I have misplaced depend of what number of AI note-taking apps I have put in this 12 months.
Each week, there is a new one who guarantees to checklist, transcribe, and summarize my conferences, and each and every week, the loose tier both collapses after half-hour or locks the AI options at the back of a credit score pool that is used up in days.
After a few weeks of the use of the preferred ones on Android as a substitute of simply studying their advertising pages, I stored coming again to Otter. It is not best possible, and I’m going to get to the place it falls quick, however it is the handiest loose AI note-taker on Android that stands as much as critical use.
Here is what it will get proper, and what the remainder get incorrect.
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Otter does not gate the AI at the back of a credit score pool
Summaries and chat are at the loose tier as a substitute of a demo
The entire level of an AI note-taker is that it does the pondering for me. Transcription is the uncooked subject material, however summaries, extracting motion pieces, and the facility to invite questions on a previous recording are the overall product.
Any software that gates the ones at the back of a credit score gadget is promoting me the wrapper, and no longer the article itself.
The clearest instance of that lure is Fireflies, which contains 20 AI credit per 30 days on its Unfastened plan to make use of complex options like AskFred and AI soundbites.
The ones credit dissipate rapid as a result of each and every abstract and each and every query you ask a couple of previous name eats into the pool. I reached 0 by way of the center of the second one week, and all transcripts after that had been simply partitions of textual content.
Otter handles this very in a different way. AI Chat is integrated within the loose plan, in conjunction with transcription and summaries in English, French, or Spanish. There is nonetheless a cap on AI chat queries, however the summaries are not gated.
The loose tier is usable for per week of labor
300 mins a month beats a 3-minute screenshot demo
Each loose tier has limits, so what I am in point of fact asking is whether or not the ones limits are free sufficient to seize the typical communique.
I attempted Notta, and it did not hit the mark for me. Its loose plan caps real-time transcription at 3 mins in step with recording and internet assembly transcription at 3 mins in step with consultation. That is only a screenshot generator, no longer a real function, and I could not seize a unmarried communique inside of that restrict.
Otter’s limits are relatively inside the vary I will paintings with. You get 300 transcription mins per 30 days, with a 30-minute length cap in step with transcription.
The per-session cap is inconvenient on longer calls, however maximum of my conversations, together with stand-ups, shopper check-ins, and fast lectures, are inside half-hour.
The per month mins have compatibility sufficient of the ones into per week that I by no means ran out sooner than the following month got here alongside.
Google Meet’s AI assembly notes are in any case to be had in languages rather then English
Fortunate quantity seven
Otter information in-person, no longer simply Zoom calls
A calendar invite should not be the one method to take notes
A large a part of the AI note-taking ecosystem is constructed round becoming a member of Zoom, Google Meet, or Microsoft Groups as a bot. That is high quality for the calendar-based portion of my week, however pointless for the remainder.
Each time I’ve espresso conferences with any person who needs comments on an concept, or a brief catch-up that is price remembering, I am not going to create a web-based assembly with a bot-joinable hyperlink. However many standard AI note-takers can not see anything else their bot can not sign up for.
Otter information in-person thru its Android app. I merely open it, faucet File, and the telephone’s mic does all of the leisure.
The transcript and abstract are saved in the similar position as any Meet or Groups recording, with speaker ID to label who stated what. The transcript was once blank sufficient to extract quotes from later on.
Wave is every other app that does bot-free recording smartly on Android, almost certainly higher than Otter. On the other hand, its loose plan gives half-hour of recording per 30 days, which is ten instances tighter than Otter’s limits.
Otter’s Android app earns its position on my house display
The cellular enjoy is solely as just right as on a desktop
AI note-taking continues to be essentially desktop-first, and most of the loose Android apps I examined on this class most commonly assist you to learn transcripts. As any person who’s repeatedly in conferences whilst at the transfer, that is a deal-breaker.
Otter’s Android app information on-device, transcribes in genuine time, and handles speaker ID after you have educated it on a couple of voices.
It runs within the background, so I may just stay the use of my telephone whilst it captured. Plus, the Play Retailer record presentations lively building, with cellular options touchdown similtaneously desktop ones, quite than months at the back of.
To its credit score, Fireflies has a correct Android app too, however the credit score gate from previous nonetheless applies on cellular. So the function that makes the app helpful is identical one who runs out inside a few weeks.
The place Otter nonetheless falls quick
The consultation cap and three lifetime imports are gotchas
Otter’s 30-minute per-conversation cap is the most important restrict for sensible use.
If I am seeking to seize a 45-minute name, I’m going to lose the finishing portion until I forestall and restart partway thru, which is strictly the type of friction an AI note-taker is meant to take away.
The 3 lifetime document import restrict is worse in concept than in observe as a result of it is in particular for pre-recorded audio recordsdata you wish to have to transcribe after the reality.
You’ll be able to nonetheless live-record up to you wish to have inside the per month mins, and that is the reason how the general public use it. But when your workflow is determined by uploading previous recordings, you achieve limits rapid, and there is no reset.
Neither of the ones stopped me from the use of the app. They are simply herbal limits on what the loose tier can relatively do sooner than you must subscribe to a paid plan.
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The loose AI note-taker price preserving on Android
Each loose AI note-taker makes the similar handle its customers. You get helpful AI options, however handiest up to some degree, and you’ve got to pay as soon as previous that time.
The query is whether or not the loose tier will provide you with sufficient room to do genuine paintings sooner than you achieve the ceiling.
Otter will provide you with that room as it does not gate the AI layer. The consultation and per month caps are usable, and cellular is a number one platform quite than a facet function.
That is a low bar that I want extra AI note-taking apps cleared, however Otter is one app that clears it.
