Hello Transcribe vs On‑Device AI
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hello Transcribe
This app offers private and secure speech-to-text transcription using on-device processing. It can transcribe audio and video files, voice notes, podcasts, and live microphone feeds, with support for multiple languages and offline functionality.
- On-device transcription for 100% privacy
- Offline functionality
- Transcribe audio and video files
- Live microphone feed transcription
- Multiple language support
- Encrypted iCloud saving
- Export VTT/SRT subtitle files (PRO)
Read full descriptionHide full description
Hello Transcribe is a private and secure speech to text transcriber that uses OpenAI Whisper and Whisper.cpp. • All processing is done on-device for 100% privacy, and it also works offline. • Transcribe voice notes (e.g. WhatsApp), podcasts, or any audio file (many formats supported). • Transcribe supported video formats. • Save encrypted results in iCloud. • Transcribe the microphone feed to dictate notes or record meetings live. • Supports many languages and translation to English. • [PRO] Buy PRO once off, use forever. • [PRO] Use Presets to manage different configurations. • [PRO] Export VTT or SRT files to add subtitles to video or podcasts. • [PRO] Save audio to re-transcribe later or export. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
On‑Device AI
Transform your device into a private AI assistant for meetings and complex tasks. Features include speaker diarization, live transcription, and specialized subagents for research, analysis, and writing. Control your AI via messaging apps, with options for 100% offline processing or cloud connectivity.
- Speaker Diarization for meeting transcripts
- Real-time live transcription
- Natural AI speech generation
- Deploy specialized AI subagents
- AI-powered web browser automation
- Control AI via messaging apps
- 100% offline processing option
Read full descriptionHide full description
On-Device AI puts chat, listening, transcription, notes, and research in one private app for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. Your data stays on your device. Download a model once and keep working on a plane, on the subway, or without a signal. Chats, documents, recordings, and notes stay on your device. Online providers and web features are optional and work only after you enable them. ONE APP, YOUR WAY Open every workspace from a customizable Menu. Keep favorites under Pinned and everything else close by under Available. AI CHAT Chat with local or cloud models. • Run local models from families such as Gemma, Qwen, DeepSeek, and Mistral, or connect your own provider account • Browse, download, and manage models that fit your device, including ones for text, vision, reasoning, and tools • Drop in documents, images, and scanned PDFs; approve private on-device OCR only when a PDF needs it • Fork any conversation and compare several models on the same prompt • Let the model use tools for calculations, web requests, documents, Calendar, and Reminders, and review proposed changes before they apply • Create reusable Agent Profiles, then add AI Skills, MCP servers, and tools from one clearer Agent Workflows setup • Keep facts you repeat often in Global Memory LISTEN LIBRARY AND RSS FEEDS Read less, listen more. • Turn PDFs, Markdown, plain text, web articles, and scanned books into a listening queue • Scan photographed pages, correct the OCR the app runs on device, and keep each page with its spoken text • Follow sites through RSS, Atom, and JSON feeds, then send articles to Up Next • Choose Apple voices or local neural voices, follow along in the reader, and set a sleep timer VOICE NOTE, VOICE TYPING, AND TEXT TO SPEECH Speak instead of typing, and listen instead of reading. • Record and transcribe meetings, lectures, interviews, and quick ideas • Dictate with Voice Typing on Mac or the voice keyboard on iPhone and iPad • Transcribe with Apple Speech, Whisper, Parakeet, Nemotron, Qwen3-ASR, MOSS, and other engines • Turn text, or text captured from a photo, into audio with Apple voices, Kokoro, Supertonic, VoxCPM2, IndexTTS2, and other engines • Export transcripts as text, subtitles, or Markdown AI SEARCH AND AI BROWSER Research with a second pair of hands. • Search the web in a conversation and let the model read the results for you • Browse with tabs, profiles, history, and downloads, then ask your model to read, assist, or act on the page • Hand a task to the browser agent, watch each step, and take over whenever you want KNOWLEDGE AND TEXT NOTE Give your AI your own material to work from. • Add PDFs, text, Markdown, code, images, and website content to a private searchable library • Write and edit Markdown notes in the app • Import AI chats, voice notes, Text to Speech items, and AI Search results • Tune retrieval and index edited content again APP HELP Ask how a feature or setting works. App Help answers from a guide that ships inside the app, keeps help out of your saved chats, and points to the right settings. MADE FOR APPLE DEVICES • Native layouts adapt from focused navigation on iPhone to category sidebars on larger screens • Settings are grouped by purpose, including Voice Typing, Agent Workflows, Models & Storage, Privacy & Data, Memory, and—on Mac—Instant Messaging • Widgets for Listen, Voice Note, Text Note, and Quick Actions • Siri, Apple Shortcuts, App Intents, the Mac menu bar, and keyboard shortcuts you can customize • Apple hardware acceleration for supported local models • Browse chat, transcription, speech, and embedding models in one Model Library • Store models internally, on an external drive, or on a shared volume, with separate tools for cleanup and recovery • Interface in English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, and Traditional Chinese EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
Hello Transcribe and On‑Device AI both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 80% of Hello Transcribe's written reviews are positive against 64% of On‑Device AI's. Hello Transcribe also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On‑Device AI's advantage is ratings volume (163 vs 38). On price, rating, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Hello Transcribe sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and On‑Device AI sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Hello Transcribe against 4.4 for On‑Device AI. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 38 and 163 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 80% of Hello Transcribe's written reviews are positive against 64% of On‑Device AI's.
Hello Transcribe ships an update weekly, On‑Device AI fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Hello Transcribe | On‑Device AI |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (38 ratings) | 4.4 (163 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better | 63.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 38 | 163 — better |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.6 | 18.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 93 MB | 1.8 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Ben Nortier | Zijie Deng |
Customer experience
Hello Transcribe
On‑Device AI
User reviews
Hello Transcribe
From 38 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Accurate transcription
- 🔒 Private/on-device processing
- 💰 No subscriptions (one-time purchase option)
- 💾 Saves with or without audio
- 🚀 Fast transcription on Apple Silicon
Room to improve
- 🐌 Transcription is slow/not real-time
- 🌐 No translation options
- 🗣️ No speak options
- 🪟 Transcribing window too small
- ↔️ Can't move sidebar out of view
On‑Device AI
From 163 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Game-changing AI assistant
- 🔍 Powerful search functionality
- 👍 Customizable and versatile
- 🌐 Seamless multi-device experience
- 💡 Innovative character-based interactions
Room to improve
- 🐛 Crashes on larger models
- 🔋 Heating issues on some devices
- 🔍 Slow and unreliable web search
- 💻 Buggy on macOS
Bugs and requests
Hello Transcribe
Reported bugs
9 issues- Crashes with update
- UI/UX bugs
- Text is lost if app is switched
- App crashes when saving transcript
- App crashes when loading Accurate Multilingual model
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Phone screen times out and app stops recording
- App crashes when trying to select larger models (Pro version)
- Auto scroll of live transcription is missing
- Loses all transcription if interrupted
Requested features
22 requests- Translation to other languages in real time
- Keep audio file attached (.m4a)
- Option to re-process transcription as a single complete audio file
- Set real-time preview model and then process complete audio with another model
- Option to record audio and transcribe overnight (for larger models)
Show 17 moreShow fewer
- Searchable recordings with audio player cursor jumping to word position
- Menu-bar version for quick access
- Ability to right-click in text field and select transcribe option
- Clean up random line breaks and spacing
- Ability to use system audio for transcription
- Keep screen awake during recording
- Confirmation prompt for 'clear' button
- Select specific section of text for export
- Auto-save dictated text and view files later
- Timestamps in transcriptions
- Keyboard add-on for dictation
- macOS version based on CoreML
- Tailor settings for medical professionals
- Bring to Android
- Auto recovery or auto save of transcriptions
- Auto scroll of live transcription
- Edit resulting text before sharing
On‑Device AI
Reported bugs
3 issues- Crashes on startup
- Model selection issues
- Inability to copy generated text
Requested features
9 requests- Automated multi-character conversations
- Character set saving and syncing
- Streamlined search integration
- UI optimization for icons
- Remote endpoint support for multi-agents
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- HomeKit integration
- Improved documentation
- Enlarged agent input window
- Per-agent model assignment
In-app purchases
Hello Transcribe
- Pro Subscription14 Days trial$1.991 Month
- PRO Purchase$6.99
On‑Device AI
- Pro Member Subscription$3.991 Month
- Pro Member Subscription$34.991 Year
- Lifetime Pro Member$49.99
- Lifetime Pro Member$99.99
Questions
Is Hello Transcribe free?
Is On‑Device AI free?
Which has better reviews, Hello Transcribe or On‑Device AI?
Do Hello Transcribe or On‑Device AI have ads?
Which is updated more often, Hello Transcribe or On‑Device AI?
Other comparisons















