Settings on iPhone

The Settings tab is where you manage permissions, sync, sign-in, and get help. Here's what each section does.

On-device access

The three iOS permissions Groupthink uses, each with its current status:

• Microphone: record in-person conversations from the Interactions tab.
• Calendar: read on your phone when you make a plan, to find a free time; it is not uploaded.
• Contacts: lets Groupthink recognize people you text and add the phone numbers you pick to them.

A green check means it's on; a red mark means it's off. Tap a row that's off to jump to the app's page in iOS Settings and turn it on. Below the list, Add phone numbers from Contacts fills in phone numbers for people already in your Groupthink account. See Adding phone numbers from your Contacts. More on this in Privacy and on-device permissions.

Voice Dictation

Voice Dictation is the row under On-device access. The line under it reads "Talk instead of type in any app, with the Groupthink keyboard." Tap it to set up the Groupthink keyboard and turn dictation on.

• Session: tap Start dictation session to turn dictation on, and End session to turn it off. While a session is on, the row shows how long is left. Session length can be 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, or Until I end it.
• Set up: each step shows a check once it's done. The steps are Add the Groupthink keyboard and allow Full Access, Allow the microphone, and then either Allow speech recognition or Sign in to Groupthink, depending on the Transcription setting. To add the keyboard, open iOS Settings, go to General → Keyboard → Keyboards → Add New Keyboard, and pick Groupthink. Then tap Groupthink in that list and turn on Allow Full Access. Switch to the Groupthink keyboard once in any app so the step can show its check.
• Transcription: choose Groupthink (same as desktop) or On this iPhone. You can't change it while you're dictating.

Last dictation

After you dictate, a Last dictation section shows what happened, for example "Saved to Jason Lee's record in Groupthink." If the dictation added someone as a new contact, the line ends with "Added Jason Lee as a new contact." and an Open Jason Lee link under it opens them on the People tab. The Groupthink keyboard shows the same line after you dictate, though a long one can be cut off at the start.

Sync

Shows whether an iCloud account is signed into this phone, and what that means for you. When iCloud is available, your captures and people back up to your private iCloud database and sync across your own devices. Groupthink can't read it. When it isn't, the app still works offline. If a sync fails, the note under this section says so instead, and your captures stay safe on the phone. See Sync and signing in.

If you used the older Apple sign-in from an earlier version of the app, this section also shows your Apple ID, and a Sign out of Apple button appears at the bottom of Settings. That is separate from your Groupthink account in the Account section.

Account

Sign in to connect your Groupthink account and bring your relationships onto the phone. There are three options, and any one of them unlocks the Today and People tabs and lets captures file to people's timelines:

• Sign in with Apple, using your Apple ID.
• Sign in with Google, using your Google account.
• Sign in with email, the smaller link under the two buttons, for an account that has a password. It has a Forgot password? button for setting a new password, or a first one. See Sign in with email.

When you're signed in, this section shows the account you're signed in with, two export options, a Sign out of Groupthink button, and Close account…. Signing out removes your relationships from the phone but keeps them safe on the server.

When you tap Sign out of Groupthink (or Sign out in the ⋯ menu on People), the app asks "Keep your notes on this phone, or remove them?":

• Keep notes and sign out leaves your notes and recordings on the phone, hidden until you sign back in to the same account. Someone who signs in with a different account doesn't see them.
• Remove notes and sign out deletes this account's notes, recordings, folders and people from the phone. Because they sync through your iCloud, they are also removed from your other Apple devices. Anything already saved to your Groupthink account stays on the server.
• Cancel keeps you signed in.

Connect your Apple ID

If your Apple ID uses a different email from your Groupthink account, for example because Apple hid your email or your Apple ID is personal and your Groupthink account is for work, Sign in with Apple makes a separate, new account instead of opening yours. Connecting your Apple ID fixes that.

While you're signed in, tap Continue with Apple under Account. The line under it says "Connect your Apple ID so Sign in with Apple opens this account, even if your Apple ID uses a different email." Groupthink checks it's you before it connects:

• If your account has a password, it asks for it under Enter your password.
• If it has no password and you sign in with Google, it has you sign in with Google again.
• Otherwise, it says "To connect an Apple ID, this account needs a password first. Sign out, choose Sign in with email, and tap Forgot password to set one."

Once it's done, the row reads Apple ID connected and the app says "Apple ID connected. Sign in with Apple now opens this account."

To undo it, tap Disconnect, then Disconnect again to confirm. Groupthink checks it's you the same way, with your password, or by having you sign in again with Google or with the connected Apple ID. If Sign in with Apple is the only way into your account, you can't disconnect it yet, and the app says so. Add a password first: sign out, tap Sign in with email, and use Forgot password?.

Your Microsoft account

If a Microsoft account is linked to your Groupthink account, a Microsoft account row appears here. It reads Connected and has a Disconnect button. If you have never signed in to Groupthink with Microsoft, there is no row.

Groupthink links the Microsoft account you sign in with on the web, and from then on only that Microsoft account can use Continue with Microsoft for your Groupthink account.

You only need Disconnect if your company gave you a new Microsoft account with the same email address and Continue with Microsoft is refused on the web. Tap Disconnect and confirm. Groupthink then checks it's you: it asks for your Groupthink password, or emails a 6-digit code to your address if you have not set one, or asks you to sign in again with the Google or Apple account you use. The row then reads Not connected and says the account was disconnected. Sign in on the web with your new Microsoft account. The row is gone the next time you open Settings, until a Microsoft account is linked again. The full steps are in If Continue with Microsoft is refused.

Disconnecting does not delete anything, and it does not disconnect your Outlook calendar. The iPhone app does not have Microsoft sign-in yet.

Exporting your data

Your record is yours and leaves with you. Both exports are free on every account:

• Export your data: a zip of everything Groupthink holds for you (relationships, meetings, notes, and the intelligence built on them).
• Export my captures: just the prompts and voice notes you've captured, as one Markdown file per day plus a captures.jsonl. Readable by you, parseable by any tool.

Tap either row, then Email me the export. We assemble the file on the server and email a download link to the address you're signed in with, usually within a few minutes. The link is single-use and expires, so open it on the device you want the file on. If you ask again while one is still being prepared, you get the same export rather than a second one.

Automatic sync of your history to a git repo isn't set up from the phone. Do that from Settings in the web or desktop app.

Closing your account

Close account… sits under Sign out of Groupthink. It is the same close as on the web: it disconnects your calendars and connected apps and takes you off your meeting agendas. Before you confirm, the sheet tells you what happens to your contacts, notes and transcripts on our servers, including whether they are deleted and after how many days. Close Your Groupthink Account covers that in full.

Three things to know on iPhone:

• A Groupthink Pro subscription billed by Apple is not cancelled when you close your account. Apple keeps charging you until you cancel it yourself: tap Manage subscription on the same sheet, or open the iPhone's Settings app, tap your name, then Subscriptions.
• A subscription you pay for on the web is cancelled for you. It won't renew, and paid features last until the end of the period you've already paid for. If you sign back in before then, the subscription picks up where it left off.
• Recordings and notes saved on this iPhone stay on the phone.

Tap Close account for <your email> to confirm, or Cancel to back out. Signing in again reopens your account. If the sheet gives a number of days before your data is deleted, sign in before then.

When a connection needs attention

When one of your connections stops working, a row with an orange warning sign appears here, under the account you're signed in with. That covers every kind of connection, such as a Google or Outlook calendar, as well as GitHub repo sync. You get one row per connection.

For a calendar, Slack, Gmail and most other connections, the row names the service to reconnect, such as Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. Under that it shows the account the connection signed in with, when Groupthink has it, so you can tell your work calendar from your personal one. When there's no account to show and there's more than one row, it shows the name you gave that connection, if you named it. If Groupthink knows when the connection stopped working, the row gives that date and time too.

For a calendar, the row explains that Groupthink can no longer read it, so new events and meetings aren't coming in. For other connections, it says the connection stopped working and needs reconnecting. Its link opens the Connections tab of Settings on the web, where the broken connection is marked as not working. Open it and reconnect. See Reconnect from Settings for a calendar. A connection you set up in the last few minutes gets no row until it has had time to finish.

For GitHub repo sync, the row also appears when setup was never finished, and it says which of three things happened:

• Finish setting up GitHub repo sync: the connection is saved but not verified, so nothing is being committed to your repo yet.
• Reconnect GitHub repo sync: it worked before and Groupthink can no longer reach your repo.
• GitHub repo sync is paused: nothing new is being committed. Everything already committed stays in your repo.

Its link opens the GitHub repo sync section of Settings on the web, where you can fix it.

Once a connection is fixed, its row goes away the next time you come back to the app. If nothing is wrong, there's no row.

Calendars

Choose which calendars feed Groupthink, and connect more. You need to be signed in; signed out, the row is dimmed and asks you to sign in first. These are the calendars connected to your Groupthink account, not the calendars on this iPhone (those are under On-device access).

Tap Calendars Groupthink syncs to see every connected calendar, grouped by account:

• Turn a calendar on or off. Each calendar has a switch. On means its events show up in Today, your briefs and meeting prep. Off hides them in Groupthink. Nothing changes on the calendar itself, and the web app shows the same setting.
• Add another calendar from the same account. Under each account, tap Other calendars on this account to see every calendar that Google or Outlook account can see, like a family calendar or a shared team calendar. Tap Add and it starts syncing, switched on. The account's own calendar always syncs.
• Choose which calendars Groupthink joins. Under each calendar, the Auto-join meetings switch decides whether Groupthink is added to that calendar's meetings automatically. Turn it off for a personal calendar and Groupthink stays out of its meetings, while your other calendars keep their own setting. It's the same switch as Auto-join in Calendar settings on the web.
• Stop syncing a calendar you added. Tap Stop syncing in that list, or swipe left on its row. Any busy-block pair it belongs to is deleted and the placeholders Groupthink wrote for it are removed. Your real events are untouched, and you can add it back any time.

Connect another Google or Outlook account

Tap Connect another Google account or Connect another Outlook account at the bottom of the list. If you have no calendar connected yet, the buttons are Connect Google Calendar and Connect Outlook Calendar.

1. iOS asks whether Groupthink can use groupthink.com to sign in. Tap Continue.
2. A page opens briefly to sign you in, then closes. iOS asks a second time. Tap Continue again.
3. Pick the Google or Microsoft account and allow Groupthink to see your calendar.

The page closes by itself and the screen says which account it connected. Its calendars show up in the list once their first sync finishes. If your records sit under more than one account, Groupthink first asks Add this calendar to which account? Tap the one the calendar belongs to.

Your past meetings

When you connect a calendar, Groupthink also brings in your past meetings, so the people you already meet with have a history from day one. It goes back 12 months on the Free plan, and up to 3 years during your trial or on Pro (see Your Past Meetings). This starts a minute or two after the calendar connects and can take a few minutes on a busy calendar.

Under the calendar's name you'll see where it stands:

• Getting ready to bring in your past meetings… It has connected and the import hasn't started yet.
• Bringing in your past meetings… 212 events so far. It's running, and the count goes up as it goes. You don't have to stay on the screen.
• We went back to March 2024 and found 412 events. It finished.
• …but stopped at June 3, 2026. It brought in part of your history and stopped early. Meetings after that date may be missing.
• We couldn't finish bringing in your past meetings. It failed. New meetings still come in from here on, and you can add a past meeting by pasting your notes from it on the Interactions tab.

If the import failed or stopped early, tap Try again under that line. The import starts again and the line goes back to counting, with no need to refresh. An import that stopped early carries on from where it stopped. You can try once right away; after that, once an hour, and the line tells you the time you can try again (for example, You can try again at 3:40 PM.). If there's no Try again, the import is still running or it finished. Trying again brings in the same stretch of history your plan covers, not more.

More history on Groupthink Pro

On the Free plan, if your calendar goes back further than the 12 months Groupthink brought in, the line under the calendar's name says how much more there is, for example There are 2 more years of meetings back there. 312 people on them you haven't logged. Tap Get Groupthink Pro under it to subscribe in the app. Once your subscription is on, the line says Your older meetings are on their way in. Groupthink then brings in the rest, up to 3 years back, in the background. It can take a few minutes or longer on a busy calendar, and the line switches to Bringing in your past meetings… while it runs. You don't need to stay on the screen.

You won't see this during your trial or if you already have Pro, because those already bring in up to 3 years.

You'll see the same line on Today and on Action items right after you connect a calendar there, in place of an empty screen. A calendar connected before Groupthink imported past meetings shows no line at all.

When an account needs reconnecting

If an account shows an orange warning, Groupthink has lost access to it and its calendars have stopped syncing. The message says what to do: usually Reconnect on the web, which opens Calendar settings in Groupthink on the web. If your organization's admin has blocked Groupthink, reconnecting won't help, so ask them to allow it.

Email

Forward email to Groupthink shows your private forwarding address with a Copy button. Forward meeting recaps, introductions or any email thread to it and they show up in Groupthink. Anyone who has the address can add notes to your account, so treat it like a private link. The row needs you signed in.

Below the address are the same Gmail steps as on the web: Open Gmail's forwarding settings, Open this search in Gmail and Copy filter text. Gmail's iPhone app has no forwarding or filter settings, so do the setup in Gmail on a computer, or in Safari. The Forward everything instead switch swaps the filter step for Gmail's forward-everything setting; read the warning under it first. See Forward the email threads that matter.

Did it work? at the bottom shows the last forwarded email Groupthink received and how long ago, or Nothing forwarded yet. Forwarded email is listed under Conversations, in the Email filter. If your account has no forwarding address, the screen says forwarding isn't switched on for your account yet; contact support.

Notifications

Choose which emails and texts Groupthink sends you. Tap What Groupthink sends you to see every notification your account can get, each with a short description and a switch for each way it can reach you. It is the same list as Settings → Notifications on the web, and a change in one place shows in the other.

• Email is there for most notifications. Turn it off and that email stops; everything else stays as it was.
• Text shows only on accounts that have texts from Groupthink. If your number isn't linked yet, the switch is locked and a row takes you to Text with Groupthink to link it.

A switch moves as soon as you tap it and saves in the background. If the save fails, the switch goes back and the app tells you why.

What time the Daily Page email arrives

When the Email switch under Daily Page is on, a row called Email arrives at shows under it. Tap it and pick an hour. It is the same setting as the time picker on the web, so a time you pick in one place shows in the other.

• The choices are whole hours. If you never pick one, the email arrives at 6:00 AM.
• The hour is in your Groupthink time zone, and the line under the row names it. It is not always the zone your iPhone is on: if you are traveling, the app says the phone is on a different time zone, and the email still arrives at the hour you picked in your Groupthink time zone.
• To change that zone, tap Groupthink time zone under the line. See Time zone below. The hour you picked stays the same in the new zone.
• The email stays at that hour when the clocks change.
• A day with nothing on it doesn't send an email.

Picking a time changes only the time. Turn the Email switch off and the row goes away; turn it back on and your time is still there.

This section is about what Groupthink sends. It doesn't change the notification permission for Groupthink in iOS Settings, and the app doesn't send push notifications yet.

You need to be signed in to Groupthink to use it. Signed out, the row is dimmed.

Time zone

Your Groupthink time zone is the one Groupthink sends your Daily Page email in, reads your working hours in, and writes the times in its emails in. It is the same setting as Timezone in the Availability section of Today → Calendar & booking on the web, so a change in one place shows in the other.

The Groupthink time zone row shows the zone you have now. Tap it to change it:

• Your time zone shows the current zone with a checkmark.
• If your iPhone is on a different time zone, a Use this iPhone's time zone button shows under it, naming the phone's zone. One tap switches to it.
• All time zones lists every zone by city. Use the search box to find one by city or by name, such as "Tokyo" or "Mountain".

Tap a zone to save it. The checkmark moves once it has saved. If the save fails, nothing changes and the app tells you why.

Your time zone never changes by itself. If you travel, your Daily Page keeps arriving at the hour you picked at home, and your working hours stay where they were. Change the zone only if you want Groupthink to follow you.

The same row is under the Daily Page time in Notifications and under Share your open times in Scheduling. Working hours and working days are still changed on the web.

You need to be signed in to Groupthink to use it. Signed out, the row is dimmed.

Connected agents

The AI agents connected to your Groupthink account, like Claude or Cursor. This section only shows while you are signed in to Groupthink. Tap AI agents using your account to see them.

Each agent shows:

• Its name, as the agent supplied it. Groupthink does not verify it, so if a name looks unfamiliar, check when it was connected.
• When it was connected, and when its access expires if it has an end date.
• When it was last used, or that it is waiting for its first call.
• What it can do, in the words you saw when you approved it.

To disconnect one, tap Disconnect next to it, then Disconnect again to confirm, or Cancel to keep it. Pull down on the list to refresh it.

If no agents are connected, the screen says No agents connected and has a How connecting an agent works link to the MCP Server page. You connect an agent from the agent itself, not from the phone. To disconnect one on the web, see Disconnecting.

Labs

Experimental features you can opt into:

• Heart rate during recordings: reads your heart rate from Apple Health for the length of a recording so you can see how a conversation landed. Off by default; asks for Health access the first time you turn it on.

Labs features may change or go away as we iterate.

Help

• Report a problem: opens an email to our team with your app version already filled in.
• Privacy policy: opens the full policy in Safari.

About

Shows the app version and build number, useful to include when you report a problem.

Need a hand? Email support@groupthink.com.