Support

Something not working, or a question the answers below don't cover? Email [email protected]. A real person reads every message, usually within two working days.

It helps to include your iPhone model, the iOS version (Settings › General › About) and what you expected to happen. Please don't send recordings unless you're happy for them to be heard.

Getting started

Which iPhones does Quern work on?

iPhone 15 Pro or later, on iOS 26.4 or later. Quern does all its transcription and summarising on your iPhone, which needs Apple Intelligence, so it won't install on earlier models.

Why is Quern "getting ready"?

The first time, Quern downloads speech recognition for your language and its speaker-labelling model. It happens once. You can start recording straight away; transcripts and speaker labels catch up when the download finishes.

Which languages does it transcribe?

Your iPhone's language, where Apple's on-device speech recognition supports it; otherwise English (UK).

The free trial and unlocking

How does the trial work?

Everything works free for 30 days from when you start the trial. After that, unlocking Quern costs a one-time price shown in the app, with no subscription. It works with Family Sharing.

What happens if I don't unlock it?

You can't make new recordings or import files, but everything you've already recorded stays yours: you can still play it, read it, correct it and export it.

I've bought Quern but it's asking me to unlock again

Tap ⓘ beside "Recordings" to open About Quern, then Restore purchase, signed in with the Apple Account you bought it with. On a new iPhone, or after reinstalling, this brings the unlock back.

How do I get a refund?

Refunds are handled by Apple: go to reportaproblem.apple.com.

Recording

My recording paused on its own

A phone call, another app taking the microphone, or your AirPods switching to another device pauses the recording instead of ending it. Everything before the pause is safe. Tap Resume to carry on, or Save.

Quern closed or my phone died while recording

Quern saves audio as it records. Open it again and the recording will be there, missing at most the last few seconds, and it will be transcribed.

Can I record from the Lock Screen?

Yes. Add Quern's Record control to Control Centre, the Lock Screen or the Action Button, or add its Lock Screen widget. You can also say "Start a recording in Quern" to Siri.

Transcripts, speakers and summaries

The speakers are wrong

Open the recording and tap Edit speakers, beside Transcript. You can rename a speaker, merge two that are really one person, move a passage to the right speaker, or tell Quern how many people were there and let it look again.

A word was misheard

Press and hold the word to correct it. Then tap Regenerate beside the summary to use the corrected transcript.

There's no summary

Summaries use Apple Intelligence. Check it's switched on in Settings › Apple Intelligence & Siri, and that its model has finished downloading. Very short recordings, or ones with no speech, get a short note instead of a summary, rather than a summary of nothing.

What's the Clean reading?

Transcripts are verbatim by default. Clean hides "um", "uh" and repeated words while you read. The recording and the verbatim text are never changed, and exports stay verbatim.

Accessibility

Does Quern work with VoiceOver?

Yes. Transcripts are read a paragraph at a time, with actions to fix a word or change the speaker. See Accessibility for VoiceOver, Voice Control, text size and more.

Your recordings

Where are my recordings stored?

On your iPhone, in Quern's own storage. They're included in your iPhone's iCloud or computer backups if you have those turned on. See Privacy.

How do I get them out?

From a recording's More menu, Export saves a folder with the transcript as Markdown, the audio, and SRT and VTT subtitles, ready for Obsidian or any notes app. Share as PDF is in the same menu, and the Share button sends the summary and transcript as plain text.

Can I move recordings to a new iPhone?

Restoring your new iPhone from a backup of the old one brings them across. You can also export them first.