Privileged conversations stay on your device
- Transcribed on the device — speech recognition and speaker labelling run on your iPhone, iPad or Mac. Turn on Airplane Mode and Lucy still records and transcribes.
- Never sent to us — Lucy has no server that receives audio or transcripts, so there is nothing of yours for us to disclose.
- iCloud only if you choose — iCloud sync is off by default. Turn it on and sessions go only to your own private iCloud.
- No account — no sign-up, no email, nothing that names you or your client.
- Diagnostics carry no content — the only thing Lucy sends is anonymous crash, performance and usage diagnostics, stripped of file paths, session names and transcript text.
- Lock a session — its transcript and audio are encrypted at rest and open only with Face ID, Touch ID or your passcode on that device. There is no recovery key.
A transcript you can work from
- Speaker-labelled and timestamped. Every line says who spoke and when; tap a timestamp to hear that moment.
- Lock as record. Freeze a transcript as the verbatim record: edits are blocked until you unlock it, and the original machine transcript is kept either way.
- Exports that say where they came from. TXT, Markdown and PDF exports start with a provenance header: the model used, when it was transcribed, whether it was locked, and how many edits were made.
- Search that jumps to the moment. Find the clause or the quote and land on the second it was said.
- Import recordings. Audio or video files — for example a Zoom or Teams recording you are permitted to keep — are transcribed the same way.
- Legal mode. Labels a session as a deposition and turns Apple Intelligence summaries off for it. Transcription is the same in every mode. Free.
Before you rely on it
- It is a working transcript, not a certified one. Machine transcription makes mistakes; Lucy flags low-confidence lines so you can check them against the audio. It does not replace a certified court reporter.
- Consent is yours to get. Lucy records the room through the microphone, not your calls. Where your local laws require it, get everyone’s consent before recording.
- Your obligations stay yours. On-device processing keeps the audio away from us, but confidentiality rules, retention and where you store exports are for you and your firm to decide.
Questions worth asking any transcription app:
- Is the audio processed on my device or on the company’s servers?
- Does the company ever receive or store my recordings or transcripts?
- Is an account required, and what is linked to it?
- Can I tell, from an exported transcript, which model made it and whether it was edited?
Lucy’s answers: on the device; never; no account; yes, in the provenance header of TXT, Markdown and PDF exports.
Questions lawyers ask
How many speakers can it tell apart?
Up to 4 voices on recordings made in Lucy, and more on imported files. People sharing one channel of a call recording may be merged.
Does it work without internet?
Yes, once the speech models have downloaded over Wi-Fi. After that it records and transcribes in Airplane Mode.
How accurate is it?
In English the highest-quality model measured a 5.3% word error rate on public test audio; four people talking over each other into one distant microphone is much harder. See the accuracy report.
What does it cost?
The first 10 sessions are free with every feature. Then a one-time $19.99 unlock removes the limit, on iPhone, iPad and Mac. Nothing renews.
Also see Lucy for therapists, how Lucy compares, and the privacy policy.