Taking notes and following a lecture are two different jobs competing for the same attention. The student writing the fastest is usually the one understanding the least, and the one who chose to listen properly has nothing to revise from three weeks later.
This removes the trade. You press record, you listen, and the writing happens afterwards from what was actually said.
What you get from one recording
A finished lecture gives you the transcript and structured notes on its own. On Pro, two more things come from those notes when you ask for them, with nothing new to upload.
- The transcript itself, searchable, so you can find the ten seconds where the professor said what the exam covers
- Structured written notes, organised into headings rather than a wall of speech
- On Pro, a multiple-choice practice quiz, with an explanation attached to every answer rather than just a score
- On Pro, a flashcard deck, generated from the same material, that behaves like every other deck in Semora
Recording that keeps going while your iPhone is locked
Version 1.15 starts the microphone once, while Semora is on screen, and keeps that native capture session running until you stop. Locking your iPhone or switching to another app does not stop and restart the microphone, so the recording continues without needing Semora in the foreground.
While capture continues, Semora closes a complete local audio file every two minutes without interrupting the microphone. Each finished file can enter the upload queue immediately, while the file still being written stays private to the recorder until it has been finalised. Pending uploads retry, so a weak campus connection does not require you to keep the upload screen open.
If the app is terminated or the phone loses power, completed chunks remain recoverable; only the open chunk can be lost, normally no more than about two minutes. Phone calls and other microphone interruptions are detected, recorded as gaps in the timeline, and recovered automatically when iOS returns the microphone. If capture cannot resume, Semora tells you instead of silently advancing the timer.
The capture settings are tuned for one voice in a large room — mono, 32 kbps, speech-range sampling. A 90-minute lecture is roughly 22 MB. The same lecture at the audio presets a recorder ships with by default would be 86 MB.
The audio is deleted once the transcript exists
As soon as the transcript is durably written, the recording is deleted. This is not a storage-saving measure and it is not configurable — playback is deliberately not a feature.
The reasoning is that a lecture recording is not only your data. It contains your instructor's voice and everyone within microphone range of your phone, none of whom chose to be recorded by an app. Keeping that audio after it has served its purpose buys a hosting bill and an erasure obligation and nothing else. The transcript and the notes, and any quiz or cards you make from them, are yours and they stay.
Permission comes first, and the app says so
Before your first recording Semora shows a sheet asking you to confirm you have permission, and pointing you at your instructor's rules and your school's policy. Many courses require permission before you record, some prohibit it, and the law varies by state and country.
That screen exists because an app that makes recording a one-tap action has some responsibility for the moment before the tap. It is not legal advice and it is not a substitute for asking — it is a prompt to ask.
Where it sits in the rest of Semora
Recording lives under Notes in the app, alongside uploads: slides, a chapter, or a photo of the board all go to the same place and produce the same set of outputs. A lecture is one input, not a separate product.
The cards generated from a lecture are ordinary Semora flashcards, so they open in the same reviewer as a deck built from a syllabus. The notes are attached to the course you recorded for, which means the AI Tutor can answer from them the same way it answers from a scanned syllabus.
The limits, plainly
One recording runs up to 90 minutes, and you are warned before the cap rather than cut off at it. Recording requires the iPhone or iPad app because the reliable capture path is native and starts only after you explicitly press Record. Once started, it continues with the device locked or while you use another app. The web app can read everything a recording produced, but it cannot capture one.
Semora checks for free space before it starts, because a device that fills up mid-lecture is the one failure with no recovery: the class does not happen twice. It also warns you if the battery is low and you are not plugged in.
On the free tier a lecture spends the account's single lifetime AI action, the same one a syllabus scan would spend. Recording more than one class is a Pro feature.
Frequently asked questions
Can I listen back to the recording?
No, and that is deliberate. The audio is deleted as soon as the transcript is written, so playback is not offered at all. What survives is the transcript and the notes, plus any quiz or flashcard deck you made from them on Pro. If listening back matters more to you than any of those, a plain voice recorder is the better tool and this is not a close call.
What happens if my phone dies halfway through the lecture?
Completed two-minute chunks remain recoverable and pending uploads retry when Semora can run again. The only audio at risk is the chunk still open when the phone loses power or the app is terminated, normally no more than about two minutes. Semora uses separate finalised files so one interrupted write does not cost you the rest of the class.
Do I need permission to record my lectures?
Usually, yes. Many courses require it, some prohibit recording entirely, and recording laws differ by state and country. Semora shows a confirmation sheet before your first recording that points you at your instructor's rules and your school's policy. Treat that as a prompt to go and ask, not as clearance — the app cannot know your institution's policy and does not pretend to.
Can I record on the web app?
No. Reliable locked-screen and background capture uses Semora's native recorder, so recording runs in the iPhone and iPad app only. Everything a recording produces — the transcript and notes, and any quiz or cards you made — is account data, so it is all readable in the browser afterwards on the same account.
Is lecture recording free?
A free account gets one AI action for the lifetime of the account, and a lecture is one way to spend it — a syllabus scan or a document turned into notes are the others, and you pick. That free lecture gives you the transcript and the notes. Recording more than one class, and making a quiz or flashcards from a lecture, are part of Pro, at $4.99/month or $29.99/year, which also covers unlimited syllabus scans and courses.