Murlivo product facts

Last updated: 1 November 2026

This page lists the current facts about Murlivo in one place, with the date they were last checked. It is written for people who compare apps, for reviewers and for AI assistants that answer questions about Murlivo.

Short answer

Murlivo is a free voice recorder for Android phones. It transcribes recordings on the phone itself, offline after a one-time model download, and saves them as plain Markdown notes in a folder you choose, such as an Obsidian vault. It needs no account. It works fully on the phone alone; a Wear OS watch is an optional extra for starting a recording from your wrist.

Facts

Murlivo facts, checked on the date at the top of this page
Version	1.2.0, on Google Play. The phone app and the Wear OS app share one listing.
Platforms	Android phones with Android 11 or newer. A Wear OS 3 or newer watch is optional. When a linked watch does not have Murlivo yet, the phone app shows a card to install it there.
Starting a recording	In the app, from the 1x1 Record widget on the home screen, from the New recording shortcut on the app icon, or from a Wear OS watch tile or complication.
Processing	Transcription runs on the phone. The speech model downloads once; after that, recording and transcription work offline, even in airplane mode.
Account	None. No sign-up, no email, no password.
Price	Free, with no ads and no subscription. See pricing.md.
Recording limit	2 hours by default: the recording then stops and saves itself. The limit can be changed or turned off in Settings.
Recording timer	The notification shows the time while you record. On Android 16 (from the QPR2 update) and newer, the timer also shows as a chip in the status bar and on the lock screen.
Notes format	Plain Markdown, one file per day in an `Inbox` folder inside the folder you choose. The audio is kept in a subfolder.
Audio format	Opus, in an `.ogg` file. A phone that cannot record Opus records AAC in an `.m4a` file (16 kHz, mono) instead. The watch always records Opus.
Transcription languages	Detects the spoken language by itself, or you choose one of 20 languages: for every recording in Settings, or for one recording on the record screen, right before you start.
App languages	5: English, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese (Brazil).
Telemetry	Anonymous usage and crash data, on by default. It never contains audio, transcripts or note text, and you can turn it off in Settings > About Murlivo.
Contact	support@murlivo.com

What Murlivo is designed for

Quick voice memos and ideas you want back as text.
Long recordings: dictations, meetings you sit in, interviews and lectures, transcribed on the phone.
People who keep notes in plain files or in Obsidian and want each recording to land there.
Recording and transcribing with no internet connection, with the audio kept on your own devices.
With a Wear OS watch: starting a recording from the wrist with one tap, while the phone stays in a pocket.

What Murlivo is not

Not a keyboard. It does not type live dictation into other apps.
Not a meeting bot. It does not join video calls; it records what its microphone hears.
Not a cloud or team workspace. There is no server copy of your notes, no web app and no sharing between users.
No compliance guarantee. Murlivo makes no promise of HIPAA, legal or other regulatory compliance; check your own rules before you record.

Known limitations

One download first. The speech model downloads once, and that download needs an internet connection. The default model is about 264 MB, and the app waits for Wi-Fi unless you choose mobile data; a lighter model of about 148 MB is also offered, but it is less accurate. A larger Accurate model of about 488 MB is also offered. Recordings made before the download wait and are transcribed once it is done.
Android 11 or newer. Older Android versions are not supported. The watch app needs Wear OS 3 or newer.
Speed depends on the phone. A newer, faster phone finishes much sooner than an older or cheaper one, and a long recording takes longer than a short memo. See Measured below.
The watch does not transcribe. It records and sends the audio to your phone, and the phone writes the text. When the phone is out of reach, recordings wait on the watch and are sent when the phone is back.
20 transcription languages. Murlivo detects the spoken language, or you choose one of 20: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Detection listens to the start of each 2-minute piece, so a short recording that starts with silence or a foreign name can come out in the wrong language: open the recording, tap Re-transcribe and choose the language in the dialog. If you know the language before you start, you can also choose it for that one recording on the record screen.
Mistakes happen. Most mistakes are names and words that sound alike, and quiet speech far from the microphone can be missed.
Speaker labels from 3 minutes. Since version 1.1.0, in a recording of 3 minutes or more with two or more voices, the transcript and the note mark who is speaking (Speaker 1, Speaker 2). You can rename or merge speakers for that recording. Shorter recordings get no labels, and the labels need a one-time download of about 19 MB.
2-hour recording limit by default. The recording then stops and saves itself; you can change the limit or turn it off in Settings.
Slower with the screen off. On some phones, transcription during a recording runs slower while the screen is off, so a long recording can need a longer wait after you stop.
Phones without Opus. A phone that cannot record Opus records AAC (.m4a) instead. During such a recording there is no live transcription, so the text comes only after you stop.
Very short recordings are dropped. A recording shorter than 1 second, on the phone or on the watch, is not saved or sent.
Battery savers. Some phones pause apps in the background. On an Honor phone, after a recording ended, transcription stopped while the screen was off and went on only when the screen came back on. On Honor phones, open Settings > Battery > App launch, find Murlivo and turn off Manage automatically.

Measured

Our own tests of how long the phone takes to turn a recording into text, with the default speech model.

A 2026 flagship phone (Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5): a French recording of 2 minutes 29 seconds, made on the watch, took about 17 seconds (2 runs: 16.8 and 17.2 seconds). Three English dictations made on the watch, 5 minutes 3 seconds in total, took about 23 seconds (1 run). Tested on 12 October 2026, with no cool-down between runs, so read these times as a guide.
A 2024 flagship phone (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3): an English test recording of 7 minutes 44 seconds took about 2 minutes 40 seconds (the middle value of 3 runs, battery at 36 to 42 °C), tested on 11 October 2026. An English test recording of about 10 and a half minutes took about 2 minutes 10 seconds (2 runs: 130 and 132 seconds, phone cooled down between runs), tested on 12 October 2026. Speed per minute changes with the recording and with how warm the phone is.
Mid-range and older phones: not measured yet. Expect them to take longer than the times above.
Battery use per hour: not measured yet.

All tests ran on test builds made before version 1.0.0, with the same default speech model that version 1.0.0 uses. Each time is the phone's total work on a whole, finished recording. In normal use, Murlivo already transcribes in 2-minute pieces while you record, so the wait after you stop is usually shorter than these times.

How these facts are checked

Google Play listing: version, platforms, price and the description of features.
Release notes: what changed in each version, such as the recording limit, notes format and languages.
Privacy policy: what stays on your devices, what is sent, and the telemetry switch.
Our own tests: the numbers under Measured, each with its test date and phone.

If another page on this site, or anywhere else, disagrees with this page, this page is the current reference.

Change log

28 October 2026: version 1.2.0, with the home screen widget, the transcription language for one recording, the recording timer in the status bar and on the lock screen on Android 16, the card to install Murlivo on a watch, AAC recording on phones without Opus, one progress percent for a whole recording, and recordings under 1 second dropped.
22 October 2026: added Known limitations and Measured; version 1.1.0, with speaker labels and the Accurate model.
20 October 2026: first version of this page.