Typewrite vs Stenographer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Typewrite
This app offers a distraction-free writing experience with a minimalist design and optional typewriter sound effects. Customize your writing environment with various fonts and easily export your work to other applications.
- Distraction-free writing interface
- Optional typewriter sound effects
- Font customization
- Plain text export
- Autosave functionality
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Typewrite is a distraction free writing machine that fits in your pocket. Its sleek and minimalist design will keep you focused, while still providing all the important features you need. With a wide range of customization options to chose from, you can craft the perfect environment to suit your writing style. Optional typewriting sound-effects are even included for some added old-fashioned ambiance! Whatever your project may be, Typewrite can help you get your ideas out of your head and onto the page. And once they're there, everything is easily exportable so you can continue revising on your computer in your favorite programs. Take a look at some of Typewrite's great features: - Typewriter sound effects: optional typing sounds help you find your flow - Font customization: choose from a variety of fonts and styles - Project export: export as a plain text file, editable by other writing apps - Autosave: projects saved automatically as you go, so you never lose your work
Stenographer
This app offers on-device audio recording and transcription, ensuring complete privacy as your data never leaves your device. It utilizes advanced AI for accurate speech processing, summarization, and multilingual support, with a one-time purchase for unlimited use.
- 100% on-device processing
- No subscriptions, one-time purchase
- Discreet background recording
- AI-powered transcription and summarization
- Intelligent search and tagging
- Multilingual transcription and translation
- Cross-device synchronization
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Your conversations are valuable. They should also stay private. Stenographer records, transcribes, identifies speakers, summarizes, and organizes audio directly on your iPhone or iPad. Capture from your phone or Apple Watch, then turn hours of audio into a readable, searchable record without sending your conversations to a transcription service. NEW IN STENOGRAPHER 2.0 • Seamless Transcript Read recordings as one continuous, newspaper-like conversation. Stenographer hides file splits and processing chunks while preserving the original audio behind every turn. • Know who said what Private, on-device speaker diarization separates conversations into natural speaker turns. Name a speaker and Stenographer can use an on-device voice profile to recognize that person in other recordings when there’s a confident match. • Private AI summaries On supported devices, summaries and labels use Apple’s on-device Foundation Models. An optional downloadable local fallback is available, and your transcripts remain on your device. • Record from your wrist Start recording from Apple Watch when reaching for your phone would interrupt the moment. Finished recordings remain queued on Apple Watch and retry until iPhone safely receives them for private transcription and analysis. MORE WAYS TO WORK • Continue recording in the background from iPhone or Apple Watch • Import existing audio files • Automatically detect supported languages • Transcribe speech or translate supported languages into English • Search across transcripts, summaries, and labels • Add labels and optional timestamps • Select exact transcript turns to share • Merge recordings and export all transcripts as JSON • Customize transcript fonts, speaker display, processing concurrency, and recording limits • Return to the classic per-recording layout at any time PRIVATE BY DESIGN Transcription, speaker identification, summaries, and labels run on your device whenever available. Nothing is uploaded unless you explicitly choose to share it. Speaker and optional fallback models may download when needed; your audio and transcripts are not uploaded for processing. ONE PURCHASE. NO SUBSCRIPTION. Record and transcribe without monthly fees, usage quotas, or cloud transcription charges. Ideal for meetings, lectures, interviews, research, personal notes, and private lifelogging. App icon designed by aaatelier.ch.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Stenographer at 88% against Typewrite's 50%. Stenographer also leads on chart position (#188 vs unranked). Typewrite's advantage is rating (4.8 vs 4.3) and price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Typewrite costs $1.99 and Stenographer $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Typewrite holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of Typewrite's written reviews are positive against 88% of Stenographer's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
| Parameter | Typewrite | Stenographer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $1.99 — better | $4.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better | 4.3 (3 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 87.5% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 4 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | — | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | — | #188 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 17.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 575 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicholas Shoemaker | Caleb Phillips |
Customer experience
Typewrite
Stenographer
In-app purchases
Typewrite
No in-app purchases
Stenographer
No in-app purchases









