07 Jul 2025
Hyprnote transcribes and summarizes your meetings all locally.
Not a single byte of your data leaves your device.
During meetings
While you take notes, Hyprnote listens and keeps track of everything that happens during the meeting
After meetings
After the meeting is over, Hyprnote combines your notes with meeting transcripts to create a perfect summary
07 Jul 2025
The team just got into the YC S25 batch.
The premise is exactly what I have built for myself since last year, more polished & sophisticated.
Free - Core experience
- 100% local
- Speaker identification
- Transcript editing
- Basic summarization
- Showing upcoming events
- Adding tags to notes
- Search with your note
- Push notifications
What is Char?
Summary: Char (rebranded from Hyprnote) is a free, open-source AI notepad for meetings that runs locally on your device. It captures system audio for real-time transcription and generates AI summaries by combining your handwritten notes with the transcript — all without meeting bots or forced cloud dependencies.
Char is a desktop AI notepad designed for private meetings. It captures system audio (no bot joins your call), transcribes in real-time, and produces AI-powered summaries after the meeting by merging your rough notes with the full transcript.
The product was originally called Hyprnote and rebranded to Char in early 2026. It's built by Fastrepl (founders John Jeong and Yujong Lee).
Key Principles
- Zero lock-in — choose your own STT and LLM provider, cloud or local
- You own your data — plain markdown files stored on your device
- No bots — captures system audio instead of injecting a bot participant
- Fully local option — audio, transcripts, and notes never leave your machine
- Open source — 7k+ GitHub stars, fully transparent codebase
How It Works
- During the meeting, you jot quick notes in the Char notepad while it silently transcribes via system audio
- After the meeting, Char combines your notes with the transcript to generate a structured AI summary with action items
- Everything is stored as plain markdown files — works with any tool in your workflow
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Real-time transcript | Live transcription while you take notes |
| AI summaries | Merges your notes + transcript into structured summaries |
| AI Chat | Ask natural language questions against your transcript |
| Floating panel | Overlay for quick access to recording controls |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Navigate and format without touching the mouse |
| Templates | Customizable templates for Sales, Product, Engineering |
| 45+ languages | Broad multilingual support |
| Audio import | Upload existing recordings for transcription |
Platform & Pricing
Currently available for Mac (Apple Silicon). Windows support is planned. The app is free and open-source.
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