Sharing to Quick Thoughts

Overview

You can send things to your Quick Thoughts inbox straight from other apps: a web page you are reading, a quote from it, a photo, a document, a handful of files. On iPhone, iPad, Android, and Mac you use the other app's Share button and choose TheBrain's Quick Thought; on Windows you right-click files and use Send to > Quick Thought; on Linux a file manager action or the command line does the same. Each share becomes a quick thought you can add a few words to before sending, and it lands in the same inbox as everything else you capture (see Quick Thoughts).

What you share turns into the parts of a note:

• Text becomes the note's text, which you can edit before sending.
• A web link becomes a link chip above the note. Text that is only a web address becomes a link chip too, and when an app sends some words together with a link (a post title and its address, a quote and a link to it), the words go into the note and the address becomes the chip. A link shared on its own is named with the page's title when the app sends one, as browsers do; a link that arrives with other text shows its address until you rename it. On iPhone and iPad, TheBrain looks up the page's title for a link that arrives without one.
• Photos, videos, and files become the note's attached files, uploaded as they are: TheBrain never converts or shrinks them. A note can carry up to 10 files of up to 100 MB each; extra files are left out, and the card tells you so. The note's text is limited to 5 MB, as for any quick thought.

You don't have to wait for files to upload. When you send, the note goes to your inbox right away and its files follow on their own as they finish uploading, even after the share screen has closed and without opening TheBrain. Until they arrive, TheBrain on your other devices shows each file as Uploading from the device it is coming from. The files on your device are never changed, moved, or deleted.

You need to be signed in to TheBrain on the device to share files. Shared text and links are kept on the device while you are signed out and are sent once you sign in.

How to Share on iPhone and iPad

1. In the other app (Safari, Photos, Files, Notes, and so on), tap Share.
2. Tap TheBrain in the row of apps. A Quick Thought sheet opens over the app.
3. Check what came through: links and files appear as chips at the top, and any shared text is already in the note box. Type in Add a note to add your own words.
4. Tap Send. The sheet closes and you are back in the other app. Tap Cancel instead to send nothing.

Files start uploading while the sheet is open, so a file that is too large, one too many, or a full inbox shows on its chip right away; the other files still send. After you tap Send, iOS finishes the uploads in the background. If you are offline when you share, the note is saved and sent later, but files cannot be uploaded: share them again once you are online. If nothing in the share can be added, the sheet says so, and you can still write a note.

BrainBox has its own entry: to send something to BrainBox instead, choose Send to BrainBox from the list of actions below the row of apps (see BrainBox).

Sharing from Safari

What arrives depends on how you share:

To keep the page's link together with a quote, select the text first, then share the page with the page's own Share button rather than the one in the menu over the selection.

How to Share on Android

1. In the other app, tap Share.
2. Choose Quick Thought from TheBrain. Android lists it under TheBrain's icon: it may appear as TheBrain with Quick Thought beneath it, or inside a small menu when you tap TheBrain's icon. The entry labeled BrainBox sends to BrainBox instead (see BrainBox).
3. The capture card opens over the app with what you shared. If the card already holds a note you haven't sent, the shared items are added after it rather than replacing it.
4. Add any words you like and tap Send.

Send doesn't wait for files on Android, whether you shared them or attached them in the card yourself: the note goes right away and the card closes. The files keep uploading in the background, and on Android 14 and later a notification shows Uploading 2 files to Quick Thoughts with the progress, or Waiting for a connection to upload to Quick Thoughts while you are offline. The first time you add files, the card asks whether TheBrain may show notifications; if you don't allow it, uploads still finish, just without the notification. If you force-stop TheBrain or your phone restarts before the files are up, they continue the next time you open the capture card.

Sharing from Chrome

• Sharing a page (Chrome's menu > Share) adds the page as a link chip named with the page's title.
• Sharing selected text (select text, then Share) puts the quote in the note and adds a link chip that jumps to the highlighted passage. That chip shows the page's address rather than its title; rename it with its pencil button if you like.

How to Share on a Mac

The Mac desktop app adds Quick Thought to the Share menu of Finder, Safari, Notes, Preview, and other apps.

1. Turn it on once: open System Settings, go to Login Items & Extensions, and under Sharing turn on Quick Thought for TheBrain.
2. In any app, choose Share > Quick Thought (in Finder, select files first; in Safari, use the Share button or File > Share).
3. TheBrain's capture window opens with what you shared. If TheBrain isn't running, it starts. Add any words and click Send.

Folders can't be shared: the window says so and asks you to share the files inside instead. When you share a page from Safari with text selected, the selection comes along as the note's text.

How to Send Files on Windows

The desktop app adds Quick Thought to File Explorer's Send to menu, beside BrainBox.

1. Select one or more files in File Explorer and right-click them. On Windows 11, choose Show more options to see the full menu.
2. Choose Send to > Quick Thought.
3. TheBrain's capture window opens with the files attached. Add any words and click Send.

Folders are refused, as on the Mac. The Send to entry is added whenever the desktop app runs, so it reappears if you delete it.

How to Send Files on Linux

The desktop app takes files on its command line (with a Beta or Alpha install, use thebrain-beta or thebrain-alpha in place of thebrain-stable, here and in the steps below):

thebrain-stable --quick-thought <files>

TheBrain's capture window opens with the files attached. Most file managers can run this from their right-click menu.

Nautilus (Files on GNOME)

1. Create the folder ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts if it doesn't exist.
2. In it, create a file named Quick Thought containing:

#!/bin/sh
exec thebrain-stable --quick-thought "$@"

3. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.local/share/nautilus/scripts/"Quick Thought".
4. Select files, right-click, and choose Scripts > Quick Thought.

Dolphin (KDE Plasma)

1. Create the folder ~/.local/share/kio/servicemenus if it doesn't exist.
2. In it, create a file named thebrain-quick-thought.desktop containing:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Service
MimeType=all/allfiles;
Actions=quickThought

[Desktop Action quickThought]
Name=Send to Quick Thought
Exec=thebrain-stable --quick-thought %F

3. Make it executable: chmod +x ~/.local/share/kio/servicemenus/thebrain-quick-thought.desktop.
4. Select files, right-click, and choose Send to Quick Thought.

When a File Is Still Uploading

A note that was sent before its files finished uploading is already in your inbox, so you can open and file it right away. If a file is still on its way when you click Move to brain, the panel says so and offers Move without it: the note is filed now, and the file arrives later as a quick thought of its own (see Quick Thoughts). A file shared from an iPhone or iPad is the exception: if its note is filed or deleted before it arrives, it is not added.