SpeechToText Memo vs Lightning Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
SpeechToText Memo
Read full descriptionHide full description
Turn spoken ideas into text memos with SpeechMemo. Tap Start Transcription, speak, and see words appear as you talk. Save the text, edit it, and share it when you are ready. CAPTURE IDEAS AS YOU SPEAK Use live speech to text for a quick thought, class note, meeting reminder, or journal entry. Choose the language you speak from the available speech recognition languages. MAKE EACH MEMO USEFUL Review and edit the text, keep saved memos in a simple list, and share text through the iOS share sheet. You can also listen to a memo read aloud or display its text as a QR code. SpeechMemo saves text memos on your device. Speech recognition availability depends on the selected language and your device's speech services. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Lightning Notes
Read full descriptionHide full description
Record. Transcribe. Summarize. All on your device. Transcription and speaker separation run entirely on your iPhone β no audio ever leaves your device. Stop the recording and on-device AI works out who said what, producing a speaker-labeled transcript. Then choose local AI or Cloud AI to write the meeting notes. Supported by ads, with all core features available without a subscription. ------------------------ Key Features ------------------------ β Accurate Transcription β On-Device Apple's speech recognition engine processes your audio entirely on-device. Meetings, lectures, interviews β transcribed without sending audio anywhere, and reliable even for long recordings. β Automatic Speaker Separation Speaker separation runs automatically on your iPhone once recording stops, identifying who said what across multi-participant conversations. Voice fingerprints are learned over time, so names get assigned automatically in later meetings. Manual editing is always available. β AI Meeting Notes β Your Choice of AI Β· On-device AI: No internet required; nothing leaves your iPhone. Needs 6 GB RAM or more (iPhone 13 Pro and later). Β· Cloud AI: DeepSeek V4-Flash via OpenRouter, streamed in real time. API data is not used for model training, and only Zero Data Retention (ZDR) endpoints are used, so the provider does not store your data to disk. β Speaker Summaries & Person Profiles (Cloud AI) See each participant's role, key points, and behavior in the meeting. Across up to 30 past meetings, AI builds a profile of a person's role, communication style, and projects. β Action Items, Extracted (Cloud AI) Cloud AI meeting notes also pull each person's action items into the Tasks tab. Set yourself among your people to see your tasks apart from everyone else's. Each task keeps the line it came from and links back to its meeting; move it from Needs confirmation to In progress to Completed, also right on the meeting's screen. Tasks stay on your device. β Dictionary Correction (Custom Terms) Register company names, product names, and jargon, and the app fixes where speech recognition misheard them β "Tower Electric" becomes "Towa Electric". An on-device language model checks each fix reads naturally in context, so unrelated passages are left alone. Fixes can be reviewed, reverted one at a time, and applied to past meetings. β Audio & Video File Import Import external audio or video recordings and run them through the same transcription and speaker separation pipeline. β Share & Export Export as PDF, choosing which sections to include (summary, speaker summaries, transcript). Speaker colors and tables are preserved. Text and audio sharing are also supported. β Privacy-First Architecture Transcription, speaker separation, and local summarization all run on-device. Cloud AI is opt-in β leave it off and no recording content ever leaves your iPhone. β Folder Organization Organize meetings into folders by project, client, or topic. β Full-Text Search Search titles, summaries, and transcripts. Find any meeting by keyword in seconds. β Edit Transcripts Fix recognition errors directly in the app and save an accurate record. β Control From the Lock Screen Elapsed time appears on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island while recording, with pause, resume, and stop right there. Add the Control Center button to start recording without launching the app. β Backup & Restore Export meetings, transcripts, and speaker data to a file and restore it on another device or after reinstalling. You keep the file; nothing goes to an external server. ------------------------ Requirements ------------------------ Β· Transcription, speaker separation, file import: iPhone 12 or later (A14 chip), or iPad with M1 or later Β· Local AI summarization: 6 GB RAM or more (iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 14 series, iPhone 15 and later) Β· Audio/video formats: WAV, M4A, MP3, MP4, and other common formats --- Take back your meetings. No subscription required.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is iOS requirement: SpeechToText Memo at 16.6 against Lightning Notes's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
SpeechToText Memo ships an update weekly, Lightning Notes every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.
| Parameter | SpeechToText Memo | Lightning Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Weekly | Every 5 days β better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 16.6 β better | 26.0 |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 56 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | nz-sw | Chihiro Otsuki |
In-app purchases
SpeechToText Memo
No in-app purchases
Lightning Notes
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is SpeechToText Memo free?
Is Lightning Notes free?
Do SpeechToText Memo or Lightning Notes have ads?
Which is updated more often, SpeechToText Memo or Lightning Notes?
Other comparisons















