Support
We're here to help. This page describes Kiln 4.0.
Kiln is a private, on-device AI meeting assistant for Mac and iPhone/iPad. Record or import a meeting and turn it into transcripts, summaries, action items, Jira stories, and more — Kiln never sends your audio, transcripts or reports anywhere. Kiln transcribes nine languages, and its own interface comes in nine languages too.
Getting started
Do I need an account?
No. Kiln has no login and no subscription.
Where do I find Settings?
On iPhone, it's the button at the top left of your library. On iPad and Mac, it's at the bottom of the sidebar. On Mac, Settings is that sidebar item — there is no separate Settings window on ⌘,.
How do I export a report?
Open the report and use Copy to put its Markdown on the clipboard, or Share to export a paginated PDF. There is no Markdown file export — Markdown reaches you through the clipboard only. The original audio is shared or saved from the meeting screen, or from a library card's context menu, not from the report screen.
Where are my recordings stored?
Only on your device, in the app's private sandbox — not in Files or Finder. Deleting a meeting deletes its audio, its transcript, its speaker records and every report generated from it, and that can't be undone. Settings → Storage → Delete All Meetings… does the same for every meeting in one step. Your settings and Kiln's technical diagnostic log are separate and stay behind. On iPhone and iPad, deleting Kiln removes them too; on a Mac it doesn't — see the uninstall answer below.
Is the AI always accurate?
No AI is perfect. Transcripts, speaker names, and reports are AI-generated and may contain mistakes — please review important details before sharing or making decisions.
Languages
What languages are supported?
Two separate things, nine each. Kiln transcribes English, Español, Français, Deutsch, Italiano, Português, 中文, 日本語 and 한국어 — Portuguese is Brazilian, Chinese is Simplified Mandarin. The picker lists each in its own name, with a second line in whatever language you've set the app to. Kiln's interface is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Hindi and mixed Hindi-English are not supported.
How do I change the app's language?
In Kiln 4.0 and later: Settings → App Language, then pick one. The change applies immediately without relaunching — the app returns to your library as it re-renders. It is the same setting as iOS Settings → Kiln → Language, so the two always agree. There is no "follow my device" option: once you pick a language, Kiln stays in it until you pick another. If you don't see App Language at all, you're on an earlier version of Kiln.
How do I change the transcription language?
Settings → Transcription → Language sets the default for new meetings and downloads that language's speech model. The record and import sheets carry the same Language picker, so you can switch just before you start — but that switch becomes your new default: every meeting after it uses that language until you change it again. This is a different setting from App Language: one is the language Kiln speaks to you in, the other is the language you speak in.
What language will my reports be in?
The language the meeting was transcribed in. Reports, automatic titles and suggested speaker names come out in the language you picked for that meeting — set German, and a German meeting produces a German summary. Kiln does not detect the language from the audio, so if the picker is wrong the report follows the picker. On screen, the chrome around the content — report names, section headings, buttons — follows your App Language, so a German meeting in a Spanish-set Kiln gives you German content under Spanish headings. Copied Markdown and exported PDFs are a document rather than a screen: their section headings are English regardless of either setting.
Do languages need to be downloaded?
Yes, once per language. The speech models are Apple's and are shared with the rest of your device, so the system downloads them — Kiln never fetches anything itself. What you see while it downloads depends on where you started it: on the Languages screen the row shows a "Downloading…" status with a spinner, while the picker in the record or import sheet shows a progress bar and a percentage. Neither shows a file size or a time remaining, because Apple's API reports neither. Kiln also can't delete a downloaded language; the system frees that space itself when it needs it.
Why is a system permission alert in a different language from the rest of Kiln?
Because your operating system draws those alerts, not Kiln. System permission alerts — the microphone one, for example — follow your device's language, not the language you picked inside the app. Set Kiln to Spanish on an English iPhone and the microphone prompt still appears in English; set your iPhone to Spanish and it appears in Spanish even if Kiln is in English. Kiln supplies its explanation text in all nine languages, but which one the system shows isn't the app's to choose and nothing in Kiln can override it. It is not a missing translation.
Why is some text still in English after I switch languages?
Error and status messages are the exception. When something can't run — Apple Intelligence unavailable, a report that failed, a transcription that couldn't start — the explanatory sentence is still English in every app language. Everything else, including dates, durations and file sizes, follows your App Language. If any translation reads wrong in your language, please tell us; that's genuinely useful feedback.
Your device
Why can't I generate reports on my device?
Report generation runs on Apple Intelligence, which your device has to support and you have to have turned on. Rather than reprint a hardware list that moves with every Apple release, we'll point you at the two places that actually know: Settings → Apple Intelligence on the device itself tells you whether it qualifies and which part is missing, and Apple publishes the current requirements at apple.com/apple-intelligence. Kiln has no cloud fallback: when it can't generate a report, it stops and says so rather than sending your meeting anywhere. Speaker-name suggestions and automatic meeting titles need the same thing; recording, import, transcription and speaker separation don't.
Kiln says transcription isn't available on this device — what does that mean?
Transcription uses Apple's on-device speech models, and some hardware can't run them at all. This depends on the hardware, not on your version of Kiln or of the OS, and Kiln tells you plainly rather than failing halfway. Settings → Transcription → Language then carries one plain device-wide explanation at the top; the individual languages are also marked Unavailable, but the cause is the hardware, not the language — trying a different one won't help.
Can I still record on a device that can't transcribe?
Not usefully, and we'd rather say so than let you find out. In the record and import sheets the Fire the Kiln button is disabled, so a new recording can't be queued for a transcription that could only fail — but Fire is also the only way to keep a new recording, and Cancel offers only confirm-and-discard. So on such a device a recording can't be saved. If a meeting already exists there — a failed run, say — the Fire the Kiln / Try Again button on its meeting screen is not gated, so it can be started, and it will fail. This is a known rough edge; if you hit it, please tell us.
What's different between the Mac app and the iPhone/iPad app?
Two things are iPhone and iPad only in this build: the recording Live Activity (Lock Screen and Dynamic Island on iPhone, Lock Screen on iPad), and the in-app update check — the Mac app has no network access at all, so it can't look for updates and has no Software Update row in Settings; use the App Store app instead. Going the other way, the Mac has menu-bar commands for New Recording (⌘N) and Import Audio (⌘I) from anywhere in the app. The features are otherwise the same on both, calendar reminders included, even where the gestures differ — swipe to delete on iPhone, a trash button on the card on Mac.
Privacy and data
Does Kiln connect to the internet?
The Mac app can't — it ships without network permission, so an outbound connection is impossible. On iPhone and iPad there is exactly one kind of network request, and it is the only networking code in the app: an App Store lookup asking whether a newer version of Kiln exists — once per launch, and after that at most every fifteen minutes when you return to the app — unless a check fails to complete, in which case it may try again the next time you come back. The only thing Kiln puts in the request is its own bundle identifier — nothing about you and nothing about your meetings. Like any connection to Apple it carries your IP address and the standard system networking header, and it goes to Apple and no one else. It fails silently, and an update is never forced. Speech-model downloads are handled by the system, not by Kiln.
What actually runs on my device?
Everything that touches your content. Transcription, meeting titles, speaker-name suggestions and report generation all use Apple's own on-device frameworks. Speaker separation is the one piece that isn't Apple's: it uses FluidAudio, an open-source package whose Core ML models ship inside the app, so nothing is downloaded for it at runtime. None of it involves a server, ours or anyone else's.
How do calendar reminders work?
They're off by default. Turn them on in Settings and grant calendar and notification access, and Kiln reads your upcoming events on-device to remind you to record. It never edits your events and never transmits them. Available on Mac, iPhone and iPad.
If I delete Kiln, is my data gone?
On iPhone and iPad, yes — deleting the app removes everything it stored, including meetings, audio, transcripts, reports, your settings and the diagnostic log. On a Mac it does not. The Mac app is sandboxed, so its data lives in ~/Library/Containers/com.tushargupta.kiln/Data and that folder survives dragging the app to the Trash. If you want the data gone too, delete that folder yourself.
Getting help
How do I report a problem or send feedback?
In the app, go to Settings → Help & Feedback → Report an Issue. Two switches, both on by default, control what gets attached: Include device info (app version, device model, OS version, memory) and Include diagnostics (a small breadcrumb log plus Apple's own crash and performance reports). Nothing is sent automatically — Kiln opens a pre-filled email in your own mail app and you send it yourself; if no mail account is set up, a plain draft opens instead, without attachments. Or email support.kiln@gmail.com directly.
What's in the diagnostic log?
Technical facts only: app version, device model, OS version, memory, thermal state, and breadcrumbs of what the app did — which stage of the pipeline ran, how many segments and speakers it found, how many characters the transcript was, which language and report type. Never your audio, transcript text, meeting titles, speaker names or report content; even errors are reduced to a type and a code. "Preview Diagnostic Log" in the app shows you the full breadcrumb log exactly as it would be attached. Apple's crash and performance reports go along as separate files and aren't shown in that preview — they are Apple's own PII-free payloads, holding call stacks and performance figures, never your content. Switch Include diagnostics off to send neither. The log is capped at 64 KB and there's no way to clear it inside the app; on iPhone and iPad deleting Kiln removes it, on a Mac see the uninstall answer above.
We aim to reply within a few days.