Nemos for Writers — Voice-First Idea Capture with On-Device Transcription

Nemos is a free writer's notebook app where the best ideas — the ones that strike during walks, showers, runs, or the half-asleep moment before bed — actually get captured and found later. Record voice memos from iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, and Nemos transcribes them on-device using Apple's Foundation Models API. Transcripts are fully searchable, which means you can search your entire voice archive by character name, plot point, setting detail, or dialogue snippet months or years later.

Beyond voice, Nemos handles the rest of a writer's research workflow: screenshot inspiration photos and they get OCR'd and filed, save articles with rich previews, PDF research papers with full-text extraction, and Smart Spaces auto-cluster everything by novel, character, or research topic. For the voice memo transcription workflow, see the voice memo app page. For the Apple Watch capture use case, see the Apple Watch memo app page.

Built for novelists

Never lose a writing idea again.

Nemos captures your ideas the moment they strike — voice memos, screenshots, notes, links — and keeps everything findable so inspiration is always within reach.

Free to join. No spam. We'll notify you when Nemos is ready.

|By Taha Baalla

Sound familiar?

If you've felt any of these frustrations, you're not alone. Novelists, journalists, bloggers, screenwriters, and copywriters deal with this every day.

1

Ideas come at the worst times — in the shower, on a walk, at 3am — and by the time you find somewhere to write them down, half the thought is already gone.

2

Your research for a piece is spread across twelve browser tabs, three note apps, a voice recorder, and your camera roll — and you can never find that one perfect quote.

3

You screenshot passages from books, articles, and social posts for inspiration, but they pile up in your photos with no context or organization.

4

You've tried every note app but they all require too much structure. You don't want folders and tags — you just want to dump ideas and find them later.

Here's how Nemos helps

Nemos was built to solve exactly these problems — automatically.

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Record a voice memo from your Apple Watch or iPhone the moment inspiration strikes. Nemos transcribes it and makes it searchable — your 3am breakthrough is never lost.

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Save research links, screenshots, notes, and audio all in one place. Search across everything at once to find that perfect quote, statistic, or reference.

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Every screenshot is auto-named with OCR. Screenshot a passage from an article and Nemos reads the text, names it, and makes it findable by any word in the image.

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No folders required. Nemos auto-organizes with Smart Spaces — your "Novel Research" or "Article Ideas" collections build themselves as you save related content.

Features that matter for novelists

Voice Idea Capture

Talk into your Watch or phone and Nemos transcribes it. Perfect for capturing dialogue ideas, plot points, or turns of phrase before they evaporate.

Screenshot Inspiration

Screenshot tweets, articles, book passages, or social posts. Nemos OCRs the text and names the screenshot so you can search by content, not filename.

Smart Spaces

Nemos clusters your saved content by theme. Your "Character Research," "Setting Ideas," and "Plot Threads" collections grow automatically.

Unified Search

Search once, find everything. A single search queries your notes, screenshots, voice transcripts, saved links, and PDFs simultaneously.

Apple Watch Quick Capture

Raise your wrist, tap record, speak your idea. The transcription syncs to your iPhone instantly. No phone needed.

My Eyes Only

Lock sensitive drafts, story ideas, or personal journals behind Face ID. Your unpublished work stays private even if someone uses your phone.

"My next novel exists as 180 voice memos from walks, 60 screenshots of 1890s London photos, and a dozen articles about Victorian medicine. I type one word and the right thing surfaces. Scrivener gets the polished pages; Némos holds the mess I think in."

Rory M.

Rory M.

Early access tester · Novelist

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I capture ideas from my Apple Watch?+
Yes. Nemos has a native Apple Watch app. Raise your wrist, tap the record button, and speak your idea. The voice memo is automatically transcribed and synced to your iPhone and iPad. You can also create quick text notes directly from the Watch.
How is Nemos different from a regular note-taking app for writers?+
Most note apps are for writing. Nemos is for saving and finding. Writers don't just write notes — they screenshot passages, save article links, record voice ideas, clip images for mood boards, and store PDFs. Nemos holds all of it in one searchable place and organizes it automatically.
Can I search inside my voice recordings?+
Yes. Every voice memo is automatically transcribed on your device. Search for any word or phrase and Nemos finds the exact recording — and the exact spot in the transcript — where you said it.
Is Nemos good for long-form writing projects like novels?+
Nemos is ideal for the research and ideation phase of long-form projects. Save character inspiration photos, research links, voice notes about plot ideas, screenshots of location references, and more. Use Smart Spaces to auto-group materials by project or theme. When you're ready to write, export your organized research to your writing app of choice.
Can I keep my writing ideas private?+
Absolutely. Nemos processes everything on-device — your ideas never leave your phone. You can also use the My Eyes Only feature to lock specific items or folders behind Face ID, so even someone with access to your phone can't see your unpublished work.

Capture every idea that matters

Save anything. Find it instantly. Free on the App Store.

Free to join. No spam. We'll notify you when Nemos is ready.

See how Nemos compares

See detailed feature comparisons with other popular apps:

Nemos vs Apple NotesNemos vs BearNemos vs Notion