App of the Week – Otter

Published on March 29, 2018

Ever have an incredibly productive work meeting – only to forget that incredible point you made about timelines the minute you exited the conference room? Ever recorded an interview on a tape recorder – only to spend twice the length of your conversation transcribing your dialogue?

Here’s what you need to do next time: Have an Otter with you!

No, we’re not talking about a cute little critter! We mean the Otter app, a powerful new free tool for recording searchable voice transcripts.

Otter uses the power of AI to make recording and reviewing your most important conversations a breeze. After an initial set-up process, you just turn the app on, and it begins recording your conversation and generating text. The app is automatically able to differentiate between different voices, and you can perform a “deep search” for words or phrases, if you’re ever trying to locate a specific keyword or phrase within one transcript, or your entire library of voice recordings.

Even better, Otter lets you keep your recorded audio file for reference, and the app makes it incredibly easy to share your transcripts with your team members, either through the app or via a dedicated web link. Otherwise, the app works a bit like Evernote – meaning that your materials are confidential and encrypted, and you won’t be served any annoying ads in-app.

Now, critics who have gotten their hands on the app have pointed out a few flaws with the early version of Otter – the transcripts aren’t always 100% accurate, for one thing, and the text can get muddled if there’s a lot of cross-talk, or you’re recording in a crowded room.

Still, there’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to this new tool, brought into the world by veterans of Google and Nuance, two leaders in voice and speech recognition. Whether it’s taking your minutes, recording interviews, or giving yourself voice notes before your big speech, we’re willing to bet you’ll be able to find countless ways to put Otter to work right away.

Ready to get started with this buzzy new app? You can download Otter Voice Meeting Notes right now for Android and iOS devices. The app is free, and the company expects to roll out a premium version sometime in the near future.

Have any other productivity or note-taking apps you think our team would love? Be sure to let us know over on Facebook or Twitter, where we keep the techy talk going 24/7!