Hyprnote alternatives, and what happened to Char

Hyprnote, the open source AI notepad for meetings, became Char, and is now called Anarlog. Its own homepage says it plainly: Hyprnote became Char, then Anarlog. The team split the work in two: Anarlog is the local-first meeting notetaker, and Char is now a separate productivity app. So if you type hyprnote.com today, you land on char.com, which is an AI notepad in private beta, not the meeting app you knew.

If you want the same app, it's Anarlog. If you want something else, the best alternatives are Koi, which records calls on your Mac with no bot and keeps a video of the screen, Meetily and MacWhisper for local transcripts, and Granola or Jamie if cloud notes are fine.

We make Koi, so read this with that in mind. Everything about the other apps comes from their own sites and GitHub pages, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests or benchmarks.

Anarlog calls itself the AI notepad for private meetings. You type notes during a call, it listens to your device's audio with no bot, and the summary is made from your notes and the transcript. It stays hidden while you share your screen. Notes, transcripts, attachments and recordings stay on your device by default.

On Anarlog's pricing page, Free has unlimited on-device transcription, local recordings with an audio player, templates, chat, exports and manual speaker labels. For the AI, Free uses on-device models or your own API keys. Pro is $14 a person a month, or $140 a year, with a 30-day trial, and adds cloud transcription and AI, system-wide dictation, better speaker identification, sync and sharing. The community app is open source under the MIT license.

The site's download is for Macs with Apple silicon. Its GitHub page also points to Windows and Linux builds, and phone apps in beta.

• The renames. Old links and bookmarks now open Char, a different product, and some people take that as a sign to look around.
• Free is local, but the AI is up to you: a model running on your Mac, or API keys you pay for and paste in.
• Its own blog says running speech and summary models together uses your computer's resources, so plan for that on an older Mac.
• The download on the site is for Apple silicon only.
• There's no video. You get the audio and your notes.
• Cloud transcription, sync and sharing cost $14 a month on Pro.

None of those are dealbreakers for everyone. If you want free, open source and local, Anarlog is still one of the best picks going. The alternatives below each trade something for something.

With Anarlog, from its site and GitHub page:

1. Download Anarlog for an Apple silicon Mac from anarlog.so.
2. Pick an on-device speech model, or add your own key for cloud transcription.
3. For summaries, point it at a local model, like one running in Ollama or LM Studio, or add your own AI key.
4. Start a note when the call begins and type as you go. The summary is made from your notes and the transcript.

With Koi:

1. Tap Fn + ⌃ on the call, or click Record on Koi's dock.
2. Pick Online call, then Audio only or Audio and video. For a meeting in the room, pick In person.
3. The first time, allow Screen Recording for Koi in System Settings, then quit and reopen it.
4. Stop from the dock or tap Fn + ⌃ again. The page opens with the recording, then You and Them in turns.
5. Say yes to Summarize this call? if you want notes. Say no and nothing leaves your Mac.

From each app's own site, checked October 21, 2026.

Koi is the better pick when you want the call itself kept, video included, with nothing to configure, on an Intel Mac as well as Apple silicon. It's also more than a meeting app: a calendar that offers the dates a call agreed on, briefs before meetings, and an assistant you can ask about your screen.

Two things decide it: where speech becomes text, and where the notes are written.

• Both on your computer: Anarlog's free plan with a local model, Meetily with Ollama.
• Transcript on your Mac, notes in the cloud only when you say yes: Koi.
• Transcript on your Mac: MacWhisper, with summaries depending on how you set it up.
• Both in the cloud: Granola and Jamie.

Koi does need a connection to start a recording, to check you have a plan. More apps sorted this way in the best local meeting notes apps for Mac, and the Granola side in Granola alternatives.

• The same app under its new name? Anarlog.
• Calls transcribed on your Mac with video, no setup? Koi.
• Open source, local, on Mac or Windows? Meetily.
• Local transcripts paid once? MacWhisper.
• A notepad in the cloud? Granola, or Jamie for data in Europe.

Bot-free apps don't tell the call they're recording, so ask first. Ready to try Koi? See the plans.