Alter: macOS-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes calls locally with built-in Whisper and Parakeet models, no bots required. Tongyi Tingwu: Alibaba Cloud's AI assistant that transcribes, translates, and summarizes meetings and lectures in real time. The right pick comes down to team size, budget, and the workflows you want to automate.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Alter when freelancers and consultants privately capturing client calls without a visible bot matters most, and Tongyi Tingwu when students and educators turning lectures into searchable summarized notes matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
macOS-native AI meeting assistant that records and transcribes calls locally with built-in Whisper and Parakeet models, no bots required.
Alibaba Cloud's AI assistant that transcribes, translates, and summarizes meetings and lectures in real time.
Alter is a native macOS application that records, transcribes, and analyzes meetings directly on the user's Mac without sending a bot into the call. Instead of joining a meeting as a visible participant, Alter captures audio from the system output and microphone, so it works across Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Skype, Discord, and in-person conversations. Transcription runs through on-device models, with a choice of an optimized Parakeet model for major languages or Whisper for broader language coverage, and speaker identification is performed locally. Because processing happens on the device, recordings and transcripts stay on the Mac and the app can operate without an internet connection. Beyond raw transcripts, Alter generates summaries and action items, lets users chat with their meetings, and connects to tools such as Notion, Slack, Linear, Asana, and Jira. It targets solopreneurs, freelancers, consultants, and other professionals who want private, bot-free meeting capture on macOS. The product is actively developed and operating in 2025 and 2026. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Tongyi Tingwu is an AI assistant from Alibaba Cloud focused on audio and video content for work and study, including meetings and lectures. It transcribes spoken audio into text, translates speech, and generates summaries using large language models, helping users record, organize, and analyze multimedia content. The service operates in real time, transcribing meetings and lectures as they happen, and it separates speakers so transcripts can attribute statements to different participants. Beyond core transcription and summarization, Tongyi Tingwu can extract structured information from recordings, including pulling slide content from video, which is useful for capturing presentations alongside spoken discussion. It supports multiple languages for transcription and translation, with strong coverage of Chinese and English among other major languages. The tool is accessible through a web interface and a browser extension, and it integrates with Alibaba's cloud ecosystem, including cloud storage. Tongyi Tingwu is aimed at professionals, students, and content creators in the Chinese market who need to efficiently turn meetings, lectures, and other audio or video into organized, searchable, and summarized text rather than reviewing recordings manually. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Alter is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Tongyi Tingwu is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Alter | Tongyi Tingwu |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | On-device transcription using built-in Whisper and Parakeet models | Real-time transcription of meetings and lectures |
| Standout feature | Bot-free capture of system audio and microphone across any meeting or call app | Speech translation across multiple languages |
| Team usage | Automatic speaker identification performed locally | LLM-based summarization of audio and video content |
| Integrations | AI summaries, action items, and chat-with-your-meeting Q&A | Speaker separation for attributed transcripts |
| Languages & capture | Integrations with Notion, Slack, Linear, Asana, Jira and other tools | Slide/PPT extraction from video content |
| Best-fit workflow | Offline operation with recordings and transcripts stored locally | Web interface and browser extension access |
Alter
Choose Alter if you need freelancers and consultants privately capturing client calls without a visible bot — strengths include local processing keeps recordings and transcripts on the user's own mac.
Tongyi Tingwu
Choose Tongyi Tingwu if you need chinese professionals transcribing and summarizing meetings in real time — strengths include backed by alibaba cloud with llm-powered summarization.
Alter
Tongyi Tingwu
It depends on your workflow. Alter is strong for freelancers and consultants privately capturing client calls without a visible bot, while Tongyi Tingwu is strong for chinese professionals transcribing and summarizing meetings in real time. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Alter is a free tier with paid upgrades and Tongyi Tingwu is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Often yes: teams combine tools when one handles capture and another handles analysis.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Alter and Tongyi Tingwu.
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