Hedy

Hedy takes a fundamentally different approach to AI meeting assistance. While nearly every competitor sends your audio to cloud servers for processing, Hedy can run its entire AI pipeline locally on your device. In May 2026 the company shipped Local AI Processing, which moved not just speech recognition but the full stack (summaries, detailed notes, chat, and its proprietary real-time coaching) onto your own hardware. In September 2026 that option reached Android as well, so a capable phone can now generate the recap without a server. Your meeting audio, and now the analysis built from it, can stay entirely on your machine. At a time when companies are scrutinizing the tools that touch their most sensitive conversations (board meetings, M&A discussions, HR reviews), this is not a minor differentiator. It is the differentiator.

The app works by capturing system audio directly, which means there is no bot joining your call, no awkward “Hedy’s AI is recording this meeting” notification, and no dependency on any particular meeting platform. Whether you are on Zoom, Google Meet, Teams, or even a phone call, Hedy captures and transcribes in real time. This system-level audio approach also means it works for in-person meetings using your device’s microphone, a use case most cloud-based competitors simply cannot address.

What sets Hedy apart from other local transcription tools like MacWhisper is the intelligence layer built on top. Hedy does not just transcribe. It coaches. During live meetings, it can surface relevant context, suggest talking points, and provide real-time analysis of the conversation — guidance that, as of early 2026, is also glanceable on an Apple Watch companion app so you can stay present without staring at a phone. After the meeting, it generates structured summaries, action items, and topic breakdowns that actually capture the substance of the discussion.

Key Features

Hedy’s feature set spans the full meeting lifecycle. On-device transcription is powered by NVIDIA’s Nemotron speech model, which replaced Parakeet in June 2026 (Whisper is still available), with support for 30+ languages. Since September 2026 (Hedy 3.12), speaker diarization also runs on-device on iPhone and Mac once a session ends, and an August 2026 update added speaker names in transcripts, automatic meeting detection for Zoom, Teams and Webex (plus FaceTime on Mac), and document exports. The AI coaching engine provides live suggestions during meetings, helping you stay sharp during negotiations, interviews, and complex discussions. Post-meeting, Hedy generates detailed summaries organized by topic, with action items and follow-ups clearly extracted. Its Topics feature groups related meetings into evolving threads, carries context across sessions, and can auto-generate prep notes before your next call — a cross-meeting memory that goes well beyond simple search. The app supports specialized session types (from sales calls to job interviews, negotiations, healthcare, and brainstorming), each with tailored prompts and analysis frameworks.

The integration story has matured considerably. Hedy now ships native Zapier support (7,000+ apps), a verified n8n node, a full REST API with US and EU endpoints, and signed webhooks, reaching tools like Slack, Notion, Google Docs, Todoist, and Asana. For the AI-native crowd, Hedy runs a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that lets assistants like Claude, ChatGPT, and Cursor query, and as of 2026 read and write, your meeting data, sessions, transcripts, highlights, and to-dos.

Sharing no longer requires the other person to have Hedy. Since late August 2026, Pro users can publish a finished session as a public web page: pick which sections appear, pick an expiry, and send the address. Audio is never on that page. For anything confidential, an email invitation that requires a sign-in is still the right tool.

Pricing

Hedy offers a free tier that includes 5 hours of meetings per month with transcription and summaries in 30+ languages; real-time AI coaching on the free plan is limited to the first 30 minutes of each session, which is plenty to evaluate the experience. The Pro plan is $12.99 per month or $99.99 per year, which unlocks unlimited real-time coaching, advanced summaries, and unlimited session types. A $299 lifetime license is also available — unusual in this category and roughly equivalent to two years of Pro at the monthly rate, after which it pays for itself indefinitely. Hedy for Teams became generally available on 12 October 2026 at $12.99 per seat per month or $99.99 per seat per year, for teams of 2 to 200 seats. Above that, Enterprise is custom-priced on an annual contract with a 200-seat minimum: it can enforce Local AI Processing on every device, run self-hosted or private-cloud AI models, keep cloud data in a Google Cloud project the customer owns, and adds SSO/SAML, SCIM, audit logs, retention policies, and a HIPAA BAA. Compared to competitors charging $16 to $40 per month for cloud-based alternatives, Hedy’s pricing is aggressive, especially considering you get on-device processing and offline capability included.

Privacy & Security

This is where Hedy is in a category of one. With Local AI Processing enabled, the entire pipeline (speech recognition and AI analysis alike) runs on your hardware, so audio and the insights derived from it never reach external servers. That option now covers Apple Silicon Macs, capable Windows GPUs, recent iPhones and iPads, and Android phones with a supported GPU. Even with cloud features in use, Hedy backs the architectural story with concrete credentials: a completed SOC 2 Type I examination (issued April 2026), a HIPAA Business Associate assessment, a BAA on the Enterprise plan, valid GDPR standing, and a choice of EU or US data residency made at signup. Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.3 in transit, and Hedy’s AI providers are contractually prohibited from training on your content.

When you do use cloud AI, you choose where it runs. Since late September 2026, EU cloud processing runs at Inceptron in Lund, Sweden, with Google Vertex in an EU region as the fallback, under zero-retention and no-training terms. On iOS 27 iPhones and iPads (Hedy 3.11 and later), Apple Private Cloud Compute is an opt-in fourth option alongside Local, Cloud and Off.

The legal reason this matters got sharper in the second half of 2026. A federal judge held that Otter.ai can be treated as a third-party eavesdropper because it independently collects, retains, and uses meeting audio for its own purposes, and a proposed class action now makes the same argument against Granola’s silent, cloud-processed capture. A vendor cannot independently collect communications it never receives. For organizations bound by GDPR, HIPAA, or internal data governance policies, that architectural fact removes much of the compliance burden that cloud-only vendors impose, though participant consent and recording obligations still apply.

Best For

Hedy is the best choice for professionals and teams who take privacy seriously but do not want to sacrifice AI capabilities. It is particularly well-suited for executives, legal professionals, consultants, and anyone who regularly handles sensitive conversations. The cross-platform support (Mac, iOS, Windows, Android, web, and Apple Watch) means it works regardless of your device ecosystem, and the offline capability makes it reliable for travel, secure facilities, or anywhere with unreliable internet.

Why Hedy Leads the Pack

The AI meeting assistant market is crowded, and in 2026 the competition has caught up on individual features: Otter ships live sales coaching, Fathom and Granola capture without a bot, and several rivals now process audio quickly. But no other meeting assistant we tested matches Hedy’s core move: a built-in option to run the entire AI pipeline on-device, so transcription, summaries, and coaching can all happen with nothing leaving your machine. Combine that with no meeting bot, true offline operation, real-time coaching, and a now-credible compliance posture, and Hedy solves problems that other tools structurally cannot. Named the #1 AI meeting assistant for 2026 by TechBullion for the second year running, with a fast-growing base of 25,000+ professionals, Hedy is no longer the upstart. It is the clear leader. If privacy, reliability, and real-time intelligence matter to you, the choice is straightforward.