I use Samsung Voice Recorder to avoid this app’s premium plan

I can’t be alone in wishing I’d saved a journal through the years. I’d love to replicate on what I was up to on sure days 20 years in the past and the way I was processing all of it. Other than just a few batches of images and my more and more fading reminiscence, the information of my numerous journey adventures have principally been misplaced. And these had been the thrilling instances — the humdrum days in between have been virtually fully condemned to the mists of time.

I don’t beat myself up about not preserving a journal as a result of I know I wouldn’t have caught with it. Having to sit down and write or sort for quarter-hour within the night would have fallen by the wayside fairly shortly. But latest advances in AI have made me rethink this. Now, belatedly, I’m journaling every single day. 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 avoid the premium plan on among the best 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 use it for journaling. I’m conscious that some Android telephones have had dwell transcription options for some time, however I was 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 way in which in the direction of the plan of a fast mind dump every night, however I was additionally cautious of leaving the transcribed notes scattered about in an unordered style. You can prepare them in classes in each Voice Recorder and Samsung Notes, however what I actually needed was an organized journal setup through which I simply dictate an entry, and it labels and shops it in an easy-to-reference method later. The easiest possibility was to use a journaling app with AI transcription baked in.

The Day One app match the invoice virtually completely. It’s a cultured journaling app in style on each iOS and Android that permits you to log textual content, images, and audio entries, plus it could possibly sync throughout gadgets. The solely snag was that, whereas the app has a free tier to document entries, you may have to pay for the premium plan in order for you to use the transcription function. That left me with two imperfect options I might mix to meet my wants.

Now, every night, I do the next.

1. Open Voice Recorder and hit Record, then discuss my day for a minute or two.
2. Stop 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. Tap 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 carried out.

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

For the document, 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 definitely carried out properly out of me financially. Day One is a good app, and I’d urge anybody who can profit from the premium tier to join if it matches your funds.

In my case, I’m simply minimally utilizing the app whereas getting the one premium tier function I want at no cost on my system. Almost the entire many premium perks would go unused if I signed up. At over $40 per yr, I discover that expense laborious to justify. But I’ll allow you to choose my actions within the ballot under.

This setup won’t work for everybody, however it’s been a game-changer for me. I’ve lastly discovered a low-effort method 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 would as properly assist us bear in mind the great previous days when it was only a novelty.