You know how it goes in the LTD world – trying to figure out if it’s genuinely useful or just another tool destined for the digital shelf, collecting virtual dust.
Full disclosure, their special $99 price for our community is ending in about 1 day.
So I wanted to share my thoughts while it’s relevant, in case you were curious or on the fence.
What I’ve Been Using It For (And How It Went):
My main uses have been learning, capturing thoughts, and experimenting with long recordings.
The Background Recorder Experiment
They offer up to 6 hours of recording time per note — wild.
I tried just hitting the record button and leaving it running while working or during chats with my wife & kids.
It does keep recording in the background if you switch apps or lock your phone, which is great.
Could be handy for offline meetings too, I suppose.
The Catch:
I noticed sometimes my iPhone seemed to stop recording after maybe an hour or so – might be an iOS thing trying to save battery, not sure.
If you really need continuous multi-hour recording, you might need to adjust your phone’s settings to prevent the screen from locking.
Transcription Quality on Ambient Stuff
If you just leave it recording background noise and random chatter, the transcription might get messy.
The AI tries its best to capture distinct conversations happening around, but it struggles to make sense of disjointed words or figure out the context.
Don’t expect a perfect transcript from passive recording.
Where it is useful:
For specific conversations like client meetings, hashing out ideas, or capturing memorable bits during a conversation, it’s pretty good.
You can leave it on and get the key points captured without actively taking notes.
Online Meetings
Right now, for online meetings (like Zoom), it’s like the old days of Hedy – you need to have your phone nearby and the volume up so the mic can pick up the sound.
However, I chatted with the founder, Louis. He confirmed they’re actively building system audio recording. It’s apparently running in their test environment now and needs 2-3 more weeks to stabilize.
Once that rolls out, it should be able to capture audio directly from your computer. Like other people talking in Zoom or audio from a video you play, alongside your own mic. That’ll be a big step up.
Learning Boost
This is where it shines for me.
Share a YouTube video to the app, paste a link, or upload audio. NoteX then works behind the scenes to create summaries, mind maps, and more.
Being able to quickly digest content this way, getting key points or visual outlines is useful.
What’s Good (The Pros)
Input Flexibility (More Than Just Voice)
This is a big plus. It’s not just a voice recorder.
Found a killer YouTube tutorial? Just hit share to Notex.
Reading a long PDF? Upload it
Got audio from an old course? Upload it. It handles audio files well, but not direct video uploads yet (you’d need to extract audio first). Youtube & Social media links are your friend for video content right now. Hopefully, direct video file uploads come later.
Want to dictate quick thoughts? Record directly.
This versatility opens up way more use cases than a simple audio recording app.
Output Variety (Beyond Transcription)
It doesn’t just give you text.
You can get AI summaries, mind maps, flashcards, quizzes, or chat with your note.
Instead of just asking it to “summarize,” try something more specific: “Generate 5 potential objections to the proposal outlined in this text.”
It helps you interact with and understand your information differently.
Transcription Quality
TL;DR: Fast transcription and accurate
I learned from the founder that they don’t rely on just one engine. They use different well-regarded AI models like Deepgram (for major languages), AssemblyAI (for multi-language needs or specific ones like Chinese/ Vietnamese), and Whisper (for auto-detect mode).
This multi-engine approach likely contributes to the reliable results across different scenarios.
Mobile App & Quick Capture
First of all, the mobile app has a nice UI/UX.
You can add a widget to your phone’s home screen for true 1-click recording. If you open the app first, it’s still only two quick taps (open app, tap record) to get going. It starts recording immediately.
What’s convenient is that right after you stop recording, NoteX automatically generates the summary for you. This is a nice workflow touch compared to some other apps, like VoiceNotes, where you usually need a few extra taps to trigger the summarization after recording.
Where It Could Be Better (Cons & My Wishlist)
Manual Language Selection: Still gotta tell it the language. Auto-detect would be smoother.
AI Confusion on Long/Messy Audio: As mentioned, feed it hours of unstructured chatter, and the AI summaries might shrug digitally. Needs relatively focused conversation for best results.
No Live AI Interaction (like Hedy) Yet: Can’t chat with the AI during a meeting like some tools. Processing happens after.
Mac App Workaround: No native Mac app yet. My current workaround is using a tool like Edge browser to turn the web app into a standalone desktop app.
Longevity & Trust
Okay, we all get wary of fly-by-night LTDs. What about NoteX?
They seem to have some traction. The founder mentioned they’re a team of 7 actively developing.
Looking at app stores and their site, they have 10k+ on Playstore, 30k+ on App store, and 70k+ on the web.
They seem responsive to feedback and have paying subscribers too.
These are generally positive signs for sustainability, though no guarantees in the LTD world, obviously.
They make quick product updates. The App Store shows the last update was on April 16th. They add new features every other week.
NoteX vs VoiceNotes:
Voicenotes is not selling a LTD now but some of you might have it. Do you need this too? My take:
Voice Notes: It’s fantastic for quick capture and processing your own thoughts. Its strength is simplicity and immediate AI interaction on that specific note. It’s less focused on importing external content or helping you learn stuff.
NoteX: It also does quick capture well. But its scope feels broader, leaning more towards an “AI learning companion.” The ability to pull in YouTube videos, text, and audio files, plus generate things like mind maps, flashcards, and quizzes, pushes it beyond just capturing thoughts. It’s designed to help you ingest and learn from various sources.
Voice Notes might still lead for pure thought capture management (think auto-tags, auto notes surfacing).
Speed and transcription feel about the same as NoteX.
However, I like NoteX’s immediate auto-summaries and file structure.
When you move to learning from varied sources (videos, files), NoteX is undeniably the more feature-rich tool.
Verdict:
If you’re happy with Voicenotes purely for capturing and processing your own voice thoughts, you don’t need NoteX.
But if you don’t have the Voicentes LTD, or if you want that wider range of input options and learning-focused outputs, then NoteX is a very solid contender in this space.
Final Thoughts:
NoteX is trying to be more than just a transcription tool.
It aims to help you capture information from almost anywhere and turn it into something you can learn from or act on.
The core transcription is good
The input/output flexibility is a major strength
The upcoming system audio recording makes it better
It has quirks, like the manual language selection and the need for a workaround for a Mac app.
But it feels like a capable tool with active development behind it.
Is it essential? Depends entirely on your workflow and if you need its specific blend of capture and learning features.