Which is the BEST AI note taker? Plaud vs Zoom, Otter and more!

Last time I checked, we're all still drowning in calls and meetings, and it's so easy to forget what was said, by who, and what's going to happen next. So,

I've spent the last few weeks testing a bunch of ways to fix it, including this little gadget, the Plaude Note, to see if you should pay for hardware and a subscription or just use what you

already own.

Rewind a year or so ago, and the Plaude Note was the latest go-to gadget for capturing calls and meetings. But this

game is moving fast. My iPhone now records and summarizes calls natively, whilst Microsoft and Zoom have AI summaries baked in. And there are other players like Otter automating it all in

the background. So, I wanted to see if

the background. So, I wanted to see if this little physical device still has a place in a world where software does most of the heavy lifting, especially when some of the alternatives are included with software or devices you

might already have. In this video, I'm going to run down all the competition and see if Plaude is still something that I'd recommend because I do get it.

Not everyone can justify a $160 device plus a monthly subscription to hear all your calls, meetings, and thoughts sent back to you as beautifully summarized notes. Oh, and this isn't sponsored by

notes. Oh, and this isn't sponsored by Plaude, by the way. I'm going to tell you about this video sponsor in just a bit. Let's start with a brief recap on

bit. Let's start with a brief recap on how the Plaude note works. So, you press this button to record. You press it to stop. You sync it to your app. That

stop. You sync it to your app. That

generates a transcript. You can then choose a summary style and export it to your favorite notekeeping app or just keep it in plauded and search using their AI later on. The battery lasts

ages. It doesn't murder your phone. It's

ages. It doesn't murder your phone. It's

great in busy rooms, lectures, and especially when phones are banned or maybe frowned upon. And yeah, it does have a subscription, which is optional.

You get 300 transcription minutes thrown in every month when you buy the device.

And of course, most of us hate subscriptions, but guess what? AI

processing is not free to run. Now,

whether it's worth it depends on what you want to remember and how much time it's going to save you each week. Now,

before I get into our first comparison, what I really wanted to do in this video was take, say, five different meetings or interactions and run them through all the different products we're going to test today for a super objective test.

And that sounds like it should be easy, but it is in fact pretty impossible due to the way some of these services work.

So, what we'll do instead is have a few rounds of testing where I pit against its top competitors and see who comes out on top for each round. Let's go.

First of all, let's take a look at the obvious competition, which was an update in the latest iOS. And that lets you record calls right on your iPhone. Now,

if you're in a call and you hit the record button, this sends the caller an audible note to say that the call is being recorded. And then to stop

being recorded. And then to stop recording, you can just tap that button or hang up. Your iPhone then automatically saves call recordings to a special call recording folder over in

your notes app. Now, this new feature does offer a transcription service, though it's not usually available straight away. You can see that

straight away. You can see that transcription by clicking the little speech bubble icon, which lets you skip to the audio in the track. You can

search through the transcript and also get a summary of the call if you've got Apple Intelligence switched on. Now,

there isn't a choice of the format of the summary that you get, but based on my testing, it's relatively accurate.

Sometimes it can get some words wrong, especially industry jargon or maybe listening to someone with a more heavy accent. So, that's the call recording

accent. So, that's the call recording feature, but you can use pretty much the same workflow for in-person meetings. If

you just put your phone on the table and hit record in the voice memos app, Android users, I've not forgotten about you. If you're on a Samsung S series or

you. If you're on a Samsung S series or Google's latest Pixel devices, you get this type of thing included on your phones, too. So, compared to Plaude,

phones, too. So, compared to Plaude, there's already one clear advantage. is

already on your phone without you needing to pay anything extra on top of the cost of your device. And it does work. In the case of Apple's recording,

work. In the case of Apple's recording, it's also private and on your device by default. So, it's really simple and

default. So, it's really simple and secure. But in terms of downsides, well,

secure. But in terms of downsides, well, there are quite a few. Firstly, using

this feature, certainly on iPhone, absolutely hammers your phone's battery.

As an example, I recorded a 60-minute call the other day on my phone, and it dropped my battery by 25% on a single call. The Plote, on the other hand, lets

call. The Plote, on the other hand, lets you record around 30 hours straight, so you can keep your phone battery for when you need it. Secondly, the transcription on iOS isn't the best, and it only

really works on onetoone conversations.

There's no obvious way of separating speakers out on things like conference calls, and there's only one kind of summary, which doesn't really understand any context that you're working in.

Claude note, on the other hand, covers multiple speakers with ease, and it gives you literally hundreds of summary formats to choose from. or you can even make your own. Plus, you can program in your own industry terms so it always

understands the context or any regular abbreviations that you use. That is not however an excuse to keep saying circle back. Finally, if you want to use this

back. Finally, if you want to use this feature on your phone, if you didn't record the audio using your phone, yeah, that's it. You can't import other audio

that's it. You can't import other audio into Apple Notes or voice memos to transcribe or summarize. But yeah, you guessed it. With Plaude, you absolutely

guessed it. With Plaude, you absolutely can. So, it can kind of work in reverse.

can. So, it can kind of work in reverse.

If you recorded a note in your phone app, but you didn't have your Plaude Note with you, you can still import the audio into Plaude and it'll do its thing. So, round one, it's an easy one.

thing. So, round one, it's an easy one.

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wanted to show you a free alternative to Pl, which a lot of people don't know about. Now, if you have Microsoft Word

about. Now, if you have Microsoft Word on your machine, it actually has a feature to transcribe any audio file.

It's really basic, but yeah, it's free.

you know, if you or your employer already pay for Microsoft Word. And

that's about the only benefit here because in order to use this, you will need access to Microsoft Word, which requires a subscription these days. And

they've actually just put the price up.

And also, Microsoft Word is famous for doing stuff like this. Now, you can also get a summary here as well as a transcription, but you'll need to use Microsoft's AI to generate it. And in my testing, it was very hit and miss in

terms of accuracy. unpopular opinion,

but I think we should probably just bring back Clippy. Plaude, on the other hand, will work in a nice clean web app or your phone app, and it'll separate out speakers and do you a bunch of different summaries depending on what

you're transcribing, which word unfortunately just cannot compete with.

Round two goes to Plaude again. Next up,

we've got a real contender, and that's Otter AI. This is one of the OGs of the

Otter AI. This is one of the OGs of the AI recording game and was probably one of the first auto transcription tools I ever tried and that experience really shows. Otter is an app that

shows. Otter is an app that automatically joins your meetings in Zoom, Google, and Teams, and then gives you an AI summary in real time with searchable notes. It even has built-in

searchable notes. It even has built-in agents for different use cases like sales recruitment education and media. It also has some AI built in so

media. It also has some AI built in so that you can ask it questions from any past conversation or meeting that you've had. Now, in terms of Otter's advantages

had. Now, in terms of Otter's advantages over POD, well, there is a free plan that gives you 300 minutes of transcription every month, or you can pay a monthly fee for,200 transcription

minutes, unlimited storage, and the ability to import your own audios and video files into Otter. I'd say the auto transcription is genuinely excellent,

and it has some of the best search and keywording I've seen so far. It also

lets you join concurrent meetings if you ever need to be in two places at once.

Plus, while it is possible to use Plaude in virtual meetings, either by putting your device next to the speaker or using the Windows desktop app, it's not easy if you're mainly using headphones or

using a Mac, as the Plaude desktop app isn't available for Mac users, although I am told it's on the way. Are there any ways that Plaude beats Otter? Well, in

my view, Plaude is certainly more optimized for in-person audio, such as meetings and lectures, conferences, that kind of thing. If you're a busy professional who conducts lots of in-person meetings, Plaude's probably

going to work better for you. Now, it's

worth saying you can use Otter for in-person meetings, too, but it's a much more complicated workflow involving an app. There's also the challenges in

app. There's also the challenges in terms of different languages and accents. Plaude supports over 200

accents. Plaude supports over 200 different languages, which might be really important if you work in a multilingual team. And again, in my

multilingual team. And again, in my experience, PLA generally does a pretty good job of tracking accents, even from here across the UK where regional differences in accent can vary a lot. So

yeah, I'd say this round is more of a draw, I think, and whichever wins out for you will kind of depend on what kind of meetings you tend to have. I think

Otter is still superb for virtual meetings, but if you work in a hybrid way in conferences, cafes, and in-person conversations on the go, that press and forget workflow from Plaude is probably

going to be much easier. Okay, so we're on to our final round, and I wanted to group together the built-in notetakers from Zoom, Google Meet, and the complete horror show that is Microsoft Teams. Now, in terms of pros with these ones,

well, there's no extra app. You just

fire it up when the meeting starts and forget about it. You also get things like auto notes for the whole team joining the core, which can definitely save time in terms of follow-up. And

also from a data privacy perspective, I think this is likely to suit your compliance setups if you're already using them within an organization, as it'll probably have been set up that way when your IT department configured it to

all. Now, in terms of downsides, well,

all. Now, in terms of downsides, well, quality definitely varies here.

Summaries can be a bit vague at best or at worst completely inaccurate. They're

also platform locked, so they will work inside a Google Meet session or Zoom or Teams call, but pretty useless if you're also taking phone calls, WhatsApp calls, or in-person sessions. And if like me,

you're a solo business, there are often hidden paid tiers here for things like storage, and they can really add up over time. So, yeah, I think these options

time. So, yeah, I think these options can be really great if you spend all day in one of these app ecosystems. Otherwise, I think Plaude or Otter is just more flexible all round. Yeah. So,

round four goes to Plaude. So, after

testing out a number of alternatives, all things considered, I think there is still a case to be made for having a physical recording device that records and summarizes your meetings and calls.

I've got a couple of other things that I need to tell you about, though. First of

all, a point on accessibility and inclusion. I think for folk with memory

inclusion. I think for folk with memory issues, visual impairments, ADHD or multilingual workspaces, accurate recordings and action item summaries are

not a luxury. They represent

independence. And this is where reliable capture and clear intelligent summaries matter way more than just saving a Fiverr every month on another subscription. Secondly, a note on data

subscription. Secondly, a note on data security and privacy. I think if you're recording any kind of conversation, whether it's a deeply personal one or an everyday business meeting, you should

have an eye on where that data is going.

I used to run a business involved in collecting personal data, so I know quite a bit about various privacy standards and I've been really pleased to see Plaude continuing to strengthen its approach here. They just added two

ISO certifications to their lineup alongside GDPR, SOCK 2, and HIPAA. I do

know from experience how much work will have had to go on in the background to get those certifications. And yeah, it is a lot. So, in conclusion, this is my verdict on everything I've experienced whilst making this video. I think if you

live in Zoom or Teams all day, use the built-in apps or maybe something like Otter. I reckon if you're all about

Otter. I reckon if you're all about sticking to a tight budget or you're a student, maybe use the free workflows that I showed. And if you don't mind some additional time spent in getting everything set up exactly the way you

want it across multiple platforms and you're happy to deal with some quirks along the way, they can absolutely be good enough. If you're more of a hybrid

good enough. If you're more of a hybrid meeting attendee, I'm talking phone calls with in-person and random rooms with occasional virtual meetings thrown in, and you want something that you can

rely on with the press of a button, I do think that Plaude still earns its place in your setup. If you want to grab one of these for yourself, there's a link and a discount code in the description, or you can scan this code up here.

Meanwhile, if you're interested to know more about how the Plaude Note Pro works differently to the regular Plaude Note, check out my comparison video. It's just

over here. See you next time.