privacynote

Your session, in text. The recording never leaves your phone.

A free iPhone app for therapists and counselors. It records a session after your client agrees, turns it into text on the phone with each line marked as you or your client, and deletes the recording. The text stays behind Face ID until you copy it, share it, or it deletes itself.

Join the iPhone beta How a session goes
The recording screen: client C.R., Recording, 12:43, Audio stays on this phone. Buttons for Me speaking, Mark, Pause, Stop, and Client withdrew consent.
Design draft.

For therapists and counselors who want a session in text without handing a client's words to anyone.

Therapists and counselors · Psychologists · Clinical social workers · Solo and small practices

How it works

How a session goes

  1. The Start screen: client C.R., consent on file: yes, spoken. A switch for Record, Dictate after, or Type. A Start session button. 1 · Pick the client, tap Start

    Choose the client by their initials. The app shows their consent on file, and warns you if they said no or were never asked.

  2. The consent screen: Read this aloud, with the consent wording, and two buttons: They agreed, and They said no. 2 · Read the consent aloud

    The screen stays on until your client answers. If they say no, or the phone locks first, nothing is kept.

  3. The iPhone Lock Screen while recording: PrivacyNote, Recording, 12:43, with Pause and Stop buttons. 3 · Lock the phone. It keeps recording.

    Pocket it or lay it flat. The Lock Screen shows only that it is recording, and for how long. If a phone call cuts in, recording starts again after it and the gap is marked.

  4. The Session ended screen: Your transcript is ready. Turned into text on this phone. Recording deleted. Text kept here, behind Face ID, deletes itself in 7 days. 4 · Tap Stop, see who said what

    The recording becomes text on the phone, and then the recording is deleted. Each line is marked as you or your client. Tap any line to fix it.

  5. The Copy or share sheet: a warning that the full transcript is about to leave, a switch to remove names first, a choice of format, and Copy, Share to an app, and Cancel buttons. 5 · Copy what you need into your notes

    A warning comes first. Names are removed unless you turn that off. Copied text clears from the clipboard after 5 minutes.

Screens are design drafts.

No account. No server. No tracking. The app is built with no code that connects to the internet.
“I record our sessions on this phone to help me write my notes. The phone turns the recording into text, then deletes it. The recording never leaves this phone. Is that okay with you?”

Washington wording, a draft for counsel. Washington asks everyone in the session to agree. The app keeps your announcement and your client's answer as the first lines of the session. If your client says no, it keeps nothing but one line in its log. Clients in Illinois sign a separate written consent first, and the app walks you through it. Your counsel decides what applies to you.

Your phone

What stays on your phone, and when it is gone

What Where it lives When it is gone
The recording On the phone, encrypted, while you record Deleted as soon as the text is ready. There is no setting to keep it, and nothing to play back.
The text On the phone, behind Face ID or your passcode, every time you open the app It deletes itself after 7 days, or the number you set, up to 30. A reminder comes the day before. Delete it sooner with one tap.
Who said what Worked out fresh for each session, on the phone Nothing about anyone's voice is kept, or compared between sessions.
Your consent list Client initials and their answers, on the phone When you delete the client. Export it as plain text whenever you like.
What you copy or share Wherever you put it Your choice, after a warning. The session log notes the time and whether names were removed, never where it went.
Us Nowhere No account, no key, no copy. We can't read anything, and we can't recover a lost phone.

The difference

Compared with what you use today

Question A voice memo app An app that uploads the recording PrivacyNote
Where the recording goes Kept on the phone, and in your online backup if sync is on To the company's servers Nowhere. It is deleted once it is text
Who said what Not marked. One block of text Depends on the app, worked out on its servers Every line marked as you or your client, worked out on the phone. No voice is kept between sessions
Asks your client first No Depends on the app Yes. The consent is the first thing recorded, every session
How long the text stays Until you delete it The company's policy decides 7 days by default, up to 30. You choose
Before the text leaves your phone No warning It has already left A warning first, with names removed by default
Price Free Usually a monthly subscription Free. No limit on length or number of sessions

When recording is not right

You still get a session in text

  • Your client says no

    Nothing is kept but one line in the log. After the session, dictate a summary in your own voice, or type one. Same rules: the recording is deleted and the text deletes itself.

  • Phone and video sessions

    The app records what it hears near the phone. It can't hear a call on a computer. For a video session, dictate a summary after it instead.

  • Any session you'd rather not record

    Choose Dictate after or Type on the Start screen. Nothing is recorded during the session at all.

The iPhone beta

Try it before it is in the App Store.

The app is free. Join the beta and we will email you an invite when it opens. In return, tell us what broke, a few minutes a week. Counts only, never content.

Never send a screenshot of a session. Tell us what broke in words.

We ask for no client information here and never will. Formspree keeps a copy of what you type in its dashboard and sends one to Vishnu's inbox. Both are deleted when the beta ends. This form is the only thing that reaches us. The app sends us nothing.

Coming next

PrivacyNote for Mac

A Mac app that takes each transcript from your phone and writes the draft note there, on your Mac. It is optional: the iPhone app is complete without it. For a clinic that wants one shared computer, the same software will run on a small unit on a shelf. Tick the box in the beta form to hear when it is ready.

Vishnu Vettrivel

Who is building it

Vishnu Vettrivel

By day an engineering director at a large software company, where he led its ISO 42001 certification, the international standard for managing AI responsibly. In the evenings a doctoral researcher on evidence for regulated AI.

PrivacyNote is built the way a medical device is built: a written list of what could go wrong, a test for each, the results, and a clinician's review, published before the first release.

The evidence package Will be published before the first release.

Questions

Plain answers

Which iPhones?
An iPhone XS or newer, on iOS 18 or later. The XR and the SE (2nd generation) are still being tested. If they can't run the speech model, they will still take typed summaries.
Does it need the internet or an account?
No account. The app is built with no code that connects to the internet, so it works with no signal and no Wi-Fi.
What if I lose my phone?
We hold no account and no key. If the phone and its passcode are both lost, the transcripts on it are gone. Nobody can get them back, including us. Anything you already copied into your notes is wherever you put it.
Can two of us share one phone?
No. One clinician per phone. An iPhone has no separate user accounts, so a shared phone would mix two clinicians' sessions.
Can I use it with a chatbot?
You can copy the text anywhere. The app warns you first, removes names by default, and can't see where the text goes. Check that the service is covered by a business associate agreement (BAA) before you paste a session into it.
Couples and groups?
Not supported in v1. The app labels two voices only, and a couples session has three people.
What languages?
English only in v1.
Does it write my note?
No. It gives you the session in text, marked line by line as you or your client. You write your note from it, or copy what you need.
How long does the text stay?
7 days by default. You can set up to 30. A reminder comes the day before, and it never names the client or shows any text. The recording itself is deleted as soon as the text is ready.
Is it free?
Yes. No account, no subscription, no limit on length or number of sessions. The Mac app, when it ships, is a separate paid app. The iPhone app stays free with or without it.
Does it make a diagnosis?
No. It writes down what was said. It makes no diagnosis, suggests no codes, and recommends no treatment.