What it is
Quick Entry is the text field on the Home tab. It's a single freeform input. You don't have to choose between "name" and "notes" or fill out a form. You just write the way you'd write in a journal:
Sarah from the coffee shop, graphic designer, loves hiking
betterpal extracts Sarah as the person and treats the remaining clauses as notes. Multi-sentence entries are automatically split into separate notes, so a longer entry like "Met James at the conference. He runs a vinyl label out of Austin. Has two kids." becomes one person plus three notes.
betterpal reads the first capitalized word as the first name. If the second word is also capitalized, it's treated as a last name - type "Sarah Smith" and you get a person named Sarah Smith. If the second word is lowercase, betterpal assumes it's something you're saying about them, not a surname - "Sarah designer" gives you a person named Sarah with "designer" kept as a note. So capitalize a surname you want kept, and leave ordinary words lowercase.
How to capture an entry
- Open the Home tab.
- Type your sentence in the quick entry field. Don't worry about formatting - or even about whether it's a new person, a note, or just a passing thought.
- Tap to save. The entry lands straight away as an unprocessed entry; you don't have to sort it out in the moment.
That's the whole capture step. The entry then waits at the top of your Pals list until you have a minute to process it (see below).
The act of writing down a name and a couple of details makes it easier to remember later. Self-generated information is recalled better than the same information passively read. This is known as the generation effect.
Voice entry
Don't feel like typing? Tap the microphone in the quick entry bar and just say it out loud - "Lisa, neighbor, golden retriever." betterpal uses your phone's built-in speech recognition to transcribe what you said, then submits it as an entry automatically, so a person you meet on a walk is captured before you've even put your phone away. Tap the mic again to stop; long-press to cancel if you misspeak.
Everything else works the same as a typed entry: the words become an unprocessed entry waiting in your Pals list, and you sort it into a new person or a note whenever you have a moment.
Adding two people at once
You often meet people in pairs: a couple, two friends, a parent and child. You don't have to enter them separately. Type both names in one go and betterpal will offer to split them into two profiles.
Tom and Sarah Smith
When you process the entry and betterpal spots a second name, a Multiple people detected banner appears listing who it found - here, "Tom Smith, Sarah Smith" - with a Create 2 People button. Notice that it shares the surname: a single first name like "Tom" followed by a full name like "Sarah Smith" gives you Tom Smith and Sarah Smith, not a person literally named "Tom."
- It recognises and, &, +, and commas as separators - "Tom & Sarah Smith", "Tom, Sarah Smith", and "Tom + Sarah Smith" all work.
- Tap the button and you get a short form to review both names, add tags that apply to both, and set how they're related to each other - betterpal even pre-fills a likely relationship from the shared surname (partner for a pair, sibling for a group).
- Prefer to keep it as one entry? Ignore the banner and add it as a note like normal.
It's deliberately conservative, so it won't mistake a phrase for a second person. Possessives and relationship words stop the split - "Tom and Drew's parents" or "Sarah and her brother" stay as a single entry.
What kinds of entries work well
- Met someone new. "Alex software engineer met at hackathon, working on a music app, lives in Brooklyn."
- A new detail about someone you already know. "Mom's new neighbor is named Carol, retired teacher." Add it as a note on Mom, or as its own person if Carol matters on her own.
- A reminder of context. "Sam, we met at the wedding in 2024, he's friends with Priya."
- A detail you'd otherwise forget. "Dad's shirt size is XL, jeans 34x32."
What betterpal picks out automatically
You don't need any special syntax, but betterpal quietly reads your entry as you type and highlights a few things it recognizes. When you process the entry, these are filled in for you - whether you make it a new person or a note on someone you already have.
- Locations. "John lives in Denver" sets Denver as John's location, so he shows up in the right place on the Map. It catches phrasings like "lives in", "based in", or "from".
- Reminders. "Buy RC car gift for dad in 2 weeks" is recognized as a dated reminder. Process it and the note carries a reminder that surfaces in Upcoming two weeks out. It understands relative dates ("next Monday", "in 3 days") and explicit ones ("Dec 15", "12/15").
- Birthdays. "Priya's birthday is March 3" is picked up as a birthday, ready to save to her profile.
The recognized words are highlighted live while you type, so you can see what betterpal found before you ever hit save. Nothing is locked in - you can always edit or remove any of it when you process the entry.
Process the entry when you have downtime
Capturing and sorting are deliberately separate steps. Quick Entry's only job is to get the thought out of your head; you decide what it actually is later, when you have a free minute.
- Open your Pals list. Unprocessed entries sit right at the top, marked in green.
- Tap the green entry.
- Tell betterpal what it is:
- A new person. Review the suggested name, then optionally add tags, link a phone Contact, and set a birthday or photo.
- A note on someone you already have. Pick them from the list and the entry becomes a timestamped note on their profile.
- Save. They show up in Pals, on the Network graph, the Map, and anywhere your tag filters apply.
Once it's a person, two small habits pay off later: tag them with the event or group they belong to ("Wedding 2025", "Climbing crew", "Investors"), and link a relationship if you met them through someone.
Because capture and sorting are split, a single text field can hold a new person, a note about someone you already know, or just a passing thought - and you triage it later instead of stopping to fill in a form mid-conversation. Write it down now; figure out what it was when you have downtime.
Common questions
What if betterpal picks the wrong word as the name?
You can edit the suggested name before saving. If your sentence is structured oddly (like "the graphic designer Sarah from the coffee shop"), you may need to correct the suggestion. As a rule, leading with the name works best: "Sarah, graphic designer…"
Can I add a photo or emoji?
Yes. After the quick entry step, you can attach a photo from your camera roll or pick an emoji to represent the person. Useful when you don't have a photo yet but want a visual cue.
Does anything I type leave my phone?
No. betterpal stores entries locally on your iPhone. There's no server-side processing of your text. See the privacy policy for details.
Next up
Once you've written a few people down, the next thing to set up is tags. They're what turns betterpal into a map of your network rather than just a list.