I Used to Lose Half My Meetings. Then I Found Plaud.

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Most meetings vanish from my memory within 24 hours. Not because I'm not paying attention. Because I'm too focused on the conversation to write anything down.

I tried everything. Typing notes on my laptop (looked distracted). Voice memos on my phone (never transcribed them). Notion open on one screen (missed half the conversation filling it in). Nothing stuck.

Then I started using Plaud.

What Plaud Actually Is

Plaud is a credit-card-sized AI recorder that clips onto your phone or sits on a table. You press one button to start. That's it.

It captures audio, transcribes the conversation, and generates a structured summary - action items, key decisions, topics covered - directly in the app. No laptop open. No scribbling. No "sorry, what did you say?"

Just be present in the meeting. Let Plaud do the documentation.

The Part That Surprised Me

I expected the transcription to be decent. It's excellent.

Accents, crosstalk, fast talkers. It handles all of it better than I expected for a device this small. The summaries aren't generic either. They pull out the actual decisions and next steps from your meeting, not a templated recap of filler words.

The first time I used it in a client meeting, I walked out and had a clean summary waiting for me before I reached my car. I sent it to the client as a follow-up within minutes.

That used to take me 30-45 minutes after every meeting.

How I Use It Day-to-Day

I use Plaud in three situations:

Client discovery calls. I stay fully present, ask better questions, and don't scramble to capture every detail. The summary gives me everything I need to write a proposal.

Internal planning sessions. When I'm thinking out loud or workshopping ideas, Plaud captures the raw thinking. I've recovered good ideas from recordings I forgot I made.

My own voice notes. Walking between meetings, something clicks. I hit record and talk for 90 seconds. Plaud turns it into a usable note.

The Workflow After the Recording

Here's the part that makes it seamless rather than just useful.

Once the transcript and summary are in the app, I copy the key points into Notion. My meeting notes, follow-up tasks, and client context all live in one place, and Plaud feeds directly into that system.

No reformatting. No cleanup. Just paste and go.

Taking It Further: Plaud to Notion via Zapier

If you want to skip the manual copy-paste entirely, Plaud integrates with Zapier. There's a ready-made automation that triggers the moment a transcript and summary are ready, and automatically creates a page in your Notion database.

The setup takes minutes:

1. Connect your Plaud and Notion accounts in Zapier
2. Set the trigger to "Transcript & Summary Ready"
3. Set the action to "Create Page" in your target Notion database
4. Map the fields: title, summary, action items, full transcript

Now every meeting you record flows directly into your system without lifting a finger. No n8n required, no custom webhooks. Just Zapier connecting the two.

For me, this closed the last gap in the workflow. Record, transcribe, summarize, organize. All automatic.

Two Products, Two Use Cases

Plaud actually has two main product lines, and they serve different situations:

Plaud Note Pro is the flagship. It's credit-card sized, magnetically attaches to your phone, and has an AMOLED display. Four microphones pick up voices from up to 5 meters away, and it holds up to 50 hours of continuous recording. This is the one I reach for in conference rooms and client meetings.

One detail worth calling out: when you attach the original Plaud Note to the back of your phone (magnetically, like an Apple wallet), it can record phone calls using vibration pickup through the phone's body. You just had to manually switch between meeting mode and call mode. On the Note Pro, that switch happens automatically. It detects whether you're in a meeting or on a call and adjusts on its own. No buttons, no toggling. You just start recording and it figures out the rest. That alone was a game-changer for me.

Plaud NotePin is the wearable version. It clips to your shirt, hangs on a lanyard, or attaches to your wrist. Smaller, lighter, designed for hands-free, in-person conversations. Think walking meetings, site visits, or any time you don't want a device sitting on the table.

Both connect to the same app, same AI summaries, same workflow.

On Battery Life

I've seen some people flag battery as a concern. Honestly, I haven't had that issue at all. The Note Pro lasts comfortably through a full day of meetings, and the NotePin gets around 20 hours of recording on a single charge. I charge mine overnight and never think about it.

The real limitation is the same as any AI tool: the quality of the summary depends on the quality of the conversation. Rambling, unstructured meetings produce rambling, unstructured summaries. That's not a Plaud problem. It's a meetings problem.

Is It Worth It?

For anyone who runs client meetings, does interviews, or thinks out loud: yes.

The mental overhead of "I need to take notes" disappears. You show up better, you listen better, and you have a record of everything without lifting a pen.

For me, it's become as automatic as bringing my phone.

Check out Plaud here if you want to see what I'm talking about.

What does your current meeting capture workflow look like? Still doing it manually?