Letterly Review

What Is Letterly?

Letterly sits in a different category than most dictation tools. It doesn't aim to produce a word-for-word transcript of what you say. Instead, it takes your spoken input, runs it through one of 25+ rewrite templates, and outputs structured text: a formatted email, a social media post, a meeting summary, or organized notes. You speak the raw material; Letterly shapes it into something publishable.

Available on iOS, Android, web, and macOS with 90+ language support, Letterly targets people who think out loud but struggle to organize those thoughts on paper. The free trial lets you test the concept before committing to the $9.99/month Premium plan.

Setup & Getting Started

Download the app on your platform of choice, create an account, and start recording. The interface is straightforward: hit record, speak, then choose a rewrite template. Your first structured output appears in seconds. There's no complex configuration, no permissions beyond microphone access, and the learning curve is nearly flat.

The free trial includes basic features, which gives you enough room to test a few rewrite templates and evaluate whether the structured output matches your needs. Cross-device sync means anything you record on your phone appears on your desktop and vice versa.

Rewrite Templates & AI Formatting

The 25+ rewrite templates are Letterly's core value proposition. Speak a stream of consciousness about your day, apply the "Meeting Notes" template, and get organized bullet points with key decisions and action items extracted. Ramble about a product idea, select "Email Draft," and get a professional email with subject line, greeting, and structured body paragraphs.

Template quality varies. Email and social media templates produce consistently usable output that needs minor tweaking. Blog post and long-form templates sometimes lose nuance or restructure ideas in ways that don't match your original intent. The templates work best when your spoken input has clear topics and transitions. Pure stream-of-consciousness with frequent topic changes can confuse the AI restructuring.

Screen-Off Recording & Mobile Experience

One practical feature often overlooked: screen-off recording. You can start a recording and pocket your phone. Letterly captures your voice even with the screen locked or the app in the background. For capturing ideas on walks, during commutes, or in conversations (with permission), this eliminates the need to hold your phone or keep the screen active.

The mobile experience is where Letterly shines brightest. Quick voice capture, automatic structuring, and cross-device sync create a workflow where you record on your phone during the day and review polished notes on your desktop later. It's closer to a voice-first note-taking app than a traditional dictation tool.

Language & Translation

With 90+ languages and built-in translation between language pairs, Letterly handles multilingual workflows well. You can dictate in Spanish and get a structured email in English, or record meeting notes in Japanese and translate them into French. The translation quality depends on the language pair. Major languages (English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese) produce reliable results. Less common pairs can be rougher.

This multilingual capability positions Letterly for international professionals, language students, and global teams who need to capture thoughts in one language and share them in another. Few dictation tools offer this workflow natively.

Integrations & Export

Letterly connects to Google Docs, Notion, and Zapier, plus custom webhooks for advanced workflows. The Zapier integration opens up connections to hundreds of other apps: auto-send rewritten meeting notes to Slack, export blog drafts to WordPress, or push action items to Asana. For automation-minded users, the webhook support adds flexibility that most voice apps lack.

Export options include plain text, formatted documents, and direct sharing. The structured output from rewrite templates copies cleanly into most editors and email clients without formatting issues.

Pricing Analysis

The free trial gives you a taste of the core features but doesn't last long enough for a thorough evaluation. Premium at $9.99/month unlocks the full template library, priority processing, and translation features. In the voice notes category, this sits between Voicenotes ($5-12/month) and Otter.ai ($16.99/month for business).

The value calculation depends on how you use it. If you're replacing a separate transcription tool, a rewriting tool, and a translation tool, $9.99/month is reasonable. If you just need basic voice-to-text, you're overpaying for features you won't use. Letterly's pricing makes sense only if you actively use the rewrite templates and structured output.

Who Is Letterly Best For?

People who think by speaking but need written output that's organized and polished. Content creators who draft social posts, emails, and blog ideas on the go. Multilingual professionals who need to capture thoughts in one language and share in another. Anyone who records voice memos but never goes back to organize them.

Letterly is not a replacement for real-time dictation tools like Wispr Flow or Superwhisper. It doesn't type into other apps as you speak. It's a capture-then-transform tool, not a live voice typing tool. If you need text to appear in your email client as you dictate, look elsewhere.

Alternatives to Consider

Voicenotes ($5-12/month) offers a similar voice-first note-taking approach with an AI chat layer for querying your past recordings. AudioNotes targets the same voice-to-structured-notes space with comparable features. Otter.ai ($16.99/month) excels at meeting transcription with AI summaries but doesn't offer rewrite templates.

For pure dictation (live voice-to-text in apps), Wispr Flow ($10/month) or Superwhisper ($8-12/month) are better fits. Letterly occupies a different niche: voice-to-structured-document rather than voice-to-text.

Verdict

Letterly carves out a distinct position between raw dictation and AI writing assistants. The 25+ rewrite templates turn unstructured speech into usable documents, emails, and posts. The 90+ language support with translation adds genuine value for international users. At $9.99/month, it earns its keep if you actively use the structuring and translation features.

Best for verbal thinkers who need their spoken ideas turned into organized, shareable text. Skip it if you need real-time dictation that types into apps as you speak, or if you just want basic speech-to-text without AI reformatting.