Milestone

How do I capture something?

The control floating at the bottom of the screen holds three modes — voice, photo, and note — and one action. Slide or tap across the modes, then press the circle. Photo sits in the middle because it's what the app opens on: the viewfinder over the timeline takes a shot in one tap, without going anywhere. Which page you're on decides where it lands: capture from the timeline and you get an entry, capture from tasks and you get a task.

What are the suggestions under the note field?

When what you've written gives it something to go on, the composer offers up to three chips under a Suggestions heading: a title taken from your first line, Make task when the wording reads like something to be done, and a due date when you've named one — "Friday", "tomorrow", "next week". They're worked out on your iPhone from the text in front of you, nothing is filled in until you tap it, and ignoring them leaves the entry exactly as you wrote it.

Does Milestone sync between my devices?

Yes, through your own iCloud account. Projects, entries, photos, and recordings sync over CloudKit's private database when you're signed in to iCloud with iCloud Drive on. Settings ▸ iCloud shows what sync is doing at any moment. If iCloud isn't available the app runs local-only — that's a normal state, not an error, and your entry is saved either way.

Are my voice notes really transcribed on the device?

Milestone asks iOS for on-device recognition whenever your device and language support it, which is the usual case on a modern iPhone. Where they don't, iOS falls back to Apple's speech service to complete the transcription. If you'd rather that never happened, turn Transcribe voice notes off in Settings ▸ Search — recordings still record and still play, they just aren't turned into searchable text.

What does it read out of a photo?

Two things: any words in the picture, and what the picture is of. Both come from Apple's Vision framework running on your iPhone, and both are stored with the entry so search can reach them. Read photos in Settings ▸ Search turns it off.

Can I move an entry to a different day?

Press and hold a card on the timeline, then drag it onto another day. The date it lands on becomes its date, and the timeline reorders around it. Entry detail also has a date field if you'd rather type it.

How does the tasks page work?

It's one list, in the order you put things in. Press and hold a card and drag it where you want it; nothing re-sorts itself behind you. Above the list is the count of what's left, with the overdue tally beside it, and the newest capture arrives at the top so you see it land. There's no calendar and no day-by-day filing — the tasks page used to be one, and it was several decisions between wanting to add something and seeing it.

Do tasks need a due date?

No, and most don't. A due date is optional, and it's printed on the card rather than deciding where the card sits — a task without one simply says when it arrived. When a due date passes, that card's line leads with being overdue in heavier text, and the count under the figure picks it up. Colour is never used for it: in this app red means recording and green means sync, and neither is decoration.

What happens when I tick something off?

It stays where it is for a moment, struck through, while the count above it drops — then folds into Completed underneath, newest first. Open that section and a Clear button appears beside it, offering the oldest work first: older than a month, a week, or a day, or everything. Unticking is immediate, and the task goes back where it was.

Can a task be a voice note or a photo?

Yes — a task is captured exactly the way an entry is, so it can carry audio, a photograph, or both, and its detail screen keeps the waveform and the transcript. What it never does is appear on the timeline: the timeline is what happened, and something you still have to do isn't evidence that it did.

Where do the photos and recordings actually live?

In the app's own database on your iPhone, with the media held as external files rather than inline, and mirrored to your iCloud container if sync is on. Settings ▸ Storage shows how much of your device that comes to, and how many entries it covers.

Why does it want the camera, microphone, and photo library?

The camera takes the photos, the microphone records the voice notes, speech recognition transcribes them, and photo library access is only for linking a picture you already took. Each is asked for the first time you use the feature, and any of them can be withdrawn later in iOS Settings ▸ Milestone.

What if I can't remember the exact words?

Search still tries. Exact matches come first and are always authoritative; underneath them, Milestone offers a few entries that are close in meaning rather than in wording, marked Similar meaning. That comparison uses Apple's NaturalLanguage word embeddings on your iPhone — the query goes nowhere. Search covers your captures across every project; tasks aren't in it.

Is my data private?

There's no account and no server of mine. Everything stays on your device and in your own iCloud, where I can't see it. Full detail is on the privacy page.

How do I clear everything and start over?

Settings ▸ Data ▸ Start fresh deletes every project, entry, photo, and recording. It can't be undone, and if iCloud sync is on the deletion syncs too. The same card can load a sample project if you want something to explore.

Does Milestone have a dark mode?

Yes — Settings ▸ Appearance follows the system, or pins the app to light or dark.

What does it need to run?

An iPhone on iOS 18 or later. No account, no subscription, and no third-party services.