Compared two AI note-taking apps and one blew the other away

I spent last weekend testing out Otter.ai and Fireflies.ai for transcribing my daily route notes. I'm a mail carrier and I got tired of scribbling down delivery instructions on paper. Otter was decent at catching my voice but it kept mixing up street names like 'Maple' and 'Main.' Fireflies handled the background noise way better, like when I'm sorting mail in a loud truck. It also pulled out action items without me asking, which Otter didn't do. The difference was night and day for accuracy, especially with numbers like package counts. Has anyone else found one of these tools way better for real world use instead of quiet office settings?

3 comments

3 Comments

ruby_jones1mo ago

Fireflies sounds like a game changer for noisy jobs. I tried Otter for recording parent teacher conferences but it struggled with multiple voices talking over each other. Getting street names and numbers right is crucial for your route, so that accuracy difference is huge. The action item feature is smart, it saves you from having to listen back to the whole thing. Makes total sense why one would work so much better outside an office.

spencer_owens581mo ago

You're right about the action items saving time, but I've found the real win is how it changes what you even pay attention to in the meeting. When you know the tool will catch the details, you can actually listen to the person instead of scrambling to write everything down. That shift from being a note taker to being present is huge, especially in messy conversations. Most people just talk about the transcription, but the mental space it frees up is the actual game changer.

charles_mitchell1mo ago

That mental shift sounds nice in theory, but it can make you lazy. If you're not writing things down yourself, you might not really process what's being said. I've seen people zone out completely because they trust the tool too much, then miss the real meaning behind someone's words. The act of writing helps your brain focus and remember.