Home › Guides › Private voice notes app

A voice notes app that doesn't upload your audio

Most voice-to-text apps ship every recording off to a server and give you no say in it. Anotea recognizes speech on your phone for everyday notes — and for the rest, the switch is yours: one tap and nothing leaves the device.

Quick answer: Anotea (Android) transcribes short notes and dictation on the phone, so that audio isn't uploaded, and it works offline. Recordings over a minute go to the cloud to come back much faster — that ships on, and one tap in Settings makes the app fully on-device again.

On-device for everyday notes, and you hold the switch

The speech model runs inside the app, so a normal note is transcribed locally and the recording stays on your phone. Short notes and dictation are always handled that way. A long recording is sent to the cloud instead, where it transcribes far faster and more accurately — that arrives switched on so the app is genuinely useful from day one, and it is a single switch in Settings. Turn it off and every recording, long or short, is transcribed on the phone.

It works with no signal

Because transcription happens on the phone, you can record and get text in a parking garage, on a plane, or anywhere with no bars. The features that need a connection are AI organization (sorting a note into a list or reminder), family sharing and cloud transcription of long clips — and AI organization sends the transcribed text, never the audio.

Private notes stay private

There is no account: no name, no email, no phone number, so there is no profile of you anywhere. A note you don't share isn't synced anywhere. Text sent for AI sorting is processed on the spot and isn't stored or used to train anything. Anything you do share with your family is encrypted on the phone before it's sent, with a key only your linked phones hold, so Anotea's servers relay it without being able to read it.

Quick comparison

AppTranscribes on-device?Works offline?Audio uploaded?
Typical cloud dictation appsNoNoYes
Built-in assistant dictationPartialPartialOften
AnoteaYesYesShort notes never · long clips switchable

⬇ Download Anotea free
Android · No card · No account required

Frequently asked questions

Does Anotea upload my audio to the cloud?

Short notes and dictation, never — they are transcribed on your phone. Recordings over a minute use cloud transcription so they come back much faster; one tap in Settings turns that off.

Does it work offline?

Yes. Recording and everyday transcription run on the phone. AI organization, family sharing and long-clip transcription need a connection; AI organization sends text, never audio.

Who can read my notes?

Nobody else. No account, no email, no phone number. Text sent for AI sorting isn't stored; shared notes are encrypted before they're sent.