How hold that works

By what you’re trying to do. The first few are the everyday; the rest are there when you go looking.

Write something down

Open Capture and type into the box at the bottom. You can also say it (the microphone), share it in from another app, add a photo or a ticket, or paste several lines at once and each becomes its own thing.

Nothing needs sorting yet. When you’re ready, tap a thing and a bar comes up: Today, Coming up (a day of your choosing), a List, or Done. Tap more than one to sort a batch.

Put it on a day

Tap a thing, choose Coming up, and pick the day. Add a time if there is one. That morning it’s on Today.

If the day passes and you didn’t get to it, it stays on Today and says which day it came from. Nothing turns red. Check it off when it’s done, or choose Dismiss to take it off without finishing it; Dismiss is kept in your history as a day you didn’t.

Make it repeat

Tap a thing, then Edit. The Repeat row offers every day, weekdays, weekends, the days you choose, monthly, or yearly. A repeat needs a day to start from, so give it one first.

Set an alarm or a reminder

Tap the thing, then Edit. The Remind row says Off until you set one. It needs a day first: give it a Day or a Repeat. Then tap Remind.

If the thing has a Time, choose Reminder, Alarm, or both, each at the time or 10 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour before. With no Time, set the clock on the wheel.

• A reminder is a normal notification, with a “10 more minutes” button.
• An alarm rings full-screen, through silent mode, like the phone’s own alarm. iPhones on iOS 26 or newer; on older phones the Alarm choice isn’t shown.

The phone asks permission the first time. A line on a list works the same way and rings on the list’s days. Everything set to ring is listed under Lists › Library › Rings.

hold that never rings on its own. Every reminder and alarm is one you set, on one thing, at a time you chose.

Today

The day’s things in time order. The one big thing at the top is the headline: tap a thing, Edit, then Headline, and it becomes the green box; checking it off gets a little celebration. Done today folds at the bottom.

A list that comes back every day sits on Today too. Not today, on its row, skips it for the day. A calendar event asks Did or Didn’t once it’s passed.

Lists

Make one with the + on the Lists tab. A list is a list; a note is a page of words; a kept list is one you use again (see the Library). On the list’s card you can put it on today, give it a day, Comes back on certain days (every morning, or the days you tap, fresh each time with yesterday’s ticks kept in your history), paste a whole list, mark all done, pin it to the top, share it, retire it, or delete it.

Finished lists aren’t gone. They fold under Retired on the Lists tab.

The Library

At the top of Lists, a switch says Lists · Library. Lists is what you’re working on. The Library is what stands behind it, in four shelves:

• Rings: everything set to ring, today first, then coming up. Tap a row’s On to quiet it for today.
• Rhythms: lists that come back on certain days.
• Kept: lists you keep and copy from, a packing list, a wallet. On a list’s card, tap Keep. Make a copy hands out a dated copy; the kept one is never touched.
• Tags: every word in use. Tap one to see everything wearing it.

The + here makes a list, a counter, or a tag.

Keep details with a thing

Tap a thing, then Edit. Under the rows there’s a line for a tag, a fact, and a picture.

• Facts are the small things worth keeping with it: a confirmation number, a link, a phone number. A link or a number in a fact becomes a button: tap to open, call, or copy.
• Pictures: up to three on a thing. A ticket or a QR code saved on the right day is there that morning.
• Place: the “at” field under the name, for where it happens.

Tags

A tag is one word that groups things: Boston, work. A thing can wear up to three.

To add one: tap the thing, Edit, then + tag on the green line. Pick a word, or + New to make one, then Save. A list or a counter gets its tag on its own sheet.

Tags show on a thing’s open card, not on the row. Tap a tag anywhere and you get everything wearing it: thoughts, lines, lists, counters, and each one opens. Search finds by tag too. The Library’s Tags shelf lists every word; from a word’s page you can rename it or delete it everywhere.

Count things

The line under today’s date is for counting. Tap it, or the + on Today, and choose:

• Count down to a day: a trip, a deadline. It says “in 12 days”, then “today”.
• Count up from a day: days since.
• Tally: tap to count, as many as you like today.
• A line of your own: words that sit there.
• A goal or a streak on a list that comes back: four runs a week, ten days in a row. Each has its own page of months.

See your days

The Days tab. Coming up is the next ninety days, day by day. Looking back is what went and what didn’t, day by day. Search at the top finds anything by its words or its tag. The calendar button opens a month; tap a day to land on it.

Calendars

In Settings › Calendars, turn on Apple Calendar or Google Calendar and your events show on your days, next to everything else. Google asks you to sign in once and pick which calendars. You can turn either off there; the events leave, your own things stay.

The other direction: on a thing’s Edit page, Add to calendar puts it on your calendar.

Claude and email

Claude. Add hold that to Claude and it can see your days, hold a thought for you, put it on a day, or mark it done. It’s set up on claude.ai, not in the phone. How to connect, and what Claude can see.

Email. You have your own hold that address. Forward an email to it and it lands in Capture with a way back to the email. Your address is in Settings on the web; keep it to yourself, since anyone who has it can put things in your account.

On the web

The same account at holdthatapp.com/app. Sign in and your morning page is the first thing you see: the day, the weather where you are, what’s on today and tomorrow, what went yesterday, and where things stand. The four tabs, the calendar, the line under the date, and Settings are all there. You can write things down, sort them, check them off, move them, and change a thing’s words, day, time and place from its card. Repeats, reminders and alarms, tags and pictures are set on the phone; More it can do shows each of them on your own things.

Your account

In Settings: your name, light or dark, text size, your calendars, and your free week and the one-time price. Export downloads everything as one file; pictures don’t export. Delete my account is three taps and it’s gone, pictures and all. Sign out is at the bottom.

Something that looks wrong, or a question this page doesn’t answer: support@holdthatapp.com. Privacy, in plain words.