Dictation history: why a searchable record wins

A searchable dictation history wins because you can find a past note by meaning, not just an exact word. Parlo's search on iPhone and Mac checks keyword matches first, then on-device sentence-embedding similarity, then recency, all as on-device processing. History syncs through your private iCloud, end-to-end encrypted, and you can turn that off.

By Eric Friedman. Last updated 2026-09-06.

Why does search beat scrolling through notes?

A voice note is easy to make and easy to lose track of. Once you have dozens of dictations, finding "the one about the budget" by scrolling gets slow. A searchable record lets you type a few words that describe what you remember, not the exact phrase you said. You get the right note back.

How does Parlo's search actually work?

Search on the iOS feed and in the Mac Notes window runs the same way, on the device. Every search checks keyword matches, sentence-embedding similarity, and recency together, then combines the results in one order:

1. Notes that contain your words come first, since a direct match is the strongest signal.
2. Notes that do not, but are close in meaning, follow. A search for "quarterly numbers" can still surface a note that said "Q3 results."
3. Within each group, closer meaning ranks higher, and a more recent note breaks a tie.

All of it runs as on-device processing. Your search terms and your notes are only ever compared to each other on your device.

What can the keyboard's history panel do?

The keyboard has its own history panel: recent notes, tap to insert, long-press to copy, and swipe to delete. It has no search. The panel is not a live copy of your feed either. It reads a projection of the feed that the app writes each time it reloads. A swipe to delete there queues that deletion for the app to apply the next time it opens. To find an older note by description, rather than by scrolling recent entries, open the app feed on iPhone or the Notes window on Mac.

Why doesn't the keyboard have its own search?

The keyboard extension stays deliberately small: it handles typing and the app-to-keyboard handoff, and nothing more. That keeps it well under the roughly 70MB memory budget iOS gives a keyboard extension. The keyboard already carries the layout, suggestions, and history panel within that footprint. Adding a full search index on top is not a tradeoff Parlo makes. Search stays where there is room for it: the app feed and the Mac Notes window.

What happens when you delete a note?

Deleting moves a note to a trash that keeps it for 30 days before it is gone for good. The trash is device-local: it is never synced. Inside Trash, swipe right on an entry to restore it straight back into your feed, or swipe left to delete it for good right away. Both your feed and your trash cap out at 100 entries. Once you pass that limit, the oldest trashed note drops off on its own.

Does history leave the device?

Local history is encrypted at rest under a device-only key that is excluded from iCloud Keychain sync and from device backups. If history sync is on, Parlo encrypts the content again on the device with a key kept in iCloud Keychain. It then stores only the ciphertext in your private CloudKit database. Apple and Parlo never hold the plaintext or the key.

History sync is on by default, and you can turn it off in Settings. On iPhone you can also skip signing in with Apple; Mac keys off the system iCloud account instead. Nothing syncs unless the device is signed into an iCloud identity, and a fully local-only mode is always available.

What if you search for something you have not said in a while?

Semantic matching does not require a recent note. It compares meaning, not timestamps, so a note from weeks ago can still rank above one from yesterday if it matches your search more closely. Recency only breaks a tie between two notes that already match about as well as each other.

What does a search actually look like?

Say you dictated a note weeks ago about a project budget, but you do not remember the exact words. Typing "budget" into the app feed's search checks every note for that keyword first. If none contain it directly, on-device sentence-embedding similarity looks for notes close in meaning instead. A note that talked about "the quarterly numbers" or "what we can spend" can still surface, even though it never used the word "budget." Recency then decides the order among notes that match about equally well.

What are the honest limits of history search?

Search only ever looks at your own dictations, on your own device. It cannot see notes you have not dictated into Parlo, and it does not search anything outside your history, such as email or messages. The keyword and semantic steps both run locally. Search results depend on what your device has already indexed. A note is searchable as soon as it lands in your feed, not before.

Why a searchable record matters for real use

The value of history compounds. A single dictation is a convenience. A searchable, encrypted record of every dictation is a place you can go back to weeks later. You find the exact sentence you said, without retyping it, and without a cloud account holding your words in the clear.