UrWriting — Support
Write your list by hand, as you always have. Photograph the page. UrWriting reads it, keeps track of what actually happened, and over the weeks shows you patterns you cannot see from inside a single day.
Everything stays on your iPhone. Privacy policy
Questions, problems, or ideas: support@urdev.dev — a real person reads it.
Getting started
- Write your list on paper as usual.
- Open UrWriting, tap Scan the page, and photograph it.
- Check what was read. Anything uncertain is flagged; tap to fix it.
- Tap Add. The tasks appear on that day.
Nothing is saved until you tap Add, so you can always back out.
Common questions
It misread my handwriting
Fix the line on the review screen before adding it. The app remembers the correction and applies it next time, so it reads your writing better the more you use it. You can see and manage everything it has learned in Settings → Learned words.
If a whole page reads badly, tap Type it myself instead. The photo stays on screen to work from, and you can type the list quickly underneath.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Reading your handwriting happens on your device. The app works with no signal at all.
Where are my photos, and can I delete them?
On your iPhone only, stored so they cannot be read while the phone is locked.
Open History, tap a day, and you will see the page it came from. Delete the photo removes the picture and keeps every task, status and note. If one photograph covers several days — a week to a page — deleting it removes it from all of them, and the app tells you so before you confirm.
I wrote a week on one page. Will that work?
Yes. If each day has its own heading, tasks go to the day they are written under rather than all landing on the day you photographed the page. A shared "daily" section is offered as habits instead of being copied onto every day.
If you write in two columns, the app works that out from the layout and reads each column top to bottom. The review screen tells you when it has done so.
If the date on the page is misread, correct it with the date picker — the whole week moves with it.
Why does it want access to all my Reminders?
Because iOS does not offer a permission for *only adding* a reminder. Granting access necessarily grants access to all of them. UrWriting only ever reads back the reminders it created itself.
Sending tasks to Reminders is switched off by default, and the app works fully without it. If you would rather grant nothing at all, the Shortcuts actions do the same job without any Reminders permission — see Settings → Apple Reminders & Shortcuts.
Why haven't I got any insights yet?
Because there is not enough to be honest about yet. The app will not tell you that Mondays go badly until it has seen enough Mondays to mean it. Most patterns need two to three weeks of days.
The calendar in History fills in from your very first page, so you can watch it building in the meantime.
A task was not finished. Is that a failure?
No, and the app will not treat it as one. A task can be done, partly done, skipped on purpose, moved to another day, or no longer relevant — and those are kept apart everywhere, including in the figures. A day you never wrote a list for is shown differently from a day where nothing got done, because they are different things.
How do I get my data out?
Settings → Your data → Export. You get everything in a readable format.
How do I delete everything?
Settings → Your data → Erase everything. That removes every task, day, habit, learned correction and photograph from the device. Deleting the app does the same.
Making it easier to read
The app supports Dynamic Type, VoiceOver, and Reduce Motion, and works in dark mode. Statuses are never distinguished by colour alone — every one has its own symbol and a written label.
Something is wrong
Email support@urdev.dev with what happened and what you expected. If it relates to a page that was read badly, saying roughly what was on the page helps — please do not send the photograph unless you are happy to, and never send anything private.