Otter.aiReviews of otter.ai

Tried Otter.ai free for a tool to help me with educational work. Initially it did what it says and the idea is great. However, I had an issue with the amount that I used (which I had initially not realised and no fault of Otter.ai), but it wouldn't allow me to access audio or transcript without paying for the tool. I contacted customer services on several occasions for urgent support, but after a week still no reply. Really disappointed. Great idea, terrible customer service.

If you don't have flawless internet and audio, the transcript is a nightmare, ranging from unintelligible to non-existent. Unfortunately, as a journalist I'm often trying to use Otter in sub-par situations - poor audio, low internet signal - and am constantly disappointed in the resulting transcript. Unfortunately I'm locked into 6 more months of this service before I can choose another provider because I signed up for a year subscription to lock in a lower price.

Used to be great in the early days, but they just got greedy and their customer support got worse and worse. I reported a glitch and received no feedback whatsoever. Several months have passed and I've still not had an update other than, "It's been escalated to the relevant team." I also felt like they were just concentrating on adding more and more features that I didn't want/need that actually were just annoying to navigate or avoid, but meanwhile the quality of transcription didn't improve at all, so I still spent a substantial amount of time amending/editing transcripts. Didn't renew my subscription when it expired. Have found a much better and far cheaper alternative. Wouldn't recommend Otter to friends/colleagues.

The tool is very useful. It's a nightmare to integrate into Zoom. Pages of instructions. They're customer support is non-existent. I emailed them in August and no response. They also somehow created two accounts for me and double billed me and haven't responded.

Watch out for hidden, undisclosed charges that appear without warning! Otter's default settings will send invites to other people that join your calls, pestering them on a daily basis to join a 'workspace' with you. The emails encouraging people to join don't tell them there will be charges, and the account sharing the recordings (which apparently acts as an invite to join a workspace) doesn't get any kind of warning that they run the risk of incurring new costs if anyone 'accepts'. Workspace joiners are given 'free trials' but despite the dozens of harassing emails you'll get telling you to join a workspace, Otter apparently can't spare a single email to warn you in advance that your trial is ending and your account is about to charge your colleague for a whole new subscription. It also doesn't tell the person who sent the invites that this is happening. There are laws about hidden fees and lack of fee transparency, but Otter don't seem to be worried about that. The transcriptions aren't particularly great but they are better than nothing - however, they're only worth it if you pay the price you're expecting to pay. At the extortionate additional cost you're likely to incur due to their deliberate obfuscation of the payment details, you are much better off avoiding this tool.

Like the App, but unfortunately customer support is not replying to my multiple emails - they seem to be unreachable

Otter.ai is not worth the high price. 1. It has trouble transcribing non american accents. 2. It doesn't do a good job distinguishing between different speakers. 3. The automatic summary chapters don't actually work at all. 4. It only transcribes audio (you can upload videos but only transcribes and only gives a chance to download audio) if you want to capture the video segment, it's not possible. 5. Customer service is mediocre and requires much back and forth to answer simple issues.

The actual transcription isn't great, some conversations were ok, and some were terrible. It actually reduced my productivity due to having to correct a multitude of errors. Secondly, they don't make it clear enough that you only get a certain amount of interviews and length of interviews when you pay for a package. I only found this out when halfway through an interview. Thirdly, when you contact 'customer services' you get automated responses (although this is not declared) and when you ask anything specific or make a complaint, you hear absolutely nothing back! Update: since writing this review, and threatening to write more, I've had a response from customer services and a refund...shame it took that.