User Guide

Everything you need to get started with DaySnip and make the most of your daily journal.

Getting Started

DaySnip is designed to be simple from the very first moment. No account required, no setup wizard, no configuration. Download and start capturing.

  1. Download DaySnip from the App Store. It's free to get started — no account or sign-up required.
  2. Open the app. You'll land on the Today tab — this is your home base for the current day.
  3. Capture your first snip. Tap Voice or Type to record a thought. It takes less than 10 seconds.
  4. Keep going. Capture more snips throughout the day — morning coffee, afternoon walk, evening thought. Each one adds to your day's story.
  5. Wait for Sunday. At the end of the week, DaySnip compiles each day's snips into a polished journal entry called a Wrap.
Tip

The first snip is the hardest. Don't overthink it — just say or type whatever's on your mind. DaySnip does the rest.

Capturing Snips

A snip is the core unit of DaySnip — a single micro-moment captured throughout your day. Snips come in three forms:

  • Voice snips — Speak your mind and DaySnip transcribes it instantly using on-device speech recognition.
  • Text snips — Type a quick thought. No formatting, no rich text — just raw capture.
  • Photo snips — Snap a photo or attach one from your library to capture a visual moment.

You can mix all three types in the same day. Each snip is timestamped automatically, so your daily timeline builds itself as you go.

When to Capture

There's no right time to capture a snip. Some people snip first thing in the morning, others capture throughout the day, and some do a single brain dump before bed. The key is consistency — even one snip per day gives the AI something meaningful to work with.

Editing Snips

You can edit or delete any snip after saving it. Tap the snip from your Today view to make changes. Voice transcriptions can be corrected if the speech recognition misheard something.

Voice Capture

Voice capture uses on-device speech recognition — your words are transcribed locally on your iPhone. No audio is sent to any server.

How It Works

  1. Tap the Voice button from the Today tab.
  2. Start speaking. You'll see your words appear in real time as DaySnip transcribes.
  3. Tap Done when you're finished. The transcription is saved as a text snip.

Tips for Better Transcription

  • Speak naturally — you don't need to slow down or enunciate.
  • Quiet environments produce better results, but DaySnip handles background noise reasonably well.
  • If a word is wrong, you can edit the transcription after saving.
  • Works offline — no internet connection needed.
Tip

Voice capture is great for moments when typing isn't practical — driving, walking, cooking, or lying in bed at the end of the day.

Guided Reflections

Guided reflections are optional prompts designed to help you think deeper about your day. They're not required — they're there for when you want to dig beneath the surface.

How Reflections Work

DaySnip presents one question at a time. There's no long form to fill out, no pressure to answer every prompt. Just read the question, answer if it resonates, skip if it doesn't.

Your reflection responses feed into your daily wraps alongside your snips, giving the AI richer material to work with when composing your journal entry.

Types of Prompts

  • Gratitude — What went well today? What are you grateful for?
  • Emotional check-in — How are you feeling right now? What's weighing on you?
  • Growth — What did you learn? What would you do differently?
  • Connection — Who made an impact on your day? What conversations stood out?

Daily Wraps

A Wrap is your polished daily journal entry, compiled by AI from all of your snips and reflections for that day.

How Wraps Work

Every Sunday night, DaySnip's AI engine processes the past week. For each day that has snips, it compiles a single wrap — reading all your voice memos, text thoughts, photos, and reflections, then weaving them into a cohesive journal entry.

The result isn't a bullet list of what happened. It's a narrative that captures how your day actually felt — identifying themes, noticing patterns, and connecting dots you might have missed.

Editing Wraps

Wraps aren't set in stone. After a wrap is generated, you can edit it freely — adjust tone, add details, or remove anything that doesn't feel right. It's your journal.

On-Device vs. Cloud Wraps

On-device wraps are generated locally on your phone. They're faster but simpler — good for basic summaries.

Cloud AI wraps (available with DaySnip+) use more powerful AI models for richer, more nuanced writing. The cloud wrap engine is better at finding themes, connecting dots across the day, and creating narrative-driven entries.

Tip

The more snips you capture throughout the day, the richer your wrap will be. Even short, scattered thoughts give the AI meaningful material to work with.

Journal & History

Your journal is the collection of all your daily wraps. Browse by day, search across entries, and revisit the moments that mattered.

Browsing Your Journal

  • Journal tab — Scroll through your timeline of daily entries, most recent first.
  • Calendar view — Tap a date to jump directly to that day's wrap.
  • Search — Full-text search across all snips and wraps. Find that thought from three weeks ago in seconds.

Reminders

DaySnip can send gentle reminders to help you build a capture habit. Set capture reminders for specific times of day, or enable reflection reminders to prompt you in the evening.

Reminders are optional and fully configurable in Settings.

Therapy Prep

The Therapy Prep feature analyzes your recent journal entries and generates a summary you can bring to your next therapy session.

What It Includes

  • Session prep summary — Key themes, recurring patterns, and notable events from your recent entries.
  • Mood trajectory — How your emotional tone shifted across the week.
  • PDF export — Download and share the summary with your therapist.

Getting Started with Therapy Prep

You can try 3 free summaries before subscribing. This lets you see the value before committing. After the trial, Therapy Prep is available as a monthly add-on.

Tip

Share your Therapy Prep PDF with your therapist before the session. It helps them prepare too, and means you spend less time catching up and more time working on what matters.

Multi-Device Sync

With DaySnip+, your journal syncs across all your Apple devices using iCloud.

Supported Devices

  • iPhone — Your primary capture and reading device.
  • Apple Watch — Quick voice capture from your wrist. Perfect for on-the-go moments.
  • iPad — Comfortable reading and editing on a larger screen.

How Sync Works

Sync uses your personal iCloud account. Snips captured on any device appear on all others within moments. No separate account, no additional login.

If you're using DaySnip on a single device, sync is not required — everything works locally with no cloud dependency.

Privacy

DaySnip is a private journal. There are no social features, no sharing, no public profiles, and no ads.

Your Data

  • On-device by default — All snips and wraps are stored locally unless you enable iCloud sync.
  • Voice transcription is local — Speech recognition runs on your device. No audio is transmitted.
  • Cloud wraps — When you use cloud AI wraps, your snip text is sent to the AI service for processing. It is not stored after compilation.
  • No analytics or tracking — DaySnip does not collect usage analytics or track your behavior.

For full details, see our Privacy Policy.