Recap: On-Device Meeting AI — an on-device meeting recorder
Record the meeting, get the transcript, and get the three things that actually mattered — key points, decisions, action items — without the audio ever leaving the phone.
Meeting transcription usually means uploading the meeting
The standard workflow for turning a meeting into notes is to upload the recording to a transcription service and let a model in a data centre summarise it. That works well and is completely unacceptable for a large number of meetings — anything covering client information, personnel matters, unannounced plans, or a conversation the other participants did not consent to having uploaded.
Recap keeps the whole pipeline on the device. Recording, transcription and summarisation all happen locally, and the app is explicit about whether a given transcription was produced on-device or not.
What it does
Record, read, and take away the decisions.
- Recording with a transcript. Audio is captured and transcribed using the platform's speech recognition. The app checks per-language whether on-device recognition is available and reports it, so you always know whether a transcript was produced without the network.
- A structured summary. Rather than a wall of prose, the summariser produces a short summary plus three separate lists — key points, decisions, and action items. Those are the parts anyone actually reads after a meeting.
- Streaming results. Summaries arrive incrementally rather than all at the end, so a long meeting starts becoming useful before processing finishes.
- Three languages. English, Cantonese and Mandarin, selectable per recording, which matters in Hong Kong where a single meeting often moves between them.
- Playback beside the transcript. An audio player sits with the transcript so you can jump back to the moment where something was said rather than trusting the text alone.
- Categories, export and calendar. Meetings can be categorised, exported to PDF, and linked to calendar entries.
- Honest availability reporting. The summariser reports why it cannot run when it cannot — not enabled, not eligible, not ready — instead of silently producing nothing. Anyone who has used an on-device AI feature that just does not work will appreciate this.
What on-device costs and buys
A cloud transcription service will usually be more accurate, handle overlapping speakers better and work on any device. Recap trades some of that for the guarantee that the recording of your meeting stays on your phone. For a design review that is a bad trade; for a conversation about a client, a salary or a diagnosis, it is the only acceptable one.
Because it depends on the platform's on-device speech and summarisation capabilities, it also has real hardware requirements, and the app tells you plainly when your device or language cannot support them.
Who it is for
Professionals whose meetings contain information they are contractually or ethically not allowed to upload — lawyers, clinicians, HR, anyone under an NDA. The value is not convenience, it is being able to use transcription at all.
It also suits people working across Cantonese, Mandarin and English in the same conversation, and anyone who has ever left a meeting sure that something was decided but unable to reconstruct what.
Recording, consent and privacy
Audio, transcripts and summaries are stored in a local database on the device. There is no account and no upload. The microphone and speech recognition permissions are requested at the point of use, and calendar access only if you link a meeting to an event.
Recording laws differ by jurisdiction and many require the consent of the people being recorded. That is your responsibility, not the app's — tell the room.
Frequently asked questions
Is my recording uploaded for transcription? No. Transcription uses the device's own speech recognition, and the app reports whether a given transcript was produced on-device. Audio and transcripts stay in a local database.
What does the summary contain? A short summary plus three separate lists — key points, decisions and action items — streamed in as processing runs rather than appearing only at the end.
Which languages are supported? English, Cantonese and Mandarin, selectable per recording.
What happens if my device cannot run the summariser? It tells you, and why: not enabled, not eligible, or not ready. It does not silently produce nothing.
Can I export a meeting? Yes, as a PDF. Meetings can also be linked to calendar entries.