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After CLOVA Note: a Mac transcription app that stays fully local

With CLOVA Note’s beta gone, anyone who relied on it is now looking for a replacement. The short version: if you want meeting transcription that stays entirely on your Mac instead of going to the cloud, OffReco is one option. This article briefly lays out what happened to CLOVA Note, the things people tend to overlook when switching, and where OffReco fits.

What happened to CLOVA Note

CLOVA Note’s beta version shut down on July 31, 2025. From February 4, 2025, creating new notes and other functions were progressively restricted ahead of that closure. The transcription service didn’t simply vanish — a successor, LINE WORKS AiNote, is offered in its place.

In other words: the service known as CLOVA Note has ended, but a comparable cloud transcription service has been carried over to its successor. If a cloud-based tool still works for you, moving to the successor should be straightforward.

What to check when you switch

When changing tools, it’s easy to focus only on “does it have the same features?” and “is it free?” But for transcription, checking these three points helps you avoid regret:

  • Where your audio goes (privacy): Most cloud tools upload your recorded audio to an external server to process it. For confidential discussions or interviews involving personal data, that single step can be a barrier to adoption.
  • Japanese accuracy: How well a tool handles Japanese meetings and domain terms directly affects how much you’ll need to fix afterward.
  • Monthly cost: It’s worth looking at free-plan limits and the ongoing cost if you’ll use it for work.

“Where your audio goes” in particular is an assumption that’s hard to change later. In workplaces where uploading to the cloud isn’t allowed, this is often the deciding factor.

Where OffReco fits

OffReco is another option — for people who don’t want their audio going to the cloud. It isn’t a knock against the successor service; it’s simply suited to those who want everything to stay on their own machine.

  • Fully local: All processing happens on your Mac, so neither the audio nor the transcript leaves the machine. Transcription works in airplane mode (see Privacy for details).
  • Built for Japanese: It’s based on Kotoba Whisper, which is strong on Japanese, and tuned with Japanese meetings in mind.
  • Fully automatic: It auto-detects your meeting and starts recording in one click. When you end it, transcription runs automatically — with speaker separation (who said what) included.
  • Low barrier to entry: It’s ¥200/month (or ¥2,000/year), and the first month is free. It needs macOS 14.2 or later.

Note that there’s no built-in summary feature. When you want the key points, the intended workflow is to paste the finished transcript into ChatGPT, Claude, or a tool of your choice. Once you have the text, formatting and translation are up to you.

For the bigger picture on local transcription, see How to transcribe meetings on a Mac without sending audio to the cloud.

Wrapping up

CLOVA Note’s beta ended in July 2025, and LINE WORKS AiNote is its cloud-based successor. If cloud still works for you, move to the successor. But if you’d rather keep your audio off the cloud and process everything on your own machine, the fully local OffReco is a strong candidate to switch to. It’s strong on Japanese, auto-detects meetings and runs end to end, and the first month is free.

Want to try it? Head to the download page.

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