Obsidian on mobile

Obsidian quick capture, at the speed of talking

Quick capture is the thing Obsidian users on mobile keep asking for: a way to get an idea into the vault before it evaporates, without opening the app, finding a folder and typing with your thumbs. SpeakPen is quick capture by voice. Obsidian stays closed; the note still ends up in your vault.

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iOS · Free plan included · Markdown & Obsidian export

Why quick capture on a phone is still hard

Every existing route makes you do the capture work at the moment you least want to — while the idea is still forming.

Open Obsidian and type

The app has to launch and load your vault before you can write a word. Then you pick a folder, name the note and thumb-type a paragraph. The idea rarely survives that.

Shortcuts and URL schemes

An Apple Shortcut calling obsidian:// or Advanced URI works — until a vault name changes or iOS updates. You maintain it, and it still expects typed text.

A separate capture app

Typing-first inbox apps are faster than Obsidian itself, but the bottleneck is the typing, not the app switch. A three-minute idea does not fit in a text field.

Voice plugins inside Obsidian

Whisper-style plugins transcribe well, but a plugin only runs while Obsidian is open. That puts you back at step one: open the app first.

How it works

Tap, talk, and it's in the vault

01

Tap record

  • Open SpeakPen and tap once. Talk the idea through instead of typing it.
  • Obsidian does not need to be open — or installed on that phone.
02

AI does the typing

  • Transcription with automatic language detection across 99 languages.
  • A title, a summary and clean paragraphs, so the note is readable later, not just recorded.
03

It lands in your vault

  • Plain Markdown with YAML frontmatter — title, date, category, source.
  • The SpeakPen Obsidian plugin pulls new notes into your vault incrementally; anything you have edited in Obsidian stays as you left it.
FAQ

Obsidian quick capture FAQ

What is the fastest way to quick capture into Obsidian on iPhone?
Anything that skips typing. Opening Obsidian, Shortcuts with the URL scheme and dedicated inbox apps all still end with you typing on a phone keyboard. Speaking is faster and holds more detail. SpeakPen records on the phone, transcribes and summarizes with AI, and syncs the finished Markdown note into your vault.
Does Obsidian need to be open for this to work?
No. That is the point of using a separate app instead of a plugin. Obsidian plugins only run while Obsidian is running; SpeakPen captures first, and the note syncs the next time your vault is open with the SpeakPen plugin installed.
Is there quick capture for Obsidian on Android?
SpeakPen is an iOS app; there is no native Android app. Android users can use SpeakPen in a browser, but the one-tap experience described on this page is about iPhone.
What does the captured note look like in my vault?
A normal Markdown file with YAML frontmatter (title, date, category, source), then the AI summary and the full transcript. There is no proprietary format, so the note works with every other plugin and tool you already point at your vault.
Can I capture in languages other than English?
Yes. The language is detected automatically for each recording across 99 languages, so you can switch languages between notes without changing a setting.

Want the full picture of transcription, summaries and sync? See how voice notes reach Obsidian end to end. Already have a pile of recordings in Apple's Voice Memos? Move existing iPhone voice memos into Obsidian.

Capture first. Organize later.

Free plan includes 3 recordings a month. No plugin to configure, no Shortcut to maintain.

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