Subscription required - no thanks!
In what is certain to be an intentional omission from the store page, this app requires a $49/year subscription to transcribe for longer than 60 seconds. This is for an app which is merely wrapping an open source software package and model and which runs entirely on device - no thanks!
Shouldn’t be a subscription
This tool uses the on device whisper transcription model and using such an expensive subscription model is anti customer. Aiko app does the same for free.
Subscription for an offline app
First thing first - the developer is charging money for a purely offline app, based on an Whisper AI framework. There’s not a lot of unique stuff that warrants the subscription, but it’s a general and a nasty trend in software dev.
Well, though. Four stars because it’s actually somewhat useful. However, compared to some online-based apps like XRAI, there’s no choice of a microphone in settings. The thing is, the usually the speech captioning is used by deaf people that use hearing aids. Modern hearing aids, that cost like $1000 each, from Unitron and Phonak, even some $50000 cochlear implant processors have Bluetooth functionality that allows them to work as headphones and microphones. The thing is, these microphones are very high quality, much better than iPhone mics, and can beam form well even in crowd. XRAI allows to choose other devices as a mic, like hearing aids and AR glasses. This does not, and always defaults to internal iPhone mic. Would be great to have a functionality to choose the mic. Meanwhile, four stars.
Well, though. Four stars because it’s actually somewhat useful. However, compared to some online-based apps like XRAI, there’s no choice of a microphone in settings. The thing is, the usually the speech captioning is used by deaf people that use hearing aids. Modern hearing aids, that cost like $1000 each, from Unitron and Phonak, even some $50000 cochlear implant processors have Bluetooth functionality that allows them to work as headphones and microphones. The thing is, these microphones are very high quality, much better than iPhone mics, and can beam form well even in crowd. XRAI allows to choose other devices as a mic, like hearing aids and AR glasses. This does not, and always defaults to internal iPhone mic. Would be great to have a functionality to choose the mic. Meanwhile, four stars.
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Good transcription, poor file management
The transcription part of this app is incredible, but there are no sync options of any kind for the recordings or the transcripts. I want to keep them backed up, but the only option is to manually export, and the export process is very clunky.
You have to manually export both the transcript and the audio file separately. The transcript file is just labeled “text” which is not helpful at all. The WAV file exports are all automatically named using the date and time (good) but only in the GMT time zone, which is not helpful at all — unless, I guess you live in that exact time zone.
You have to manually export both the transcript and the audio file separately. The transcript file is just labeled “text” which is not helpful at all. The WAV file exports are all automatically named using the date and time (good) but only in the GMT time zone, which is not helpful at all — unless, I guess you live in that exact time zone.
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Doesn’t work
App crashes right after opening. iOS 16 latest and iPhone X. Please fix.
Really glad this exists, but there is space for improvement
The ability to take the whole model offline and just talk and it will understand even if you have no internet connection is very convenient. The precision, undisputedly, the best I have encountered yet (I have been using the large model).
However, it is very easy to accidentally delete a note. Also, there is no back up to icloud feature which I think could be helpful. As an idea for the future, I think the developer can introduce a special file format to store both the audio and the text in the same file to make it convenient when I want to share with someone.
However, it is very easy to accidentally delete a note. Also, there is no back up to icloud feature which I think could be helpful. As an idea for the future, I think the developer can introduce a special file format to store both the audio and the text in the same file to make it convenient when I want to share with someone.
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Total junk for difficult audio
I’ve been looking for an iOS app that uses the open AI whisper algorithm, v2 large, at highest quality. I’m wanting to create transcripts of audio for my elderly dad for when his age related hearing loss means he can’t make out what’s being said in reverberant situations. I have tried the free open sourced whisper algorithm which is remarkable. My test piece is a recording of a eulogy from a funeral in a reverberant church spoken in English which I made some while back on a phone. The full precision algorithm is word perfect in a different app so I had high hopes. This app however is junk. It picked up less than 10% of the words, and those words bore literally no relationship to what was spoken (not even homophones) and weren’t even a sentence. It threw in some Chinese characters (words?) as well. Where the original language was English. I’m aware transcription is difficult. Open AI however changed the game and their algorithm really works. Unfortunately this developer I presume has opted to not use the high quality modes, which is irksom espGiven this app is super expensive - and they’re not selling the transcription algorithm - the clever bit was created and distributed for free by open AI. They’re charging us for a “front end” and their choice of modes - So to not enable the “good version” of the free algorithm they are using is garbage. I tried all combinations of options in settings not one would work or spear any better . Sadly complete junk. Presumably the developer opted for a lower compute requirement instance of the algorithm with the result it doesn’t work in difficult situations. Ah well. “Delete”. Btw - How do I know the free open sourced open ai algorithm is so good ? By using a different iOS app “whisper transcribe” which I would happily use but there are a couple of major bugs that stop it working most of the time that the developer isn’t addressing, but when it does process a recording - it is astonishing with near 100% transcription accuracy, including on this sample of audio I used with this app, so it is an identical test. That instance of open AI’s whisper gets 100% transcription accuracy over 10 minutes of my (poor, extremely reverberant) recording but for one Maltese word which was spoken in the middle of all the english. Astonishing. Sadly not the app I am reviewing here however. Total garbage.
Update 1 - I am now somewhat embarrassed at how strong my criticism was, born out of frustration, as the app developer reached out to me by email, clearly wanting to understand what was going on, as this behaviour would not be expected. I applaud his laudable engagement. Their customers matter to them! I have sent back screen shots of settings, access to my test audio, and comparison transcription from this app and the one that nailed it. So I await to hear if the higher quality of transcription can be unlocked, and if so crossed fingers - there will be an “update 2”…so far - full marks for customer service.
Update 1 - I am now somewhat embarrassed at how strong my criticism was, born out of frustration, as the app developer reached out to me by email, clearly wanting to understand what was going on, as this behaviour would not be expected. I applaud his laudable engagement. Their customers matter to them! I have sent back screen shots of settings, access to my test audio, and comparison transcription from this app and the one that nailed it. So I await to hear if the higher quality of transcription can be unlocked, and if so crossed fingers - there will be an “update 2”…so far - full marks for customer service.
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Response from developer
Dear Jonny, We are sincerely sorry that you've been having difficulties with our app. Your satisfaction is our top priority and any issue that hinders the user experience is deeply concerning for us. Your report of a difference in transcription output from our app and another using the same OpenAI model is indeed unusual. Both apps should, in theory, provide the same transcription for the same audio input. While we have optimized our app for on-device use and to leverage the Apple Neural Engine for speed and efficiency, these factors should not impact the output quality. We are committed to getting to the bottom of this and would like to ask for your support. Could you please email us at hello@clinicalai.co.uk with any additional details about your experience? Information such as screenshots and your device details would be particularly helpful to our investigation. We greatly appreciate your feedback and assure you that we take it seriously. It helps us understand where improvements are needed most. Thank you for your patience as we resolve this problem. We are working tirelessly to ensure you receive the quality service you expect from us. Best, Henry, ScribeAI App Development Team
good work!
good work!
Gamechanger!
Love this app. I was using another dictation app before would have to spend ages after adding punctuation and correcting mistakes, this does it for me and doesn’t make the mistakes in the first place! Has saved me so much time. Thank you!!
Time saver!!
Scarily accurate! The auto punctuation saves me so much time, best dictation app I’ve tried!
