Daily Vibe is a voice journal with two deliberately different microphone actions:
- Quick dictation turns speech into text on-device and retains no audio.
- A spoken entry saves the recording locally, transcribes it on-device, and lets you play it back with word-synced highlighting while Pro access is active.
Neither path uploads audio. Spoken-entry recordings never sync through iCloud. That distinction matters because “voice journaling” can mean either disposable dictation or keeping the original moment.
Studio AM makes Daily Vibe, so this article explains our own architecture rather than ranking every recorder on the App Store.
How on-device transcription works
Cloud transcription sends audio or a live stream to a remote speech model, then returns text. On-device transcription runs the speech recognizer on the iPhone or iPad, so a network round trip is not required.
Daily Vibe uses on-device speech recognition for both dictation and spoken entries. After compatible setup, transcription and journal analysis can run in airplane mode. Network access is still used for actions such as StoreKit, an optional model download, optional private iCloud sync for journal text, or a link you explicitly open.
Which voice mode should I use?
Use compose-bar dictation when you want to speak a sentence and keep only the words. Daily Vibe does not retain that audio.
Use a spoken entry when tone, pauses, and hearing the moment again matter. The recording is durable from the start, remains on that device, and gets an on-device transcript. If transcription is interrupted, the app preserves the recording and can resume transcription when access is active.
| Quick dictation | Spoken entry | |
|---|---|---|
| Transcription | On-device | On-device |
| Audio retained | No | Yes, locally |
| Audio uploaded | No | No |
| Audio included in iCloud sync | No | No |
| Playback | Not applicable | Ordinary saved-audio playback; word-synced read-along with active access |
| Export | Text in journal exports | Transcript/metadata plus local audio copy in portable JSON export |
What happens across devices?
Optional private iCloud sync can carry journal text and recording metadata through your private CloudKit database. Studio AM cannot read it. The recording itself stays on the device that made it, so another device may show the words while explaining that the audio is elsewhere.
To carry audio out of the app, export from the device that recorded it. The portable JSON package includes copies of locally available recordings; Markdown includes the readable transcript.
Compatibility and access
Daily Vibe requires iOS or iPadOS 26. Its journal AI uses Apple Intelligence when ready, or an optional on-device model download of about 0.9–2.6 GB on compatible hardware. Devices with less than 3.5 GB of RAM cannot run AI features.
There is no free feature tier. Eligible new subscribers may receive a 3-day trial, then pay $4.99 per month or $29.99 per year in the US. Creating new spoken entries and transcription work requires access. After a plan ends, saved recordings and transcripts remain owned archive data: readable, searchable, ordinarily playable, exportable, and deletable.
See Daily Vibe for the current feature list, or find a starting question in the journal prompts hub.
FAQ
Does Daily Vibe save voice recordings?
A spoken entry intentionally saves its audio on the device for playback and creates an on-device transcript. Compose-bar dictation keeps only the resulting text and does not retain audio.
Does spoken-entry audio upload or sync through iCloud?
No. Recordings remain on the device that made them. Journal text and recording metadata can use optional private iCloud sync, but audio never syncs.
Can spoken entries be exported?
Yes. The portable JSON export includes spoken-entry metadata and copies of recordings stored on that device. Markdown exports the readable journal text.