Questions
Is Echo free?
The app itself is free. AI features (summaries, the Ask-this-meeting chat) use your own API key from Claude or DeepSeek — you pay them directly, typically pennies per meeting. No subscription to Echo.
Does Echo work with phone locked?
Yes. Echo keeps transcribing even when you lock your phone or switch to another app. The recording survives interruptions like phone calls.
What languages does transcription support?
30+ languages via Apple Speech, on-device. Multilingual mode is built for code-switching speakers (e.g. an English-Mandarin meeting transcribes both languages in one pass).
Does Echo work for in-person meetings or just calls?
Both. Echo uses your iPhone's microphone, so it captures any audio your phone can hear — in-person rooms, Zoom on speaker, AirPods, etc.
Can I use Echo just for personal journals?
Yes. Journal is one of four recording modes and skips the people/action-item extraction by default. Speak; Echo transcribes; the entry files itself with a date and lives alongside your meetings (but private).
What's the difference between a Conference and a regular meeting?
Conferences are Collections — multi-day, date-bounded groupings of related recordings. You get one synthesised page across all the sessions: themes, decisions, follow-ups owed. Useful for summits, off-sites, or any week where ten meetings belong to one story.
Where do my notes live?
On your iPhone, in SwiftData. iCloud Backup catches them like any iPhone app. No server, no account — your meetings never leave your device unless you choose to send the transcript text to an AI provider for summary.