Otter Transcribe Voice Notes

Otter has honestly been a life changer. My university supplied it for me as an accommodation to have a live transcription/record of classes/lectures and it was INCREDIBLE! Up until grad school I had been getting lost during class and often having to ask classmates what we were talking about - but now I could simply scroll up the transcript and read verbatim what I had missed. It was also very helpful for when professors verbally explained assignments. In the past I would have the prompts but forget what the professor had explained, but now I could go back and read the transcript or actually listen to the audio of their instructions! It’s also been so helpful during meetings to create a transcript so I can focus on the conversation itself rather than trying to write everything down. It creates highlights which are helpful to jog my memory, and then I have everything right there if I want to look back at it. It also is so helpful when I write papers! In the past I’ve spent a lot of time staring at a blank Word doc because I just didn’t know how to start or write out all of my thoughts. With Otter I start by talking through my outline, and then use that transcript document to flesh out the rest of my paper. I don’t know how I would have finished grad school without Otter.

Basically just switch their model where they made a basic version, their premium version and their premium version a business version. so anyone who was loyal to the premium version for a couple of years, would get the shock of the general use case now being strictly limited. and on top of it, if you chose not to upgrade to business and just wanted to cancel, you wouldn’t really even have the option to back up everything that’s in your account without upgrading to business. On top of that, they don’t allow a business account subscription through the App Store. Which is obviously intentional because Otter is in money grab phase of hooking a customer with an admittedly fine product then gouging with a higher subscription level to retain the same features as the previous premium level, and stripping features from paying subscribers. This instead of being a thoughtful developer and actually coming up with something new for business level subscription. Anyway, discovered that Microsoft Word dictation will actually do transcription at no additional cost, so Otter’s basic transcription isn’t a value. The other features might be to certain people, but I don’t think it’s really very ethical to create higher subscription levels and migrate features to the higher subscription model to pull in more revenue.

Signed up for a business trial offer and it has essentially frozen my account. Tried to upgrade from the trial to Pro but it is stuck. Emailed, submitted tickets for help but nothing. LOVED the app before the business trial offer. Do not accept the offer or you will be sorry. Now trying to migrate my recordings to another app because Otter will not respond to my support tickets or email. Great transcription. HORRIBLY SLOW customer service. Overall: great until you need customer service. 5 stars for app when working. 0 stars for the abysmally slow service. Come on guys. UPDATE June 8, 2021: Sent two more emails after getting a response here. It’s been weeks and STILL NO RESPONSE. The trial expired a month ago and the account is still locked. In total I’ve sent five or so emails and support requests over the course of two months, none of which have ever been responded to. I put “App Review” in the subject line of the two most recent emails and they were ignored like the others. :( Why is it this difficult to become a paying customer? I’ve wanted to upgrade to Pro, as I’ve said in all my emails, and you won’t even acknowledge my existence or actually fix the problem. Majorly disappointed and slightly offended. Lowering my review from 2 stars to just 1. UPDATE June 25, 2021 Updating my review to 5 stars. The app is phenomenal and is my favorite of three transcription apps I’ve used (Noted and Just Press Record are the other two). Hearing back from them did take some time but they were apologetic and have since been very responsive. If you’re thinking about subscribing skip any free trial upgrades and just subscribe. It’s worth it and the best transcription app on the market. 👍👍