ThinkCap support
Guides and answers for the ThinkCap iPhone app
ThinkCap keeps its guides inside the app under Settings, and the same answers live here. If your question is not below, write to info@slobal.com with the app version from Settings and, if it helps, a screenshot. Nothing in the app reaches us on its own, so a note of what you did just before the problem is the most useful thing you can send.
Setting up the Action Button
Nothing needs creating in the Shortcuts app. Open iPhone Settings, choose Action Button, then either Controls and pick ThinkCap's Record control, or Shortcut and pick ThinkCap's Start Recording action. Press and hold the Action Button once to try it; the first press asks for microphone permission. After that, one press starts recording with no format picker, and the note is classified when you stop. iPhones without an Action Button can use Back Tap (Settings, Accessibility, Touch, Back Tap) or the ThinkCap control in Control Center.
Dictating into another app
Add the keyboard in iPhone Settings, General, Keyboard, Keyboards, Add New Keyboard, ThinkCap, then tap ThinkCap in that list and turn on Allow Full Access. Full Access lets the keyboard read the dictation the app saved for it; it does not give the keyboard a microphone, because iOS does not allow keyboards to record. To dictate: start a dictation in ThinkCap (from the keyboard's Dictate key, the Action Button, Control Center or the app), speak, tap Done, go back to your app, switch to the ThinkCap keyboard with the globe key and tap Insert. The text waits for one hour. Some host apps block the keyboard from opening ThinkCap; use Control Center or the Action Button in that case.
Keys, subscriptions and free tiers
One API key per provider unlocks every model that provider offers, so a single free Groq key covers both transcription and summaries. ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and similar subscriptions do not include API access and cannot be used. Groq and Google Gemini have free tiers; Deepgram and AssemblyAI give starting credit; OpenAI, Anthropic, OpenRouter and ElevenLabs are pay as you go. Each provider card in Settings links to the page where its key is created. Free tiers cap file size and minutes; ThinkCap shrinks uploads, splits long recordings and shows an estimate of what you have used on this phone.
On this iPhone: what works offline
Transcription on the iPhone uses Apple's offline speech recognition, which exists for some languages and not others. Settings, Models and keys shows whether it is available for your language. If it is not, ThinkCap will not quietly use Apple's servers under the on-device label; it asks you to choose a cloud provider or another language. Summaries on the iPhone need iOS 26 with Apple Intelligence on an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, and long transcripts are marked partial because that model reads a limited amount of text. Mixed mode, with speech on the phone and summaries from a provider, is one tap in the same screen.
Recording calls
iOS does not give any app the audio of a call on the same iPhone, and it does not let another app use the microphone while a call is active. ThinkCap offers the two honest routes: record a speakerphone playing on another device nearby, or import a recording you already have, including Apple's own call recordings from the Notes app where that feature is available in your region. Tell the other person when a call is being recorded where that is required.
When a provider limit stops a note
The note shows Needs your choice with the reason, and the recording is already saved. You can wait until the limit resets, use another provider for that note only, use on-device transcription, shrink the upload, or send anyway with the knowledge that the provider may reject it. None of these choices change your defaults.
Your data
Recordings and notes stay on the iPhone. Deleting a note removes its audio and any dictation shared with the keyboard. Export any note as Markdown from its share button, or everything at once from Settings. The privacy policy describes what a cloud provider receives when you choose one.
Contact
info@slobal.com. We reply from the same address. Replies are handled by the people who build ThinkCap, so a clear description usually gets a fix rather than a form answer. ThinkCap is on the App Store.