Snipback’s ingenious twist on the voice memo app allows you to record only the most important insights from business conversations, rather than having to save audio of an entire hour-long meeting and then painstakingly transcribe it afterwards.
Once it’s downloaded, you start a “listening session” with a tap of the screen – perhaps at the beginning of a brainstorming get-together. At the end of this session, you’ll be given the option of saving audio of the whole meeting, but if you’re smart this shouldn’t be necessary.
Instead, every time a brilliant idea is communicated you can tap another button to capture and save the previous 10-second, 30-second, or five-minute snippet of the chat. This might also be useful when being briefed by a client, for example, if you need to record the exact details they want and you can’t jot down notes fast enough to keep up.
Just remember to get permission from anyone before you record their voice. There’s a “night mode” function, which turns the phone’s screen black and allows you to record snippets by tapping anywhere on the screen, but this isn’t advisable unless you have your conversation partner’s express permission to record them.
Once you’ve made your recordings, you can either listen to them within the app, save them to your phone or share them, using SMS messages, Gmail, Google Drive, Evernote, Bluetooth or Shareit. You can give each listening session and each clip a title, and they’ll be filed together for easy retrieval.
There are some drawbacks: you do get annoying ads at the bottom of the screen, you can’t record to an SD card and there’s minimal user support. According to the Google Play store, there are in-app purchases, although I couldn’t find them anywhere, the video tutorial on the Google Play store is very basic and doesn’t cover this, and I couldn’t find a help page online to aid me. This is all forgivable, though, for a remarkably useful service that’s completely free to download.
Q&A:
What if I want to adjust the time intervals for each snippet?
That’s easy to do. You can adjust the settings in order to capture recordings as short as five seconds and as long as half an hour.
How is the sound quality?
You can choose to record the memos in high, good or low quality: the clearer the sound, the bigger the resulting file. There is also a noise reduction filter that you can toggle on and off to deal with background chatter. If there are lots of people talking in a meeting this can malfunction, but I found the conversations that I recorded remarkably clear.
Can it be used to record calls?
Yes. It’s not as easy, as you have to start the listening session, exit the app, dial, talk to your conversation partner, and then return to the app to record snippets, but it is possible.
Are there other uses, outside business meetings?
Yes, although the uses suggested online aren’t always entirely positive. They include recording housemates to prove that they promised to pick up milk, and switching on the service during lectures so that students can snooze their way through class.
Who’s behind the app?
Cosmic Pie Design, who have one other app. It’s a simple game called “Bouncy Bubbles – Pang” in which users play as bugs that jump around popping bubbles.
How many times has Snipback been downloaded?
10,000 to 50,000 times, according to the Google Play store.
What phones is it compatible with?
At the moment, only Android.
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