I’d been bouncing between different AI note-taking tools for weeks. Every meeting meant an hour of re-listening to rewind through rambling discussions. I needed a way to catch the key points without the mental overhead. That’s when I decided to test 潮记 (the app powered by what the site calls “tidenote”) for a real, messy use case: a 45-minute team sync followed by a dense research paper.
The concrete setup
I recorded the sync with a standard voice memo app, then uploaded the MP3 into 潮记. The interface is clean – you get a big “New Note” button and a few folders labeled Notes and Journal. I dropped the file into the “Notes” section and waited. It took about 90 seconds to process, which felt reasonable. The summary it returned was a bulleted list of decisions, a few action items, and a short paragraph of context. It caught the main threads – budget approvals, deadline push – but missed a side conversation about tool licenses. Tradeoff #1: good for high-level capture, not great for nuance.
I also tried the same file in beanly earlier that week. Beanly gave me a slightly more structured output with timestamps, but its interface was heavier. 潮记 felt faster and less cluttered, even if it skipped some minor points. That’s fine for a quick review, but if you need every detail, you might still want to skim the original.
Using 潮记 for research
My second test was a 12-page PDF about neural network pruning. I pasted the text directly into a new note (the app accepts text input, not just audio). The output was a 3-paragraph summary that kept the core method and results. It didn’t mention the limitations section, which I had to go back and check. That’s a recurring pattern: 潮记 distills well but it’s not a substitute for your own reading. It’s good for a first pass or for recalling the gist a week later.
The app also has a feature called 小片刻 – it’s a short, auto-generated recap of your day’s notes. I didn’t find it transformative, but it’s handy if you want a quick glance before logging off. And the Anchor Text option lets you click from the summary back to the original spot in the note – that saved me a few minutes when I needed to verify a quote.
What slowed me down
Not everything was smooth. Once, while processing a two-hour conference recording, 潮记 froze and I had to restart. It recovered the file, but the summary was missing the first 10 minutes. That’s a mild friction – probably a memory limit on long audio. The app’s web version also runs a bit slower than the mobile one. I’d recommend using it for meetings under an hour unless you’re patient.
Another thing: the free tier caps you at 500 minutes of processing per month. That’s enough for most regular meetings, but if you’re recording classes and research sessions daily, you might hit the limit before month-end. For comparison, beanly offers 300 minutes free, so 潮记 is slightly more generous. And it doesn’t push you into a paid plan as aggressively.
Final call on 潮记
I’ve been using 潮记 for about three weeks now. It’s become my default for weekly team stand-ups and project check-ins. I wouldn’t rely on it for legal transcripts or deeply technical talks, but for everyday capture it does the job with less noise than other free tools. If you’re shopping for a free AI note-taking app in 2026 and want something straightforward, this is worth a try. The real test is whether you can trust the summary enough to skip the original recording – for me, about 80% of the time, it’s good enough. The other 20%, I do a quick scan. That’s an honest tradeoff I can live with.
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