How recording works

Entries you make in the app are spoken. You record, the recording is saved on your phone, it is turned into text, and that text becomes your entry. Here is each step, and what to do when one of them needs you.

Starting a recording

On the Journal tab, tap Record on a prompt, or tap Or just speak freely below the prompts.

The first time, your phone asks to use the microphone. If you said no, you cannot tap Record yet, and the Journal tab shows Microphone access above your prompts. Tap Continue to be asked again. If you decline there, GoodParts explains: GoodParts needs the microphone to record. Tap again to allow it, or turn it on in Settings. Once your phone stops asking, the button reads Open Settings instead.

The microphone takes a moment to open. While the bar at the bottom of the screen reads OPENING MIC, wait before you speak. Tapping Stop at that point cancels, and nothing is saved.

Once it reads RECORDING, you are live. The bar shows a timer and a Stop button, and it stays with you if you move between tabs. You can record one entry at a time, so the other Record buttons wait until you stop. Your phone gives a small buzz when recording starts and a lighter one when it stops.

Prefer to hear a question before you answer it? Turn on Read prompts aloud in Settings, under Practice. A question you open then offers Listen, then record, and recording starts as soon as the question ends. Your phone's own speech engine reads it.

Keep GoodParts open

GoodParts can only record while it is open on your screen. Once you are recording, the recording panel says so: Keep GoodParts open. The screen stays on while you record, and recording stops if you leave the app.

On iPhone, anything that takes GoodParts off the screen ends the recording straight away: going to the Home Screen, switching apps, locking the phone, opening Control Center, or taking a call. What you said up to that moment is kept and becomes your entry, and you will see Recording stopped because GoodParts was interrupted. Saving your entry…

On Android, GoodParts waits about 10 seconds before ending the recording, so answering a quick system dialog does not cut you off. Stay away longer and it ends, keeping what you said up to the moment you left. If you switch to another app, it may end sooner, still keeping what you said until then. Locking the phone counts as leaving.

On Android, a call or another app taking the microphone also ends the recording and keeps what it captured: Recording was interrupted by another app using the microphone. Saving what was captured…

All of this applies from the moment you tap Record, even while the microphone is still opening.

Eyes-closed recording, in Settings under Practice, changes some of this. While it is on, a recording shows only the small bar, and GoodParts does not keep the screen on, so the screen can go dark while you speak. On Android, the screen going dark or the phone locking does not end the recording, but leaving GoodParts still does. On iPhone, the screen locking still ends it, as described above.

How long you can record

A recording can run for up to 30 minutes. At 25 minutes GoodParts gives you a heads-up, and at 30 it stops by itself and saves what you said.

There is no minimum length, but GoodParts needs a few words to work with. If it hears fewer than five, no entry is made, and you will see a note like this one: That was only a few words, so there was nothing to listen to. Nothing was saved. Tap the mic and say a bit more when you're ready.

After you stop

Tapping Stop saves the recording to your phone straight away. Turning it into text happens next, in the background, so you can carry on. A panel at the top of the screen shows Transcribing your entry…, and the same card is on the Activity screen, What’s tending, which opens from the button at the top of the screen.

No connection? The recording waits on your phone under Waiting for a connection: Saved. We'll transcribe this when you're back online. It goes by itself when your connection comes back, or the next time you open GoodParts.

A brief network hiccup is retried automatically a couple of times before GoodParts asks anything of you, and a retry never makes a second copy of your entry. If a recording still cannot be finished, the panel shows Couldn't finish this entry with two buttons:

• Retry sends the recording that is already on your phone again, so you do not have to say it twice. Recordings that did not finish are also tried again the next time you open GoodParts.
• Discard deletes it, after asking first: The audio will be deleted and can’t be recovered.

There is also a daily limit on new entries. A recording that reaches it stays safe on your phone: You've reached today's limit of 50 entries. Your recording is safe. Tap Retry tomorrow to save it. A recording held back for a reason to do with your plan waits on your phone with Retry in the same way.

Where your recording goes

Your recording stays in GoodParts' private storage on your phone until it has been sent and accepted, and then GoodParts deletes the copy on your phone. A recording that is waiting, or that did not finish, stays until Retry succeeds or you discard it.

Turning speech into text happens in the cloud. What is uploaded, and what is deleted afterwards, is covered in where your recordings are transcribed. You give your OK to it when you set GoodParts up. If GoodParts has no answer from you, tapping Record first asks Transcribe in the cloud?, and Not now records nothing. A recording saved before you gave your OK waits on your phone under Waiting for your OK to transcribe, with Review cloud transcription. Saying no there does not delete it.

There is no way to play a recording back in the app. Once it has been transcribed, your entry is the text.

On your iPhone Lock Screen

While GoodParts is working on an entry, your iPhone can show a small card on the Lock Screen with a progress bar. It only ever says Working on your entry, then Your entry is ready or Your entry needs attention, or the same for several entries at once. It never shows your words.

What happens while an entry is read is in your parts and how entries are read. Recordings made under a different account are covered in your account and your devices.