Nothing. The interface / dashboard is clunky. Notetaking is terrible. Very unreliable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
All I wanted was a dependable notetaker and screen recorder for Google Meet calls with business coaching clients, 1-2x per week. I could care less about the other AI chat and collaboration options since I'm a part time solopreneur. But this things is so unreliable and takes the WORST NOTES ever. Completely useless.
1) The free version is limited to 30 min calls, which is pretty useless. I thought I was on a pro trial and didn't think I would be limited to that, so my first 1 hour coaching session with a new client, stopped at 30 min with very basic unintelligble notes. Sadly, I chalked that up to the free version limits despite very misleading language when I signed up and wanted to give it a chance since reviews made it seem on par with Fathom or Fireflies.
I remembered to upgrade to Pro before my next session which was a 2 hour strategy session with my client where I definitely would not be able to take notes while screensharing. Despite upgrading just before the call, and it saying PRO, it still only recorded 30 min. I was so furious that I didn't have the full recording OR any notes of value. Since I had already paid for the month, I relunctly let it continue to join calls to just see if it would improve. I still had to remember to turn on Google recording and transcript as a backup.
2) Even after upgrading, this stupid thing only shows up to half my scheduled meetings and it has full access to all my calendars.
3) When it does show up, it leaves before the call is done. It is quite common for calls to run over the scheduled time by 30-60+ min. It's business, we go as long as we have to until we get what we needed done, especially when we're making good progress. But this thing silently checks out the second the clock hits the original scheduled end time. Is it designed to be that dumb or is it a bug?
4) Last but certainly not least, the notes are absolutely useless. This things can never tell who's talking even when its just 2 people and we have clear audio. When it does attribute a name, it flip flops them. And. the notes... Out of a 1 hour call, it will take detailed notes on the first 5 minutes of pleasantries and technical issue around audio, note usless banter or side conversations,but then when it comes to ACTUAL business topics and serious conversation about business strategy and process discussion, it completely glosses over everything and gives the most lazy, generic, and often innacurate summary. Ex (paraphrasing, but not an exaggeration):
- Sales process was discussed
- Discussed exploring options for forms
- Action items: schedule next call, send credentials
It will note the weather and random comments but not 1 useful detail about the topic of the call or real action items.
By day, I'm a full time solution architect and several of my PMs use either Fathom or Fireflies, so I am accustomed to AI note taking. I was actually shocked at how accurate and detailed the summarized notes are from those 2 with the very technical nature of my client calls and ability to summarize key takeaways and action items. By the sounds of the reviews I expected something comparable with Otter. Definitely not the case. I may as well have had a 1st grader with ADHD take notes for my calls. I don't know who would rate this more than 2 stars.
I would try to fight for my $32 back out of principal but this product has wasted enough of my time already. Buyer beware! Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Video Reviews
Otter.ai Review
289 out of 290 Total Reviews for Otter.ai
Overall Review Sentiment for Otter.ai
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Otter.ai is a great AI tool to transcribe audios and videos. Premium version is great, as it allows you to upload more audio minutes. Best part is the time stamping and accuacy of it. I have been using the premium version for a long time now and recent upgrade in which AI helps you to extract required information from the conversation is extremely helpful. Exporting in different formats makes it quite easy to acquire the desired output. Dashboard is easy to use and it seems very welcoming to new users as well. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
I am overall satified but I would say that it can improve in terms of speaker identification and it ocassionaly gets clunky while editing. I understand that it is working in real-time and saving the information but you can't make mistakes as it has built in auto save option and you can't undo if you save and close the file, which is quite disturbing. Customer support might feel bit slow sometimes, even for the premium members, however Otter.ai is generally so realiable that you likely won't need assistance often. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
First I used to take hand written notes or use to listen the recordings of the meetings for creating MOM, but not anymore. Recently I came across Otter.ai through one of my colleague and since then my workload reagrding MOM and all has become very easy.It takes the whole points and at the end gives you a short summary regarding the whole meeting. ANd it was very easy to integrate and implemnet in my team. We use it in all the meetings for the notes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
If anyonre is not a premium member then they will only have limited monthly minitues of the Otter.ai Notetaker which is a backdraw of it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
My favorite thing about Otter is that I can pay full attention to those I'm connecting with on a call, without having to continuously take notes. Conversations can become more free-flowing, I can ask more questions and find out a lot more information, because I know that Otter will take notes and record an audio transcript. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
There really aren't too many downsides with Otter, and I can see it's only going to get better as the tech evolves.
Currently, I guess the thing that could be improved is the section within the notes about rhw action points. Sometimes it misses them, so I need to review the part of the conversation to get the full action point. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
- Summarize calls with key insights, action items & responsibilities
- Record meetings so you can easily share post-call notes, distribute them with other team members & ensure alignment
- If you can't attend a call, you can send your Otter who will provide you with the key takeaways and next steps
- In your settings, you can let Otter know how you want your call notes to be organized and the key insights you want notes around.
- If you forget what was discussed on a call, you always have your Otter recording to go back to. You can listen to it at 1.5x or 2x speed to save time or just read the notes. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The only critique, which is minor and I had to dig deeply to get to it, is that on a rare occasion, Otter will mishear a name or word. However, you can then edit the transcript. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
- super easy zoom and google cal integration
- automatically joins and transcribes
- live transcription view is awesome
- auto captures images when screens are shared / changed in the call - so transcripts have context
- AI takeaways feature is excellent
- setting it up is as easy as enabling an integration
- handles the volume great - we use it for at least 10 calls every day Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
- not as full featured as Gong on the AI side, but price is better
- customer support is not super responsive Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Being able to multitask during a meeting that I am not necessarily needed on is ABSOLUTELY invaluable to my productivity.
If I missed something in a live meeting I can always have the live transcription up on another screen and I don't have to ask someone to repeat themselves due to the amazing accuracy of the live transcriptionl
Also, being able to go back and search a keyword for a meeting from 3 weeks ago and then replay the conversation surrounding it brings me immediately back up to speed.
I'm not sure how I ever conducted business efficiently without Otter AI.
(this review was provided as part of a promotion from Otter but also represents my honest opinion from personal use) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The search features are a little tough to navigate at first -- could use a little polish. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Otter is a tool that is so integral to our operations that we would not be able to live without it. The ability to automatically record all calls and utilize the AI to extrapolate summaries and remind oneself of what was discussed is paramount to our business.
This review was provided to Otter as part of a promotion. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
The only thing I dislike is that settings can be a bit confusing, for example one issue we had is that we wanted all calls had by members in a team to automatically fall into a communal bucket so that our VA could access that information. There is no way to do that, you repeatedly have to ask for permissions on every call to share with others. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Accurate transcription
Nice UI
Good collaboration Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
- It auto sends meeting notes after the call and you have to manually disable this. This is a nightmare to have every employee turn off and if they forget, you risk accidentally sending meeting notes from BEFORE someone joined to them after the call (e.g prospects)
- Everyone at my company somehow automatically had an account created and had otter bots joining their meeting without me setting it up or them signing up. Support couldn't tell me why this happened just that they must've all created accounts which isn't believable since multiple told me they didn't.
- Doesn't record videos, only screenshots, so you can't go back and watch recordings Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
Having one source of truth for all meeting recordings is great, with the summary of the call being available right there. Personally, I love to use AI to ask for all the details about a certain point of the conversation and write emails based on the recording when necessary. Its also amazing that you can import recordings to get the transcription and just manually click "record" if you want.Awesome thats it takes screenshots when the screen is shared though its not the same as having a full video. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
On a free plan, the number of imports you can do is limited. Recently, there were issues with a few calls that weren't recorded entirely, especially since Otter joined the call right at the beginning. My team is struggling to figure out access settings so that everyone can access all the calls instead of the person who recorded a call having to grant permission to access it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
