User Manual
Everything you need to use Dumpr well, day to day.
Making a capture
A capture is a single continuous recording session. You can start one in several ways:
- Tap the record button on the Dumpr home screen.
- Tap the widget on your lock screen or home screen.
- Ask Siri — “Hey Siri, Dumpr” opens straight into recording.
- Press the Action Button (if you’ve set Dumpr as its action in iPhone Settings).
Once recording starts, speak naturally. Don’t worry about structure — say everything in whatever order it comes to mind. Short pauses mid-sentence are fine; if you go fully silent for several seconds, Dumpr wraps the recording up automatically. The transcript updates live at the bottom of the screen so you can see what’s been captured.
Tap stop when you’re finished. Dumpr immediately runs the transcript through segmentation and classification, then presents the review sheet.
Tips for better captures
- Be specific about time — “lunch with Ali at one tomorrow” is more useful than “lunch tomorrow”. The cleaner the time reference, the better Dumpr’s date extraction.
- Vary your phrasing — Dumpr handles “I need to call the dentist on Friday” and “dentist Friday” equally well; don’t worry about saying things in a special way.
- Long dumps are fine — a three-minute recording is the hard limit. For a particularly long session, stop and continue in a fresh recording; both appear in the inbox.
Reviewing your dump
The review sheet appears immediately after processing. Nothing leaves Dumpr until you tap Add all.
The header shows a count of how many items are checked out of the total — for example, “5 of 6 items”. Each row shows:
- A tick circle on the left — filled green when included, empty circle when excluded.
- The item text — editable inline.
- A category pill below the text — shows Task, Calendar, or Note.
At the bottom of the sheet, the Original transcript section shows everything you said verbatim, plus a Save to Notes button.
Changing categories
Tap the category pill on any row to cycle it through the three categories:
| Category | What it means | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Task | Something to do; no specific time required | Reminders (or Things 3 if configured) |
| Calendar | Something with a date and/or time | Apple Calendar |
| Note | An observation, idea, or reflection | Saved to your Dumpr inbox; use Save to Notes to keep one in Apple Notes |
Dumpr’s classification is accurate but not infallible — a quick tap to correct is always faster than fixing it after the fact.
Splitting a row
Sometimes two separate things end up as a single row — “Mum coming round at 8 and Tom coming round at 12” might arrive as one item. To split it:
- Long-press the row to bring up the context menu.
- Tap Split this item.
- Dumpr re-runs segmentation on just that row and replaces it with the resulting sub-items.
If the split doesn’t produce separate items (the segmenter still reads it as one), a message lets you know. In that case, edit the text by hand first — adding a period at the obvious break point and tapping Split again usually does the trick.
Sending to destinations
When you’re happy with the review, tap Add all in the top-right corner. Only rows with a filled tick circle are sent. Each item routes independently:
- Tasks go to Reminders (your configured default list, or a new “Dumpr” list if no default is set). Recurring tasks (“take vitamins every day”) get a recurrence rule.
- Calendar events go to your configured default calendar. Day-only references create all-day events; time-bearing references create one-hour blocks. Recurring events (“every Monday at 9”) get a recurrence rule.
- Notes — items classified as notes aren’t sent to a third-party app automatically in the review sheet. To keep a note, use Save to Notes (see below) or change the category to Task before confirming.
Saving the transcript to Notes
In the Original transcript section of the review sheet, tap Save to Notes. The iOS share sheet appears with the transcript pre-populated; choose Notes to create a new note. This sends the raw text — useful for free-form journaling or when you want the full context alongside the routed items.
Sharing with another Dumpr user
You can share an entire dump — all its checked items — as a link that the recipient opens directly in their copy of Dumpr.
- On the review sheet, tap the share icon (top-left, looks like a box with an arrow).
- A tone picker appears: cheeky (“Eric just dumped on you 💩”) or serious (“Tasks shared with you by Eric”). The name shown is whatever you’ve set in Settings → Sharing.
- Confirm, and a standard iOS share sheet appears with a link ready to send — via Messages, Mail, AirDrop, WhatsApp, or any other app.
The recipient taps the link and it opens directly in their Dumpr review sheet, where they can route the items to their own destinations. If they don’t have Dumpr, the link opens a web page explaining what it is and how to get the app.
Privacy note: the entire payload is encoded in the link itself. No data passes through any Dumpr server. The web page at that link is purely a fallback for people without the app.
The inbox
The inbox is Dumpr’s history of everything you’ve captured. Each entry shows:
- Brain dumps — a parent row showing the original transcript summary and how many items it contained. Tap it to see the transcript and all routed segments. Tap any segment to view or re-route it.
- Sent dumps — dumps you’ve shared with someone, flagged “Sent”.
- Received dumps — dumps someone shared with you, flagged “From [name]”.
Filter chips at the top let you scope the view to Sent or Received only.
Tapping a routed item opens it natively — a Calendar event opens in the full Calendar interface, a Reminder opens in a detail sheet — or you can jump straight to the system app.
To re-route an item from the inbox: open the parent dump, tap the segment you want to change, and update its category. The item will be re-sent to the new destination.
Settings
Open Settings by tapping the gear icon in Dumpr. The configurable options are:
Default destinations
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tasks (no date) | Where undated tasks go — Reminders, or Things 3 if installed. |
| Tasks with a date | Where dated tasks go — currently always Apple Calendar. |
| Default calendar | Which of your calendars receives new events. |
| Default list | Which Reminders list receives new tasks. |
Sharing
- Your name — shown to people you share dumps with (e.g. “Eric just dumped on you”). Leave blank to share anonymously.
Tips
- Show feature tips — discreet hints that appear below lists pointing out non-obvious features. They fade automatically as you use the features. Toggle off to suppress them entirely.
All settings take effect immediately. None require restarting the app.