Granola Alternative
Granola is a beautifully designed Mac app for meeting notes with AI summaries. It's focused and polished for that one use case. But if you need voice-to-text beyond meetings — emails, Slack, documentation, notes, anywhere you type — Blurt is built for general-purpose dictation. Hold a button, talk, text appears wherever your cursor is. $10/month with a free tier to try it.
The Typing Problem
You need voice typing outside of meetings
Granola excels at meeting notes. But you also want to dictate emails, Slack messages, documentation, and notes. You need a tool that works everywhere, not just during calls. Opening Granola to write a quick email doesn't make sense.
Meeting notes is too narrow for your workflow
You're not in meetings all day. Sometimes you need to write a long email. Sometimes you're documenting code. Sometimes you're messaging a teammate. A meeting notes app can't help with any of that. You need general-purpose dictation.
You want text where your cursor is, not in a separate app
Granola captures and summarizes meetings in its own interface. But you want to dictate directly into the app you're using — your email client, your code editor, your chat app. No copying, no switching windows, no extra steps.
You don't need AI summaries, you need your words typed out
Granola's AI summaries are great for meetings where you need highlights. But when you're writing an email or a Slack message, you want exactly what you said — properly punctuated and capitalized, but not summarized or rewritten.
How It Works
Blurt is general-purpose voice-to-text. It works in any app where you can type. No meetings required.
Put your cursor where you want text
Click into any text field — email, Slack, VS Code, Notes, anywhere. Blurt works wherever you type.
Hold your hotkey and talk
Press and hold your chosen key. Say what you want to type naturally. Blurt listens.
Release and text appears
Let go of the hotkey. Your words appear at your cursor, properly punctuated. Done.
Real Scenarios
Dictating emails throughout the day
You get dozens of emails. Typing responses takes forever. With Blurt, you click into the reply box, hold your hotkey, say your response, release. The email is written. No meeting context needed — just general voice-to-text that works in any email client.
Quick Slack messages without typing
Someone asks you a question on Slack. You could type out the answer, or you could hold a button and say it. Three seconds later, the message is ready to send. Blurt works in Slack, Discord, Teams — any chat app. Granola doesn't help here.
Writing documentation and READMEs
You need to write docs for your code. You know what you want to say, but typing it out is tedious. Dictate it instead. Blurt captures your explanation, punctuates it properly, and puts it right in your Markdown file. No meeting, no summary — just your words.
Personal notes and journaling
You want to capture thoughts quickly in Apple Notes, Obsidian, or any notes app. Hold button, speak your mind, release. Your thoughts are captured exactly as you said them. No AI summary changing what you meant.
Filling out forms and writing reviews
Long text fields are everywhere — support tickets, feedback forms, product reviews. Voice is faster than typing. Blurt works in any text field on any website or app. Dictate instead of hunt-and-peck.
Code comments and commit messages
You're in VS Code writing a commit message or code comment. You know what you want to say. Hold button, say it, release. The text appears in your editor. No context switching, no separate app.
Granola and Blurt solve different problems. Here's an honest look at both.
| Blurt | Granola | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary use case | General voice-to-text anywhere | Meeting notes and summaries |
| Where text appears | At your cursor in any app | In Granola's interface |
| AI processing | Auto punctuation and capitalization | Full meeting summaries and highlights |
| Works during calls | Yes, dictate into any app | Yes, designed for this |
| Works outside calls | Yes, main use case | Not designed for general use |
| Price | $10/month or $99/year | $10-15/month |
| Free tier | First 1,000 words free | Limited trial |
| Platform | macOS only | macOS only |
When Granola Is the Better Choice
Blurt isn't for everyone. Here's when Granola makes more sense:
Your main need is meeting notes
If you spend most of your day in meetings and want AI-powered summaries, action items, and highlights, Granola is purpose-built for this. It does meeting notes better than a general-purpose tool ever could.
You want automatic meeting capture
Granola captures meetings automatically without you holding a button. If you want passive recording and summarization during calls, that's exactly what it's designed for. Blurt requires you to hold a key to dictate.
You value the beautiful Mac-native design
Granola has a gorgeous interface designed specifically for reviewing and organizing meeting notes. If the experience of a polished, purpose-built meeting app matters to you, Granola delivers.
AI summaries would save you time
For long meetings, Granola's AI summaries let you skim instead of reading transcripts. If you want highlights and key points extracted automatically, that's Granola's strength. Blurt just gives you what you said.
You need meeting-specific features
Action items, follow-ups, searchable meeting history — Granola is building features around the meeting workflow. If meetings are your core use case, a meeting-focused tool will serve you better than general dictation.
Frequently Asked Questions
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