How it works

Copy the address of a recipe page, tap Add in the app, paste it in and press Fetch recipe. snapt'in reads the page and gives you back the title, ingredients, method, photo and how many it serves, without the pop-ups, adverts and life story.

You can check and change anything before you save it.

• It didn't find the recipe. Some sites are hard to read. You'll get the form to fill in by hand, with the link saved so you can go back to the original.
• Typing one in. Choose Enter it by hand to write a recipe out yourself. Put one ingredient per line, like 200g plain flour, and the amounts will scale when you change the number of portions.
• Portions. Every recipe remembers how many it serves. On the recipe page, change the number of people and every amount scales with it, including ranges like "2–3 cloves".

For recipes that aren't online: a cookbook page, a magazine cutting, or a handwritten card.

1. Tap Add, then Extract from photo.
2. Take a photo with your camera, or choose a photo you already have.
3. If the recipe runs over more than one page, add the next page too. You can add up to three photos, and they're read in order as one recipe.
4. Press Extract from photo (or Extract from 2 photos, and so on), then check the result and save.

The first photo becomes the recipe's picture.

For the best results

• Lay the page flat, in good light, without your shadow across it.
• Get the whole recipe in the frame, including the ingredient list.
• Handwriting works best when it's reasonably clear. Check the amounts before you save.

If it can't read the photo, you'll get the form to fill in by hand instead.

Recipes live in boxes. Keep one for weeknights, one for Sunday cooking, one for the in-laws, however suits you. You can be in up to 20 boxes, and a box holds up to 500 recipes.

Sharing a whole box

The owner of a box can invite people by email. When they sign in with that same email address, they land straight in the box. Everyone in a box can add, edit and delete its recipes, and plan meals on its calendar. Owners can also rename the box, remove people, and make someone else an owner. Anyone can leave a box they've been invited to.

Sharing one recipe

On a recipe, tap the share button (Share this recipe) to copy a link. Anyone with the link can see the recipe without an account, and can save their own copy into a box of theirs if they sign in. Share links stop working after 14 days.

Each box has its own calendar, shared with everyone in the box. Tap a day to plan it.

• Meals. A day can have up to three meals. Name them however you like ("Dinner", "Packed lunch"), and set how many people are eating each one.
• Recipes. Add up to ten recipes to a meal.
• Notes. For the nights you're not cooking, write a note instead, like "leftover chilli" or "eating out". A note can also sit alongside the recipes.
• Copying days. Choose Select days, pick the days you want, then copy them onto other days. Handy for repeating a good week. The days you copy onto are replaced, and you'll be shown what changes before anything happens.

In the planner, choose Select days, tap the days you're shopping for, then press Shopping list.

The list adds up the ingredients from every recipe on those days, scaled to the number of people eating each meal. Notes such as "leftovers" aren't included, because there's nothing to buy.

Open a recipe and press Start cooking to go through it one step at a time, in large text.

• The screen stays on while you're cooking, on phones and browsers that allow it.
• Ingredients opens the list at the number of portions you chose, and you can tick things off as you go.
• Previous and Next step move between steps. Finish closes cook mode at the end.

In cook mode, every step has a Play button and a Replay button.

• Play reads the step out loud. While it's speaking, the button changes to Stop.
• Once you've pressed Play, each new step is read out automatically as you move to it. Press Stop to turn that off again.
• Replay reads the current step again from the beginning.
• In Ingredients, press Read ingredients to hear the list, with the amounts for the number of people you're cooking for.

Amounts are read the way you'd say them: "200 grams", "one and a half tablespoons", "180 degrees Celsius".

It uses the voice built into your phone or computer, so it's free and needs nothing installed. If you can't hear anything, check the volume. If the buttons don't appear at all, your browser doesn't support reading aloud; try Chrome or Safari.

snapt'in runs in your browser, and you can also add it to your home screen or desktop so it opens in its own window, like any other app. There's nothing to download from an app store.

• Android, or Chrome on a computer: open https://app.snapt.in, then tap Install app in the menu (⋮), or the install icon at the right of the address bar.
• iPhone or iPad: open it in Safari, tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.

There's no password. Enter your email address and we'll send you an email with a code and a link. The first time, the same email creates your account.

• The code works anywhere. Type it into the sign-in page you're looking at, on any device. This is the easiest way if the email arrives on a different phone or computer.
• The link signs you in with one tap, but only in the same browser, on the same device, that you asked from. A link requested on your laptop won't sign you in on your phone; use the code instead.

Only the newest email works, and each code and link can be used once.

The email hasn't arrived

• Check your spam or junk folder. Sign-in emails sometimes land there. Marking it as "not spam" helps the next one arrive.
• Give it a minute or two. If you ask for several emails in a row, there's a short wait before another can be sent.

Invited to a box? Sign in with the email address the invitation was sent to, and you'll land in that box.