Save highlighted text from any iPhone app

Something worth keeping usually ends up as a screenshot nobody looks at again. Highlight it, share it to The Void, and review it later as a quote with its source.

the screenshot problem

Most of what we save while reading goes to the camera roll: a screenshot of a paragraph, filed between photos of receipts, never to be seen again. Sharing the text itself puts it somewhere it can be easily found and reviewed.

save highlighted text

1. In Safari, select the text: press and hold a word, then drag the handles to cover the passage.
2. With the text still selected, tap the Share button in Safari's toolbar, the square with an arrow.
3. In the row of apps, tap The Void.
4. The passage arrives as a quote, with the page's title linked under it. Edit it if you like, and tap Send.

Use Safari's toolbar button, not the Share in the menu that pops up over the selection: from that menu, Safari hands over the words alone, and the memo can't say where they came from. In Mail, Books, Notes and most other apps the menu's Share is the only one, and The Void saves the passage as it is. Either way the memo is sorted all the same.

save a web page

To keep a whole page rather than a passage, tap the Share button in Safari's toolbar with nothing selected and pick The Void. The memo holds the page's title and its link.

Once it's saved, The Void reads the page's title and description and shows them as a card under the memo.

Add a line about why you saved it before you tap Send: when it turns up in your summary, you'll know what it was for.

send a voice recording

Recordings work too. In Voice Memos, Files or anywhere else with an audio file, tap Share and pick The Void. You'll see the recording's name and length. Tap Send and it's transcribed and sorted like a memo recorded in the app.

Recordings can be up to 10 minutes long, the same limit as everywhere else in The Void.

if The Void isn't in the share sheet

1. Open The Void's app once and sign in.
2. In the share sheet, scroll the row of apps all the way to the right and tap More.
3. Tap Edit, then add The Void to your Favorites so it sits at the front of the row.

no connection?

Send anyway. When the share window can't reach the server it says "Saved on your phone. It sends the next time The Void is open." and the memo gets sent automatically the next time you open the app.

read more

• Write a note from your iPhone Lock Screen
• Take a note with Siri, hands-free
• Capture now, review later