. CarPlay requires iOS 26.4 or later. The Action Button is available on supported iPhone models.
Cleft lives wherever a thought might arrive. Pin a note, continue your latest one, start writing or recording from a widget, or choose what the Action Button does each time.
iPhone home screen showing three Cleft widgets: a small New Cleft Note widget with a red plus button, a small Continue widget showing the most recent note titled Voice Memo Transcription Test, and a medium Pinned Note widget showing the same note with a Tap to add audio prompt

New Cleft Note, Continue, and Pinned Note widgets together on the iPhone home screen

Pinned Note

Keep one note on your home screen until you change it.

Continue Last

Jump back into your most recent note from anywhere.

Lock Screen

Start a recording without unlocking your phone.

Home Screen capture

Tap once on your home screen to record or write a fresh note.

Recording Status

Follow a recording until the finished note is ready.

Control Center

Start or stop a voice note, or open a new text note.

Action Button

Start a voice note or a text note with one press.

In-app guide

A walkthrough of every Cleft surface inside Settings.

Pinned Note widget

The Pinned Note widget keeps one note on your home screen. Pin a note from inside the app and it stays on the widget until you pin a different one. Add the widget
  1. Long-press your home screen
  2. Tap + in the top-left
  3. Search for Cleft and pick Pinned Note
  4. Add the widget at your preferred size
Choose the note it shows Pin a note in Cleft and the widget follows the note you pinned most recently. Touch and hold the note in your list, or open the note’s ••• menu, and choose Pin Note. Pinned notes gather at the top of your list. To keep one particular note on a widget regardless of what you pin next, touch and hold the widget, choose Edit Widget, and pick the note. On iOS 26 with the tinted theme. The widget renders with a desaturated accent so it stays readable against your home screen tint. No setup needed.

Continue Last widget

The Continue Last widget shows your most recent note from its last refresh. No setup. Tap it and pick up right where you left off. Add the widget
  1. Long-press your home screen
  2. Tap + in the top-left
  3. Search for Cleft and pick Continue Last
  4. Add the widget at your preferred size
Cleft requests a widget refresh when it updates your recent notes. When Cleft is closed, iOS decides when to refresh the widget. It can keep showing your previous note after a transcript finishes. Smart Stack can rank it higher when you have a fresh note worth coming back to.
Cleft 1.15.0 removes the Continue Last Note control from Control Center, the Lock Screen, and the Action Button, because those places cannot show which note a tap would open. Use the Continue Last widget, the Pinned Note widget, or the Continue Last Note shortcut in the Shortcuts app instead.

Recording in Control Center

Cleft adds controls to Control Center on iPhone, iPad, and Mac: Voice Note starts or stops your current voice note, and Text Note opens a new text note. These need Cleft 1.15.0 or later, and macOS 26 or later on a Mac. On iPhone and iPad, the New Voice Note control from earlier versions is still there too: one tap starts a voice note.
  1. Open Control Center
  2. Long-press an empty area, then tap + Add a Control
  3. Search for Cleft and add Voice Note, New Voice Note, Text Note, or any of them
On a Mac, click Control Center in the menu bar, click Edit Controls, and add the Cleft controls from there. The Voice Note control reads New Voice Note when you are not recording. Tap it to start a voice note. While Cleft is recording it reads Stop Recording, and the same tap stops it. Once your recording stops, is cancelled, or fails, or Cleft can’t start one, the control goes back to New Voice Note. The Text Note control reads New Text Note. Tap it and Cleft opens a blank note, ready for you to type. If you added New Voice Note to your Lock Screen or Control Center before Cleft 1.15.0, it stays where you put it. On iPhone, you can also put any of these controls on your Lock Screen. Touch and hold the Lock Screen, tap Customize, and choose the Lock Screen. Remove one of the controls at the bottom, tap + in its place, and pick the Cleft control.

Lock Screen widget

Add a Cleft widget to your Lock Screen to start a new recording without unlocking your phone.
  1. Go to your Lock Screen
  2. Long-press to customize, then tap Add Widgets
  3. Find Cleft in the widget list and add Voice Note, Text Note, or both
Tap Voice Note to start a recording. The Live Activity takes over from there with a pause and resume button you can reach from the Dynamic Island. Tap Text Note to start writing.

Home Screen recording widget

Want to start a fresh note straight from your home screen? Add the Voice Note widget the same way as the Pinned Note widget. Tap it once to start recording. Like the app, it shows the voice mark for a voice note, and the Text Note widget shows the pencil.

Text note and quick-capture widgets

Add Text Note to start writing from your Home Screen or Lock Screen. The medium Voice or Text widget puts Voice and Text side by side so you can choose in one tap. These need Cleft 1.15.0 or later. On Mac, add Cleft widgets to your desktop or Notification Center to start a voice note, start a text note, choose voice or text, or continue your latest note.

New Task widget

Tasks arrives in Cleft v1.16.0 on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Until then, you will not find **Send Tasks** or **New Task** in the app.
In Cleft 1.16.0 or later, the New Task widget turns a spoken thought into a task without opening the app. Add it to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, Mac desktop, or Notification Center. Tap it and start speaking. Cleft records, transcribes, and turns what you said into an editable task with its due date, alert, priority, and repeat already worked out. Review it, then send it to Apple Reminders, Things, a Shortcut, or your clipboard. The voice note stays in Cleft, so you keep the original thought as well as the task. There is also a New Task control for Control Center, added the same way as the others. See Tasks for the full feature.

Recording Status widget

The Recording Status widget shows recording and saving progress on your Home Screen, Lock Screen, and in StandBy. This needs Cleft 1.15.0 or later.
  1. Long-press your Home Screen or Lock Screen
  2. Tap + or Add Widgets
  3. Search for Cleft and pick Recording Status
It follows the same lifecycle as the app: it shows recording while you speak, saving while Cleft transcribes and formats, then takes you to the finished note. When nothing is recording, it shows your last note. If a recording is interrupted by a crash or an operation that hangs, the widget clears itself rather than leaving stale progress on your screen.

Action Button

On an iPhone with an Action Button, map it to start a voice note, start a text note, or ask which kind you want each time.
  1. Open Settings → Action Button
  2. Swipe to Shortcut, then choose a shortcut
  3. Pick a Cleft action: New Voice Note, New Text Note, or Choose Cleft Capture
Press the Action Button and Cleft starts the capture you chose. With Choose Cleft Capture, Cleft asks “Voice or text note?” each time, and you pick Voice Note or Text Note. You can map a Cleft control instead. In Settings → Action Button, swipe to Controls, then choose Cleft’s New Voice Note, Voice Note, or Text Note control.

Start with a writing style

The New Voice Note action includes a Style choice. Set it when you add the action to Apple Shortcuts, Siri, or the Action Button, and that capture starts with the writing style you chose. This needs Cleft 1.15.0 or later. You can also configure a Cleft complication on Apple Watch with a writing style. Custom style names stay hidden on the watch face unless you turn on Show Custom Style Name.

In-app guide

Cleft has a guided tour of every widget surface at Settings → Widgets inside the app. It walks through Pinned Note, Continue Last, Dynamic Island, Control Center, CarPlay, and the Action Button so you can set them up without leaving the app.
Cleft iPhone Widgets guide showing setup steps for Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen widgets, and Pinned Note.

Widgets guide in Settings

The Pinned Note widget pairs well with iOS Focus modes. Pin your daily journal on a Personal home screen and your meeting prep on a Work home screen, and each one shows up automatically when its Focus is active.
Last modified on October 24, 2026