Log an expense by voice on iPhone, in about three seconds

Typing an expense means opening an app, finding the right screen, entering an amount, picking a category and saving. Saying it takes one sentence. Here's how voice logging works in Linaw, what to say, and what happens to your voice along the way.

Your first voice log

1. Tap the green mic in the middle of the tab bar. The first time, iOS asks for Microphone and Speech Recognition. Both are needed.
2. Say the amount and where it went: "5.75 for coffee." A wave moves while Linaw listens, and it stops by itself when you stop talking.
3. Glance at the confirm card. It shows the amount, the merchant, a category and the account. When Linaw is sure, the card saves itself in three seconds. When it isn't, you tap to fix the one thing it got wrong, then save.

Home updates right away: the log appears under Recent, and Left over and Went out change with it. Most logs take under three seconds.

What to say

The shape that always works is amount, "for", merchant:

• "180 for lunch"
• "12.40 for Uber"
• "2,500 for rent"

The free plan reads that shape right on your phone. On iPhones with Apple Intelligence it also uses Apple's on-device model, so it copes with a little more variety, still at no cost.

Linaw Pro understands everyday phrasing on top of that, like "paid the electric bill yesterday, 1,820". It picks out the amount, the merchant and the day, so that log lands on yesterday.

Teach it your categories once

The first time you log a new merchant, check the category on the card and change it if needed. Linaw remembers that choice for that merchant, so the next log at the same place already has the right category. You can see or forget what it has learned under You → Remembered merchants.

Logging with Siri

You don't have to open the app at all. Say "Hey Siri, log to Linaw," then say the entry when Siri asks. "New Linaw entry" and "Add to Linaw" work too.

By default Siri reads back only the merchant, not the amount, so it's private on a crowded jeepney or in an open office. If you'd like to hear the amount, turn on You → Voice & Siri → Speak amounts aloud.

What happens to your voice

• The audio never leaves your iPhone. Speech is turned into words on the phone itself.
• The words aren't kept. They fill in the card, and you can see them there. Once the log is saved they're discarded, and the saved log holds only what you type into its note.
• On Pro, there's one exception. A sentence your phone can't read on its own is sent to our server as text, never audio, together with your category and merchant names, so the amount and merchant come back right. Nothing you said is stored there. The privacy policy names every service involved.

When typing is better

Sometimes speaking isn't an option: a meeting, a quiet library, a loud bus. On Home, tap + → Add transaction and the keypad has the same fields. Voice is the fast path, not the only one.

Why bother with voice

The time saved per log is small, about five seconds against typing. It adds up because logging is something you do several times a day. At 20 voice logs and 10 receipts a week, logging by voice and receipt saves about six hours a year. The bigger win is that a log fast enough to do at the counter actually gets done.