The choice, at sign-in
A picker on the sign-in screen lets you choose how your audio is processed: On-device or Cloud. Both run transcription and speaker diarization on your own machine — the only difference is whether the finished transcript also goes to your account afterward. There is no mode where raw audio is streamed to a server for processing; that path doesn't exist in the product.
- On-device — fully private, and it works offline. Nothing, audio or transcript, ever leaves the machine.
- Cloud — the same on-device transcription and diarization, with the finished transcript synced to your account afterward. Audio itself is never uploaded in this mode either — only the resulting text.
The mode is remembered per signed-in account on that device, and you can switch later from the app; switching only affects future recordings — it doesn't retroactively upload anything already recorded. A recording made in On-device mode stays private even if you later switch to Cloud, unless you explicitly choose to upload that one recording yourself.
What syncs, and what stays local
In Cloud mode, synced data can include transcript text, titles, notes, edits, enhancement results, preset or custom instructions, speaker labels, and timestamps. Audio is not sent to Cohearo's servers or AI enhancement providers, in either mode.
Voice embeddings — the underlying voice data used to distinguish speakers — stay on your device. If you sync, a speaker profile's identifier and name may sync with it, but the embeddings themselves do not.
How long things are kept
- Local audio — 72 hours on every plan, then automatically cleaned up.
- Local transcript — kept on your device until you delete it, remove app data, or uninstall.
- Free-plan cloud transcript — kept for up to 7 days, then deleted from active cloud storage.
- Synced transcripts created on a paid plan — kept while you're subscribed, until you delete them or close your account. Moving back to Free afterward doesn't shorten this.
How it's protected
Cohearo uses encryption in transit and encrypted database and object storage at rest. This is not end-to-end encryption — Cohearo can process synced content to provide the service (enhancement, search, sync). No service can guarantee absolute security; protecting your own device, account and connected clients is still on you.
On this page