# Ovenbird > Ovenbird is a private recipe box and meal planner for iPhone and iPad (iOS and iPadOS 26 or later), with an Apple Watch app. It keeps a family's recipes on their own devices and in their own iCloud: no account, no ads, no analytics, and no server of its own. Free for up to 50 recipes; Ovenbird Pro is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Coming soon to the App Store. Ovenbird is made by an independent developer. Its name and listing on the App Store: "Ovenbird: Recipes & Meal Plans", in Food & Drink. ## What it does - **Scan recipes**: photograph a handwritten recipe card or a cookbook page. Text is read on the device, and lines it couldn't read are flagged to check against the photo instead of guessed. On devices with Apple Intelligence, lines are sorted into ingredients and steps automatically. - **Save from the web**: from Safari's Share button or by pasting a link; reads the page's recipe data. - **Import a library**: from Paprika (.paprikarecipes), Mela (.melarecipes) or a CSV spreadsheet with column mapping. Photos, categories, ratings, favorites and notes are kept. - **Discover**: browse a catalogue of dishes by category and cuisine, and add any to your recipes. - **Cook with what you have**: list what's in the fridge; Ovenbird ranks your recipes by how well they use it and lists what else each needs, counting pantry basics as on hand. It can also have Apple Intelligence write a new recipe on the device from only those items, or search the web inside the app. - **Cook mode**: opens on "Before you start": waits worth planning around (marinate overnight, chill an hour, set out butter to soften, cook rice ahead), the oven to heat, and a prep checklist (chop, grate, zest) in the order the steps need it. Then one step at a time, each with the ingredients it uses (scaled, to tick off), the dish photo in view, and on iPad the full ingredient list beside the step with the next step shown underneath. Scales servings and converts US and metric units. The screen stays on. - **Hands-free**: in cook mode, voice commands recognized on the device ("next", "back", "step 3", "first step", "ingredients", "set a timer for 5 minutes", "stop"); steps can be read aloud in the most natural voice installed (Premium or Enhanced voices from iOS Settings). Nothing is recorded or sent. - **Timers**: times in steps are buttons; a timer is named for what it times ("Simmer sauce", "Cook shrimp"; Apple Intelligence names them where available), counts down on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island with the recipe's photo, and rings like the Clock app's (AlarmKit), with a button to open the recipe. Cook mode's current step is also a Live Activity with Back and Next. - **Meal Plan**: put recipes, or free text like "Tacos" or "Leftovers", on days of the week. "Fill the week" suggests dinners for the empty days from the household's usual week (for example tacos on Tuesdays) and from requests like "more chicken, no fish", using Apple Intelligence where available to read the request; Discover meals fill gaps the library can't. - **Groceries**: fill the list from a recipe or a whole week; quantities are combined and items grouped by section (produce, meat, dairy, pantry and so on), remembering where you move an item. It does not know any particular store’s aisle layout. Items kept at home are left off. Can send to Reminders. - **Widgets and Siri**: tonight's dinner and the grocery list on the Home Screen; Siri can say what's for dinner, plan a recipe, add groceries, and open a recipe. - **Apple Watch**: follows cook mode on the iPhone step by step (Back and Next on the watch move the phone; times start timers), cooks today's planned recipe on the watch alone, shows today's meals and the grocery list to tick off (ticks reach the phone later if it's out of range), and answers "What's for dinner in Ovenbird?" with Siri on the watch. - **Apple Intelligence (on device)**: reads scanned cards and pages into ingredients and steps and suggests a category; writes a new recipe from what's on hand; reads requests like "more chicken, no fish" for Fill the week; sorts unfamiliar grocery items into store sections; names timers; picks a picture for dishes without a photo. Without Apple Intelligence those features fall back to simpler methods (manual line sorting, word rules), except writing new recipes. - **Export**: to a Paprika-compatible file or a spreadsheet with photos. - **Send a recipe**: to anyone, from a recipe's ••• menu: Mail gets a formatted recipe card (photo, ingredients, steps, credit to the source site), Messages the recipe and its photo, and Print a printable card or PDF. A small .ovenbird file comes with it that adds the recipe for anyone with Ovenbird. - **Household sharing** (Pro): up to six people share the same recipes, Meal Plan and Groceries through the owner's iCloud; people invited don't need Pro. ## iPhone and iPad - iPhone: scanning with the camera, saving from Safari, the grocery list in the store, widgets, Siri and Lock Screen timers. - iPad: a layout for the kitchen counter, with the recipe list beside the open recipe, two-column ingredients and steps, and in cook mode the photo and ingredient list beside large step text, with the next step in view. - Apple Watch: cook mode, today's meals, the grocery list and Siri, through the paired iPhone. - With Ovenbird Pro, the same recipes, Meal Plan and Groceries sync between iPhone and iPad through the user's own iCloud. ## Pricing - Free: up to 50 of your own recipes (scanned, saved, imported, or added from Discover) on one device, with all cooking, planning, grocery, widget, Siri and export features. Discover's catalogue can be browsed and planned from without counting toward the 50; cook mode, timers and editing need a recipe saved. - Ovenbird Pro: one-time in-app purchase, $7.99 (launch price $4.99). Unlimited recipes, iCloud sync across devices, sharing recipes, the Meal Plan and Groceries with a household (invited people don't pay). Family Sharing and future updates included. ## Privacy Recipes are processed and stored on the user's devices. No account, no analytics, no ads, no third-party SDKs; nothing is sent to the developer. Sync and household sharing use the user's own iCloud (CloudKit). ## Links - [Website](https://ovenbird.app/) - [Privacy policy](https://ovenbird.app/privacy) - [Support](https://ovenbird.app/support) - [Contact](mailto:hello@ovenbird.app) ## Pages - [Pricing](https://ovenbird.app/pricing/): free versus Ovenbird Pro, feature by feature. - [Support](https://ovenbird.app/support/): common questions and how to reach the developer (hello@ovenbird.app). - [Privacy policy](https://ovenbird.app/privacy/): no data collected; what stays on device and when the app goes online. ## Requirements - iPhone with iOS 26 (iPhone 11 or later; iPhone SE 2nd generation or later). iPad with iPadOS 26 (iPad 8th generation or later, iPad mini 5 or later, iPad Air 3 or later, iPad Pro 2018 or later). Apple Watch with watchOS 26 (Series 6 or later, SE 2nd generation or later, any Ultra), paired with an iPhone. - Apple Intelligence features need an iPhone 15 Pro or later, an iPad with M1 or later, or iPad mini (A17 Pro), with Apple Intelligence turned on. Other features work on every supported device. - Apple devices only: there is no Android, Windows or web version, and none is planned. A Mac version may come later.