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Guides

Walkthroughs for each part of QuickVars, from your first save to Siri without opening the app.

How to save your first QuickVar

Type a name — "Audi VIN," "EIN," "Passport Number" — and QuickVars classifies it on its own using a fixed, on-device keyword table (no network call, no ML model). If it doesn't recognize the name, it falls back to "Other," and you can override the category from a dropdown at any time. Enter the value on the next screen, and it's encrypted the moment you save.

How search and voice matching work

Typing "vin" narrows the list to anything named or aliased VIN — exact and substring matches rank highest, then a looser token match. Voice uses the exact same matcher: saying "what's my Audi VIN" strips the filler words ("what's," "my") before matching, so it behaves identically to typing "audi vin." One match reveals immediately; more than one shows a short "Which one?" list.

Expiring and temporary items

Any QuickVar can carry an optional expiration date. By default, QuickVars just reminds you — a generic, non-identifying notification roughly 90 days out ("Something you saved is expiring soon"), never naming what it is. Turn on "delete automatically when expired" for things like a one-night hotel key code, and QuickVars quietly removes it the next time you open the app after it lapses — no server, no background job.

Setting up Emergency Info

Toggle "Emergency Access" on an item in Add or Edit — blood type, an allergy, an emergency contact, an insurance member ID — and it becomes reachable from the Lock Screen's "Emergency Info" button with no Face ID at all, sealed under a separate, deliberately weaker-gated key that never touches the rest of your vault. Use it narrowly: QuickVars warns you before you opt in, but doesn't stop you from choosing something sensitive, so choose what you'd want a stranger or a first responder to see.

Using the Apple Watch companion

Ask your Watch the same way you'd ask your phone — "Insurance policy." — and it relays the question to your iPhone, which does the actual matching and decrypting (the exact same code path as typed search). The Watch never stores a key or a decrypted value; if your phone is locked, it just tells you to open QuickVars there first — there's no separate Watch-side authentication.

Asking Siri, with and without opening the app

"Ask QuickVars to find something" opens the app, runs Face ID automatically, and lands you on the answer — Siri itself never sees or speaks the value. "Ask QuickVars to check something" skips opening the app entirely: Face ID prompts as a system overlay right over Siri, and the result shows once, inline, as a Siri response — never a notification, never something that lands on your Lock Screen unauthenticated.

Pinning a QuickVar to your Lock Screen

Pick one QuickVar to pin (Add or Edit → "Pin to Lock Screen") and add the widget from your Lock Screen editor. It shows the app's { = } mark and a small emoji for the item's category (a car for something Vehicle-tagged, say) — never the actual name or value — so tapping it is a shortcut, not a leak: it opens QuickVars and still runs the full Face ID gate before showing anything. Pinning a new item silently unpins the old one; only one can be pinned at a time.

More questions? See the FAQ or contact support.