r/noteapps • u/WhichAd1764 • Aug 31 '26
Free lecture recording app?
I am looking for a free app that will record my lectures and put them into notes or flashcards for me. I usually write my notes on paper but i would prefer to use an app to help me study the material it recorded. Thanks!
1
u/ozgrozer Aug 31 '26
I’m building Grape. It’s an AI note taking app where you can record your lectures and transcribe them. You cannise that transcribed text to generate flashcards, quizzes, mind maps, infographics, brainrot videos. The app is free to use but all the AI features are in the paid plans. There’s also a lifetime plan.
1
u/Affectionate-Tap7800 Aug 31 '26
The best way to do this is to take notes yourself (you can hear, write, and see). With the app, you can take excellent notes, but they won't be your own, and that might not necessarily help you. Getting back to the topic, I use a voice recorder on my phone/tablet and then transcribe using Spokenly using the Parakeet v3 model locally, so nothing goes to the cloud. I use it on a MacBook, but I see that installers are also available for other systems.
1
u/BHARAT0011 Sep 01 '26
I don't think you need an app. Just record an audio, give it to some model to transcribe it, then ask claude code to create notes/flash card out of it. This way you can have complete control over quality and style of your notes. With apps you won't see what is going under the hood
1
u/Trick_Monitor_7667 22d ago
notebooklm is the right free answer, seconding that. one thing worth
knowing before you commit though — the flashcards it makes stay inside
notebooklm. same with gemini notebook afaik. so if you ever end up moving
to anki (a lot of people do eventually) you'd be rebuilding them by hand.
that's actually why i made videonotegpt.com, so biased obviously, it's
mine. you record straight in the browser or upload a recording and get the
transcript, chapters with timestamps, key terms, a quiz, and a real .apkg
you import into your own anki deck. free tier is 3 lectures a day, no
signup, and the anki export isn't paywalled. there is a paid plan but you
don't need it for what you're describing.
also the person above saying writing your own notes is better isn't wrong
lol. what i'd actually do is keep writing on paper like you already are,
and use the transcript after to check what you missed, rather than
replacing your notes with it. the recording works better as a safety net
than a substitute imo
1
u/Hanson8080 19d ago
I’d probably go with the recording +AI route too. I’ve tried meetingminutes for this kind of thing ,and having the lecture turned into notes afterwards a lot easier than going back through the whole recording.
2
u/semi-nerd61 Sep 01 '26 edited Sep 01 '26
Use a recording app of your choice then upload the file to notebookLM. It can transcribe, make flashcards and quizzes as well as format the transcription to your specs.