# Ideas

> The Ideas box in InnerHook, a lyrics writing app: catch a line or a hummed melody when it comes, then start a song with it or add it to one.

Canonical: https://innerhook.com/docs/ideas/
Last updated: 2026-10-10

An idea doesn't wait for a good moment. The Ideas box keeps the line you thought of on the bus, a title, an image, or a melody you hummed into your phone, until it finds its song. Then one click starts a new song with it, or adds it to a song you're writing.

## Where to find it

- **Home** has an **Ideas** card: how many ideas are waiting, the newest three, and a field to write one down at once. **All ideas** opens the Ideas page.
- The **Ideas** page has three tabs: **Ideas** (the ones waiting), **Used** (the ones you put into a song) and **Recently deleted**.
- Ideas you catch with the InnerHook app on your iPhone (not out yet) land here too, marked **From the app**.

## Step by step

### Catch an idea

1. On Home, type it into the **Ideas** card's field and press **Save**. Or open the Ideas page, write in the field at the top and press **Save idea** (⌘ ↵, Ctrl+Enter on Windows and Linux).
2. It's at the top of the list, with the time you had it.

An idea can be several lines. A voice idea plays with **▶**.

### Start a song with it

1. Press **Start a song** beside the idea.
2. The New song dialog opens with the idea's words as the song's starting lines. Answer its questions as for any new song, then press **Start writing** (see [Your first song](https://innerhook.com/docs/first-song/)).
3. The song opens with the idea in it, and the idea moves to **Used**.

### Add it to a song

1. Press **Add to song…** and pick the song (type a part of its title to find it).
2. The idea's words go to the end of the song as a new section. Anyone writing in the song sees them appear at once (see [Live co-writing](https://innerhook.com/docs/co-writing/)).
3. "Added to “…”." appears, with **Open the song**. The idea moves to **Used**.

You can add an idea to your own songs and to songs shared with you where you **Can edit**.

### A voice idea

When an idea has a recording, adding it to a song also keeps the recording with the song, on the new section, like a [recording](https://innerhook.com/docs/recordings/) you made there. Because everyone who can open the song can hear and download its recordings, InnerHook asks the first time: **I understand, keep it**, or **Only the words**.

Before anything goes into the song, InnerHook checks that the recording can be kept there. If it can't (you can only comment on or read that song, or it already holds as many recordings as it can), it tells you why with **Only the words** or **Cancel**, so you never end up with half an idea in a song.

If the words made it into the song but the recording didn't, the idea stays in your list and says so: "The words are in “…”, the voice memo was not added: …". **Finish adding to “…”** tries again and adds the recording (the words aren't added a second time); **Finish without the voice memo** marks it used as it is — and if the recording did reach the song after all, it's kept and InnerHook tells you: "The voice memo was already added to “…”". You can delete it from the song's recordings like any other. When InnerHook already knows the recording is in the song, the idea says so up front — "The voice memo is in “…” already" — and offers **Finish (the voice memo is already in “…”)** instead of the choice without it. If the idea actually made it all the way in (only the confirmation was lost), it simply leaves your list and InnerHook says where it went. If InnerHook can't check the idea right then, it says "Couldn't check this idea" and offers **Try again** before any other choice. The same happens after **Start a song**: the new song is made, you stay on the Ideas page, and **Finish adding to “…”** finishes the idea in that song.

InnerHook remembers where an idea was going, so this works even if you close the tab or the connection drops halfway: the next time you open Ideas, the idea says "This idea is on its way into “…” but was not finished." with **Finish adding to “…”**. While it waits, **Start a song** and **Add to song…** are hidden, so a second song isn't made by accident. **Dismiss** forgets the unfinished song and gives you the usual buttons back (anything already in the song stays there). An unfinished idea is offered for 7 days, and only while you can still open that song.

### Delete and restore

**Delete** takes an idea away at once, with **Undo** for a moment. Deleted ideas wait in **Recently deleted** for 30 days, where **Restore** brings one back.

## Tips

- Write it down even if it's half a line. A title alone is often enough to start a song later.
- **Used** keeps every idea you put into a song, with a link to the song: handy when you wonder where a line came from.

## Limits

> **Limits**
>
> - Your ideas are yours alone: your co-writers and the other people in your workspace never see them. A voice idea is heard only by you, until you add it to a song.
> - An idea can be up to **5,000** characters; a voice idea up to **3 minutes**.
> - You can keep up to **2,000** ideas (deleted ones don't count).
> - Deleted ideas are removed for good after **30 days**.
> - Ideas use no AI and no credits.