Bee: Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders. Minutes: Open-source, local-first conversation memory layer that records and transcribes meetings, diarizes speakers, and stores searchable notes as markdown for AI agents. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Bee when capturing in-person meetings and follow-up action items hands-free matters most, and Minutes when recording and transcribing calls locally for users who refuse cloud meeting tools matters most. Run both through a week of actual calls to see which suits your workflow.
Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders.
Open-source, local-first conversation memory layer that records and transcribes meetings, diarizes speakers, and stores searchable notes as markdown for AI agents.
Bee is a wearable personal AI device, now part of Amazon, that continuously captures the conversations happening around the wearer and processes them into transcripts, segmented summaries, suggested to-dos, and timely reminders. The hardware uses dual microphones with noise filtering and is designed to be worn as a wristband or clipped to clothing, with a button press to start and stop capture and an LED indicator to show when it is recording. Captured audio is processed by AI that segments discussions, identifies commitments, and surfaces personal insights over time, rather than leaving the user with a raw recording to comb through. Recordings sync to a companion mobile app on iOS and Android, with Apple Watch support, where users can review their day's conversations, search past discussions, and manage what is stored. Bee supports dozens of languages and emphasizes that only the user can access their own transcripts and summaries. It is aimed at professionals and individuals who want hands-free, in-person meeting and conversation capture without reaching for a phone or laptop. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Minutes, built by Mat Silverstein, is an open-source, privacy-first conversation memory layer that captures meetings, calls, voice memos, and dictation and turns them into searchable, AI-accessible notes. It transcribes audio locally using whisper.cpp or Parakeet so audio never has to leave the machine, performs speaker diarization to separate voices, and extracts decisions and action items, writing everything to the user's own disk as plain markdown files with structured YAML frontmatter. Because the output lives in a local folder (for example ~/meetings/), the notes can sync across devices through iCloud, Dropbox, or Google Drive and can be read directly by AI tools. A central design goal is integration with AI assistants: Minutes runs an MCP server exposing a large set of tools so coding and chat agents such as Claude, Codex, Gemini CLI, and others can query past conversations, track relationships across meetings, and surface what was promised to whom. It ships as a macOS desktop app with a menu-bar recorder and AI assistant, plus a cross-platform command-line interface, and includes a dictation hotkey mode. The project is MIT licensed, installable via Homebrew, and actively maintained with frequent releases, making it a fully self-hostable option for people who want durable, private, searchable meeting memory rather than a cloud subscription. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Bee is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Minutes is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Bee | Minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Wearable device with dual microphones and noise filtering | Local transcription with whisper.cpp or Parakeet, no cloud audio upload |
| Standout feature | Automatic transcription with segmented, per-section summaries | Speaker diarization to attribute who said what |
| Team usage | Suggested to-dos and reminders extracted from conversations | Plain-markdown output with YAML frontmatter stored on your own disk |
| Integrations | Companion app on iOS, Android, and Apple Watch | MCP server exposing tools so AI agents can query meeting history |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support across dozens of languages | Cross-meeting search, relationship tracking, and action-item extraction |
| Best-fit workflow | On-button capture control with recording indicator | macOS desktop app plus cross-platform CLI and dictation hotkey mode |
Bee
Choose Bee if you need capturing in-person meetings and follow-up action items hands-free — strengths include hands-free in-person capture without needing a phone or laptop.
Minutes
Choose Minutes if you need building a private, searchable memory of meetings and voice notes that ai agents can query — strengths include fully local-first and mit licensed, keeping conversation data private and portable.
Bee
Minutes
It depends on your workflow. Bee is strong for capturing in-person meetings and follow-up action items hands-free, while Minutes is strong for building a private, searchable memory of meetings and voice notes that ai agents can query. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Bee is a free tier with paid upgrades and Minutes is a free tier with paid upgrades. Check each vendor's pricing page for the latest plans and free-tier limits.
Yes. Many teams run more than one meeting assistant when the workflows are complementary.
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