Frequently asked questions
How do I record a meeting?
- iPhone or iPad: tap “Start meeting” at the bottom of the meeting list. You can pause and resume. Tap “End meeting” to finish.
- Apple Watch: one tap is enough. Tap “Start meeting” on the watch, then “End meeting”. You can also ask Siri. The audio is then transferred to the iPhone, which does the rest.
For a good recording:
- place the iPhone or iPad in the middle of the table, flat, with the microphone clear;
- do not slip it under papers, into a pocket or into a bag;
- with the watch, keep it on your wrist, close to your voice: it works well for a one-to-one conversation or a meeting where you speak a lot.
How do I get a summary of a phone call?
Aparté cannot record a call directly: iOS does not allow any app to do so. Two options:
- Speakerphone: put the iPhone on speaker and record with Apple Watch or an iPad placed next to it.
- Import a recording made elsewhere (your carrier's phone app, a voice recorder, a voice memo): in Aparté, Settings, “Import a recording”. You can also use “Share” or “Open in” to send it to Aparté from Files, Mail or another app. Accepted formats: MP3, M4A, WAV, AIFF and CAF, up to 4 hours per file. Importing works on iPhone and iPad, not on the watch.
Before importing, Aparté compares the length of the file with the summary time you have left this month (free time or Premium plan). A summary counts for at least 10 minutes. A file longer than the time left is refused, with a message. When importing, you choose the title, date and language of the recording.
Either way, tell the other person at the start of the call. In France, recording someone without their consent is punishable under Article 226-1 of the French Criminal Code. Some carriers play an automatic announcement at the start of a recorded call.
How do I ask participants for their consent?
Simply, at the start of the meeting, before you start recording. For example:
“I'm recording the meeting to write up a summary. The audio stays on my phone. Is that all right with you?”
If someone says no, do not record. Informing participants and obtaining their consent is your responsibility.
What is sent to Claude, and what stays on the device?
The audio of your meetings is never sent off your iPhone or iPad. Transcription happens on the device.
To write the summary, Aparté sends to its server, then to Anthropic, the company that operates the Claude model, the meeting transcript and its context: the date and times, the time zone, the title, the client or project, the participants and the notes you entered, and, if you linked it, the title of your calendar event and the names of the people invited to it.
Never sent to the Aparté server or to Anthropic: the audio, the meeting location, email addresses. The Aparté server passes these items on to Anthropic without storing them. Anthropic deletes the data within 30 days, except where required by law or for content its systems flag as violating its usage policy, which it may keep for up to 2 years. It does not use the data for training its models.
Nothing is sent without your consent, which you can withdraw at any time in Settings, Privacy section, “Summaries by Claude”. The details are in the privacy policy.
How much time is free, and what is counted?
- Each installation gets 1 hour of summaries free every month, for 3 months. Unused time does not carry over.
- Beyond that, the Aparté Premium subscription, monthly or yearly, gives access to summaries up to 25 hours per month.
- What counts is, in practice, the length of the recording, with at least 10 minutes per summary and at most 4 hours per meeting. The exact rule is in the terms of use.
- The time left is shown below the meeting list, and in Aparté, Settings, Subscription section.
Which language should I speak, and how do I get a good transcript?
Aparté transcribes meetings in French or English. Choose the language in Settings, Language section, “Meeting language”, before recording: a meeting already transcribed keeps its own. The summary is written in the same language.
- One voice per microphone: avoid having two devices record the same meeting.
- Avoid noise: an open window, a coffee machine, music, conversations nearby.
- A call recorded on speakerphone is less clear than a meeting around a table: speak clearly, and keep the phone and the recording device close together.
The transcript and the summary are produced automatically and may contain errors: review them before sharing them.
Another question?
Write to matthieu.milliot@gmail.com, in English or French: you will usually get an answer within two working days. For a problem with a summary, give the date and time of the meeting, never its content. See also the support page.