Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Shadow: A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
How Hosiqo compares and tests toolsFinal recommendation
Shortlist Genio when university students recording and reviewing lectures matters most, and Shadow when privacy-conscious teams that prefer on-device transcription matters most. Test each on your own meetings; the right choice tends to become obvious quickly.
Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students.
A bot-free, Mac-based AI meeting assistant that transcribes and summarizes calls locally without joining as a participant.
Genio, formerly known as Glean, is an assistive note-taking platform that helps students capture and learn from lectures and classes. It records class audio and provides live captions during the session, then generates a full transcript afterward, letting students focus on understanding rather than frantically writing notes. Genio lets learners add their own notes, organize material with AI-generated outlines, import slides and reading material, and review with study features such as quizzing, tying recorded audio together with class content. The platform is widely used by students, including learners with specific learning difficulties, and is adopted by educational institutions that provide it as a study and accessibility support tool. It works online or offline across devices, which suits classroom and lecture-hall environments. Genio is positioned as a mainstream learning tool that also supports accessibility needs. It is actively operating in 2025 and 2026, reporting use by well over a hundred thousand students and more than a thousand institutions, with active sign-in, pricing, and ongoing product development. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Shadow is a bot-free AI meeting assistant for macOS that captures meetings by listening to your computer's audio in the background rather than joining the call as a visible participant. Because transcription runs locally on the Mac, the audio does not need to leave the device for that core processing step, which the company positions as a privacy advantage. Shadow can automatically detect when a meeting starts, transcribe the conversation with speaker identification, and turn the discussion into structured notes, summaries, and follow-up items. It also captures on-screen content alongside the spoken audio, so material shared during a call (slides, dashboards, or shared windows) can be reflected in the output. The tool works across common conferencing platforms including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Webex, Slack, and Discord. Users can configure customizable prompts (described as Skills) to generate notes, summaries, or drafted emails, and connect outputs to other tools via webhooks. It is aimed at professionals and teams who want meeting capture without adding another bot to the call. Pricing varies by plan. Check the official website for current pricing.
Best suited for
Genio is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium); Shadow is a free tier with paid upgrades (freemium). Always confirm current pricing on each vendor's site before buying.
| Feature | Genio | Shadow |
|---|---|---|
| Core capability | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | Bot-free capture that records system audio without joining the meeting as a participant |
| Standout feature | Full transcript generation after the session | On-device (local) transcription on macOS |
| Team usage | AI outlines and student-added notes tied to the recording | Speaker identification during transcription |
| Integrations | Import of slides and reading materials into notes | Captures on-screen content in addition to spoken audio |
| Languages & capture | Offline and cross-device capture for classrooms | Customizable prompts/Skills to generate notes, summaries, and emails |
| Best-fit workflow | Class and lecture audio recording with live captions | Webhook integration to connect outputs to other tools |
Genio
Choose Genio if you need university students recording and reviewing lectures — strengths include purpose-built for education and lecture capture.
Shadow
Choose Shadow if you need capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining — strengths include does not add a visible bot to meetings.
Genio
Shadow
It depends on your workflow. Genio is strong for university students recording and reviewing lectures, while Shadow is strong for capturing notes and summaries across multiple conferencing platforms without a bot joining. Both transcribe and summarize meetings.
Genio is a free tier with paid upgrades and Shadow 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 Genio and Shadow.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Gilbert: French sovereign AI meeting note taker that generates structured reports, decisions and actions, hosted in France on SecNumCloud infrastructure. Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Gladia: Developer-focused speech-to-text API with real-time and async transcription, diarization, and meeting-bot integrations. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Glinky: AI revenue intelligence platform pairing prospecting with a bot-free AI notetaker that captures sales calls and syncs details to the CRM. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Goelo: AI sales meeting assistant that records and transcribes calls, then auto-populates CRM data and generates methodology-based summaries. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Good Tape: EU-based AI transcription for interviews, meetings, podcasts, lectures, and webinars, with speaker labels and one-click summaries. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Google Pinpoint: Google's research tool for journalists that transcribes audio and video interviews into searchable text alongside documents. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Grava AI: Brazilian AI meeting recorder app (by MeuGuru) that records, transcribes with speaker identification, summarizes meetings and answers questions about recordings. This comparison weighs them on pricing, features, and everyday workflow fit.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Great Question: All-in-one UX research platform combining recruitment, scheduling, and AI analysis of interviews into a connected research repository. We compare them on cost, capture approach, and day-to-day fit so you can choose faster.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Hedy AI: Real-time meeting coaching and GDPR-compliant note taking Which one wins depends on your platform mix, budget, and how hands-off you want notes to be.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. HeyMarvin: AI research assistant that records and transcribes user-research interviews and builds a searchable insights repository. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. HiDock: AI note-taking hardware (docks, recorders, mini devices) paired with the HiNotes app to transcribe and summarize meetings. Here's where each one pulls ahead on pricing, features, and the meetings it suits best.
Genio: Assistive note-taking tool (formerly Glean) that records and transcribes lectures and classes for students. Honeit: Interview intelligence platform for recruiting and RPO teams with built-in calling, AI transcription, and shareable interview soundbites. Below, they line up on price, capture method, and how each fits a real meeting stack.