How to Use MealCatch
MealCatch saves what you eat with a single photo. Press the shutter and you're done. It goes into that day's breakfast, lunch, or dinner by the time you took it.
Getting started
- When you first open MealCatch, you'll see three days of sample meals, marked as samples at the top
- Take your first photo or add your first text note, and the samples go away. Your meals begin. The samples won't come back
Taking photos
There are two ways in. Whichever you use, press the shutter and you're done. No “Save?” and no “Saved.”
- In the app
- Tap the camera at the bottom left of Home. The meal the photo will go into appears at the top. Press the shutter and you're back on Home, with your new photo in the middle of the top row.
- From the Lock Screen
- Put the MealCatch Camera button on your Lock Screen, in Control Center, or on the Action button, and take photos without unlocking. After each shot a ✓ appears and you can take the next one right away, so you can snap every dish. Swipe up to close. Photos you take while locked appear on Home the next time you open MealCatch. To learn how to add the button, see Settings → How to Add the Button in MealCatch (iPhone doesn't let apps add it for you).
Your photos stay inside MealCatch and aren't saved to your Photos library. MealCatch asks for camera access the first time you use the camera.
Breakfast, lunch, dinner
- Photos go into breakfast, lunch, or dinner by the time you took them. At first, breakfast is 4:00–10:59, lunch is 11:00–15:59, and dinner is 16:00 to 3:59 the next day
- Photos taken before breakfast starts (0:00–3:59 at first) go into the previous day's dinner. That midnight ramen counts as part of last night's dinner
- Snack is never set automatically. Touch and hold the meal afterward and choose Snack
- You can change when breakfast, lunch, and dinner start in Settings. Meals you've already saved stay where they are
- Meals saved while traveling keep the local date and time where you took them. They don't move when you get home
Home
- The last day you took photos sits at the top, in big photos. If you haven't taken any today, the most recent day comes first
- Meals run left to right: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack. Your newest photo is in the middle when you open the app. Swipe left or right to see the others
- Earlier days follow below, only the days you took photos. Days without photos don't appear
- The button to the left of the gear at the top right switches to Photo Grid, which shows only your photos, three across. Text-only notes don't appear in Photo Grid
- Tap the MealCatch logo at the very bottom of the screen to jump back to the top
Viewing a meal
- Tap a photo to open the meal on top of the screen. You'll see the photo, the meal and time, the date, and your note
- Use the Share button at the top right to send the photo to another app or save it to your Photos library
- To close, tap the × at the top left, tap outside, or pull down from the top
Editing and deleting
Touch and hold a meal, or tap Edit at the bottom of a meal you've opened, to open Edit Meal.
- Photo
- Tap Retake to open the camera, or Photo Library to replace it with a photo from your library.
- When
- Tap the date to open the calendar, or use the Today and Yesterday buttons. Future dates can't be chosen.
- Which meal
- Choose Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, or Snack.
- Note
- Up to 200 characters (optional). Tap the microphone at the bottom right to dictate.
Tap Save at the bottom right to close. To delete, tap Delete This Meal at the bottom left, then Delete to confirm. Deleted meals can't be recovered.
Text notes
- Tap + at the bottom right of Home to open Add Text Note and start typing right away. Use it for a meal you forgot to photograph
- The date is set to today and the meal to the current time. Change them if they're not right
- You can add a photo, too. If a photo you choose from Photo Library has a date and time, the meal is set to match
- Tap Save at the bottom right to close
Settings
- Meal Times: Type in when breakfast, lunch, and dinner start. Done is available only when they're in order
- Capture from the Lock Screen: How to Add the Button shows how to put the button on your Lock Screen, in Control Center, or on the Action button
- Appearance: Choose Automatic, Light, or Dark. Automatic follows your iPhone settings
- About: User Guide, Support, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and the version
New iPhones and backups
- Your meals and photos are stored only on your iPhone. They're included in your iPhone backup (such as iCloud Backup), like any other app
- When you get a new iPhone, they move with your whole iPhone (Quick Start, or restoring from iCloud Backup or a computer backup)
- If you delete MealCatch, your meals and photos are deleted from this iPhone