Saturday, November 7

Watch a thought change its mind.

A quiet place to write thoughts on iPhone and iPad. Mote finds the ones that belong together and shows how an idea grew, all on your device.

Coming to iPhone and iPad

little thoughts. bigger connections.

Trails

Five months, one idea, the steps in between.

She doesn't go backMay → November 2026 · 4 thoughts

Example libraries. Trail names and Mote’s guesses here were written for the demo; on your device they come from you, or from Apple Intelligence where it’s available.

  1. May 20 · 11:48 PM

    How it ends

    Marisol goes back to the island at the end. The lighthouse has been sold, her father is dead, and she stands in the kitchen she spent three hundred pages trying to leave. Everything comes home. That's the book.

  2. Changed your mind The homecoming stopped feeling true

    Jul 9 · 5:52 AM

    Does she need to go back?

    Reread the last chapters. The homecoming feels earned on the page but false in my stomach. She goes back because I want it to be tidy. People like Marisol don't go back; they send money and they don't call.

  3. Took it further If she won't go back, what does she do instead?

    Sep 24 · 11:20 PM

    The letter instead

    She sends a letter. That's all. He's already dead and she knows it when she posts it, addressed to the lighthouse, which has been sold. Nobody will read it. It's the first honest thing she has written to him.

  4. Mote’s guess · Got sharper The letter became the last page

    Nov 4 · 6:40 AM

    She doesn't go back

    It took me five months to admit it. She doesn't go back.

How it works

Write. Older thoughts that feel related appear in the margin.

  1. A thought in Mote titled “An empty state is a promise”, with Saved at the top.

    1. Write

    One line is enough. It saves as you go, and the indicator only says saved when it is.

  2. The margin under a thought: it picks up “The empty state is the onboarding” from September.

    2. Connect

    While you type, older thoughts that share your words show up beside you. Link one, or don’t.

  3. Search for “empty”: four thoughts, the word highlighted in each.

    3. Find

    Search everything, keep a view, gather thoughts into collections. Nothing to file first.

The map

Every thought as a mote.

Solid lines are links you made. Dashed lines are ones Mote found. Nothing on the map is decoration: if a dot is there, you wrote it.

  • you linked these
  • Mote found these
  • Scroll to lift one month at a time.
Read every month as a list (58 thoughts)
  1. 20 May How it ends Writer
  2. 31 May Woman on the 9 bus, into her phone, comple… Writer
  3. 2 Jun Tours are an apology Designer
  4. 11 Jun What the father never says Writer
  5. 11 Jun Do we need a bigger place? Everyone else
  6. 19 Jun Two typefaces, one job each Designer
  7. 23 Jun Lentil soup Everyone else
  8. 24 Jun On Woolf's semicolons Writer
  9. 3 Jul The logo conversation Designer
  10. 4 Jul Ran to the bridge and back without stoppin… Everyone else
  11. 9 Jul Does she need to go back? Writer
  12. 12 Jul Dad's stories Everyone else
  13. 18 Jul Teach by doing, once Designer
  14. 26 Jul 500 words before the phone Writer
  15. 27 Jul What moving would really cost Everyone else
  16. 3 Aug Morning walk thought: the good signage in… Designer
  17. 4 Aug Two old men outside the barber. One says:… Writer
  18. 8 Aug Mia asked why the moon follows the car. I… Everyone else
  19. 11 Aug Day rate, again Designer
  20. 17 Aug The shape of it Writer
  21. 20 Aug Stop paying for Everyone else
  22. 25 Aug Numbers want a mono Designer
  23. 28 Aug Lunch with Dele Writer
  24. 2 Sept Party or no party Everyone else
  25. 5 Sept The empty state is the onboarding Designer
  26. 10 Sept The salt on the windows Writer
  27. 13 Sept Cut the case studies by half Designer
  28. 16 Sept What if we fixed what we have? Everyone else
  29. 24 Sept The letter instead Writer
  30. 27 Sept The card, again Designer
  31. 29 Sept Spare room, if we stay Everyone else
  32. 2 Oct Keegan's restraint Writer
  33. 5 Oct Slow is a feature Designer
  34. 8 Oct The green pasta Everyone else
  35. 11 Oct Where people actually go Designer
  36. 13 Oct Names on the island Writer
  37. 14 Oct Dad on the motorbike Everyone else
  38. 17 Oct What I told the new junior Designer
  39. 20 Oct Killed Lisbon Writer
  40. 21 Oct Signed up for the 10K Everyone else
  41. 24 Oct The portfolio is one sentence Designer
  42. 26 Oct Asked for Fridays Everyone else
  43. 27 Oct Child at the library to her mother, very s… Writer
  44. 29 Oct Warm greys Designer
  45. 31 Oct Sam read a whole page out loud tonight and… Everyone else
  46. 1 Nov Three in the morning Writer
  47. 2 Nov Maybe we stay Everyone else
  48. 3 Nov An empty state is a promise Designer
  49. 4 Nov She doesn't go back Writer
  50. 5 Nov Say no in the first meeting Designer
  51. 5 Nov Aunt Rosa's cake Everyone else
  52. Yesterday Called her Writer
  53. Today Icons without labels Designer
  54. Today Talk for the meetup Designer
  55. Today Today's 500 Writer
  56. Today Epigraph? Writer
  57. Today Before I forget Everyone else
  58. Today Toast for Dad Everyone else

Example libraries. Trail names and Mote’s guesses here were written for the demo; on your device they come from you, or from Apple Intelligence where it’s available.

Sketch & voice

Not every thought is a sentence.

Sketch with Apple Pencil right inside a thought. Or say it out loud: voice notes are transcribed on your device, so you can search what you said.

Voice note · The salt on the windows 0:00 / 0:09

Becomes The shape of it, the writer’s Pencil sketch from August.

Voice note “The salt on the windows”, transcribed on the device: Every winter the salt dries on the windows, and her father scrapes it off with the side of a coin. That's the opening image. She remembers the sound before she remembers his face.

Sketch “The shape of it”: It isn't a line, it's a tide. Three chapters forward, one back. Every return to the island is shorter than the last, until the final one is only a sentence.

Three libraries

A designer, a novelist, someone deciding whether to move.

Same app, three heads. These are example libraries, written to show what months of small thoughts look like.

TrailHow the tour died

  • Portfolio rewriteWhat goes in, what finally comes out.
  • Steal like a thiefSmall things other people got right.
  • Studio notesRunning the place, and running myself.

TrailShe doesn’t go back

  • The Salt YearThe novel. Everything that might belong in it.
  • OverheardThings people really said.
  • ReadingLines I wish I had written.

TrailMove or stay

  • The house thingStay, move, or lose our minds.
  • Dad's 70thDon't let him find out.
  • Food that workedThings the kids actually ate.

Example libraries. Trail names and Mote’s guesses here were written for the demo; on your device they come from you, or from Apple Intelligence where it’s available.

my-thoughts.mote20 thoughts · 3 collections · one ZIP

Privacy

No account. No cloud. One file that’s yours.

On your device
Thoughts, sketches and voice notes live on your iPhone or iPad. Nothing is sent anywhere.
No account
There’s nothing to sign up for, so there’s nothing to leak.
Your .mote file
Export everything as one .mote file, any time. It’s a plain ZIP you can open.
Works offline
It never needed a connection in the first place.

Why Mote

Most thoughts are small.

A line on the bus. A word for something you can’t name yet.

Alone, they don’t look like much, so we lose them.

But you keep thinking the same thought, a little differently, for months.

Mote keeps the small ones, and shows you the shape they make.

Start with one line.

Coming to iPhone and iPad

little thoughts. bigger connections.