Pro feature · Built into iOS
Built like a real iPhone app, not a web wrapper.
Native Calendar + Contacts integration. Live Activity on the lock screen. Dynamic Island. Recording-status home-screen widget. The things every iPhone owner expects from a first-party app — and that web-first competitors physically cannot ship.
The competitive moat that doesn't show up in a feature comparison.
Otter, Notta, Plaud — they all started as web apps and bolted on a mobile shell. The gap shows the moment you reach for your iPhone: no widgets that work, no lock-screen recording timer, no Dynamic Island, no Calendar that talks to the app, no Contacts integration. The "iOS app" is a webview in a wrapper.
Bonfiyah was built native-first. Every part of iOS that an iPhone owner expects to "just work" is wired up properly — and the things that don't show up in a feature-comparison table are the things that make the app feel like a part of your phone instead of a tab in your browser.
What's integrated
Native Calendar integration
Bonfiyah reads your iPhone Calendar (read-only — never writes, never invites, never modifies). When it sees an upcoming meeting with someone you've recorded with before, it generates the Pre-Brief automatically and surfaces it as a notification 30 minutes before the meeting.
Works with any calendar that's in iOS Calendar — iCloud, Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange, third-party. Bonfiyah doesn't need to integrate with each one separately because iOS already does.
Native Contacts integration
Bonfiyah pulls speaker names from your iPhone Contacts. Once a voice is matched to a contact, every future recording with that person identifies them automatically. The People Memory profile (with Speaker Insights) lives at that contact's name — same name your phone uses everywhere else.
Read-only. We don't add contacts, modify them, or sync anything anywhere. The contact data stays in iOS where it lives now.
Lock-screen Live Activity (real-time)
When a recording is in progress, the lock screen shows a Live Activity card: elapsed time, story name, current speaker, and quiet-mode indicator. v3.0.447 (2026-05-14) added inline Flag, Quiet, and Stop buttons plus a live capture meter in the Dynamic Island expanded region — drive the recording without unlocking. The Live Activity is the controlled in-process surface where button-driven AppIntents are reliable; on the home-screen widget the same actions stay widgetURL-based to avoid the cross-process race the v3.0.42 retro documented.
Updates in real time. Flag a moment, go Quiet, or Stop right from the lock screen. Tap to expand to the full recording controls.
Dynamic Island
On iPhone 14 Pro and later, the recording state lives in the Dynamic Island whenever the app isn't frontmost. Tap to expand: red dot + waveform + native timer + story name + Flag / Quiet / Stop buttons plus a live capture meter (v3.0.447+). Tap the chip to deep-link back into the app. Compact-mode shows the red dot and timer; minimal-mode shows just the dot.
Home-screen widget family (v3.0.447)
Four of Bonfiyah's eight widgets live on your Home Screen and Lock Screen, each in a Small and a Medium size:
- Bonfiyah — recording status, plus your day at a glance — recorded today, stories, hours — in the Medium size.
- Daily Brief — open-item count + headline preview. Small + Medium. Tap to open the brief.
- Promise Ledger — top 3 commitments by owner and due date. Tap to open the ledger.
- Truth Layer — open contradiction count, taps direct to the freshest contradiction in Truth Layer.
Plus the existing Lock Screen accessory faces — Circular, Rectangular, Inline — for the recording widget. All of them respect the iOS 26 .containerBackground Liquid Glass material. See the full widget & Dynamic Island breakdown →
Control Center widget (iOS 18+)
Add Start Bonfiyah Recording to your Control Center, the iOS 18 Lock Screen, or the iPhone 15 Pro+ Action Button. One-tap recording start from anywhere — no need to find the Bonfiyah app icon. Uses the same AppIntent that powers Siri ("Start recording in Bonfiyah") and the Shortcuts app.
Recording-status home-screen widget
A free widget that shows live recording state on the home screen — elapsed time, current speaker, and a live capture meter. Drive the recording itself — Flag, Quiet, Stop — from the Lock Screen card or the Dynamic Island, no unlock needed. Works in Smart Stack rotation.
Live speaker reassignment · v3.0
During an active recording, tap any "Speaker A/B/C" diarization label. A picker opens with sections: Expected speakers → Calendar attendees → Apple Contacts search → Custom name. Pick a name and the rename carries forward to every subsequent chunk in real time, plus retroactively renames every existing line attributed to that label. Deep-dive →
AirPods, Bluetooth, lavalier — any audio input iOS recognizes
Bonfiyah records through whatever audio source iOS hands the app. AirPods (any generation), AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, Beats earbuds, third-party Bluetooth lavaliers, Bluetooth speakers, USB-C mics via adapter, your Mac's built-in mic on the Catalyst version.
Same one-tap experience whether you're using the iPhone's built-in mic in your pocket or a clip-on lavalier on the person across the table. No app-side configuration needed; iOS handles the routing and Bonfiyah captures whatever lands.
Why this is a Pro feature
The basic native UI — lock-screen one-tap recording, Dynamic Island, recording-status widget — ships in every tier including Free. The Pro tier adds the integrations that turn the iPhone from "a phone with a recording app on it" into "a phone that knows who you're meeting and when."
Calendar + Contacts integration unlocks Pre-Brief and People Memory — both of which become flat without the data your phone already has. Live speaker reassignment works in Pro because that's where its value compounds with the rest of the cross-recording layer.
Calendar reads are local. Contacts are local. The widget is local. The Pre-Brief inference runs over a TLS tunnel to a Bonfiyah-managed endpoint, processed under a commercial no-training contract — never used as training data.
FAQ
Why does a native app matter for a recording tool?
Because the parts that make the app feel like part of your phone only exist natively. Bonfiyah was built native-first on iOS, so the Lock Screen Live Activity, Dynamic Island, home-screen widgets, Calendar, and Contacts all wire up properly. Web-first apps that bolt a mobile shell onto a webview physically cannot ship these surfaces.
Which parts are free and which need Pro?
The basic native UI — all eight of Bonfiyah's widgets, four Home Screen plus three live activities and a Control Center starter — ships in every tier including Free. Pro adds the Calendar and Contacts integrations that unlock Pre-Brief and People Memory, plus live speaker reassignment.
Does Bonfiyah change my Calendar or Contacts?
No. Calendar access is read-only — Bonfiyah never writes events, sends invites, or modifies anything. Contacts are read-only too; Bonfiyah doesn't add, modify, or sync contacts anywhere. Both reads happen locally on your device, and the data stays in iOS where it already lives.
Which calendars does the integration support?
Any calendar that already lives in the iOS Calendar app — iCloud, Google Calendar, Outlook, Exchange, or a third-party account. Bonfiyah doesn't integrate with each service separately because iOS already aggregates them; it just reads what's there.
What microphones and audio inputs can it record from?
Whatever audio source iOS hands the app: the built-in mic, AirPods (any generation), AirPods Pro and Max, Beats earbuds, third-party Bluetooth lavaliers and speakers, USB-C mics via adapter, and the built-in mic on the Mac (Catalyst) version. iOS handles the routing — there's no app-side configuration to set up.
See the integrations in action
We'll send a 90-second screen-recording of the Live Activity, Dynamic Island, recording-status widget, and live speaker reassignment in real use.
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