Plaud makes the best-known AI recording hardware: a card or pin that captures in-person talks, phone calls, and meetings, then transcribes and summarizes them in the cloud. Intriq records on the iPhone you already carry, for up to two hours and with the screen locked, or starts from an Apple Watch. It summarizes the whole conversation and files what you keep under the people in it.
See the comparison ↓Verdict
Choose Plaud if you want dedicated recording hardware: a multi-microphone card for meeting rooms, phone calls captured through the back of your phone, and up to 30 hours on a charge. Choose Intriq if you want every conversation filed by person, recorded on the iPhone and Apple Watch you already own, with nothing to buy or carry.
“What’s Sarah’s rabbit called again?”
Side by side
| Criterion | Recommended Intriq |  Plaud |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Intriq Private relationship memory app | Plaud AI voice recorder hardware plus a cloud transcription service |
| Primary platform | Intriq Native apps for iPhone and Android | Plaud Dedicated device (Note, NotePin, NotePin S, Note Pro) paired with a phone app |
| Core workflow | Intriq Record a conversation or say a quick note, confirm who was in it, and find it on each person before you next meet | Plaud Press record on the device, upload the audio, read the transcript and summary afterwards |
| Hardware | Intriq None. The iPhone already in your pocket, and an Apple Watch if you have one | Plaud A device to buy from $159, carry, charge, and remember to bring |
| Capture method | Intriq Records on the iPhone for up to two hours, screen locked, or starts from an Apple Watch; a typed or spoken note afterwards works too | Plaud Records on the device; the Note and Note Pro also capture phone calls through a vibration sensor |
| AI | Intriq Summarizes the whole recording, links the people it detects for you to confirm, and recalls only from your saved memory | Plaud Cloud transcription and summarization, metered by the minute |
| Organized by | Intriq The person: each recording and note lands on the people in it | Plaud The recording: one transcript and summary per session |
| Privacy posture | Intriq Records only when you start it; kept recordings live in a private single-user account, and notes are private to you, synced to your account | Plaud Conversation audio is uploaded to the cloud to be transcribed and summarized |
| Pricing | Intriq One daily AI allowance for chat, voice and recordings: 30 credits on Free, 600 on Plus, a recorded minute is 1 credit | Plaud Device from $159, plus 300 free minutes a month, Pro at $99.96 a year, Unlimited at $239.88 a year |
| Best fit | Intriq Remembering people across many conversations, recorded or not | Plaud Long recording days, meeting rooms, and phone calls |
Ask Mira
Mira can look back through your notes when a name slips your mind.
Lena Whitfield Partner, Aster
“…moving the whole team to Lisbon in spring…”
Tomás Iglesias Co-founder, Rill
“…his co-founder is the one who actually decides…”
Nadia Haq Head of Talent
“…won't relocate until her daughter finishes school…”
Plaud solved a real problem that software alone had not: capturing the conversations that happen away from a screen. A laptop notetaker is useless at a lunch, in a lecture hall, or in a doctor's office. A small device you clip on or set on the table is not, and Plaud has sold that idea to more than two million people.
The output is genuinely good. You get a full transcript, a structured summary, and extracted actions, across in-person talks, phone calls, and online meetings in one place. The hardware earns its place too: the Note Pro has four microphones for a meeting room, the Note and Note Pro record calls from the back of a phone, and a charge lasts up to 30 hours.
Intriq records on the phone you already carry. Start a recording on the iPhone and it runs for up to two hours, carrying on with the screen locked, or start it from an Apple Watch when taking out a phone would interrupt the conversation. When it ends, Intriq transcribes and summarizes the whole conversation, links the people it spotted for you to confirm, and files what you keep under those people. On Plus, any recording leaves the app as a PDF or a Word document.
Not every conversation calls for a recording. For the dinner or the hallway chat, a minute afterwards you type or say the line worth keeping: she is moving her team to Lisbon in the spring, his co-founder is the one who actually decides. It lands on the same person as the recordings. Nothing runs unless you start it, and there is no device to buy, carry, or charge.
Plaud gives you the session: one recording, one transcript, one summary, filed by when it happened. That is the right unit when you want to look up what was said in a particular meeting. A read on a person is built differently, across a year of conversations, some recorded and most not.
Ask yourself which question you are trying to answer. If it is what exactly was said in that meeting, a transcript answers it. If it is what do I know about her before I walk in, you need everything from the four previous conversations gathered on the person, including the ones nobody recorded and what other people told you about her. Intriq files every recording and note by person, so that answer is already in one place.
Scenarios
Student in back-to-back lectures
Sits through three hours of technical lectures a day and needs the material verbatim, including what the lecturer said around the slides, to revise from later.
Best fit: Plaud . The lecture itself is the artifact, there is no person to file it under, and a recorder that lasts a full day of classes is exactly right.
Founder who meets investors over dinner
Meets the same fifteen investors repeatedly over a year across dinners, calls, and conferences. What matters is the accumulated read on each one.
Best fit: Intriq . The value is the per-person read across a year, not the transcript of any one dinner. Intriq files each conversation under the investor, whether it was recorded from the watch or noted in a sentence afterwards.
Researcher running consented interviews
Runs formal user interviews where participants have signed a consent form and the analysis depends on quoting people accurately.
Best fit: Either Plaud or Intriq, depending on emphasis . Either one records a consented interview and returns the full transcript. Plaud suits a day of sessions around one table microphone; Intriq suits participants who come back, with each one's history on their own record.
Plaud owner whose transcripts have piled up
Has two hundred recordings and finds that knowing something was said somewhere is not the same as remembering it about a person before the next meeting.
Best fit: Either Plaud or Intriq, depending on emphasis . Keep Plaud for the sessions it already captures; add Intriq for the durable per-person memory, recorded on the phone when the Plaud is not with you.
At a glance
Strengths
Tradeoffs
Strengths
Tradeoffs
When Plaud is the better fit
Plaud is the better choice when you want dedicated recording hardware: lectures and workshops that run all day, meeting rooms where a multi-microphone card beats a phone on the table, and phone calls, which the Note and Note Pro record through the back of the phone. It also suits people who want their archive organized by session rather than by person.
When Intriq is the better fit
Intriq is the better choice when you want to remember people rather than archive sessions. It records on the iPhone and Apple Watch you already own, so there is nothing to buy or bring, and every conversation, recorded or noted afterwards, lands on the people in it so it is there when you next see them.
Common questions
Yes, and without any hardware. Intriq records conversations on the iPhone you already carry, for up to two hours and with the screen locked, and an Apple Watch can start a recording from your wrist. It transcribes and summarizes the whole conversation, links the people it detected for you to confirm, and files what you keep under them. On Plus, any recording exports as a PDF or a Word document. If you want a dedicated recorder for meeting rooms or phone calls, Plaud makes one; if you want to remember the people you talk to, Intriq does it on the phone you already have.
No. Intriq records and runs on your iPhone or Android phone, with Apple Watch support on iPhone. Plaud requires a device starting at $159 before any subscription, and the device only helps when you remembered to bring it.
It depends where you are and who is in the conversation. Many places require the consent of everyone being recorded, and rules differ between jurisdictions and between in-person and phone calls. The same rules apply to any recorder, a phone included, and this is not legal advice. Intriq records only when you start it, and for the conversations you would rather not record, a note said afterwards keeps what mattered without anyone else's voice.
Yes. Use Plaud for the sessions where you want dedicated hardware, and Intriq for the running memory of the people themselves: recordings made on the phone when the Plaud is not with you, and notes from the conversations you would never record.
Plaud uploads conversation audio to the cloud to transcribe and summarize it. Intriq transcribes a recording when you finish it and keeps the audio, transcript, and summary of what you keep in your own private account, alongside notes that are private to you. It is single-user by design, which is the posture you want for candid notes about people.
Both meter, but for different things. Plaud meters cloud transcription of everything it records, with 300 free minutes a month and paid plans above that. Intriq meters AI use per day rather than per month: chat, voice calls and the audio you choose to record share one allowance, 30 credits a day on the free plan and 600 on Plus, with a recorded minute costing 1 credit.
Free plan, no credit card. Capture notes in plain English, by typing or by voice, and recall the context before the next conversation.