How Catchall Photo works

Most apps keep a photo as a photo. Catchall reads it. What you get back isn't a picture in an album - it's a set of records, each with its own details, that you can sort, search, map and put on a calendar.

Four ideas explain everything else in the app. They're the same four you see the first time you open Catchall, and you can see them again any time from Settings → Help → How Catchall Works.

1. Photograph it. Catchall reads it.

Point your camera at a menu, a shelf of books, a stack of receipts or a page of notes. Catchall looks at what's in the photo and works out what it is and what's worth keeping.

Reading photos uses Apple Intelligence, and it needs an internet connection. Everything else - browsing, searching, editing - works offline. If you're somewhere without a signal, you can save photos for later and have them read when you're connected again.

2. One photo, many records

A photo of a bookshelf becomes one record per book. Catchall outlines each item it finds, and each outline becomes its own record.

You're in charge of the outlines: add one for something Catchall missed, remove one it shouldn't have picked, or keep the whole photo as a single record. See Checking the outlines.

3. Catchall suggests the fields

For a new collection, Catchall picks the details worth keeping - title, author, price, date - and fills them in for every record. These are suggestions. Nothing is saved until you've had a look, and you can rename, add or remove fields first. See Fields and roles.

4. It all goes in a collection

Records live in a collection. Once a collection exists, new photos you add to it use the same fields - there's no setup the second time. A collection can be shown as a gallery, a table, a map or a calendar, depending on what's in it. See Collections and views.

The whole journey, start to finish

1. Add photos - take them with Catchall's camera, choose them from your library, or import image files or a PDF.
2. Check the outlines - make sure each thing you want is outlined once.
3. Name the collection, or pick an existing one to add to.
4. Check the fields (new collections only) - keep, rename, add or remove.
5. Review the records - swipe through them and correct anything before saving.
6. Save. The records join the collection.