Idle vs OpenTranscribe
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Idle
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Idle is a chat app built around widgets that lets your group chat do more than just talk. Because every group is different, so is every chat on Idle. Your rec softball team can add a calendar widget and a roster tracker. Your small business might need a shared Todo list widget or a place to share links. Your book club can create a poll or write in a shared notepad. And your neighborhood group can make announcements and add events to the board. In Idle, you never get features you didnβt ask for and youβre never missing the ones you need. WIDGES FOR ANY GROUP Every group has unique needs so only add the widgets that you need [Calendar] - Meetups, games, and sessions everyone can see at a glance [Events]- Post events with details and RSVPs so nothing slips through [Signup Sheets] - Keep tabs on attendance, scores, signups, or progress [Notepad]- Shared notes, lists, and agendas the whole group can edit [Paid Memberships] - Collect dues, fees, or contributions right inside the group [Polls] - Vote on the next book, the next date, the next anything [Announcements] - Pin the things that matter so they don't get buried New widgets are added regularly, so there's always more to choose from. CREATE YOUR OWN Need something thatβs not off the shelf? Create your own custom one made just for your group. If your group has a need, your chat can meet it. SET THE VIBE Make the space feel like your group with custom wallpapers, your own emojis, and name tags. Idle Chat should feel like being in a friendsβ living room, not the JPMorgan office. Terms: https://idlechat.app/terms Privacy: https://idlechat.app/privacy
OpenTranscribe
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OpenTranscribe is a voice journal that runs entirely on your iPhone. You speak, it writes it down, and nothing leaves the device. Recording, transcription, and storage all happen locally. There is no account to create, no sync, no analytics, and no networking code in the app at all. It works the same in airplane mode, because being offline is not a setting here, it is how the app is built. Tap once and talk. A live transcript appears while you speak, and when you stop, the full recording is transcribed on the device. Finished entries land on a simple home screen, organized by day across the week. Each entry keeps its transcript and its recording, so you can read it back, play it, or transcribe it again later with a better engine. OpenTranscribe can also look back for you. When a day, week, or month ends, it can write a short reflection over the entries from that period, generated on the device by Apple Intelligence. Nothing about your journal leaves the phone to produce it, you choose which periods reflect and how the writing reads, and a quiet stretch is left quiet rather than invented. On iPhones without Apple Intelligence the feature simply stays out of the way. Your recordings are yours. Audio is kept on the device by default so an entry can be re-transcribed, and you can turn that off to have recordings deleted automatically once they are transcribed. Entries are stored encrypted on the phone. Transcripts can be edited in place, and every prior version is kept. A recording can also start without opening the app: from the lock screen, a widget, the Action button, Siri, or Shortcuts. And your journal can leave with you. Everything exports as Markdown, as Obsidian notes, or as a website that opens in any browser with a built-in player, and a sealed archive backs the whole journal up for a later restore. The archive is free for everyone, always, so your data never sits behind a paywall. The formatted exports are the first feature of the OpenTranscribe Club, a one-time purchase that supports the app, with more club features to come. The transcription engine is built to be swappable, and it must declare that it runs on the device. The app refuses any engine that does not, so audio can never be quietly sent off the phone. OpenTranscribe is open source and MIT licensed. A privacy claim cannot be proven by a policy, only by source you can read, so the code is public. You can check exactly what the app does and does not do at github.com/theiskaa/opentranscribe.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Idle at none against OpenTranscribe's 1. OpenTranscribe's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. OpenTranscribe sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Idle asks for nothing beyond the download.
Idle ships an update every 6 days, OpenTranscribe weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Idle | OpenTranscribe |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 6 days β better | Weekly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No β better | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad β better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 112 MB | 28 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Synthetic Solutions, Inc. | Ismayil Shahverdiyev |
In-app purchases
Idle
No in-app purchases
OpenTranscribe
- OpenTranscribe Club$25.00









