Followup is a place to capture your thoughts — whether it's an idea, a to-do, or just a note. Record what's on your mind at that light-bulb moment, before it slips away, and Followup helps you organize it afterward. With Gemini, your recordings are transcribed automatically, and you can ask for a written summary of your Notes or Todos any time. Everything is stored on your SD card.
It runs on the Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97, so your thoughts live on a quiet, always-on screen you can place anywhere — a constant, low-interruption reminder instead of one more notification buried in your phone.
For the full walkthrough of every screen and control, see the user manual.
Followup is a voice-first thought-capture companion on always-on ePaper: record ideas, to-dos, and notes in the moment, let Gemini transcribe them and summarize what matters on demand, and keep your pending todos in view even when the screen is locked or off.
- Capturing a sudden idea by voice at the light-bulb moment, before it's forgotten
- Jotting quick to-dos and notes hands-free while you're in the middle of something else
- Keeping a device on a desk, fridge, or wall that shows your pending todos at a glance, even locked or powered off
- Revisiting past ideas later to decide what's still worth pursuing
- Anyone who wants their thoughts organized without living inside another app on their phone
Press record and speak. Every capture starts as a voice recording, tagged as an Idea, a To-do, or a Note, so you can get the thought down the instant it arrives without stopping to type.
Once a recording is saved, Gemini automatically transcribes it in the background, turning your voice into readable text. From the Summarize screen, you can also ask Gemini for a fresh written recap of everything currently in your Notes or your Todos, generated on demand rather than after every recording.
A Gemini API key from Google AI Studio is required. You can get started on the free tier, subject to Gemini's free-tier limits, or use a paid account without those limits.
Recordings, transcripts, and summaries are stored locally on the device's SD card. Your thoughts stay with you, on your own storage.
Ideas don't all age well. Review each one and decide whether it's still a vibe worth keeping — or something to trash so you can move on with a clear head.
Mark a task or note as a follow-up to keep it on your radar. Followup helps you stay on track and focused on what actually needs doing next.
Lock the screen — or shut the device down — and the ePaper freezes on a summary of your pending todos instead of going blank or dark. Because e-paper holds its image with no power, that summary stays legible and in front of you even while the device is locked, asleep, or fully off.
From the Home screen, open your flagged follow-ups as a stack of sticky notes you browse one at a time — a quick way to page back through what you've marked as worth revisiting, whatever it's tagged as.
| Application | Description |
|---|---|
| Idea | Capture a spark by voice and revisit it later with a vibe check |
| To-do | Record a task hands-free and follow up until it's done |
| Note | Keep a quick thought or reminder, transcribed automatically |
| Follow-up | Flag the items that matter so they stay top of mind |
| Lock screen | See your pending todos at a glance whenever the device is locked or shut down |
| Stickies | Browse your flagged follow-ups one at a time from the Home screen |
| Summaries | Ask Gemini for a fresh written recap of your Notes or Todos, on demand |
Followup runs on the Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97.
| Item | Information |
|---|---|
| Product Name | Followup (on ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97) |
| Product Type | Voice-capture notes app on an ePaper terminal |
| MCU | ESP32-S3R8, dual-core Xtensa LX7 up to 240MHz |
| Memory | 8MB PSRAM, 16MB flash |
| Screen | 3.97-inch black-and-white ePaper, 800 x 480, SSD1677 controller |
| Interaction | Buttons only — this board has no touchscreen (see Controls) |
| Connectivity | 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n), Bluetooth 5 (LE) |
| Audio | ES8311 codec, onboard microphone, NS4150B amplifier, speaker header |
| Sensors | QMI8658 6-axis IMU, PCF85063 real-time clock |
| Power | AXP2101 PMIC, 3.7V lithium battery (MX1.25 connector), USB-C charging |
| Storage | microSD card (recordings, transcripts, summaries) |
| AI | Gemini (cloud) transcription and summarization, over Wi-Fi |
The board also carries an SHTC3 temperature/humidity sensor on the shared I2C bus. Followup does not currently read it.
Followup is driven entirely by three physical controls: a rocker, the Record button, and the PWR button. There is no touchscreen.
| Control | Action |
|---|---|
| Rocker, tilt up / down | Move the selection; hold a tilt to keep moving |
| Rocker, hold down-tilt | Back out of a list, scroll view, or switch you're currently inside |
| Rocker, press in ("Select") | Select / confirm |
| Record button, tap | Select / confirm — same as Select |
| Record button, press and hold | Record — starts on the hold, stops when you let go |
| PWR, tap | Lock the screen, or unlock it |
| PWR, hold ~1s | Open the shutdown confirmation |
| PWR, hold 6s | Hardware power-off, straight from the PMIC, no matter what's on screen |
Recording is exclusive to the Record button, so no other control can start or stop a capture by accident. The 6-second PWR hold bypasses the firmware entirely and always cuts power.
See the user manual for how these controls apply on every screen.
The value of Followup is a quiet, always-visible place to catch your thoughts and keep the important ones in front of you. Instead of losing an idea to a forgotten note app or burying a task in a notification stream, you speak it in the moment, let Gemini turn it into clean text and a summary, and keep everything private on your SD card.
Ideas get a vibe check so you only carry forward what still matters. Tasks and notes become follow-ups so you stay on track. Your pending todos stay visible at a glance on the lock screen — even locked, asleep, or shut down — and the follow-ups you've flagged are always a button away as stickies: together, a steady, low-interruption view of what's next.
Followup is licensed under the GNU GPLv3. This repository is a fork of ALXV's folloup-sticky, whose main branch targets SeeedStudio's reTerminal Sticky and which also has a folloup-waveshare branch porting it to the Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-3.97. This fork builds on that Waveshare work and makes it the primary target going forward. Thank you to ALXV for the original design and implementation this project builds on.