Comparison

ALRM vs Secretary Agent

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

ALRM

This app acts as a personal safety companion for the deaf and hard-of-hearing. It uses AI to detect critical sounds like fire alarms and sirens, alerting users through visual and haptic feedback. Designed with privacy and accessibility in mind, it works offline and is battery optimized.

Highlights
  • Critical sound detection (fire alarms, sirens)
  • Multi-modal alerts (screen flash, LED, haptics)
  • On-device sound processing for privacy
  • Simplified, accessible UI
  • Customizable geofence alerts
  • Offline functionality
  • Battery optimization
Features
Read full description

ALRM transforms your iPhone into a personal safety companion, providing peace of mind for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community through intelligent sound detection and multi-modal alerting. Key Features: • Critical Sound Detection - Uses advanced AI (YAMNet with 521 sound classes) to detect fire alarms, smoke detectors, gunshots, emergency vehicle sirens, and low battery chirps with industry-leading accuracy • Multi-Modal Alerts - Instant notification through screen flash, LED flash, custom haptic patterns, and visual overlays ensuring you never miss critical alerts • Privacy-First Design - All sound processing happens on-device. No audio is ever recorded or transmitted • Accessibility Excellence - Simplified UI designed for users with varying technical literacy, WCAG 2.1 AAA compliant • Geofence Alerts - Customizable alert zones for home, work, or any location • Works Offline - Core detection features work without internet connection • Battery Optimized - Adaptive power management ensures all-day protection Perfect for: Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals seeking independence Parents of deaf children wanting peace of mind Elderly users with hearing loss Anyone in noisy environments who might miss critical alerts Supported Sounds: Fire and smoke alarms Carbon monoxide detectors Gunshots and explosions Emergency vehicle sirens (police, ambulance, fire) Low battery chirps from smoke detectors ALRM was developed in close collaboration with the deaf community to address real safety needs. Every feature has been thoughtfully designed to provide maximum safety with minimal complexity. Note: This app requires microphone access for sound detection. All processing is done locally on your device for maximum privacy.

About

Secretary Agent

This AI-powered assistant answers your calls, identifies callers, and intelligently routes or summarizes interactions. It provides structured intelligence from every call, ensuring you never miss important information or connections.

Highlights
  • Intelligent AI call screening
  • Real-time voice detection and natural conversation
  • Smart call routing and prioritization
  • Call summaries with transcripts and audio
  • Global spam database
  • Customizable assistant personality and voice
  • Context integration from calendars and documents
Features
Read full description

For most of history, having a personal secretary was a privilege reserved for the elite. Someone who knew your schedule, screened your calls, took notes, followed up, and kept the noise away — so you could focus on what only you could do. We think everyone deserves that. Secretary Agent is a conversational AI that answers calls on the user's behalf, identifies the caller, assesses urgency, and routes the outcome intelligently. We do not block and forget — we engage, understand, and empower the user with structured intelligence from every interaction. Intelligent Screening: Our AI agent answers unknown calls, identifies the caller, and assesses intent through real-time natural conversation — no scripts, no robotic menus. Smart Routing: Trusted contacts bypass the agent and ring directly. Spam is terminated and logged. Non-urgent calls are summarized and stored. Urgent calls are escalated immediately. Structured Intelligence: Every screened call produces a plain-language summary, full text transcript, and audio recording — stored in a searchable, growing personal knowledge base. Uncompromising Reliability: Our fail-safe architecture ensures that if our service is ever unavailable or a quota is reached, calls continue reaching the user normally. We never let a user miss a call because of us. MVP Features: Intelligent AI call screening with real-time voice detection, speech recognition, and natural-language conversation. Multilingual support for callers across different languages and accents. Call summaries with notes, action points, full text transcripts, and audio recordings stored per call. Call prioritization by urgency and sentiment — the most important calls always surface first. Folder system for organizing and categorizing call summaries. Global Spam Database with robocall, phishing, and nuisance-call protection — crowd-powered and continuously improving. Whitelisting and bypass controls so trusted contacts skip the AI and reach the user directly. Number blocking to prevent specific callers from ever being processed. Custom assistant name, personality, tone, and text instructions — fully personalized to each user's needs. Secretary voice selection: choose from 10 distinct voices (5 male, 5 female) to define how your Secretary sounds. Context integration from calendars and uploaded reference documents for superior handling accuracy. Multi-factor authentication with phone verification, account passcode, and recovery code. Fail-safe call continuity — if our service is ever unavailable or a quota is reached, calls continue reaching the user normally. Push notifications for all important call activity.

Screenshots

ALRM4 screens
Secretary Agent4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Secretary Agent at 5.0 against ALRM's 4.2. Secretary Agent also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 75%) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.6). ALRM's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 2). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Secretary Agent sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. ALRM asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Secretary Agent holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 75% of ALRM's written reviews are positive against 100% of Secretary Agent's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ALRM ships an update fortnightly, Secretary Agent weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
ALRM versus Secretary Agent: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterALRMSecretary Agent
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (5 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings5 — better3
Update frequencyFortnightlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB104 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperKevin PhelanELAGENT, INC.

Customer experience

ALRM

All ratings5 ratings
Positive80.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

Secretary Agent

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

ALRM

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Secretary Agent

One-time2
  • Quota Tier$4.99
  • Premium$29.99

Questions

Is ALRM free?
ALRM is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Secretary Agent free?
Secretary Agent is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, ALRM or Secretary Agent?
Secretary Agent is rated higher. ALRM averages 4.2 out of 5 from 5 ratings, while Secretary Agent averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do ALRM or Secretary Agent have ads?
Neither ALRM nor Secretary Agent shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ALRM or Secretary Agent?
ALRM ships an update fortnightly, and Secretary Agent weekly. Most recently, ALRM was updated on October 12, 2026 and Secretary Agent on October 21, 2026.

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