Quick capture to Obsidian from your iPhone or Android phone, by email

You're between meetings, or on the bus, and a thought shows up. You open Obsidian, wait for a big vault to load and sync, find the right folder, and by then the thought has gone. Sound familiar?

Your phone already has a capture tool that opens instantly: email. This guide gives you four ways to use it, from plain forwarding to a one-tap Shortcut. Pick the speed that suits you.

Why email works for mobile capture

• No app switch. You never wait for a large vault to load on your phone.
• Any phone. iPhone, Android, any mail app.
• Attachments included. Photos, PDFs and other files are attached and embedded in the note, up to 25 MB.

The plugin works in Obsidian on desktop and mobile, so the vault that picks up your note can be the one on your phone. The trade-off: notes appear when the plugin fetches (manually, on a schedule, or when the vault opens), not the instant you hit Send. For capture, that's usually fine. The point is to get the thought out of your head; you'll sort it when you're back at your desk.

Set up once

1. Sign up free, no credit card, to get your ingest address.
2. In Obsidian, open Settings, then Community plugins, then Browse, and install and enable "Send Email into Vault".
3. Paste the API key from your dashboard into the plugin settings.

Then two small things on your phone. Save your ingest address as a contact named "Obsidian Inbox" so it autocompletes. And check which account your phone's mail app sends from: it needs to be your account email or one of your verified sender addresses.

Option 1: Write a quick email

The simplest version. Start a new email to "Obsidian Inbox". The subject becomes the note title, and the body becomes the note content. Add #tags at the end of the subject and they turn into note tags.

• Call the bank #todo #finance
• Idea: chapter 3 opens with the 2019 dataset #thesis
• Ask Sam about the Q3 budget #todo #work

Keep the body as short as you like, a line or two is fine. The one thing you can't skip is the subject: emails without a subject are rejected.

Option 2: Forward an email from your phone

A booking confirmation, a message from your supervisor, a receipt. In Apple Mail, the Gmail app or the Outlook app, tap Forward, start typing "Obsidian Inbox", tidy the subject and send.

Tidying matters more than you'd think. Delete the "Fwd:" prefix, since it isn't removed for you, and add a tag or two: Hotel booking Lisbon #travel reads better in six months than "Fwd: Your reservation is confirmed".

Option 3: Share sheet (iPhone) or Share menu (Android)

On iPhone: tap Share in Safari, Photos, Files or Voice Memos, choose Mail, and send it to "Obsidian Inbox". Give it a subject that will make sense as a title later.

On Android: tap Share, choose Gmail or your mail app, and send it to your ingest address.

Either way, the email goes out from your own account, so it passes the sender check. To be fair to Obsidian's own share target: it's great for quick text and links. Email is handier when you want a full email or an attachment in the note.

Option 4: A one-tap iOS Shortcut

This is the fastest setup. One tap, type your thought, done. Action names in the Shortcuts app change now and then, so look for the closest match:

1. 1

   Step 1: Create a new shortcut

   Open the Shortcuts app and tap the plus button to start a new shortcut.
2. 2

   Step 2: Ask for the note text

   Add the Ask for Input action and set the input type to Text. Use a prompt like "Capture to Obsidian".
3. 3

   Step 3: Send it as an email

   Add the Send Email action. Set the recipient to your ingest address and the subject to Provided Input. Turn off Show Compose Sheet so it sends without an extra tap.
4. 4

   Step 4: Name it

   Rename the shortcut to "Capture to Obsidian".
5. 5

   Step 5: Put it within reach

   Add it to your Home Screen, or assign it to the Action Button or Back Tap on iPhones that support them.

The Send Email action sends from your default Mail account, so make sure that account is an authorized sender. If your captures don't arrive, that's the first thing to check.

Want tags too? Add a second Ask for Input action for tags, then combine both inputs in the subject, so typing "Call the bank" and "#todo #finance" gives you Call the bank #todo #finance.

On Android, most launchers let you add a home-screen shortcut or widget that opens a new email to a contact. Point it at "Obsidian Inbox" and you're one tap from a capture.

Make captures land in the right place

In the plugin settings, choose a destination folder (an Inbox/ folder works well) and a note template. Tags like #todo come from the subject. On Pro, add @@Work to the subject to send a capture to a different vault. The full syntax is in tags and vault routing from the subject.

Captures are only useful if you look at them. A short daily review of your inbox folder keeps it from piling up. If you use Dataview or Bases, a simple view that lists recent notes in that folder tagged #todo turns it into a working task list. More ideas in capture to-dos with #todo, and in capturing ideas in the lab or at a talk.

Limits worth knowing

• The free plan gives you 10 emails in total, which is plenty to test this. They don't reset.
• Starter covers 300 emails a month, Pro covers 1,000. Paid plans have a daily cap of 200.
• Attachments can be up to 25 MB.
• There's no separate Email2Obsidian app to install. You send from the mail app you already have, and the plugin runs in Obsidian on desktop and mobile.

If you're not sure how many captures you'd send in a month, see how many captures a month you'll need. And for forwarding from desktop clients, see forward emails from any client.