openscribe/docs/plaud-comparison.md
Laurence 2af3c2043a
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docs: Plaud comparison + feature-gap backlog
Reviews the Plaud line (Note, Note Pro, NotePin/S) to make sure the OpenScribe
roadmap covers expected capabilities, and records where OpenScribe deliberately
differs (bring-your-own-AI, self-hosted, open).

What changed:
- docs/plaud-comparison.md: feature map (Plaud vs OpenScribe status), a derived
  backlog, and what we deliberately do not copy. Sourced from Plaud's site (July 2026).
- state/TODO.md: adds a Plaud-derived backlog section (diarisation, summary templating,
  Ask-AI/RAG, custom vocabulary, multimodal, mark-a-moment, auto-title, tags/folders/
  search, share links, optional OLED display, calendar) and a pluggable-AI-providers
  milestone.

Why:
- The user asked to review Plaud for other todos; this captures them and frames the
  bring-your-own-AI differentiator that the next feature implements.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-03 13:20:29 +01:00

4.1 KiB

Plaud comparison and feature gap analysis

A review of the Plaud product line (Note, Note Pro, NotePin / NotePin S) to make sure the OpenScribe roadmap covers what people expect from this class of device, and to be clear about where OpenScribe deliberately differs. Reviewed July 2026 from Plaud's site and listings (see Sources).

OpenScribe's core difference: you bring the AI. Plaud routes everything through Plaud's own cloud AI on a subscription. OpenScribe lets the owner point transcription and summarisation at any open-standard endpoint (OpenAI-compatible / local) or a commercial API (OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini), self-hosted or not, with no subscription and no lock-in.

Feature map

Capability Plaud OpenScribe status
One-button voice recording Yes Done (M1)
Long recordings to storage Yes (cloud) Done (M1, microSD)
Sync to phone app Yes (BLE/WiFi) M2 (WiFi) done; M4 (BLE); M7 (app)
AI transcription, many languages 112 languages M5 (provider-driven; language set by provider)
Speaker labels / diarisation Yes Backlog (added below)
Custom vocabulary Yes Backlog
AI summaries Yes M6
Summary templates (meeting, to-do, mind map, custom) 10,000+ Backlog (templating)
Multidimensional / role-based summaries Yes Backlog
Ask AI / chat grounded in the recording "Ask Plaud" Backlog (RAG over transcript)
Multimodal: attach text/images to a recording Yes Backlog
Highlight / mark key moments while recording Yes Backlog (device long-press -> timestamp)
Auto title + auto formatting Yes Backlog
Tags / folders / search Yes Backlog (server + app)
Calendar integration Yes Backlog (nice-to-have)
Share summaries / export Yes Export done in API (M5); share links backlog
On-device status display (InstantView) Note Pro Hardware future (optional OLED variant)
Phone-call recording Yes (MagSafe) Out of scope (no phone-call tap)
Choice of AI provider (open or commercial) No (Plaud cloud only) OpenScribe differentiator
Self-hostable, no subscription No OpenScribe differentiator
Open source, open API, open hardware No OpenScribe differentiator

New backlog items derived from this review

These are added to state/TODO.md (Plaud-derived backlog):

  1. Speaker diarisation + labels (server), with rename-speaker in the app.
  2. Summary templating: built-in templates (meeting notes, action items, to-do list, mind map, decisions) + user-defined templates; role-based multidimensional summaries.
  3. Ask AI: chat grounded in a recording's transcript (RAG), reusing the chosen LLM provider.
  4. Custom vocabulary / prompt hints passed to the transcription + summary providers.
  5. Multimodal attachments: text notes and images attached to a recording.
  6. Mark-a-moment: device long-press during recording writes a highlight timestamp; surfaced in the app and used to focus summaries.
  7. Auto title + auto formatting of transcripts and summaries.
  8. Library organisation: tags, folders, full-text search (server + app).
  9. Share links / export of summaries (extends the existing export endpoint).
  10. Optional hardware variant with a small OLED status display (InstantView equivalent).
  11. Calendar integration (nice-to-have) to attach recordings to events.

What we deliberately do not copy

  • Phone-call recording via a phone accessory (Plaud's MagSafe call capture). Out of scope.
  • Subscription tiers and per-minute transcription quotas. OpenScribe has none by design; the cost is whatever your chosen AI provider charges (zero if self-hosted).
  • A closed cloud. Everything stays on infrastructure the owner controls.

Sources