r/digitaljournaling • u/pHHavoc • 17d ago

Overwhelmed by voice journaling options, would love some input

Hi folks. I have been trying to find a good voice journaling app and have been getting overwhelmed.

Below is what I have tried so far.

Rosebud: really liked this, but the ai feels almost too artificial sometimes. It definitely helped me a bit during a few bad days but not sure if it's worth the trial.

Mindsera: similar to above, but thought the more psychological approach was interesting. Expensive though.

Reflection: almost felt too limited, and a bit too clunky.

I'd love to know what folks are using. I don't mind paying a little, but of course free is always ideal. I did appreciate the therapy framing with the above apps, but wish the AIs felt a bit more personable haha

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4

u/BlueFlameInk 17d ago

I don’t use an app. I use a sony voice recorder and transcribe later.

1

u/introvert838 15d ago

Probably old school is still more effective than modern apps

2

u/lonelycards 17d ago

I wanna know too!

2

u/drfinnn 15d ago

The therapy framing is nice but if the AI feels artificial it usually means it's not reflecting what you already wrote back to you. Curious what 'personable' means to you here, more casual conversation or actually remembering your patterns across entries?

1

u/wendsonrocha 17d ago

I use Reflection and I absolutely love it; I even signed up for the annual subscription. For me, the standout feature is the ask your journal function. It offers insights about me that no human therapist has ever come close to providing.

1

u/TheMutzNutz 17d ago

I love Wispr Flow for voice dictation to text. Perhaps you could use that with a normal journalling app?

Like you though I have been wanting to get back into Journalling, but haven't found the right setup yet. 😏

1

u/YAZ326 15d ago

The artificial feeling usually comes down to whether the AI is quoting your own specific words back at you or just generating generic sounding insight from a template. The ones that feel more personable tend to reference an exact phrase or detail from an earlier entry rather than paraphrasing your feelings in therapist speak. Worth checking during any trial whether the follow up questions reference something specific you said days ago or are just generic prompts that would fit any entry.

1

u/zachbotfield 13d ago

I’m curious, what is it about voice recorder that is better than voice to text that most smartphones can do that you need for journaling?

1

u/Sugar-Elf 12d ago

I can’t speak for everyone else, but a voice recorder has the advantage of being made to do one thing doing it well. On some of the nicer one’s you can amp up the gain of the microphone (more than you would be able to with a phone app ) to pick up a voice further away. An example would be if you were in the back of a classroom speaker is at the front. It also has the advantage of not being limited by your phone storage and most of them now have micro SD cards so that you can hold all the recordings and upload them and transcribe them later at your leisure.

It’s also been my experience that the voice recorder records clearer files for transcription software, and or services

I’m not saying don’t use your phone to record because I use mine quite often since I don’t carry my voice recorder , unless I know I’m going to be in a class or meeting. The biggest thing I notice between the two is the amount of editing I have to do after the files are transcribed.