Quick Voice Note

Press a button. Talk as long as you like. Read it in today's note.

Long voice memos for Obsidian. One tap starts a recording. Stopping saves the audio to your vault and appends a timestamped, transcribed entry to today's daily note: ```markdown - 14:32 ![[Recordings/Voice 2026-09-05 14-32-10.m4a]] - lecture recap: three causes of the crisis, the second one is the essay question ``` Built for people who think out loud: students recapping a lecture on the walk home, founders with a business idea in the car, anyone whose best thoughts arrive away from a desk. Unlike system dictation, it doesn't cut off when you pause, keeps the original audio as backup, and files everything exactly where you'll look for it tonight. ## How it works - **Mobile:** a red mic sits in the note header next to the reading mode toggle. Tap it and you're already recording. - **Desktop:** mic button in the ribbon, or the "Record voice note" command. - **One tap from your pocket:** point an iOS Shortcut, Android shortcut, or an NFC tag at `obsidian://voice-note` and Obsidian opens with recording already running. One tap stops and saves. - **Pause:** a pause button sits beside stop. Paused time doesn't count towards the clock or the safety limit; tap again to pick up where you were. - Stopping saves the audio into your vault (`Recordings/` by default), transcribes it, and adds the entry to today's daily note (respecting your Daily Notes folder, format, and template) or to the note you're in. ## Where it lands, and how it looks Under **Settings → In the note**: - **Save to:** today's daily note, the note you're in (at the cursor or at the end), or ask after each recording. - **Audio in the note:** embedded player, a link to the file, or transcript only. The recording is always kept in the recordings folder. - **Memo style:** list item, voice callout (a tinted card with a mic icon, in the colour and wash strength you pick), quote block, heading per memo, plain paragraph, or a single line. A live preview shows each one, and the template under Advanced is yours to edit for anything else. ## Transcription Recordings become readable text via any transcription API that speaks the OpenAI format. Bring your own key (OpenAI, Groq, or a local Whisper server) under **Settings → Advanced → Transcription service**. Prefer zero setup? A **Cloud key** (A$9 a month, 3 days free) gives you managed transcription with no accounts, no API keys and no configuration: [start a trial](https://quickvoicenote.com/#pricing), then paste the license key into **Settings → License key**. Transcription is optional: without it you still get one tap audio capture filed into your daily notes. ## Install Settings → Community plugins → Browse → search **Quick Voice Note**, or [install directly from Obsidian](obsidian://show-plugin?id=quick-voice-note). Manual install: copy `main.js`, `manifest.json`, and `styles.css` from the [latest release](https://github.com/spencer1975/quick-voice-note/releases/latest) into `/.obsidian/plugins/quick-voice-note/`, then enable the plugin. ## Privacy - Audio stays in your vault. It leaves your device only if transcription is enabled, and then only to the endpoint you configure. - Your API key is stored in the plugin's local data file inside your vault and is never transmitted anywhere except the transcription endpoint you chose. ## Settings The defaults are deliberately boring. Most people only ever touch the transcription key. Everything else (templates, folders, headings, file naming, daily note fallbacks) lives under **Advanced**.