Capturing tracks

Capture is designed to be invisible and free — every method below takes one tap or one keystroke, costs nothing, and lands the track in your Inbox on macOS under Mobile Shazams, ready to research and classify. (Batch capture — DJ sets, recordings, playlists — is the next chapter: Importing tracklists & playlists.)

The fastest setup: Settings → iOS & Shortcuts

On your Mac, open Settings → iOS & Shortcuts. It has install links for the iOS app, a ready-made iOS Shortcut (Recognize Music + Add to CatchIt!), and a ready-made macOS Shortcut (Recognize Music + Add Discovery) — plus links to Apple's guides for putting them in Control Center and the Dock. No building required. The sections below explain each capture path, and how to build the Shortcuts yourself if you'd rather.

From the iOS Shazam button

Open the iOS app. Tap Shazam. It runs in the foreground while you're at the bar / club / wherever. Recognized tracks land on your Mac in seconds.

From the iOS Apple Shortcut

The quickest way is the ready-made Shortcut from Settings → iOS & Shortcuts on your Mac: copy its link and open it on your iPhone. To build it yourself instead, open Apple's Shortcuts app on iPhone and combine Apple's Recognize Music action with CatchIt!'s Add to CatchIt! action. Save the shortcut and pin it to your Home Screen, Lock Screen, or shortcut grid. Tap it any time and the recognized track lands on your Mac in seconds.

From iOS Control Center

After you've installed or built your CatchIt! shortcut (see above), pin it to iOS Control Center via Settings → Control Center on your iPhone. Tap the CatchIt! shortcut tile from Control Center any time — the recognized track lands in your Inbox on Mac, no need to open the app.

From the iOS Share Extension

Got a track URL in iMessage, Mail, Twitter, anywhere on your iPhone? Hit the system share button and choose Save to CatchIt!. CatchIt! accepts URLs from Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, and SoundCloud. It also pulls URLs out of plain text — if a friend texts "check out this track: spotify.com/...", share that whole message and CatchIt! finds the URL for you.

The next time you open the CatchIt! app on your iPhone, it looks the link up itself: the track lands in your library with a short Added to CatchIt! banner showing its title and artist — no waiting for your Mac. A link the phone can't resolve is passed on to your Mac, which finishes it on its next sync. Either way, the track reaches your Mac Inbox under Mobile Shazams via the same sync as everything else.

One rule: share a track link, not an album link. Album links are rejected with "This is an album link. Share a specific track instead."

From the macOS Apple Shortcut

Install the ready-made one with Open Shortcut in Settings → iOS & Shortcuts. To build it yourself, open Apple's Shortcuts app on Mac and combine Apple's Recognize Music action (which identifies whatever's playing through your speakers) with CatchIt!'s Add Discovery action. Name the shortcut (e.g., "Save to CatchIt!") and pin it to your menu bar. Run it any time — even with CatchIt! closed — to recognize and save what's playing.

From a paste or drop (macOS)

Got a Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, or SoundCloud track URL on your Mac? Two ways in, both from the Inbox tab:

• Paste it. Press Cmd+V anywhere in the Inbox — no need to click into a field first.
• Drag it. Drag the URL onto the CatchIt! window; a "Drop URL to save track" overlay appears while you hover.

Either way, CatchIt! resolves the metadata and shows a confirmation card — artwork, title, artist, and a platform badge — with a Save to CatchIt! button. After saving, the Inbox switches to Mobile Shazams and a quick "Added to Mobile Shazams" toast confirms the capture.

If the link only resolves partial metadata (say, a title with no artist), the confirmation card warns you before you save — you can still save it and fix the match later with Research.

After the capture

Everything above ends in the same place: the Mobile Shazams section of the Inbox. From there the loop is always the same — Research to make it playable, then Enter or Space to decide. That workflow is covered end-to-end in The Inbox.