I take advantage of Samsung Voice Recorder to keep away from this app’s premium plan

I can’t be alone in wishing I’d saved a journal over time. I’d like to mirror on what I used to be as much as on sure days 20 years in the past and the way I used to be processing all of it. Aside from a couple of batches of images and my more and more fading reminiscence, the information of my numerous journey adventures have principally been misplaced. And people have been the thrilling occasions — the humdrum days in between have been virtually completely condemned to the mists of time.

I don’t beat myself up about not maintaining a journal as a result of I do know I wouldn’t have caught with it. Having to take a seat down and write or sort for quarter-hour within the night would have fallen by the wayside fairly shortly. However latest advances in AI have made me rethink this. Now, belatedly, I’m journaling on daily basis. It takes round two minutes earlier than mattress every evening to do it by way of Samsung Voice Recorder, and I even realized I can use it to keep away from the premium plan on one of many greatest journaling apps.

After upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus final yr, I began enjoying round with the brand new Galaxy AI options. The AI transcription in Samsung Voice Recorder impressed me to make use of it for journaling. I’m conscious that some Android telephones have had reside transcription options for some time, however I used to be notably impressed with how shortly and simply Voice Recorder can each transcribe the voice notes after the very fact and use AI to tidy them up.

This bought me 90% of the best way in the direction of the plan of a fast mind dump every night, however I used to be additionally cautious of leaving the transcribed notes scattered about in an unordered trend. You’ll be able to prepare them in classes in each Voice Recorder and Samsung Notes, however what I actually needed was an organized journal setup by which I simply dictate an entry, and it labels and shops it in an easy-to-reference method later. The only choice was to make use of a journaling app with AI transcription baked in.

The Day One app match the invoice virtually completely. It’s a refined journaling app standard on each iOS and Android that allows you to log textual content, images, and audio entries, plus it will possibly sync throughout units. The one snag was that, whereas the app has a free tier to file entries, it’s important to pay for the premium plan if you wish to use the transcription function. That left me with two imperfect options I may mix to fulfill my wants.

Now, every night, I do the next.

1. Open Voice Recorder and hit File, then discuss my day for a minute or two.
2. Cease the recording and reserve it, then faucet on it and press Transcribe. A recording of that size takes round ten seconds to course of.
3. Faucet and maintain the textual content and choose Copy all.
4. Three faucets to exit Voice Recorder, open the Day One app, and press New entry.
5. Paste the textual content, and I’m executed.

The entire course of takes two to 3 minutes. Admittedly, the Galaxy AI transcriptions aren’t all the time good as I’m normally tiredly rambling into the cellphone. This isn’t a problem for me as I’m not planning to publish my memoirs. I simply need sufficient to jog my reminiscence, and it’s greater than sufficient for that function.

For the file, I’m not in opposition to paying for premium plans on apps in the event that they’re providing a real profit — Duolingo is one instance of an app that has actually executed effectively out of me financially. Day One is a good app, and I’d urge anybody who can profit from the premium tier to enroll if it matches your funds.

In my case, I’m simply minimally utilizing the app whereas getting the one premium tier function I want without cost on my gadget. Nearly all the many premium perks would go unused if I signed up. At over $40 per yr, I discover that expense laborious to justify. However I’ll allow you to decide my actions within the ballot beneath.

This setup may not work for everybody, however it’s been a game-changer for me. I’ve lastly discovered a low-effort solution to maintain observe of my days, and it’s made me weirdly excited to look again at them sometime. If AI goes to take over our lives anyway, it’d as effectively assist us bear in mind the nice previous days when it was only a novelty.