Bee: Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders. OpenOats: Open-source macOS meeting note-taker that transcribes calls locally and surfaces relevant talking points from your own notes 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 Bee when capturing in-person meetings and follow-up action items hands-free matters most, and OpenOats when privately transcribing meetings on a mac without sending audio to the cloud matters most. Trial each on a few real meetings before you commit — the better fit usually shows fast.
Wearable AI device that captures spoken conversations and turns them into transcripts, summaries, and reminders.
Open-source macOS meeting note-taker that transcribes calls locally and surfaces relevant talking points from your own notes in real time.
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
OpenOats is an open-source macOS meeting note-taker, created by Yazin Akkawi (the project was previously named OpenGranola before being renamed), that sits alongside your calls and both transcribes the conversation and helps you contribute to it. It captures both sides of a meeting and transcribes audio locally on Apple Silicon so audio never leaves the device, while in real time it searches your own markdown or plain-text knowledge base to surface relevant talking points and things worth saying during the discussion. The application window is hidden from screen sharing by default, which lets it stay private during video calls, and transcripts and session logs are auto-saved locally. OpenOats supports both fully local operation through Ollama and cloud providers such as OpenRouter and Voyage AI, so users can choose between complete offline privacy and hosted models. It is written primarily in Swift, distributed under the MIT license, and actively maintained with very frequent releases. The project documents itself at openoats.com and targets users who want a privacy-respecting, self-hostable alternative to cloud meeting copilots, combining live transcription with a retrieval layer over personal notes rather than only producing an after-the-fact summary. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Bee is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); OpenOats is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Bee | OpenOats |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Wearable device with dual microphones and noise filtering | Real-time local transcription of both sides of a conversation on Apple Silicon |
| Standout feature | Automatic transcription with segmented, per-section summaries | Live retrieval of relevant talking points from your own notes during meetings |
| Team usage | Suggested to-dos and reminders extracted from conversations | Window hidden from screen sharing by default for privacy on calls |
| Integrations | Companion app on iOS, Android, and Apple Watch | Auto-saved transcripts and session logs to local files |
| Languages & capture | Multi-language support across dozens of languages | Works fully local via Ollama or with cloud models (OpenRouter, Voyage AI) |
| Best-fit workflow | On-button capture control with recording indicator | MIT-licensed, self-hostable Swift application |
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.
OpenOats
Choose OpenOats if you need getting live, context-aware prompts from your own notes during sales or customer calls — strengths include local on-device transcription keeps meeting audio private.
Bee
OpenOats
It depends on your workflow. Bee is strong for capturing in-person meetings and follow-up action items hands-free, while OpenOats is strong for getting live, context-aware prompts from your own notes during sales or customer calls. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Bee is a free tier with paid upgrades and OpenOats 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.
More head-to-head comparisons involving Bee and OpenOats.
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