Comparison

Lightning Notes vs 話録

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

Head to head
About

Lightning Notes

Features
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Record. Transcribe. Summarize. All on your device. Transcription and speaker separation run entirely on your iPhone — 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 ------------------------ ■ Accurate Transcription — On-Device Apple's speech recognition engine processes your audio entirely on-device. Meetings, lectures, interviews — transcribed without sending audio anywhere, and reliable even for long recordings. ■ 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. ■ AI Meeting Notes — Your Choice of AI · On-device AI: No internet required; nothing leaves your iPhone. Needs 6 GB RAM or more (iPhone 13 Pro and later). · 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. ■ 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. ■ 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. ■ Dictionary Correction (Custom Terms) Register company names, product names, and jargon, and the app fixes where speech recognition misheard them — "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. ■ Audio & Video File Import Import external audio or video recordings and run them through the same transcription and speaker separation pipeline. ■ 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. ■ Privacy-First Architecture Transcription, speaker separation, and local summarization all run on-device. Cloud AI is opt-in — leave it off and no recording content ever leaves your iPhone. ■ Folder Organization Organize meetings into folders by project, client, or topic. ■ Full-Text Search Search titles, summaries, and transcripts. Find any meeting by keyword in seconds. ■ Edit Transcripts Fix recognition errors directly in the app and save an accurate record. ■ 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. ■ 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 ------------------------ · Transcription, speaker separation, file import: iPhone 12 or later (A14 chip), or iPad with M1 or later · Local AI summarization: 6 GB RAM or more (iPhone 13 Pro, iPhone 14 series, iPhone 15 and later) · Audio/video formats: WAV, M4A, MP3, MP4, and other common formats --- Take back your meetings. No subscription required.

About

話録

Features
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話録(わろく)は、日本語の会話を録音し、iPhoneの中で文字起こしと話者識別を行うアプリです。 会議や打ち合わせ、インタビューなど、あとから内容を確かめたい会話を、音声と話者ごとのテキストで振り返れます。録音や文字起こしを外部の音声認識サービスへ送信せず、端末内で解析します。 【主な機能】 ・日本語の会話を録音、一時停止、再開 ・録音中はバックグラウンドでも継続 ・端末内で文字起こしと話者識別 ・話者数を自動判定、または1〜4人で指定 ・2種類の音声認識モデルを切り替えて結果を比較 ・モデルや話者数を変更して再解析 ・発言時刻をタップして、その位置から音声を再生 ・録音名と話者名を変更 ・話者名付き全文またはテキストのみをコピー、共有 【プライバシーを重視】 録音、文字起こし、話者情報はiPhone内に保存します。アカウント登録、広告、アクセス解析、行動追跡はありません。 初回セットアップ時と、別の音声認識モデルを初めて使うときは、静的なモデルファイルのダウンロードにインターネット接続が必要です。ダウンロード後の文字起こしと話者識別は端末内で行います。 【ご利用前に】 文字起こしと話者識別の結果は、録音環境、雑音、声量、話す速さ、発話の重なりによって変わります。日本語表現の正確性、発言内容の完全性、話者の一致を保証するものではありません。重要な内容は必ず元の音声と照合してください。 長時間の文字起こしや話者識別では、端末が熱くなったり、電池消費が増えたりすることがあります。

Screenshots

Lightning Notes4 screens
話録4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ads: 話録 at none against Lightning Notes's shown. 話録 also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Lightning Notes versus 話録: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLightning Notes話録
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 days—
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB35 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperChihiro OtsukiHiroki Tani

In-app purchases

None

Lightning Notes

No in-app purchases

None

話録

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lightning Notes free?
Lightning Notes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is 話録 free?
話録 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Lightning Notes or 話録 have ads?
Lightning Notes shows ads; 話録 does not.

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