For journalists who interview sensitive sources
PrivateWhispering records the interview, writes the transcript and labels who said what, all on your phone. Every quote you save is words from the tape, confirmed by listening. The app cannot reach the internet, because Android never gives it the permission.
In March it had the same number but a different amount, and he signed it himself.
Claim to check: the second invoice reused the first number. Go to tape 00:12:04
These are all the permissions in the released app. Android enforces the list, we do not. A check on every release refuses to build if a network permission ever appears.
Not in the list: internet, network state, contacts, location, storage of other apps.
Most transcription apps upload the audio. That puts your source's voice on a vendor's server, where it can be breached or requested.
A summary that sounds right is not what was said. A misquote can end a story, or put a source at risk.
A phone breaks, is lost, or is searched at a border. The only recording of an interview should not live in one place.
We would rather tell you the limits than have you find them in the field.
If that is the kind of app you want, get the first buildRecord with one tap, mark moments, mark where you asked for consent, and switch off record when your source asks. A recording survives the app closing or the battery dying, with at most a few seconds lost.
Speech recognition and speaker separation run on the phone itself. Every word keeps its time on the tape, so you can tap any word and hear it.
Select words on the transcript, listen to the clip, and save the quote. It can only contain words that were heard on the tape. The app never writes a quote.
Save encrypted copies of a story to places you choose. A copy only counts once the app has read it back and checked every file.
Illustrative situations drawn from how reporters told us they work. The people are composites, not customers.
Ana covers corruption and records eight to ten interviews a week, some in two languages. She types the sensitive ones herself because she will not upload them. With PrivateWhispering the transcript is ready on her phone the same evening, and the quotes she files are ones she has listened to.
Before a crossing, Omar makes a safe copy of his stories, checks it, and uses Travel light to move them off the phone. At the hotel he restores them from the copy. The phone he hands over holds nothing from the trip.
Halfway through, a source asks to go off record. Léa taps Off record. That stretch of tape never becomes a quote, never reaches the app's notes, and never leaves in an export, even by accident months later.
Before publication, Sam's editor wants proof behind three quotes. Sam sends a locked quote pack with only those clips, not the full interview. The editor hears the words, and nothing else of the source.
Investigations desks, NGOs, human rights researchers and compliance teams handle the same kind of material. PrivateWhispering keeps it off your vendors' servers by design, which is simpler to explain to a source, a lawyer or a data protection officer.
One year, paid once. No subscription inside the app, because the app cannot talk to us at all: you paste a key, and it works offline for a year.
99 € a year
79 € per seat a year
Nothing is for sale yet: the app is not released, so there is nothing a licence could unlock. These are the prices it will carry. Prices are before VAT. When a licence ends, the app stays readable for ever: you keep every recording, transcript and quote, and only new recordings stop.
PrivateWhispering is not released yet. Recording, transcription with speakers, verified quotes, off-record spans and encrypted safe copies work today. Notes written by the app, audio import and quote packs for editors are being finished.
No. The app does not ask Android for network access, so it cannot connect to the internet. Recording, transcription and notes all happen on the phone.
No. A quote can only be made from words the speech recognition heard on the tape, and you confirm it by listening. Notes written by the app are marked as such and can never become quotes.
You can keep encrypted safe copies in places you choose, such as a USB drive or a cloud folder you already use. The app only counts a copy once it has read it back and checked it.
No. Nothing on a phone can promise that. If someone has installed spyware on your phone, or has your phone unlocked, they can see what you can see. PrivateWhispering removes the cloud from the picture; it does not make a compromised phone safe.
You can, and many reporters do. This is that workflow without the laptop, the file shuffling, and the gap where nothing checks that a quote matches the audio.
Then whoever holds it sees what you see. No app can prevent that. What the app gives you is Travel light: before a crossing, make a safe copy, check it, and move the stories off the phone, so there is nothing on it to open.
That is what quote packs are for: a locked export holding only the clips behind the quotes you filed. It is one of the parts still being finished.
As a signed APK you can download and install yourself, so you can check the signature is ours. The app carries its speech and notes models on board, which makes it a large download, and whether it can ship through the Play Store at that size is still being worked out. We would rather tell you how it arrives once we know than promise a shop we cannot meet.
Not yet, because nothing is released yet. We will publish the code once the app is out, so that the encryption, the permission check and the rules that keep a quote tied to the tape can be read instead of trusted. Until then, the claim you can check for yourself is the permission list above: open the installed app and there is no internet permission in it.
Android phones from the last few years. Notes by the app need a recent phone with enough memory; on other phones, recording, transcription and quotes work the same. Transcription runs in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, all five from the first build. How accurate each one is depends on the room, the microphone and the voices, so the app marks every language as not measured yet and asks you to listen before you quote.
Recording, transcription with speakers, verified quotes, off-record spans and encrypted safe copies work today. Notes written by the app, audio import and quote packs are being finished. The prices above are what we intend to charge; nothing is for sale yet, and the people on the list hear first.