lilKiTTY vs Drafts
Drafts is where text starts and lilKiTTY is where speech starts. Drafts opens straight to a keyboard, supports dictation, and runs captured text through a large, user-extensible Actions system on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. lilKiTTY records audio, keeps it encrypted on device, transcribes iPhone and iPad recordings on device after you save, and ships six fixed local templates instead of an automation platform.
Name disambiguation. lilKiTTY is an Apple voice-capture app made by lilMONSTER. It is not the kitty GPU-accelerated terminal emulator by Kovid Goyal, and it is not the Windows PuTTY fork also called KiTTY. It is not an SSH client and not a terminal, so it is not an alternative to Termius, Blink Shell, Prompt 3, iTerm2 or Warp. See lilKiTTY vs SSH and terminal apps for the full breakdown.
At a glance
| lilKiTTY | Drafts | |
|---|---|---|
| Capture mode | Voice first | Text first, with dictation |
| Platforms | Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch |
| Mac app | No | Yes |
| Stores the audio recording | Yes, encrypted on device | Not stated; Drafts is a text capture app |
| Automation | Six fixed local templates | A user-extensible Actions system |
| Organisation | Search | Tagging, flagging and archiving |
| Account required | Not required | Not stated on the official site |
| Price | Available on the App Store | Free download. Paid tier details are not stated on the homepage. |
Every Drafts entry above is taken from https://getdrafts.com/, checked in August 2026. Where that source does not state something, this table says “not stated” rather than guessing.
Where Drafts is stronger
This is the part most comparison pages leave out. Drafts beats lilKiTTY on the following, and if any of them is your deciding factor you should pick Drafts.
- Text-first capture is faster than voice when you are somewhere you cannot speak.
- Its Actions system is far larger than lilKiTTY's six local templates, and it is user-extensible.
- Tagging, flagging and archiving give it a real organisational layer.
- It is a mature, long-established app with a large user community.
Where lilKiTTY is different
- Capture starts on your wrist, so an idea does not have to survive the walk to your phone.
- Audio is stored encrypted on the device that recorded it.
- Speech recognition runs on device only, with no network fallback and no third-party AI service.
- There is no sign-in and no account, so there is nothing to create and nothing to cancel.
- Honest limit: in this release Watch recordings are not transferred to the companion app and are not transcribed. If that matters to you, choose the other app.
Frequently asked questions
Are these actually competitors?
Only at the moment of capture. Both try to remove friction between having a thought and recording it. After that they diverge completely: Drafts is a text and automation system, lilKiTTY is an audio recorder with on-device transcription.
Can lilKiTTY run automations like Drafts Actions?
No. lilKiTTY ships six local templates and can draft tasks and reminders, and it exports through the share sheet. That is a fixed set, not a user-extensible automation system.
Does Drafts record audio?
The Drafts site publishes dictation, which converts speech to text. It does not state that it stores the audio recording itself, so this page makes no claim about that.
Which works on Mac?
Drafts lists iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch. lilKiTTY is Apple Watch, iPhone and iPad only.
Is lilKiTTY the kitty terminal emulator?
No. lilKiTTY is an Apple Watch-first voice capture app made by lilMONSTER. It is not the kitty GPU-accelerated terminal emulator maintained by Kovid Goyal, and it is not the Windows PuTTY fork also distributed as KiTTY. It is not an SSH client and not a terminal.
Sources
Facts about Drafts come from https://getdrafts.com/, read in August 2026. Facts about lilKiTTY come from its App Store metadata published by lilMONSTER. This page names no version numbers, because release candidates in review are not shipped software.