What’s New in Hirsla

People, remembered.

Released 11 November 2026

Version 1.3 keeps what you know about people: one card and one thread per person, beside everything else you save. A personal CRM, as easy as a note.

A card for each person

Choose Add › Person and pick someone in Apple’s contact picker, or just type a name. A contact shared from the Contacts app becomes a person too. Their card holds their face or initials, their name, one line you write, and Remember: up to five things you want at a glance, such as their dog’s name or where you met.

• Hirsla suggests facts only from your own words, shows where each came from, and adds one when you tap Add
• Tap a fact to change or remove it
• In Contacts shows them in Contacts, to message, call, or mail, and can link another contact or unlink one
• Ask about them, and the answer comes from their card and thread, with its sources

Their thread

Everything about a person gathers in their thread, a box per month, newest first. Write a line and press Return to add the next. The + adds a photo, a camera shot, a file, or a voice memo, each as its own entry. On the Mac, drop or paste a file there, and Command-N writes in the thread while a person is open.

• About… on any card marks whom it is about; the card says so at its foot, with Change, and stays in the Library too
• A card that names exactly one person offers to add it to their thread, and follows the words as you type
• A person rises in the Library with their newest entry, marked “2 new” until you open them
• Search and Ask find what is in a thread, and a question that names someone looks there first
• People have their own chip on iPhone and a place beside Pinned and Map in the sidebar on iPad and Mac, and Option-Command-N makes a new person on the Mac

With Siri and Apple Watch

Say “Note about Elio in Hirsla”, and Siri asks what to write and adds it to his thread; when the name fits more than one person, it asks which. A voice memo from Apple Watch, or a dictated note, that starts with “Note about Elio” goes to his thread when the name matches exactly one person.

Yours, and safe

• Contacts stays your address book: the first time Hirsla needs it, to show a person’s photo or open their contact card, it asks once, for the contacts you allow, and it only reads them
• Deleting a person asks whether to keep their notes as notes in the Library or delete them too, with 30 days in Recently deleted either way
• People are never fleeting, and Rummage leaves them out
• AI apps connected on the Mac cannot read People unless you switch on Let AI apps read People
• Export everything has a People folder, and each card says whom it is about

On the Mac

• Command-K shows clearly that Ask or search has the keys, also from a card’s own window or the panel
• Settings keeps its title row solid over scrolled rows, and a new tab leaves the last tab’s pages behind
• Every file dropped at the edge of the screen is read, also the second of several
• Rummage fits its sheet in the window, with Done and Undo always in view

And more

• The camera’s photo tile opens your photo library, and the photos you pick become cards
• Esc ends writing with a keyboard on iPad and iPhone too, as on the Mac
• Many smaller fixes

Your AI can ask Hirsla.

Released 10 November 2026

Version 1.2.2 lets the AI apps on your Mac use Hirsla, if you want them to, and fixes a long list of small things on every device.

Connections, on the Mac

Claude, ChatGPT, and other apps that speak MCP, the open standard AI apps use to reach tools, can now search your cards, read one, and ask Hirsla, which answers on your Mac with numbered sources. Ask Claude for the door code of the holiday flat, or to sum up the articles you kept on pricing.

It is off until you turn it on in Settings › Connections. Before it starts, a sheet says plainly what changes: what an AI app reads goes to that company, under its own privacy rules, and Hirsla cannot take it back. Hirsla’s own AI stays on your Mac. You tick that you understand, then Turn On.

• Each app starts read only; allow one to add notes and links, and the cards it adds say so and can be undone
• No app can change, delete, or purge a card, or reach Recently deleted, your backups, or Settings
• Each app has its own key, and Remove stops it at once
• Every request is listed on your Mac for 30 days and never sent anywhere
• Limits per app: 60 reads a minute and 20 new cards an hour, and no way to pull out the whole library
• Pause in the menu bar, or one switch in Settings, stops every app

Adding an app takes a moment. Claude installs in one click from Add to Claude. ChatGPT for Mac takes three steps, written in the sheet. Cursor, Claude Code, and other apps that read a standard MCP setup get it from Copy Setup. Grok is not supported: it only reaches servers on the internet, and Hirsla never opens your library to the internet. Connections is on the Mac only.

On iPhone and iPad

• Paste keeps a copied photo or file as its own card, and a file copied in Files arrives as the file
• Export everything carries on in the background, with its progress on the Lock Screen
• The document scanner opens full screen
• Record’s waveform fills its box, and a double tap on Stop and save makes one card
• Without Apple’s speech model, voice memos are written out with the dictation model instead
• On iPad, links and quick actions open in their own window, and typing in one window leaves the other alone

And more

• A linked image dragged in from a web page becomes an image card, with the page as its source
• A device without Apple Intelligence never replaces a card’s full reading with a simpler one
• “Last export” only changes once the export was really saved or sent
• Many fixes from a bug hunt on a real iPhone and iPad

Tidy up, for fun.

Released 9 November 2026

Version 1.2.1 adds two ways to keep your library light: Rummage, to go through your cards one at a time, and fleeting cards, which leave by themselves once you no longer need them.

Rummage

Rummage deals you your cards one at a time, the ones untouched longest first. Swipe right to keep, left to let go, or up to make a card fleeting. Undo takes back the last one, and a tally waits at the end. On iPad and Mac the arrow keys sort too.

• Long-press a day in the Library to rummage through that day or its month
• Under each finished month in the Library, rummage through just that month
• Scroll past your oldest card to start from there
• Now and then, after 40 new cards, Hirsla suggests a round; Settings can switch that off
• On the Mac, View › Rummage, or Option-Command-R
• “Rummage in Hirsla” in Shortcuts and Siri, or the link hirsla://rummage/all

Fleeting cards

Some things are only for now. Mark a card fleeting with a swipe, from its menu, in Select, or with Shift-Command-L on the Mac. After 90 days in which you did not open, change, or use it, the card moves to Recently deleted by itself, where it can still be put back for 30 days. Choose 30, 60, or 90 days in Settings for every fleeting card, or give one card its own days from its menu; the choice is the same on all your devices. A small hourglass marks the row, with the days left in its last two weeks, and the card’s last line says when it goes.

Links into Hirsla

Copy Link on any card copies a link that opens it from Reminders, Calendar, Notes, or anywhere links work. New links search, ask, and rummage from Shortcuts and launchers. All of them are on Links into Hirsla.

Ask reads more

Before it answers, Ask now reads the six closest cards, including ones that match your question by meaning rather than by its exact words. A question asked in other words finds its card more often.

On the Mac

• Text size in Settings works on the Mac too
• Save where I capture is on the Mac, in Settings › General
• A Spotlight result opens its card, also when Hirsla was closed or minimised
• Focus fills the whole screen, with the column centred
• A card kept with Control-Command-V or dropped at the edge of the screen says which app it came from, such as “Kept from Safari”, on every device
• Spotlight offers Ask Hirsla and Keep the Clipboard, beside New note
• In the Control-Command-H panel, Space looks at the chosen card, and the panel’s shortcut can be changed in Settings › Keep

And more

• A note’s line in the Library follows its words after every change
• A voice card whose recording never arrived says the file is missing, instead of waiting for ever
• Appearance, the fleeting days, and the Rummage suggestion follow you to your other devices through iCloud; text size and Save where I capture stay on each device
• Settings says plainly whether sync is still checking, has not run yet, or when it last ran
• Many smaller fixes

Sample cards, not real data.

On your Mac, and a new way to write.

Released 7 November 2026

Version 1.2 brings Hirsla to the Mac, and on every device you now write a note right where you read it.

Hirsla on the Mac

The same app from the same App Store listing, with the same library through your own iCloud. Room bought on one device counts on all of them, and packs can be bought on the Mac too.

• With Apple Intelligence, the Mac reads the cards it keeps and answers your questions, all on the device
• Control-Command-V keeps what you copied in any app as a card, with Undo; passwords are never kept
• Control-Command-H opens the Hirsla panel over any app, to find, to ask and get an answer with numbered sources, or to keep a note
• Drag anything to the edge of the screen opposite the Dock, and a Hirsla box keeps a copy while the original stays where it was
• A menu bar icon to ask, keep what is on the clipboard, open the last five cards kept, or start a note or a recording
• Your cards in Spotlight, with a switch to turn it off
• A sidebar with All, Pinned, the map, every card type, and Recently deleted
• Any card in a window of its own, and Keep on Top to float it over every app
• Swipe a row with two fingers on the trackpad: left to pin, right for Share and Delete
• Settings in a window of its own, and every key in Help, under Keyboard Shortcuts

Write where you read

Tap or click into a note to write in it. Markdown turns into its format as you type: headings, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, links, lists, checklists, quotes, tables, and dividers. Lists and tables carry on when you press Return, Tab moves between table cells, and the note is still kept as plain Markdown. Every device has its format keys: a bar above the keyboard on iPhone, the shortcut bar on iPad, and a format bar over a selection and a Format menu on the Mac. Type a slash for the block menu. Settings, under Writing, lists what to type.

Focus shows the note on its own in one readable column, with only the line you are in dark, and opens where your cursor was. On iPhone and iPad the line you type stays at one height, like a typewriter.

Faster sync

A note goes to your iCloud once you pause typing for a moment, so your other devices are not flooded with every keystroke. An original that could not upload is tried again by itself, and Settings shows “Sending…”, “Waits for internet”, and when this device last sent and received changes.

And more

• What’s New in Settings, and in the Help menu on the Mac
• The Mac app has its own icon
• Many smaller fixes

Drawing, the camera and scanner, the widgets, the Apple Watch app, and noting where you saved something are not on the Mac. Sample cards, not real data.

One share, one card.

Released 31 October 2026

Sharing is fixed. A link from apps such as Amazon or Google is now saved once, as one card named after the page.

• Short links from Amazon, Google, bit.ly, and others are followed to the real page, also when you paste or drop them
• A short link shared offline is followed the next time you open Hirsla
• Share the same Amazon product again, and it lands on the same card

Now on iPad and iPhone Duo.

Released 31 October 2026

Version 1.1 brought Hirsla to iPad and iPhone Duo, numbered every answer to its sources, and added drawing as a new kind of card.

iPad

The list and the open card sit side by side, with a sidebar for your card types. Drop anything onto Hirsla to save it, drag a card out as its original, and use keyboard shortcuts such as Command-K to ask and Command-N for a new note.

iPhone Duo

On iPhone Duo, Hirsla uses the system’s own toolbar and tab bar, on the side when it is closed.

Answers number their sources

Each sentence of an answer carries a small number. Tap it to open the card it came from, with the passage the answer used marked.

Drawing

A new kind of card: draw with Apple Pencil on iPad or a finger on iPhone. The handwriting is read on the device, so you find the drawing by what you wrote.

Apple Watch

The watch face shows how many recordings are waiting for the iPhone, and a card offers itself in the Smart Stack.

And more

• Draw straight from the widgets, the Lock Screen, and a new Control
• A note drags out as a Markdown file, so Files takes it
• A card in another language is also found in your phone’s language
• Notes get Clean Up and Regenerate Title, both with Undo
• Redeem a code in Settings, under More room
• Voice memos are transcribed in the language they are spoken in
• Many smaller fixes

Sample cards, not real data.

The first release.

Released 23 October 2026

Hirsla arrived on the App Store as an iPhone app with an Apple Watch app, in 17 languages.

• Share it in from any app: links, text, places, photos, PDFs, voice memos, and calendar files
• Your phone writes the card: a title, a short summary, and the facts that matter
• Ask in plain words, and the answer names the cards it came from
• The library, search, and Ask work in flight mode once Apple Intelligence is set up
• Voice memos from the iPhone or Apple Watch, transcribed on the device
• Widgets for the Lock Screen and Control Centre, and a map of where you saved things, if you turn it on
• Sync through your own iCloud, an export of everything as Markdown, and deleted cards kept for 30 days
• Free to download with room for 100 cards, and more room in packs, with no subscription

Sample cards, not real data.