Getting started

From a new account to your first recording, and what your allies see. Setting up takes about ten minutes; your first results arrive about an hour after you record.

1. 1. Create your account

   Choose Create your free account on the home page, or start here. Sign up with your email and a password; the sign-up page links the terms of use and the privacy policy. You may be asked to confirm your email with a code.

2. 2. Read four points, and agree

   Your dashboard opens on Today. Before any recording comes in, it shows four short points: Hearally is not an emergency service or a medical device; it reports what was said and will miss things; nobody is standing by; and you only record what you have the legal right to record. Tick the box to confirm you have read them, that you are 18 or older, and that you agree to the terms, then choose I agree.

3. 3. Connect your Plaud

   Go to Integrations and choose Sign in to Plaud. Plaud's own page asks you to sign in and approve; then you come back, and the Plaud row says Connected since with today's date.

   From then on, Hearally checks your Plaud account about every 15 minutes and brings in new recordings by itself. Only recordings made after you connect are brought in, and only once the Plaud app has sent them to your Plaud account. This way of connecting is a preview: Plaud has not yet published terms for services like Hearally using it.

   Would you rather not sign in to Plaud from Hearally? Use a computer instead.

4. 4. Add your allies

   Go to People. First, say how your allies know you, such as "Dad" or your first name: it is used in every message. Then add each ally with their name and email, and choose what they hear:

   • Everything: heads-ups, anything worth a call today, and the daily list.
   • Heads-ups only: just a call that sounded like it was pressing you for money or details, at most one a day.
   • Nothing for now.

   Your first ally is the one who hears anything worth a call today. You can add up to five, change what each one hears, or remove one at any time; their link stops working at once.

5. 5. Your ally says yes

   Each ally gets an email from Hearally with a private link. Their page explains what Hearally is and is not, in five short points, including that nobody expects them to be on duty. They tick one box and choose I understand, count me in, or No thanks. Nothing reaches them before that. They need no account and no app.

   On their page, an ally can also set their own quiet hours and the time of their daily list, choose a phone call for heads-ups after confirming their number by text, and stop receiving messages whenever they like. People shows you who has confirmed.

6. 6. Record, and see what comes through

   Wear your Plaud and record as you normally would. About an hour after a recording reaches your Plaud account:

   • Summaries lists each thing worth passing on, marked Heads-up, Worth a call today or Daily list.
   • Private moments, such as venting about family, are held back from every ally and listed under Summaries for you alone. You can send one anyway.
   • Activity shows what your allies heard, and when.
   • Under Integrations, you can listen to the copy Hearally keeps for 7 days, with account and card numbers silenced in the audio itself.

7. 7. "This was nothing"

   Every message lets an ally say it was nothing, with a reason such as "I know the caller". Hearally learns from it: the next thing like it goes to the daily list instead, unless something new comes up. You see everything it has learned under Preferences, and can remove any of it.

   Preferences is also where you name topics that never leave: anything that mentions one is held back from every ally. The one exception, as everywhere: a caller pressing for money or details, or a request for help, is always passed on.

If something does not come through

• Nothing under Integrations → Recordings received? Open the Plaud app and check the recording has finished sending to your Plaud account. Recordings made before you connected are not brought in, and neither are very short ones.
• A recording says it is transcribing? That usually takes up to an hour.
• An ally got nothing? Check People: they must have confirmed, and what they hear must include that kind of message. Ask them to look in their spam folder for mail from Hearally.
• Still stuck? Email info@email.famplified.com.

Before you record

Only record conversations you have the legal right to record. Some places, including several US states, require everyone taking part, on phone calls too, to agree to being recorded first. You are responsible for what you record.