Our Complete Features User Guide

(On Android, the permission request will say “Allow inq to find, connect to, and determine the relative position of nearby devices?” Accept this request to connect your pen).

Write with inq

Digitize your writing in real time

When you write while the inq mobile app is open, your strokes appear in real time.
If you’re viewing your notes on the web, there will be a delay before new strokes appear. We’re working on making sync to the web faster.

Write distraction-free, then sync later

Write whenever you want, no phone or network/Internet connection needed. All your writing is stored in your inq pen’s internal memory.

How to sync your stored handwriting

Open the app on your phone.
Take the cap off your pen.
You’ll see your writing appear as it gets transferred.
The Pen icon in the app shows the status of the data transfer.

Dots coming down from the pen means your pen is transferring data.
A green checkmark appears when the transfer is done.

Automatic cloud sync

When you’re connected to the Internet, the app will automatically sync your notes to the cloud. This enables you to access your notes on other devices and on the web, and also enables you to share links to your notes with others. These features are described in detail below.

Basic pen care

Your inq pen is easy to maintain and built to last. There are just a few things you should keep in mind.

Battery life

Your inq pen contains a high capacity lithium-ion battery, which provides enough charge for a full day of continuous writing (10+ hours) and weeks of standby time.

Still, you will need to charge your pen from time to time. We recommend not letting the charge go below 20% to avoid potential inconvenient interruptions.

To charge your pen, simply plug it into any USB-C charger or any device (laptop, etc) that supports charging.

If you battery is low, the following will occur:

The pen’s LED will turn red.
If the battery is critical, the pen will vibrate when you attempt to write with it. Charging immediately is recommended should this happen.
If connected to your phone with the app open, the app will notify you of the low battery and suggest charging. The Pen icon in the main menu will be red.

Memory capacity

Your inq pen contains enough internal memory for about 75 pages of A4 or Letter (8.5 x 11) writing. This means you can write a lot before needing to sync your pen with your phone.

But you’ll still need to sync from time to time. Syncing your data is easy - just open the app and remove the pen cap.

For now, you may also need to “Free Memory” from time to time to allow your pen to reuse the memory used up by data already saved to your account. We’re working on automating this.

If you see an alert in the inq app that your pen’s memory is getting full, it’s a good time to Free Memory. You can also do this whenever you like.

How the “Free Memory” function works

If you use your pen a lot, you’ll very occasionally need to “Free Memory” in the app while your pen is connected. This will allow your pen’s memory to be reused.

Make sure your pen cap is off and the inq app is open on your phone.
Tap the Pen icon.
Tap Free Memory.
Follow the on-screen instructions.

The Free Memory process ensures that all of the data stored on your pen is fully saved to your device before permitting its memory to be reused.

After freeing memory, you will have the full capacity of memory available to use for whatever you write or draw next!

Note: In a future version of inq, free memory will be entirely automated.

Transcribe your notes

The inq app uses advanced AI to transcribe your handwriting into text that you can see in the app, share with friends, and export to other apps.

How to see a transcript

Tap on the image of your handwriting to get a transcript.
When live-streaming your writing, you can also pull up from the bottom to get a transcript of your new writing.

Transcribing different content types

The inq app automatically handles different kinds of writing and drawing by transcribing them in different ways

Regular writing, headings, and lists: automatically transcribed into markdown, a simple and easy-to-read formatting language for text.
Math: automatically transcribed in LaTeX, a common typesetting format for math. Math is also transcribed into the Wolfram language for export to Mathematica or Wolfram Alpha.
Data tables: automatically transcribed into CSV for export into Excel or Google Sheets.

We don’t display CSV in the app, but you can access the CSV by hitting the Share button.

Diagrams and charts: automatically transcribed into Mermaid, a relatively new and extremely useful markup language for diagrams and charts. Editing diagrams is easy using one of the many web-based Mermaid editors.

The inq app displays a description of your diagram or chart instead of the Mermaid code. Access and export/share the Mermaid code by tapping Share.

How to edit a transcript

Tap on the part of the transcript you want to edit.
Tap the Edit button.
Make your changes, then hit the checkmark button to confirm.

For now, edited transcripts have some limitations:

If you request a new transcript for a page, it will refresh the whole transcript, and you’ll lose any edits that you made manually.
If you edit a transcript and then write more with your pen on the same page, your new writing won’t be transcribed automatically. You can request a new transcript to transcribe your new writing, but that will overwrite your manual edits.

How to refresh a transcript

If you add more writing to a page, inq will automatically show you a refreshed transcript when you view it. (Unless you’ve edited the transcript manually - see “How to edit a transcript”)
If you just want a new transcript - for example, if something went wrong with the transcription and you want a replacement - just tap the Refresh button next to the Transcription heading.

Access your notes on a laptop or desktop, anywhere

Visit inq.live to get your notes on a laptop or desktop

On your laptop, desktop, or tablet web browser, navigate to inq.live. Then, sign in using the same account you use with the inq mobile app.

Desktop, laptop, and tablet devices provide the best experience on inq.live. We recommend using the mobile app to access notes on your phone.

Features currently available on inq.live

The inq.live web app currently supports the following:

View written notes already synced with the mobile app (pages and notebooks)
View existing transcripts
Search your notes
Download page images, or copy to clipboard as PNG or SVG (SVG is only available on the web)
Download or copy transcripts to the clipboard, including all of the special data formats (Markdown/plain text, LaTex, Wolfram, CSV, Mermaid).

Some features are coming soon to inq.live

Some of the features available on the mobile app aren’t yet available on the web:

You can’t connect your pen directly to inq.live yet. The web app only displays notes that have already been synced with your phone with the mobile app.
Voice recordings and related features aren’t available on the web yet.
You can’t request a new transcript on the web yet.
You can’t yet initiate a “Share with link” on the web.

We are working on adding all of these important features for the web app.

Share and export your notes your way - you have full control.

Web links let you share access to pages or even whole notebooks.

The recipient will be able to access everything you’ve already written on the shared pages or notebooks - and like magic, the recipient can also see whatever you write later on those pages!

Tap on the page to see the page details menu.
Tap the Share button.
Tap Share link
Tap Copy public link

Next, paste the link into a text message, chat, or email (etc) to share!

Anyone with the link will be able to access your page and see everything you write on it, including writing you add after sharing!

Scroll down on the main menu to see the list of notebooks
Tap the 3 dots
Tap Share
Tap Copy public link

When you share a whole notebook, anyone with the link will be able to everything already in the notebook, and everything you add to that notebook later.

You can also post your links on social media or other public locations to share with everyone! You can even create a QR code (here’s a free tool) to share your link on physical media.

Update shared notes in near real time

Remember, with link sharing you can add more writing later, and everyone with the link will be able to see your new writing. Share a single page or a whole notebook, it’s up to you.

You can also share images, transcripts, and audio recording files with other people or apps.

On inq mobile, you can share static page images and transcripts:

Tap on the page to see the page details menu.
Tap the Share button.
Tap Share to app
Tap an option to choose which format you want to share. These options change depending on what you’ve written.
Finally, choose the app you want to share with. You can also Copy to clipboard or Save to your device.

You can also share recordings and voice transcripts with the inq mobile app.

Scroll the main menu to the list of recordings.
Tap on the recording you want to share, away from the Play button to open the Recording Details screen.
Tap the Share button in the upper right.
Choose whether you want to share the actual recording file, or the transcript.
Finally, choose the app you want to share with.

You can also Copy to clipboard or Save to your device.

Copy to clipboard and download page images and transcripts with inq.live

On the inq web app at inq.live:

Click the page you want to view
Click the Copy icon to copy to clipboard, or the Download icon to download the file.
Finally, choose the format you want to copy or download.
If you’ve copied to clipboard, you can paste the content into any program that supports pasting text or images.

Create voice recordings

Learn how to record audio with the inq app, and optionally sync to your handwriting.

How to make and play back a recording

Tap the microphone button in the upper right.
Tap Record. Recording will begin immediately.

You can pause and resume your recording if you like.

To finalize your recording, tap the Stop button. This will save your recording.

Recordings are saved to your device and also synced to the cloud so you can access them on other devices.

How to sync recording with writing

Synced recordings are great for taking notes at lectures, classes, meetings, and more. And it’s easy to do: Simply write with your inq pen and notebook while recording with the inq app.

The app will automatically sync simultaneous writing and recording. No special steps needed.

Play back voice recordings

How to play your recordings

Scroll the main menu down to the list of recordings.
To play a recording, tap the Play button.

Synced playback special features

When your voice recording is synced to inq pen writing - this happens automatically when you write and records at the same time - you unlock some special features.

Tap to play lets you use your handwritten notes as an index to your recording. Great for sparse note-taking.
Replay handwriting re-draws the strokes of your handwriting in sync with the audio playback. Great for review.

How to use Tap to play

Select the page of handwriting that you wrote while recording.
Tap the now-special button in the upper right.
Tap Tap to play
Your synced handwriting turns green.
Tap on any green handwriting to jump playback to 5 seconds before you wrote those strokes.

How to use Replay handwriting

Select the page of handwriting that you wrote while recording.
Tap the now-special button in the upper right.
Tap Replay handwriting
The recording synced with this page of notes will start playing, showing your strokes being drawn in sync with the recording.

Note: For now, Replay handwriting only supports replaying the most recent recording synced to each page of notes. If you have synced multiple recordings to the same page of handwriting, the older recordings can’t be replayed (though you can still play them back normally). This limitation will be removed in a future version of the inq app.

Transcribe a voice recording

Voice transcription converts audio into text you can read, share, and export. Transcriptions feature automatic formatting for readability, and can also assign speech to various speakers - even though the recording was created with a single microphone!

How to get a voice transcript

Scroll to the list of recordings
Tap on a recording away from the play button. (You can also tap on the playback widget where it says “Tap for details”).
Tap Request transcript

Transcribing with multiple speakers

Voice transcription uses a special process called “diarization” that attempts to assign speech to different speakers, instead of just jumbling together words from different people.

This is a fully automatic feature. Record multiple people speaking at once to see the result.

Manage voice recordings

How to rename a voice recording

Scroll to the list of recordings
Tap on a recording away from the play button. (You can also tap on the playback widget where it says “Tap for details”).
Tap the Edit icon
Enter the new name and tap to confirm.

How to delete a voice recording

Scroll to the list of recordings
Tap on a recording away from the play button. (You can also tap on the playback widget where it says “Tap for details”).
Tap the Trash icon
Confirm that you really want to delete the recording.

Scroll to the list of recordings
Tap on a recording away from the play button. (You can also tap on the playback widget where it says “Tap for details”).
Tap the Share icon.
Choose whether you want to share the audio file or the transcript.
Choose the app you want to share with. You can also Copy to clipboard or Save the file to your device.

Chat with Quin about your notes

You can chat with Quin about pages in your notes. Quinn can give you more information about things in your notes, can help you with math and other problem solving, can give you new ideas, or just serve as a sounding board for whatever you want to chat about.

To start a chat:

Tap on the page you want to chat about.
Tap the Magic icon to load Quinn
Either choose from one of Quinn’s suggestions, or type your own chat and Send.

Please note that Quin can’t yet help with product help and other customer service inquiries. To contact customer support, tap on the Person icon on the main screen, and then click inq Support to chat with a real human support agent, or to email us.

Organize and manage your notes

Add tags to pages for organization

Now you can add tags to pages to help you arrange your notes in a flexible way that fits your needs. Once you add tags, you can search your notes by filtering on your tags. Here’s how to do it:

Tap on a page
Tap Add Tag
Type the tag you want to add
Tap Create New Tag

You can create any tags you want. You can apply multiple tags per page and of course, apply the same tag across multiple pages.

See the section “Search your content” below for details on how to filter searches by tag once you’ve added them

To change the tags on a page:

Tap on a page
Tap on the tag under the page name
Make changes by tapping on the tags you want to add or remove

Tips for using tags:

Tags can be based on topic, time, can reference some aspect of your notes or drawings, or anything else! They’re completely flexible so you can choose how to make them work for you.
If you want to take organization to the next level, you can use a convention for your tags like [main topic]-[subtopic]. For example, chemistry-structure, chemistry-organic, chemistry-organic-proteins, chemistry-reactions, etc.
Remember, tags are easy to add and remove, so they can evolve along with your notes. You don’t need to worry about getting everything perfect right away.

Rename a notebook

Follow these steps to rename your notebook:

Tap the 3-dot button on the notebook you want to rename
Tap Rename
Type in the name you want
Hit Save

Archive a notebook

Note: Archiving is an advanced feature. Please do not archive a notebook unless you are sure that you need to archive.

Your inq notebooks use a nearly microscopic dot pattern to determine the position of your writing - not only within the page, but also across pages and across notebooks.

Notebooks that are the same size, binding type, cover color, and volume number also contain identical dot patterns on their pages. As a result, your inq pen cannot distinguish these identical notebooks from each other.

If you want more inq notebooks, we recommend first buying different types:

There are currently eight different A5 spiral notebook volumes available: 4 volume numbers each in black and white.
There Currently twelve different 8.5” x 11” letter-size spiral notebook volumes available: 4 volume numbers each in black, white, and orange.

However, if you need to use another copy of the identical type of notebook again - same size, binding, cover color, and volume number that you’ve already used - that’s where archiving comes in.

When you archive a notebook in the app, the digital version of that notebook permanently becomes a read-only copy. You’ll still be able to view and access all of the pages of that notebook normally. But any new physical writing you do with your pen in your archived notebook’s type - whether the same physical notebook or another of identical type - will create a new notebook in the inq app.

Archiving is irreversible, so you should make sure to understand the reason to perform an archive operation before you proceed.

Here’s how to archive a notebook:

Tap the 3-dot button on the notebook you want to archive
Tap Archive
Read the warnings and confirm your understanding, then tap Archive Notebook
A final confirmation is required. Archiving cannot be undone, but archived notebooks will be available to view, search, share, and chat with normally.

Here’s an example:

Georgia has used all eight different A5 spiral volumes - volumes 0, 1, 2, 3 of both black and white. Now she needs to use another A5 notebook - but there aren’t any other different volumes available at the moment.

First, Georgia chooses which notebook she wants to archive. Her black Volume 2 is completely full and she doesn’t need to write in it anymore, so that’s a good choice. She goes ahead and archives the black Volume 2 in the app. Now, when she receives her new black Volume 2 and starts writing in it, it will create a new, additional black Volume 2 notebook in her account. Her original Volume 2 remains archived in her account - available normally - but all new pen strokes on a black Volume 2 are added to the new black Volume 2 in the app.

Search your content

Never misplace your handwritten notes again - use Search to find anything, no matter when you wrote or recorded it.

Search works for handwriting and voice transcripts.

How to use the keyword search

Tap on the search input
Enter your search term
Results are filtered as you type

Filter your search by tags and more

You can find your pages with filters - including by tag - making it easy to find the content you’re looking for. Here’s how:

Tap on the search input
Tap one of the filters. Currently, you can filter by Tags, Time, and/or Notebooks. You can also change the order of the results with Sort.
Choose specifically what you want to filter. You may need to hit Apply.

Other tips about filtering:

Filters can be combined with the transcript keyword search.
Filters currently don’t work with Voice transcripts. If any filter is applied, no voice results will be returned. We’ll improve this in a future version.
To change a filter, just tap on it again and make the desired changes.
To clear all filters, hit the X in the upper right.

Sort search results

You can also change how your results are sorted - you can choose to see your most recent writing first (the default), your oldest writing first, or lowest page numbers first. You can apply a sort order with or without a keyword or other filters.

Tap the Sort control
Tap the desired sort option

Manage your inq pen with the inq app

Pen icon indicators

In the app, the pen icon helps you understand the status of your pen at a glance:

Pen icon is an outline or cloud: Not connected.
Pen icon is solid blue: Pen is connected and status is normal.
Pen icon is solid red: Pen is connected; low battery and/or memory.
Dots moving downward from the pen: Pen is transferring data.

View pen battery and memory status

Tap the pen icon to get more detail about the pen status. You can see the following:

Percent pen battery life remaining
Percent pen memory remaining
Pen firmware version

Free pen memory

After writing a lot - around 50 letter size pages or more - you’ll need to free your pen’s memory so that you can use it for new writing. (In a future version of inq, this process will be fully automated).

The app will notify you when it’s time to free the pen memory, but you can also do this any time with the following steps:

With your pen connected, tap the pen icon
Tap Free Memory
Follow the simple on-screen instructions.

The app will ensure all of your data has been fully transferred from the pen before freeing the pen’s memory.

Upgrade pen firmware

Firmware is software that runs on the pen itself. We work to improve this software and upgrades are available from time to time. When an upgrade is available, you can install it through the app following these steps:

With your pen connected, tap the pen icon
Tap Upgrade Firmware (only visible when an upgrade is available)
Follow the simple on-screen instructions.

Factory reset pen

If you want to give your pen to someone else or just want a completely fresh start, you can use the inq app to perform a factory reset on your pen.

Warning: Unlike “free memory,” a factory reset will not ensure all your pen data is fully transferred before clearing the pen’s memory.

With your pen connected, tap the Pen icon
Tap Upgrade Firmware (only visible when an upgrade is available)
Follow the simple on-screen instructions.

Manage your account

You can view details and manage your account with the inq app. Tap on the Person icon to view the current account email and see the version and build number of the app you’re running. You can also perform some actions, including:

Contact Customer Support

Tap “inq Support” to get help and contact our support team.

You can withdraw your consent to the privacy policy you consented to when signing up. This will require account deletion.

Delete Account

You can permanently delete your account by tapping Delete Account and confirming.

Sign out

You can sign out of your account on this device. Please note that if you sign back in on this device, the app will need to re-download all your data from the cloud. This requires a network connection and may take some time. No data will be lost.