Initial testing by Bee’s review department found the device itself to be easy to use. Turn recording on or off with the press of a button. The app lets you double-press to bookmark a section of a conversation, process the current conversation, or both. You can also set whether to leave a voice memo or chat with an AI assistant using a long-press gesture. (I did so because the Bee’s companion app now reminds you to enable voice notes.)
Like many other AI products and services, including Plaud, Granola, Fathom, Fireflies, and Otter, Bee can listen to, record, and transcribe voice conversations. The difference is that instead of providing summaries or raw transcripts, we divide the audio into sections and summarize each part. For example, an interview might be divided into sections such as an introduction, nitty-gritty details about your product, an overview of industry trends, and other things you talked about.
Each section is colored with a different background color to make it easier to distinguish when scrolling. Tap on an individual section to see the exact transcription.
It wasn’t immediately obvious how to label speakers within the app. I found that I could tap on a part of a conversation to see if I was the speaker, but it fell short of other professional AI transcription tools that can label each speaker. Additionally, Bee discards audio after transcription, making it unsuitable for use cases where audio needs to be played back to ensure accuracy.
However, the Bee doesn’t have to be a work tool. Amazon sees this as AI that can accompany you in your daily life. By integrating with Google services, Bee can connect recorded conversations to tasks. For example, after meeting someone at a conference, you might offer to become friends on LinkedIn or check out their products.
For example, instead of writing something down in your Notes app, you can leave your own voice notes.
Another section of Bee’s app allows you to look back on past memories, and a “Growth” section gives you more insight as it learns more about you. You can also review and add to the “Facts” section about yourself. This is somewhat on par with other AI chatbots’ ability to remember what was discussed.
Amazon says it plans to offer more features for Bee within the next year.
Rival wearable products like the Friend AI pendant have sparked a backlash because Bee isn’t always listening by default. Instead, the intent is to ask if you can record someone’s conversation (unless it’s some kind of public event where recording is already expected).
A green light will turn on when you record, letting others know that your device is in use.
Bee’s sport band was a little flimsy. The band came off twice while I was wearing it, both times when I was just sitting and not moving my hands much (like in a taxi). I haven’t tested the clip-on pins yet, but they feel sturdier.
Overall, the mobile app design is much more advanced and easier to use than apps built in-house by Amazon, such as the Alexa mobile experience. But the premise that we need AI just to record conversations to learn more about us remains largely untested. Is there a world in which such devices would make sense for consumers who don’t record in professional settings such as meetings or interviews?
Additionally, if AI listening devices become mainstream, there will also need to be some kind of cultural shift in terms of what is appropriate and what is not. Today, recording videos of people going about their daily lives in public places is somewhat despised, even though it is technically legal. Similarly, having an AI device record audio without first asking permission could be seen as dry or common sense.
Of course, not everyone abides by that social contract, and some may self-censor what they say in public.
For example, at CES, I was talking to the person in charge of the Soundcore booth. When they liked something I said about a competitor’s product, they’d joke, “Say it louder into the microphone,” pointing to the already-recording AI device discreetly pinned to their shirts. It was a strange experience to realize that everything said in the real world has the potential to become “on record” at some point, whether you consented to it or not.
Bee’s traction, or lack thereof, will help Amazon determine whether that’s the world consumers really want.
