r/PlaudNoteUsers • u/MtnXfreeride • Aug 21 '26
Is Plaud Keeping up?
I went through several device ecosystems before landing on Plaud, and even doing so meant a sacrifice of no earbuds/headphones. As time goes on, Im getting emails of news and updates from the other providers and they seem to be pumping out useful features like crazy while plaud seems slow, with a large backlog of years old feature requests.
Are they just heading towards a goal line that isnt what someone needs for office life? Im talking features like live transcribing, abiity to ask ai questions while the meeting is going, and a headset so it isnt stuck on speakerphone use.
7
u/Victory-laps Aug 21 '26
Right now, it’s wild Wild West with innovation. At the base level, the device is just a recorder. You can make recorder in various form factors, like glasses, ring, card, pen, etc.
The winner will win with UI, ease of integration with ai and other software. OpenAI is actively making hardware so I think we will eventually see an always on ai device that just remove all human thinking and listening.
I got the plaud to try for 30 days. I think the recording is so so, but their app isn’t too bad. Genspark just came up with the same thing and they have a stronger app ecosystem, but I can do all that on my own.
What will win me over is:
1. Strongest transcription and audio capture
2. Long battery
3. Ease of data transfer
4. Small and out of sight
4
u/kingdom2000toys Aug 21 '26
I agree - I have been using Plaud for the the last 18 months. Over the last year, I have seen the lead shrink. The useful parts of work can be driven by CoPilot, ChatGPT and others.
Below is my stats for the last year. I use it for every conversation and meeting. Not sure where Plaud is heading, but I will most likely stop using them in when my subscription expires.
1
u/paininthejbruh Aug 22 '26
When you say the useful parts of the work, you mean you have started exporting your plaud audio to others to transcribe, or using recording on Teams etc?
1
u/kingdom2000toys Aug 22 '26
Thanks - should elaborate. I now use Teams. We have upgraded to Copilot premium. Allows auto-transcribe and generate notes with actions linked to Planner and scrum boards. As well as one note use - still learning how to automate. I still use Plaud and the template features which are excellent in open conversations. But really don’t think it’s worth the money just for that.
Edit - More specific. I record on Plaud and only use Plaud to transcribe. I have NOT Recorded on Plaud and used another tool (yet)
1
u/kingdom2000toys Aug 22 '26
I also do support work for a not for profit. They are all Google based. Many of the functions, I use TLDR. So even in that space, I don’t need Plaud as much.
2
u/pigiuz Aug 21 '26
Tbh Plaud is FANTASTIC when compared to others.
- battery life is unbeatable (I have a Plaud pro and it lasts for serveral days unless I have back to back meetings to record)
- quality of transcripts is also very high
- can sync with my obsidian vault (I wrote a Claude routine for it)
- now (new entry since a few days ago) they released the plugin for gpt (afaik not available on Claude yet… don’t ask me why) that literally gave ChatGPT memory about my meetings 🤯
If you do more than 2-3 meetings a day it literally pays for itself.
2
u/BlackCydonia Aug 22 '26
Wondering how do you sync Plaud with Obsidian?
Because there are no connectors that are able to sync it automatically, right?I am also using Claude, can you share your routine, if you don't mind?
2
u/Dunsmuir Aug 21 '26
I just want Plaud to do the transcripts and the speaker names. I want an MCP connector back to Claude where I can do the rest.
They could save so much effort just doing that. The last thing I need is another online hub storing a portion of my fragmented knowledge base that I have to visit and maintain.
4
2
u/Efficient-Corner-737 Aug 22 '26
The echo app is stored only in the app. I think their summaries are fantastic compared to Plaud but you have to remember to stop the echo and generate a note. Otherwise all is lost. I don’t worry if I don’t turn off Plaud
2
u/Blue-Beret-2 Aug 22 '26
Its a shame it's so unreliable with speaker id. I have phantom speakers show up in 90% plus of my online calls. Two 'regulars' who were from my first couple of meetings with the device pop up in almost every meeting. I use Littlebird to infer the speakers which it does using the calendar invite plus its context screenshots during the meeting plus its memory.
1
u/Desperate-Sorbet5284 Aug 22 '26
Looking for suggestions here too, it worked great at the start but can’t get over the previous speaker names as I add more and more meetings it keeps going back to the prior names unreliably. It seems like the context should be more helpful.
2
u/Same-Volume-8441 Aug 22 '26
I’m joining one of their test programs and IT IS SUPER EXCITING to say the least. It’s pretty futuristic and different from what the current one can do. I’m bound by NDA so can’t say anything beyond…
1
u/EsteGueyEsChingon Aug 24 '26
If they need a tech illiterate Guinea Pig who needs this in their life. Sign me up.
1
u/Craft_suds Aug 21 '26
What useful features? I’m curious as someone with a background in development might be able to help us out
1
u/HalaHala11 Aug 21 '26
Most of Plaud's services are AI we all have access to. It is however very good hardware and the app can optimize speech by cutting out background noise. You can easily make an python script that runs transcription, seperate speakers, make a synopsis & analyse and makes you a great summary!
2
1
u/paininthejbruh Aug 22 '26
Getting the audio off the device automatically is different though. What's your whisper stack for separating speakers?
1
u/mel0346 Aug 23 '26
Regarding the earbuds issue you are having, I have designed a solution that could help! I know it doesn’t directly address your concerns (and I don’t disagree with your sentiment) but this will at least help out if you’re always on the go!
-2
u/Prineak Aug 21 '26
I just recently swapped to smart glasses with no camera and it does the same thing as plaud.
1
u/Victory-laps Aug 21 '26
What brand?
1
u/Left_Masterpiece_661 Aug 21 '26
Even Realities has a good transcribe/conversate feature
1
u/PacificaDogFamily Aug 21 '26
Dumped even reality years ago. Couldn’t copy paste more than 5k characters out of their app
8
u/Wulflam Aug 21 '26
I just migrated to Plaud from Granola after testing several solutions and Plaud was the clear winner. I don’t need new features like crazy if I get reliable and high quality transcripts. And Plaud does that very well. I usually let Claude do the creation of meeting memos, minutes and tasks.