[HN Gopher] Show HN: Voiceliner - Capture structured braindumps ...
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Show HN: Voiceliner - Capture structured braindumps on the go
Author : maxkrieger
Score : 137 points
Date : 2021-12-29 17:05 UTC (5 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (a9.io)
(TXT) w3m dump (a9.io)
| meesterdude wrote:
| Well done! Love that you can create outlines from voice
| recordings - super cool.
| loginx wrote:
| I think this is exactly what I've been looking for. I like going
| for walks and listening to audiobooks and podcasts, and I've been
| using Google's recorder as a way to "highlight" my findings, but
| it doesn't let me add to existing recordings so I can't collate
| sessions together.
|
| I'll be trying this on as a replacement.
| ijidak wrote:
| Installed. Been need something like this for a while!
|
| Love the initial setup wizard. Great way to teach the user,
| clarifying what various permissions are for.
| afandian wrote:
| This looks really cool. I'v been looking for something like this
| for a while. Is there an APK download? I don't use the google
| store and the github page didn't seem to have an obvious link?
| mongol wrote:
| If this would support a bluetooth PTT microphone, it would be
| perfect. Then I could leave the phone in my pocket and have
| tangible, physical buttons to record with. I don't like messing
| with a touchscreen when out and about.
| maxkrieger wrote:
| Hey HN! A few months ago, all I wanted was a voice memos where I
| could hold-to-record. Holding and releasing lets me "burst" quick
| chains of thoughts together. It's especially useful when walking
| with friends, to capture stray references and ideas.
|
| After testing the initial burst interaction, I realized I wanted
| to transcribe them, and relate notes together into a hierarchy.
| Other features came naturally, like geotagging each note and
| swiping during recording to change the "temperature" (importance)
| of a note.
|
| The app is open source and written in Flutter.
| hangtwenty wrote:
| Congrats on launching!
|
| I've wanted exactly-this for years. I've sketched a few versions
| but it stayed on the back-burner for me, partly because
| friends/etc didn't see the appeal.
|
| I'm really excited to try it out.
| cycomanic wrote:
| Great idea! I've been trying for a while to find the best way to
| take notes when on the go, just installed to test it.
| pchangr wrote:
| Amazing! I've been looking for a way to put down my thoughts for
| a while, tried carrying a pocket notebook.. the notes app.. zen
| journal .. but writing is so much friction .. I used voice notes
| for a while but couldn't search them for later so it was
| difficult.. I hope this is the one ^^
| copperx wrote:
| Fantastic! I love that it is all local.
| imperialdrive wrote:
| The audio goes out.
| mh- wrote:
| Only on Android.
| ccvannorman wrote:
| If this had automagical sorting / hierarchy of my recordings
| based on key words, or allowed me to "shuffle" my entire
| collection of recordings according to a few pre-set algorithms,
| this would be interesting.
|
| Example: I spend 5 weeks recording 200 sound bites about real
| estate development in PR. I do no organization. I click a button
| in the app marked "Organize by opportunity". It sorts my
| recordings into 4 folders with 2-3 nested with titles like "The
| Tulum project" and "Evan's group".
|
| I don't particularly need transcription because I don't want to
| do any of the work implementing the feature I just described ...
|
| As it is, it looks neat but I'll stick with iOS built-in
| recorder.
| mynameisvlad wrote:
| How would any non-domain specific tool (ie a voice recorder app
| for real estate or even real estate in PR" even know what
| "opportunity" means.
|
| It could do a loose keyword match but unless you used the words
| "Tulum" or "Evan" how would it know to link notes together
| without context on who Evan is?
| ccvannorman wrote:
| If it had 10+ algorithmic shuffling based on keywords, I'd
| just click the button until it was shuffled somewhere in the
| domain of "close enough." Then I could reorder the folders
| myself. Maybe it's counterintuitive, but as a user, having an
| algorithm shuffle things _wrong_ is actually preferable to
| me, rather than me starting from a large flat list of
| arbitrary unlabeled recordings.. (assuming I would not take
| the time to label each one as I record it).
| glenstein wrote:
| Thank you, I was just thinking today that I needed a tool exactly
| like this.
|
| My go-to brain dumping tool is simple note but it's too much
| separation between an ephemeral thought and the process of
| recording it.
|
| Especially clever because I think all the tools to do this have
| existed for basically as long as Android has existed, but this is
| a very good application of those tools.
| jcun4128 wrote:
| What do you use for the transcription part? Paid library or
| something open? More curious on accuracy.
| mellonaut wrote:
| According to the source its azure.
| https://github.com/maxkrieger/voiceliner/blob/main/lib/repos...
| maxkrieger wrote:
| on iOS, it's on-device. on Android, Azure - so far I haven't
| hit the free limit of 5hr/mo. Might start charging Android
| users if we hit the free limit.
| underdeserver wrote:
| Android has on-device transcription for some devices (e.g.
| Pixel 5 and above). Maybe you could use that instead of
| charging?
| maxkrieger wrote:
| EDIT: If you feel strongly about this and think it's
| possible please send in PRs. Thanks!
|
| Unfortunately you then lose ability to play back the
| original audio
| https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2319735/voice-
| recognitio.... This is a major usability tradeoff IMO,
| though I'm willing to be swayed to add an option.
|
| I suspect Google's limiting this because they don't want
| devices "freeloading" their cloud transcription service,
| since most phones can't do it on-device.
| smusamashah wrote:
| Not just Pixel 5 and above, you can transcribe in real
| time with any android phone using Google Recorder app.
| Which essentially means that it doesn't need special
| processor (as they marketed for Pixel 6) or the cloud
| services to transcribe in real time.
|
| App probably loads a model for offline use, I don't know
| if you could somehow use that app as an API or something.
|
| Same goes for Chrome. You can see live transcript of any
| audio in Chrome Desktop without internet. That transcript
| is readonly and cannot be copy pasted even.
| petargyurov wrote:
| The link you posted is a 7 year old question; is the
| information still relevant? Surely copying the original
| audio is enough of a workaround?
|
| Not a mobile dev so could be wrong.
| junon wrote:
| Can you not buffer the audio and then send the buffer to
| the transcription service, allowing you to keep the
| original?
|
| If this were all on-device I'd use this in a heartbeat.
| I'd even pay for it. I worry about privacy though - I
| appreciate you went with Azure instead of Google,
| however!
| verdverm wrote:
| You really think Azure and Google Cloud have that much
| difference? If you use GCP, you can select whether they
| can also use the data for training, per request. Does
| Azure have that option or clarity?
| ridaj wrote:
| Curious what API limitations are preventing you from doing the
| transcription device-local on Android?
| andersonrkton wrote:
| This is perfect! Any chance to be able to select the target
| language for translation? Portuguese - Brazil for example :)
| maxkrieger wrote:
| Coming soon! https://github.com/maxkrieger/voiceliner/issues/17
| lazyresearcher wrote:
| You could integrate vosk for local on-device private
| transcription. https://github.com/alphacep/vosk-api
| maxkrieger wrote:
| thanks, this is a great idea. Curious how it stacks up against
| other libraries.
| scrollaway wrote:
| Super clean setup on iOS! Can't wait to try it out, the concept
| is lovely.
|
| I use notion a TON but it's not great for the most immediate time
| sensitive notes.
|
| Do you think you could integrate google calendar / reminders in
| some way? A lot of the kind of notes I would record on this kind
| of app have some form of either deadline, or are only relevant
| after a certain date or time. For example, "check in on this
| thread Monday morning". I use google calendar reminders for this
| right now as they stack up but it's not a great solution.
| maxkrieger wrote:
| I'm less bullish on specific deadlines for these kinds of
| notes. I'm planning to do a weekly summary notification - "you
| made X notes last week, Y of them were high-priority"
| https://github.com/maxkrieger/voiceliner/issues/20
| scrollaway wrote:
| I'll give you some examples of some legitimate
| notes/reminders I'd take:
|
| - check this thing that opens tomorrow at 6pm
|
| - talk to the lawyers about x before friday
|
| - Fill in my PLF some time tomorrow so it's ready for my trip
|
| Etc.
| stewbrew wrote:
| cool. but on Android, wouldn't Gboard speech input, which also
| works offline, suffice for the speech input and transcription
| part?
| junon wrote:
| If you're okay with your voice being piped to Google instead of
| Microsoft.
| wielebny wrote:
| Is it possible to change transcription language on iOS?
| maxkrieger wrote:
| It follows system settings, but I'm going to add app-specific
| localization soon!
| https://github.com/maxkrieger/voiceliner/issues/17
| worewood wrote:
| Is there a way to just type instead of speaking?
| maxkrieger wrote:
| Yup, check the menu in the corner or long-press anywhere in the
| empty space.
| andersonrkton wrote:
| Suggestion: a play button for the hole outline folder you are
| in... for example: I want to listen to everything outlined in
| that folder while running
| maxkrieger wrote:
| Upvote here :)
| https://github.com/maxkrieger/voiceliner/issues/6
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| Okay, this is super cool. When I started taking walks I found I
| was thinking through a lot of things but didn't have a way to
| remember all the things. So I started using the voice
| transcription notepad (so nice that people these days are less
| hostile to someone walking down the street mumbling about things
| :-)). In my case I was stuck taking the document and then re-
| editing/moving it over to Evernote manually which I didn't always
| want to do. This looks like it will replace my workflow with a
| single tool. That is super awesome.
|
| One feature request would be 'activate by airpod tap' so I
| wouldn't even have to hold my phone, just tap my airpods to make
| a note.
| nefitty wrote:
| Did the transcription work well? I always found myself taking
| more time editing the text later than the time I saved with
| dictation.
| abathur wrote:
| Cool concept. Looking forward to trying it out.
|
| I've thought about taking voice notes before, though I've
| imagined that as more of a private hands-free thing. I'm curious
| what your experience of using it in public or with others around
| (the walks with friends, but also family or colleagues?) is like?
|
| (I sometimes go on a walk while I talk myself through a problem;
| I've noticed I almost always stop speaking while someone else is
| in earshot. I suspect I'd also be inclined to avoid taking voice
| notes with others around.)
| maxkrieger wrote:
| It's certainly awkward! I'm personally willing to stomach it
| because it's kinda cool to "invent a new social primitive", as
| dorky as it appears. There's a very real tradeoff between mere
| awkwardness and fumbling with a text entry/forgetting the thing
| altogether.
|
| I also recently rolled out a "create text note" escape hatch in
| the menu.
| cbreynoldson wrote:
| Love it! Can't wait to see how this evolves over time.
| endymi0n wrote:
| Was looking for something like this just today. Does it support
| hands-free operation (or while we're at it, does someone else
| know something that does)?
|
| This is currently my main criterion. I want something that
| captures my thoughts while hiking _without seeing or touching the
| screen_. Currently dabbling with Siri shortcuts, but they 're
| pretty buggy and lacking.
|
| So if Voiceliner could either support the Shortcuts API and/or
| switch into a mode that's press-to-record / or start-stop, but
| _somehow works on the connected Airpods only_ , that would be
| awesome.
|
| Bonus points for re-reading the transcription to me and very
| light editing on top (like document switching).
|
| Is there something like that?
| meesterdude wrote:
| it's open source - and i can't imagine activating via
| play/pause would be overly difficult to implement, if it does
| not already do so.
| twobitshifter wrote:
| Have you tried using voice control?
| nefitty wrote:
| If anyone is curious of a workflow that might work on ios:
| Settings > Accessibility > Back Tap. You can then assign a
| Shortcut to run when you tap the back of your phone.
|
| The taps are finicky for me, maybe because of my phone case. I
| might try them out again and see if it's worth ditching my
| case.
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