Loving the Pocket AI, but I will never pay for Premium

General
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I recently got a Pocket AI as a gift from my brother, and it has really improved my day-to-day work. I’ve always recorded meetings to create minutes so I don’t miss important details and can keep up with my tasks. But it used to be a manual process I created myself: record the audio on my phone, transcribe it, and feed it into a custom ChatGPT project to format the minutes my way.

As you can tell, it required time and organization—two things that don’t always align with corporate reality.

With Pocket AI, everything is much faster. Even on the free plan (more on that in a moment), I get meeting summaries and transcriptions automatically. This saves a lot of manual work; now I just tag my ChatGPT project with “@” to pull the info and generate the summary.

What used to take 25 to 45 minutes now takes 10 minutes at most, including my manual review.

However, after using it for about a month, a few issues came up:

  • ChatGPT Integration: It doesn’t work consistently and often fails to pull data from Pocket AI. It’s not a dealbreaker though, as I can just download the files to my PC and upload them manually.

  • Onboarding & Pricing: Right after setup, there’s a big push to start a 30-day free Pro trial. The features look tempting, but I didn’t activate it after seeing the price in Brazil: around BRL 120/month. In a country where the minimum wage is BRL 1,800/month, spending nearly 10% of that on a smart recorder subscription is a huge luxury. I passed because I don’t want to get used to something I won’t keep paying for, and the price is simply too high for the local market.

  • Audio Quality Gating: The Pro plan advertises better audio capture, which I think hurts the product. Premium plans should be about advanced AI features, different models, and versatile processing. But basic audio recording quality should be top-notch for everyone, even on the free tier.

  • Security: Both the Windows and Android apps lack basic security like passwords, 2FA, or Passkeys. Since many users (myself included) record confidential work discussions, account security should be stronger. Right now, I don’t feel entirely secure using the app, especially on desktop.

  • Editing Summaries: For some reason, when I manually try to edit a generated meeting summary, the changes sometimes save and sometimes revert back to the original (incorrect) text. I really miss having a simple “Save” button in the summary section, so I always end up having to fix these edits inside my ChatGPT project instead.

  • Minor Annoyances: Why is there no Dark Mode on the Windows app? Honestly, sitting in front of a blinding white screen and having to manually lower monitor brightness just to use a desktop app isn’t a great experience—even if the design itself is clean and intuitive.

I realize users in my region may not be your primary target market compared to the US or Europe. Still, solving these usability issues would benefit your core users just as much.

Overall, I’ll keep using the device because it’s great, even if locking basic audio quality behind a paywall feels unfair along with the other points above.

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I completely get it. I’m trying out the premium myself and will likely pay for the month to fully test it out before I make a decision. But I think that the things you mentioned should be built-in and not premium features if Pocket really wants to market itself as the brand that has you covered out-of-the-box compared to competitors that want you to have a subscription just for your device to even work.

That being said, this stuff does cost money so I’m not surprised that they would look at features people want most and say “lets put that in premium.” I hope that they will hold off on that instinct a bit though.

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I’m new to this too , and my use of Ai is pretty limited. I too found that updating Speaker info often didn’t save , and where pocket also misidentified the speakers later in the meeting which was frustrating and time consuming.

Likewise for editing - the cursor often moved to the top of the section so that confused me no end. I will use it more for every day stuff to try and work the sequential process’ and editing as to may be user not following the App logic !! ? But it really shouldn’t be so hard. I haven’t worked out how to take the summary and actions and format as our business template- scared to try in case the whole lot ends up garbage !

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Gab, thanks for taking the time to write such a thoughtful and balanced post, and welcome tesagk and SecretaryGirl too!

It’s great to hear Pocket has cut down the time you spend preparing meeting notes, but the friction you’ve described is real. We’ve noted the feedback around regional pricing, audio quality on the free plan, account security, ChatGPT reliability, summary and speaker edits not saving properly, and dark mode on Windows.

Basic editing shouldn’t feel unpredictable or leave you worried about losing your work. The examples from both Gab and SecretaryGirl are especially useful, and we’re sharing them with the team for investigation.

Thanks for being candid while still giving Pocket a fair shot. Feedback like this helps us see where the experience isn’t meeting expectations.

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I really enjoy using my Pocket to summarize meetings. However, the premium plan is too expensive for something that I’m paying out of my personal funds. I can’t business expense the subscription. I agree with what the others have posted here, especially the part about assigning speakers. I’ve given up on that feature because it’s hardly ever accurate. I would also like to see a way where the summary doesn’t come to your email until you’ve reviewed and made the edits in the app. I’m constantly finding myself having to make changes to people‘s names for spelling. Also changes to what they’ve said if they have any type of an accent at all (I’m in the US). It would be nice to have a button at the end that triggers it to send the summary to email. Since I can’t afford to have a subscription, the email summaries are all that I have after 90 days. I wouldn’t even mind it if it sent the summary right away and then sent a second summary after editing & confirmation. Anyway, I love the product. I just wish it was more affordable month-to-month.

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The cost of the Premium plan alone is enough to dissuade me from subscribing. Subscription plans seems to be the new norm to bilk people out of their hard-earned money.

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Hey Vic,

I’ve been following this discussion with interest, and I think there’s a much bigger business opportunity here for Pocket AI than simply reviewing the current subscription pricing.I genuinely believe Pocket could significantly grow its paying subscriber base by adopting a more affordable, volume-driven subscription model.The feedback in this discussion is quite telling. People including myself clearly love the product and recognise its value, but the ongoing subscription cost is preventing them from becoming paying customers.

From a business perspective, I wonder whether Pocket might be missing an opportunity to build a much larger, more sustainable recurring revenue stream.

For example, imagine if reducing the monthly subscription price encouraged three, four or even five times as many customers to subscribe. Depending on the pricing and operating costs, the company could potentially generate more overall revenue while building a significantly larger and more loyal customer base.There are also other advantages to this approach:

- Greater market penetration: A more accessible subscription would open the door to individuals, small businesses and customers in countries where the current pricing is difficult to justify.

- More consistent recurring revenue: A larger subscriber base could provide a stronger foundation for long-term growth.

- Better customer retention: When a subscription feels affordable and represents good value, customers may be more inclined to maintain it.

- Word-of-mouth growth: Happy, paying customers become some of the best advocates for a product, helping attract new users without relying entirely on advertising.

- Upselling opportunities: An affordable entry-level subscription could introduce more customers to paid features, with premium options available for heavier users and businesses.

I also think there’s an important psychological aspect to subscription pricing. Many customers are already paying for multiple digital services, and another relatively expensive monthly commitment can be difficult to justify, regardless of how good the product is.Personally, I’d much rather see Pocket become a product with hundreds of thousands of affordable paying subscribers than one where a smaller percentage of customers are prepared to pay a premium price.Of course, I appreciate that AI processing, infrastructure and ongoing development all have costs. However, I believe there’s an opportunity to find a balance between affordability, profitability and subscriber growth.

Perhaps a lower-cost subscription with sensible usage allowances, alongside the existing premium offering, could provide the best of both worlds.Pocket already appears to have something that many companies struggle to achieve: customers who genuinely enjoy using the product.The next opportunity is converting more of those happy users into long-term paying subscribers.I’d be interested to hear whether Pocket has considered a more volume-focused subscription strategy, particularly given the feedback appearing in this discussion.

Cheers,

Shane

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