What it is
Aiko turns recordings into text on your own device using OpenAI's Whisper, so audio is never uploaded. You record in the app or open a file, then copy the text or export it as subtitles; a word-replacement list fixes names it keeps getting wrong. It handles 100 languages, with uneven quality across them. On a Mac it uses Whisper's large model; on iPhone and iPad, medium or small depending on memory, which are less accurate.
It costs $24 once on the App Store, covering iPhone, iPad and Mac, and a 14-day trial runs through TestFlight. It favors accuracy over speed, does not transcribe live while you record and has no speaker labels. The current version needs iOS 26 or later.
Best for
- Transcribing lectures and interviews on an iPhone without uploading them
- Recordings in languages beyond the ten Apple's Voice Memos transcribes
- Making subtitles from a video on a phone or Mac
