What is Catchlight and why does it matter?
In early 2025, Apple pulled Advanced Data Protection for UK users. That was the moment it stopped feeling sensible to trust big tech with anything personal. If a government wants access they'll find a way, and here they just banned the one setting that kept your data end-to-end encrypted. Open season.
So I went looking for a private notes app I'd actually enjoy using. Everything I found was too complex, too limited, or too unpleasant to open every day. The problem was never only privacy. It was finding something as easy as what I was leaving behind.
I built Catchlight for that.
It's a notes, tasks and reminders app for iPhone with one twist: there's one kind of item, a Take. Start writing and it's a note. Tick a box and it's a task. Add a date and it's a reminder. All three if it needs to be. You shape it, the app never makes you decide up front. And you can catch a thought before you even unlock, from the Lock Screen, a widget, the Action button, Control Centre or Siri. It's saved and encrypted, waiting for you when you come back.
Here's how the privacy actually works, and because it's open source you can check all of it:
Your key is created on your device and never leaves it. I don't generate it, hold it, or see it. Not because I promise not to, because it's built so I can't. Zero-knowledge, by design, not by policy.
Every Take is encrypted with its own AES-256-GCM key (per Take, not one key for everything), so cracking a single Take doesn't hand over the rest.
Your data is encrypted on your phone and only ever leaves as an encrypted file, to a cloud folder you choose, if you choose.
No account. No email. The app never asks who you are. No analytics, no crash telemetry, no third-party trackers, no ads. I hold nothing about you, so I couldn't sell your data even if I wanted to.
No lock-in, either. Export your Takes as markdown anytime, all of them or just one. It's your data to walk away with, readable or encrypted, and you can still read and export it even if you decide to stop paying. Your data, your call.
That's the whole thing, privacy you actually control, in something calm enough to use all day and fast enough to capture a thought, even when you've got too much going on to waste time opening the app.
It's pre-launch, iPhone only for now. If it sounds like your kind of thing, the waitlist is at catchlight.app, and early signups get a 30-day free trial.
One question for the room, since everyone here has left an app they outgrew, so privacy aside, what's actually kept you on Apple Notes (or whatever you use now)? I want to make sure I'm solving the real reason people don't switch.
The "one kind of item" idea stuck with me more than the encryption details. Notes turning into tasks or reminders without making you choose first feels like the part people will remember after using it for a week.
I can picture someone hearing about Catchlight from a friend then quietly looking it up because they're tired of wondering who can read their notes. At that point they're probably hoping to see that the privacy claims come from how it's built and not just a promise on a landing page.
I'm curious if you've noticed early conversations focusing on the flexible note model first or the privacy side first because that first mental hook tends to shape everything that follows.
There's been a mixed bag really, some privacy, others the "single item" concept, but also the simplicity/speed of capture seems to resonate.
That mixed feedback is actually great positioning fuel. Since you are in the pre-launch phase, instead of just waiting for slow organic growth, this is the perfect time to launch a strategic PR and media placement campaign.
Getting Catchlight featured in top-tier tech publications and market media wouldn't just bring initial users it builds instant authority. High-quality media placements naturally generate powerful backlinks that fast-track your Google ranking, create strong brand credibility, and position the product perfectly for future investor interest or AI/LLM recommendations down the line. When top-tier tech sites talk about your "single-item" workflow and zero-knowledge architecture, it sets the industry standard.
I've helped products structure media outreach and PR campaigns to build this kind of early market authority. If you want some insights or have questions on how to get Catchlight in front of the right journalists and tech media, feel free to drop me a line at mumar @ growwithmumar . online. Let's chat!