Otter.ai is a transcription service that turns speech into text during live meetings or from uploaded audio and video files. The software can tell different speakers apart and captures what shows up on shared screens during meetings. It makes automatic summaries and highlights key points from the transcribed content.

The platform works with video calls like Zoom and Microsoft Teams by sending a digital assistant to join meetings and record the audio. You can also upload pre-recorded audio and video files to get them transcribed later. The text becomes searchable, so you can find specific topics or quotes in your meeting records.

People use Otter.ai for business meetings, classes, interviews, and other times when they need written records of what was said. You can share the transcripts with others and look back at your transcription history through the platform. The service processes the audio using speech recognition technology to create the text.

Users look for alternatives to Otter.ai because...

• Transcription quality is hit or miss - Users often complain about poor speech recognition, especially with accents, background noise, or technical terms. The AI gets words wrong all the time, creating transcripts that need tons of editing to be useful. Medical professionals say specialized terms always get mangled, making the tool useless for clinical notes.

• The free plan is too limited - You only get 600 minutes per month and basic features, which forces you to upgrade if you use it regularly. Many users get frustrated when they burn through their monthly limit during important meetings. Students trying to transcribe lectures find themselves locked out halfway through the semester and have to pay for premium plans to keep going.

• Privacy and security worries - Users worry about sensitive meeting content being processed and stored on Otter's servers, especially for confidential business talks or personal conversations. There's no way to process things locally, which makes some organizations hesitant to use the tool. Legal firms and healthcare providers often avoid Otter because of strict confidentiality rules and concerns about data breaches or unauthorized access to client information.

How Circleback can help

People turn to Circleback because it fixes many of the core problems that make traditional meeting transcription tools so frustrating. Instead of services that leave you constantly editing and fixing poor transcriptions, Circleback uses advanced AI trained specifically to handle different speaking styles, accents, and industry terms with impressive accuracy. This means professionals can trust their meeting notes without spending hours cleaning up garbled text.

Better Transcription Quality While other platforms struggle with speech recognition, Circleback excels by using smarter language processing that adapts to context and how people speak. The system learns industry-specific words and stays accurate even when audio quality isn't great. Medical professionals, legal teams, and technical specialists find that Circleback correctly captures specialized terms that other tools consistently mess up, eliminating the tedious post-meeting editing that makes competitors like Otter.ai so frustrating.

No More Usage Headaches Circleback takes a more reasonable approach to user access, understanding that important conversations don't fit into arbitrary monthly minute limits. Rather than nickel-and-diming users with restrictive free tiers that cut off during crucial meetings, Circleback offers more flexible usage that works with real-world meeting patterns. This means students can transcribe full semesters of lectures without hitting artificial walls, and professionals don't face the embarrassment of their transcription service abandoning them mid-presentation.

Real Privacy and Security Most importantly, Circleback understands that meeting content is often sensitive and confidential. The platform offers enterprise-grade security features and data handling that give organizations confidence in protecting their discussions. Legal firms, healthcare providers, and financial institutions can use Circleback knowing their client conversations stay secure and meet industry regulations, addressing the privacy concerns that make other services unsuitable for professional use.

This combination of better accuracy, reasonable access, and strong security makes Circleback the obvious choice for users who are tired of settling for less with their meeting transcription needs.

Circleback provides best-in-class AI meeting notes and automations

Circleback provides best-in-class AI-powered meeting notes and automations. We support over 100 languages and automatic participant identification in both in-person and online meetings.

• Automatically-identified and assigned action items

• AI-enabled search across all meetings

• Automations with 100+ app integrations

• Industry-leading security with SOC 2 Type II, EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and HIPAA compliance

• Ability to capture both online and in-person meetings with desktop and mobile apps