Cleft for CarPlay: Record voice notes without picking up your phone. Tap the New Note button on your car screen, speak your thought, and your note is waiting when you arrive.
Overview
Cleft for CarPlay lets you capture thoughts while you drive. Choose a note style, tap the New Note button on your car screen, speak your thought, then tap Stop. Cleft preserves the recording on the connected iPhone before transcription, so you can start another note without waiting for processing to finish. Pause anytime if you need a moment. No menus, no typing, no distraction.Getting Started
1
Connect to CarPlay
Plug your iPhone into your car’s USB port, or connect wirelessly if your car supports it. CarPlay appears on your car’s display.
2
Open Cleft
Find the Cleft icon on your CarPlay home screen and tap it. You will see a Ready to record screen with a centered red New Note button.
3
Record a note
- Choose a note style if you want something other than the default
- Tap the red New Note button (the plus icon)
- Speak your thought
- Tap Style if you want to change how Cleft writes this note
- Tap Pause if you need a moment, then Resume when you are ready
- Tap Stop when you are done
- The screen flips to Saved straight away so you can record again right away. Transcription continues on your iPhone in the background.
A live timer shows how long you have been recording, and it stops as soon as the recorder stops. Tap Cancel in the navigation bar if you want to discard the recording without saving.
How It Works
Recording in the Car
- One large button to start. A red plus button sits in the center of the Ready to record screen. Tap once to begin.
- Note style picker. Choose Structured, Structured Prose, Clean Transcript, or a synced custom style before you record or while the recording is running.
- A still sphere while you record. A shaded sphere stays still on the car screen beside the recording controls.
- Pause and resume. Once recording, tap Pause if you need a moment. The timer freezes until you tap Resume.
- Stop saves immediately. Tap Stop and the screen returns to Ready to record right away. The next note is one tap away while the previous one finishes processing on your phone. The Live Activity keeps showing preparation until the summary is ready.
- Live timer. See elapsed recording time on the car screen, in the Dynamic Island, on your Lock Screen, and on macOS in your Menu Bar. The timer stops as soon as the recorder stops, so it never keeps counting after a recording has ended.
- Controls that match your iPhone. When the car screen shows a recording your iPhone is running, Stop, Pause, and Resume wait for your iPhone to confirm before they change, so they never show a state your iPhone is not in.
- Audio confirmation. Tones play when recording starts, pauses, resumes, and stops, so you do not need to look at the screen.
- Your music picks back up. Apple Music, Audible, Pocket Casts, and other audio apps you were listening to start playing again automatically within a couple of seconds of saving your note.
- Cancel anytime. Discard the recording without saving from the navigation bar.
Processing on iPhone
- Durable handoff. The connected iPhone preserves the recording before transcription begins.
- On-device transcription. Speech-to-text runs on the iPhone. Normal account sync and note processing then follow your Cleft settings when a connection is available.
- Steering wheel mark on car notes. Notes recorded in the car show a small steering wheel icon in your note list so you can spot them at a glance. A pulsing dot means transcription is still in progress. A warning icon means something went wrong, and you can tap to retry.
- Full processing. Writing Style, formatting, and organization all apply like any other note.
- Stays in your list. A note recorded through CarPlay stays in your iPhone notes list after it syncs.
How your note gets from car to phone
- Record on your car screen
- The connected iPhone preserves the recording and begins transcription
- Cleft transcribes the audio on your phone
- Your note is ready with full formatting and organization
Features
Hands-Free Recording
Speak your thought while you drive. Your hands stay on the wheel.
Stop and Go Again
Tap Stop and the screen is ready for the next note straight away. Transcription continues on your phone in the background.
Note Style Picker
Choose the format for this recording before you start. Custom styles from Plus sync to CarPlay too.
Live Recording Indicator
Track recording time from the Dynamic Island, your Lock Screen, or the Mac Menu Bar without unlocking your phone.
Cancel a Recording
Stop and Pause now sit beside a Cancel control, so a recording you started by mistake is one tap away from gone.
Steering Wheel Mark
Notes you recorded in the car show a steering wheel mark in your note list, with a pulsing dot for in-progress and a tap-to-retry icon if anything failed.
Audio Feedback
Tones confirm when recording starts and stops. No need to look at the screen.
Automatic Sync
The connected iPhone preserves and transcribes notes without an extra transfer step. If your downloaded Whisper model cannot run in the background, the phone keeps a readable Base transcript locally. Open Cleft on the iPhone to give the saved model choice one attempt before cloud creation. If it cannot finish, Base stays available and an eligible note offers Improve. Cleft preserves edits you made while it waited. For new Watch or CarPlay fallback recordings, Improve asks before replacing saved edits; finish saving your changes first. See Transcripts.
Recovering Interrupted Recordings
If a recording is interrupted on its way to your notes, Cleft recovers it without creating a duplicate note and without losing the audio Local Export saves beside it. An interrupted recording also gets another recovery attempt after you update Cleft, including recordings made with older versions. When a recording is damaged, Cleft checks the original file and keeps the best audio it can recover. It tells a partial, silent, noisy, or unreadable recording apart from one that is missing, and it never guesses which note an unlinked file belongs to. Once a recording cannot improve, Cleft stops retrying it automatically. Keep Cleft installed and keep the affected note if you need support to look at a recording.Note Styles on CarPlay
CarPlay shows the same style list you use on iPhone: Structured, Structured Prose, Clean Transcript, and any custom styles from Cleft Plus. Pick a style before you start, or tap Style while recording to change it without stopping. The connected iPhone preserves and processes the recording with your latest choice.Requirements
- iPhone with Cleft installed
- iOS 26.4 or later (required for the CarPlay voice template)
- CarPlay-compatible vehicle (wired or wireless)
- Microphone permission granted in the Cleft app on your iPhone
Tips for Best Results
Recording Tips
Recording Tips
- Speak at a normal pace. Reduce cabin, wind, music, and navigation noise when practical, and make a short test recording after changing vehicles or audio routes.
- You can pause and think. Silence is fine. Just keep going when you are ready.
- iOS selects the available recording route. If the saved clip is noisy or silent, reconnect CarPlay and check microphone permission before trying again.
- Tap Pause if a passenger starts talking or you get interrupted, then Resume when you are ready to keep going.
Sync Tips
Sync Tips
- Notes sync automatically when your iPhone has a connection.
- If you were driving without cell service, your note syncs when you are back online.
- Open Cleft on your iPhone to see your CarPlay recordings in your note list.
Getting the Best Audio
Getting the Best Audio
- Turn down music or navigation volume while recording.
- Close windows to reduce wind noise on longer recordings.
- Car and Bluetooth microphone quality varies. Make a short test recording after changing vehicles, headsets, or connection type.
Workflow Examples
Commute Ideas
- Open Cleft on your car screen and tap the New Note button
- Talk through your idea for the full drive
- Park and open Cleft on your phone
- Your note is transcribed, formatted, and ready to use
Meeting Prep
- Start a note on your way to a meeting
- Talk through your agenda, key points, and questions
- Review the organized note when you arrive
- Walk in prepared
Quick Reminders
- Open Cleft on your car screen and tap the New Note button
- Say what you need to remember in a few seconds
- Tap Stop
- The reminder is in your notes when you check your phone later
Troubleshooting
Common Issues
No sound in recordings?- Make sure Bluetooth is enabled on your iPhone
- Disconnect and reconnect your car’s Bluetooth
- Check that Cleft has microphone permission in Settings > Cleft
- Check your iPhone storage. Cleft needs at least 50 MB free.
- If a phone call, lost microphone route, media-services reset, recorder failure, or CarPlay disconnect ends capture, Cleft preserves the portion actually written by the recorder and queues it for transcription. Open Cleft on your phone to check the saved note and retry if needed.
- The timer is not evidence that every second reached the audio file. If the saved recording is shorter than expected, keep Cleft installed and keep the note. Contact support before retrying, deleting the note, or reinstalling Cleft.
- Cleft can retry a recording when its saved note proves ownership. It cannot recreate sound the microphone did not capture or assign an unlinked file to a note.
- Open Cleft on your iPhone to trigger sync
- Check that your iPhone has a network connection
- Notes recorded offline sync when you are back online