6 ms·

Show HN: Record voice memo, receive transcription in email

76 points by Void_ 4y ago

trafnar 4y ago
I like that this is so focused on quickly initiating the recording, then just emailing the transcript, rather than trying to keep me in the app. That's exactly how I'd like this type of app to function.
- barbazoo 4y ago
  That's how they all start. Wait until there's VC money involved.
  - Void_ 4y ago
    Haha this is just a side project - I'm co-founder of Reflect (https://reflect.app https://reflect.app) and more likely we'll be integrating this functionality into our note-taking app.
    - barbazoo 4y ago
      Cool, yeah that sounds like a logical thing to do. Good luck. I wish whispermemos was available for Android. I have to look into what's available and what the privacy implications are. Would love to use something like that. A Joplin plugin would be awesome.
markozivanovic 4y ago
Great job! I love that you only need to press the record and stop on the phone and the rest is done automagically in the background. I wonder if there's a thing for Android that's as accurate as Whisper!?
- Void_ 4y ago
  Somebody could build an Android frontend - and use the same OpenAI Whisper library on the server. I didn't bother with React Native thinking audio recording would be pain in the butt.
simonebrunozzi 4y ago
Good stuff, but not for me. I need a MacOS app that uses my M1 (soon M2) and does this thing without any extra cost.
Void_ 4y ago
This an iOS wrapper for OpenAI Whisper library. You can use the lock screen widget to start recording - allowing you to quickly capture what's on your mind. This comment was the inspiration behind this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32928118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32928118 Pricing is currently somewhat high, until I figure out how much it costs to run Whisper on cloud GPUs. I'll adjust the pricing accordingly, and perhaps switch to per-minute model.
- alexarena 4y ago
  This is cool! Curious if it would be possible to run the model on device?
  - Void_ 4y ago
    I suppose the built-in iOS voice recognition would be better for that. I haven't really compared those two properly. Wonder how much better Whisper is.
    - AndrewKemendo 4y ago
      Apple will keep up with anything that SOTA, just with a bit of a lag - so just expect they will be better soon if not already Word of warning from someone who built an SDK that filled in a processing gap that Apple had (6DOF Monocular SLAM)[1] Apple will eventually make your technology obsolete and their version will be way better. See: ARKit We open sourced it once ARKit came out because there was no way to monetize it further [1] https://github.com/Pair3D/PairSDK https://github.com/Pair3D/PairSDK
    - n8cpdx 4y ago
      Whisper is a game changer in terms of accuracy. It makes Zoom, YouTube, Zoom, Office/Azure, Descript, and Otter.ai transcription look like jokes in comparison. The step change in transcription accuracy here is significant enough to cross an important threshold for usefulness.
  - ggerganov 4y ago
pwinnski 4y ago
I'm trying to resist a "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." response, but iOS already does voice-to-text, so it's hard to see what value-add this offers. I think the comment which inspired you was from an Android user? Or at least not an iOS16 user, where the voice-dictation is much improved. Single-click launch from the lock screen? That's neat, I don't think I can get there with bare iOS. No real-time feedback as I speak, so that seems like a point to iOS. The email is a nice touch, but the trade-off is that you have a copy of all of my recordings now. Finally, it could be that OpenAI Whisper does a much better job than iOS. I have no idea!
- Void_ 4y ago
  Haha, you are totally right. I was mainly trying to have fun with a new technology. The email thing makes a lot of difference for me - I don't wanna fiddle with my phone any more than just pressing one button. I'll do the rest on my computer. (Copying to Reflect.app, creating a todo, etc.)
sattoshi 4y ago
What are the “in-app purchases”?
- Void_ 4y ago
  There’s a subscription to use it beyond 20 free memos. Running these models is pretty expensive!
  - j45 4y ago
    I am aware of voice memo apps running a library like vosk transcribing just fine on device instead of in cloud and without cost.
    - Void_ 4y ago
      Send a link, would love to try it.
      - j45 4y ago
        https://github.com/alphacep/vosk-api https://github.com/alphacep/vosk-api Your app is neat in that it can record from the Lock Screen. I was curious to try out the new open ai model. Too often, iOS has a problem of too many clicks to do the most basic of things.
mritchie712 4y ago
perfect. signed up. nice job!
mighty_donkey 4y ago
Is there a limit on how much I can record? Is this just for quick notes or could i record a 30mins meeting? Thanks and congrats on the launch.
- Void_ 4y ago
  Currently 10m limit, but I’ll be testing more.
swah 4y ago
I do something similar with a Telegram bot... but the quality is only good enough to let me know if I should listen to that audio again.
mellosouls 4y ago
This looks cool but I think we need a tech equivalent of "...IN MICE" warning for Apple-only products on this site. btw there are cross-platform apps which have some similar functionality, eg voiceliner https://a9.io/voiceliner/ https://a9.io/voiceliner/
happyllama 4y ago
This seems great! I’m excited to try it out. It reminds me of Voiceliner which I’ve been using for a while now. Voiceliner does on device transcription & allows for creating hierarchy to notes / ideas with export functions too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726787
- giantg2 4y ago
  Damn, I wish I knew about Vosk (which Voiceliner uses) a few months ago. I was struggling with Sphinx and couldn't get it to have any accuracy. I will definitely check this out.
- ivansavz 4y ago
  +1 for Voiceliner, which has been very useful for me too (heard about it via HN). It works pretty well on iPhone, haven't tested on Android.
xenonite 4y ago
Let me mention Just Press Record, which performs the transcription on iOS and macOS with Apple’s speech recognition, which is on-device for several languages. https://apps.apple.com/app/id1033342465 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1033342465
- petercooper 4y ago
  Seconded - one big win with Just Press Record is you can add it as a complication on an Apple Watch, so you can hit a button anywhere you are, leave a voice memo, and it's transcribed and on all your iCloud devices.
sriram_malhar 4y ago
Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing. You mention that you use whisper on the cloud. I was wondering what you think of on-device decoding using the base.en model and tflite. Something along the lines of: https://colab.research.google.com/github/usefulsensors/openai-whisper/blob/main/tinynn_pytorch_to_tflite_int8.ipynb#scrollTo=DeDY0j0zitxx https://colab.research.google.com/github/usefulsensors/opena...
topicseed 4y ago
https://recorder.google.com/ https://recorder.google.com/ is pretty amazing to me and is accessible from mobile and web. Not sure if it's Pixel-specific or not.
- notRobot 4y ago
  It is pixel exclusive. > Recordings backed up from the Recorder app on your Google Pixel will appear here. Visited on a non-pixel Android device.
  - topicseed 4y ago
    Oh, well, it's actually an awesome feature/app.
mtVessel 4y ago
It'd be nice if you linked to a privacy policy on that page. The policy linked to on the app store page isn't very specific, either.
jcbages 4y ago
It looks so cool! I'd love to have the transcript send to places other than email. I'm thinking of either a chat app like WhatsApp and Telegram or a productivity app like Notion to keep a more organized journal.
djbusby 4y ago
On Android one can just use the Microphone input from the keyboard. Just tap and instant transcript, in whatever you like (I use a web-based knowledge thing). Tap Icon on home screen, tap new, tap Microphone, talk for a few minutes, press save. Why am app for a built in feature?
- RandomWorker 4y ago
  It going to your email is quite useful for those that have that email be the primary method of collecting work and notes. It's like that old blackberry concept of the universal inbox, everything just goes to one thing, and get's collected there. For those with that work flow this is really cool app.
  - layer8 4y ago
    On iOS you can define a two-step Shortcut that does this (type or dictate text and then send it by email to a predefined address [0]). I imagine there are similar facilities on Android. [0] “Ask for Input” followed by “Send Email”, deactivate “Show Compose Sheet” on the latter. Then use the microphone symbol for speech recognition on the initial text input.
rmateu 4y ago
Subscribed to monthly while I figure out if it fits on my workflow. Anecdotally, it provides higher accuracy in a more relaxed style of narration than Just Press Record or native dictation. Either way, thanks for sharing. Hoping the side app is working out.

76 points by Void_ 4y ago

I like that this is so focused on quickly initiating the recording, then just emailing the transcript, rather than trying to keep me in the app. That's exactly how I'd like this type of app to function.

barbazoo 4y ago
That's how they all start. Wait until there's VC money involved.
- Void_ 4y ago
  Haha this is just a side project - I'm co-founder of Reflect (https://reflect.app https://reflect.app) and more likely we'll be integrating this functionality into our note-taking app.
  - barbazoo 4y ago
    Cool, yeah that sounds like a logical thing to do. Good luck. I wish whispermemos was available for Android. I have to look into what's available and what the privacy implications are. Would love to use something like that. A Joplin plugin would be awesome.

markozivanovic 4y ago

Great job! I love that you only need to press the record and stop on the phone and the rest is done automagically in the background. I wonder if there's a thing for Android that's as accurate as Whisper!?

Void_ 4y ago
Somebody could build an Android frontend - and use the same OpenAI Whisper library on the server. I didn't bother with React Native thinking audio recording would be pain in the butt.

simonebrunozzi 4y ago

Good stuff, but not for me. I need a MacOS app that uses my M1 (soon M2) and does this thing without any extra cost.

Void_ 4y ago

This an iOS wrapper for OpenAI Whisper library. You can use the lock screen widget to start recording - allowing you to quickly capture what's on your mind. This comment was the inspiration behind this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32928118 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32928118 Pricing is currently somewhat high, until I figure out how much it costs to run Whisper on cloud GPUs. I'll adjust the pricing accordingly, and perhaps switch to per-minute model.

alexarena 4y ago
This is cool! Curious if it would be possible to run the model on device?
- Void_ 4y ago
  I suppose the built-in iOS voice recognition would be better for that. I haven't really compared those two properly. Wonder how much better Whisper is.
  - AndrewKemendo 4y ago
    Apple will keep up with anything that SOTA, just with a bit of a lag - so just expect they will be better soon if not already Word of warning from someone who built an SDK that filled in a processing gap that Apple had (6DOF Monocular SLAM)[1] Apple will eventually make your technology obsolete and their version will be way better. See: ARKit We open sourced it once ARKit came out because there was no way to monetize it further [1] https://github.com/Pair3D/PairSDK https://github.com/Pair3D/PairSDK
  - n8cpdx 4y ago
    Whisper is a game changer in terms of accuracy. It makes Zoom, YouTube, Zoom, Office/Azure, Descript, and Otter.ai transcription look like jokes in comparison. The step change in transcription accuracy here is significant enough to cross an important threshold for usefulness.
- ggerganov 4y ago

pwinnski 4y ago

I'm trying to resist a "No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame." response, but iOS already does voice-to-text, so it's hard to see what value-add this offers. I think the comment which inspired you was from an Android user? Or at least not an iOS16 user, where the voice-dictation is much improved. Single-click launch from the lock screen? That's neat, I don't think I can get there with bare iOS. No real-time feedback as I speak, so that seems like a point to iOS. The email is a nice touch, but the trade-off is that you have a copy of all of my recordings now. Finally, it could be that OpenAI Whisper does a much better job than iOS. I have no idea!

Void_ 4y ago
Haha, you are totally right. I was mainly trying to have fun with a new technology. The email thing makes a lot of difference for me - I don't wanna fiddle with my phone any more than just pressing one button. I'll do the rest on my computer. (Copying to Reflect.app, creating a todo, etc.)

sattoshi 4y ago

What are the “in-app purchases”?

Void_ 4y ago
There’s a subscription to use it beyond 20 free memos. Running these models is pretty expensive!
- j45 4y ago
  I am aware of voice memo apps running a library like vosk transcribing just fine on device instead of in cloud and without cost.
  - Void_ 4y ago
    Send a link, would love to try it.
    - j45 4y ago
      https://github.com/alphacep/vosk-api https://github.com/alphacep/vosk-api Your app is neat in that it can record from the Lock Screen. I was curious to try out the new open ai model. Too often, iOS has a problem of too many clicks to do the most basic of things.

mritchie712 4y ago

perfect. signed up. nice job!

mighty_donkey 4y ago

Is there a limit on how much I can record? Is this just for quick notes or could i record a 30mins meeting? Thanks and congrats on the launch.

Void_ 4y ago
Currently 10m limit, but I’ll be testing more.

swah 4y ago

I do something similar with a Telegram bot... but the quality is only good enough to let me know if I should listen to that audio again.

mellosouls 4y ago

This looks cool but I think we need a tech equivalent of "...IN MICE" warning for Apple-only products on this site. btw there are cross-platform apps which have some similar functionality, eg voiceliner https://a9.io/voiceliner/ https://a9.io/voiceliner/

happyllama 4y ago

This seems great! I’m excited to try it out. It reminds me of Voiceliner which I’ve been using for a while now. Voiceliner does on device transcription & allows for creating hierarchy to notes / ideas with export functions too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726787 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29726787

giantg2 4y ago
Damn, I wish I knew about Vosk (which Voiceliner uses) a few months ago. I was struggling with Sphinx and couldn't get it to have any accuracy. I will definitely check this out.
ivansavz 4y ago
+1 for Voiceliner, which has been very useful for me too (heard about it via HN). It works pretty well on iPhone, haven't tested on Android.

xenonite 4y ago

Let me mention Just Press Record, which performs the transcription on iOS and macOS with Apple’s speech recognition, which is on-device for several languages. https://apps.apple.com/app/id1033342465 https://apps.apple.com/app/id1033342465

petercooper 4y ago
Seconded - one big win with Just Press Record is you can add it as a complication on an Apple Watch, so you can hit a button anywhere you are, leave a voice memo, and it's transcribed and on all your iCloud devices.

sriram_malhar 4y ago

Very nice indeed. Thanks for sharing. You mention that you use whisper on the cloud. I was wondering what you think of on-device decoding using the base.en model and tflite. Something along the lines of: https://colab.research.google.com/github/usefulsensors/openai-whisper/blob/main/tinynn_pytorch_to_tflite_int8.ipynb#scrollTo=DeDY0j0zitxx https://colab.research.google.com/github/usefulsensors/opena...

topicseed 4y ago

https://recorder.google.com/ https://recorder.google.com/ is pretty amazing to me and is accessible from mobile and web. Not sure if it's Pixel-specific or not.

notRobot 4y ago
It is pixel exclusive. > Recordings backed up from the Recorder app on your Google Pixel will appear here. Visited on a non-pixel Android device.
- topicseed 4y ago
  Oh, well, it's actually an awesome feature/app.

mtVessel 4y ago

It'd be nice if you linked to a privacy policy on that page. The policy linked to on the app store page isn't very specific, either.

jcbages 4y ago

It looks so cool! I'd love to have the transcript send to places other than email. I'm thinking of either a chat app like WhatsApp and Telegram or a productivity app like Notion to keep a more organized journal.

djbusby 4y ago

On Android one can just use the Microphone input from the keyboard. Just tap and instant transcript, in whatever you like (I use a web-based knowledge thing). Tap Icon on home screen, tap new, tap Microphone, talk for a few minutes, press save. Why am app for a built in feature?

RandomWorker 4y ago
It going to your email is quite useful for those that have that email be the primary method of collecting work and notes. It's like that old blackberry concept of the universal inbox, everything just goes to one thing, and get's collected there. For those with that work flow this is really cool app.
- layer8 4y ago
  On iOS you can define a two-step Shortcut that does this (type or dictate text and then send it by email to a predefined address [0]). I imagine there are similar facilities on Android. [0] “Ask for Input” followed by “Send Email”, deactivate “Show Compose Sheet” on the latter. Then use the microphone symbol for speech recognition on the initial text input.

rmateu 4y ago

Subscribed to monthly while I figure out if it fits on my workflow. Anecdotally, it provides higher accuracy in a more relaxed style of narration than Just Press Record or native dictation. Either way, thanks for sharing. Hoping the side app is working out.