For therapists and counsellors
Listen records a session on your own Mac, writes it down and works out who said what. There is no server it could be sent to, because there are no servers.
This looks like an Intel Mac, and Listen will not run on it.
Listen transcribes on your own machine, and that needs the Neural Engine Apple introduced with the M1 in late 2020. There is no Intel version, and there is no version that would work.
Open the Apple menu and choose About This Mac. If it says Chip rather than Processor, this guess is wrong and you can download Listen as normal.
The problem
You are either present with somebody or you are writing about them. Most of the tools built to solve that send the session to a company's servers, which is the one thing this work does not allow: a client's disclosures become somebody else's data, held under somebody else's retention policy, reachable by somebody else's subpoena.
I can be with the client, and the notes are waiting when we finish.
Written as the buyer describes it. Not yet a quote from a named user, and it is not presented as one.
Why this one
Listen has no account, no server and no support channel that touches your library. The recording, the transcript and the names on it are all made on your machine, so the obligations you already carry stay where they already are rather than being shared with a vendor you would then have to vet.
After the conversation
Give it your attention, not your notepad. Listen writes it up on your Mac's own chip, works out who spoke, and remembers the voices, so the people you see often name themselves after the first time.
Privacy
There is no Listen server, because there are no servers. No account, and nothing you record ever reports back.
Listen ships a machine-readable list of every connection it is allowed to make, inside the app itself, so none of that has to be taken on trust. What runs where sets out every connection it can make and how to check each one yourself, and there are answers ready for a privacy or HIPAA review.
Questions
Listen records and transcribes on your own Mac, which removes the vendor from the question. Whether you may record a given session, and on what terms, is set by your professional body, your insurer and the law where you practise.
No. Transcription runs on your Mac's own chip. There is no upload step, and it works with the network off.
No software is: HHS recognises no certifying body, and compliance describes how you deploy something rather than what it is. What Listen can do is be deployed in a compliant configuration, and the HIPAA page sets out exactly what that configuration is.
The transcript is a plain file you own, so taking an excerpt to supervision is a copy and paste rather than an export from a service. What you may share is a question for your supervisor and your client's consent, not for the software.
Yes. A recording is one folder, and deleting it in Finder is a supported operation rather than a way to corrupt an index. If backups are on, copies age out of ~/Backups/Listen, and `listen backup` says what is there.
Yes, and it does not join the call. It records the audio your Mac is playing along with your microphone, so the client sees the session they expected and nothing else.
Get Listen
Free to download, and free to record for as long as you like. Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later. The speech model is about 2.5 GB and downloads once, the first time you run it.
Written for
Nothing on this page is legal, clinical or professional advice. Recording law and professional duties vary by country and by state, and yours outrank anything written here.
