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Nikki Zurbano
Spokenly is a dictation tool that uses both local and cloud-based audio processing for macOS, iOS, Windows, and Linux. Its user base primarily includes software engineers, legal professionals, and bilingual clinicians who use it for general writing tasks.
This blog covers why clinicians are now shifting from Spokenly towards other medical-grade alternatives like Heidi.
AI models excel at absorbing administrative work. Clinicians gain capacity to practice medicine and focus on their patients. But in healthcare, the value of a tool only matters if it suits the needs of care teams and clinicians.
Here are the reasons clinicians look for Heidi when choosing AI for clinical practice:
Clinicians are interested in using AI, but many are still rightly cautious about compliance, regulation, and PHI security. Without enterprise-grade legal and security guardrails, generic dictation tools introduce unnecessary risk around privacy, security, and clinical accountability. For clinicians, the question is “Can I trust it with the work that comes with care?”
Complex care needs tools built for clinical work. AI tools specialized for clinical use understand medical language, then turn raw visit details into specialty-specific templates and documentation.
As practice scales, so is the demand for tools that can keep up with the work around care: fuller schedules, longer notes, more follow-ups, and more admin waiting. Adopting AI helps manage higher patient volumes without sacrificing the patient-clinician relationship.
Spokenly aims to give users accurate AI dictation with control over how their data is handled. Heidi’s goal is to support every stage of care delivery, to double healthcare’s capacity. Heidi allows clinicians the flexibility to free up time so they practice care while reclaiming time from admin.
This comparison is based on publicly available information and credible industry sources current at the time of writing:
| Spokenly | Heidi | |
|---|---|---|
| Features | Speech-to-text dictation | Dictate, Scribe, Transcribe, Tasks, Coding, Remote, Evidence |
| Specialties Covered | Software engineering, Privacy | All medical specialties, including Primary care, Allied health, Mental health, Nursing |
| Reliability and Usage | Currently supports 100,000+ users | 2.7+ million patient visits supported every week |
| Compliance and Security | No published HIPAA, SOC 2, or ISO 27001 | HIPAA, NHS, APP, PIPEDA, GDPR, SOC 2, ISO 27001, ISO 42001, and more |
| Platform Availability | macOS, Windows, Linux, and iOS | Scribe through desktop, laptop, iOS and Android Dictate through desktop app Heidi Remote via Hardware |
| Languages Supported | 100+ | 90+ for Dictate; 110+ for Scribe |
| Integrations | No integrations | Epic, Oracle, Cerner, Athena, BestPractice, Galaxy and more |
| Adoption and Activation Rates | Undisclosed | 60-80% |
| Pricing | Free Forever $9.99/monthly if billed monthly; $8.33 /month for Pro if billed annually | Flexible plans from a free-forever tier up to team and practice options |
| Apple Store Review | 4.8/5, with 52 reviews | 4.7/5 with 2.5k reviews |
Spokenly’s main feature is its speech-to-text feature. It offers AI-assisted text cleanup. Teams may still need to assess how these capabilities fit alongside healthcare-specific requirements such as medical terminology, patient context, and compliance.
Heidi starts where Spokenly also does: you press, speak, and your words land wherever your cursor is. Dictate brings medical vocabulary, patient context, snippets, and app-specific writing style into the places clinicians already write. Then Scribe turns the patient session into structured clinical documentation.
Evidence allows clinicians to bring relevant clinical information. Heidi's multi-product suite keeps care in one connected place.
Spokenly is useful for developers prompting AI tools and professionals drafting documents or long-form written work. These features support general clinical admin and hands-free writing. The tool’s limitations mean care teams need to assess its feature compatibility with existing practice.
Where Spokenly receives speech, Heidi Dictate supports its equivalent clinical task, from a GP’s referral letter to a radiologist’s report. All of these are done by speaking naturally into Dictate.
Spokenly maintains a user base of 100,000. Heidi compounds impact, supporting 2.5+ million patient visits weekly with intelligence built for care. You can dictate directly into your EHR and move into a note, referral, or handover without switching tools.
This choice impacts both solo clinicians and care teams. While Heidi is designed specifically for these users, Spokenly lacks the features required for shared clinical practice.
Spokenly's official site lacks dedicated compliance or security documentation, and its privacy policy does not mention regulatory frameworks or compliance certifications. Clinicians should note that the absence of signed BAAs makes the tool unsuitable for handling PHI.
Heidi bridges this security gap with a suite of healthcare-grade certifications. These include HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 42001, SOC 2 Type II, PIPEDA, and the Australian Privacy Principles. Heidi also provides signed BAAs for US healthcare teams.
The Spokenly Windows application supports dictation and is available on Mac platforms. Its availability for Windows 10-11 limits its accessibility for clinicians and adds another decision they should not have to manage in the middle of care.
Heidi’s approach remains the more clinician-friendly: Heidi is available on the devices clinicians already use.
Scribe is useful on iPhone, iPad, Android, and tablet and Dictate is accessible on the Heidi Desktop app. Heidi’s wider suite makes it easier for clinicians: less tool decisions and more seamless usage regardless of clinical setting from telehealth, ward or bedside.
Spokenly supports 100 languages, but Heidi brings multilingual voice input into the clinical workflow clinicians already use, covering 90 languages. The dictation turns the voice into a note, referral, or handover inside the same process.
Heidi doesn’t just transcribe the words. It adapts them to the specialty and the clinical context they belong in.
Spokenly is linked to AI coding agents like Claude and ChatGPT. Spokenly does not connect to EHR and EMR systems; this means that clinicians may still need to do some extra steps after a note.
Heidi was built for clinical documentation from the start and connects to EHR and EMR systems.
Spokenly currently has 100,000+ active users. Its limited public documentation on healthcare adoption makes it harder to assess how well it performs in real settings, unlike Heidi.
Heidi already powers 2.8 million patient visits each week and has supported clinicians 67.3 million hours since launch. Dictate extends that when a clinician needs to get words into an email or handover without opening another tool.
Spokenly pricing offers a free on-device dictation tier and a $9.99/month for a monthly-billed Pro plan for cloud with no lifetime availability and no options for care teams. This defeats the point of one-time pricing. For clinicians, that can still mean paying for or configuring a general-purpose dictation tool before checking whether it fits clinical practice.
Instead, Heidi pricing gives options for clinicians and care teams with a free-forever tier. This allows clinicians to test out if Heidi works well with their practice before committing.
On the Apple App Store, Heidi emerges as the stronger clinical tool because of its ability to customize notes and adhere to clinical language. Many clinicians praise the AI care partner for helping them cut down on documentation time.
While Spokenly maintains a strong rating on the Apple App Store and offers an accessible free tier, some clinicians report a clunky experience. These reviews often point to the mobile keyboard extension, which can freeze mid-charting and disrupt the documentation process.
Without healthcare-grade compliance, you also spend more time editing raw text yourself, while carrying the legal and privacy risks that come with handling patient data on a generic tool.
Heidi proves its edge over Spokenly in clinical settings because of its flexibility and kit. Clinicians choose Heidi because it turns dictation into part of the clinical workflow:
Start dictating with Heidi. Heidi supports 2.7 million patient interactions each week and has returned 52.4 million hours to clinicians since launch. Our security and compliance practices are documented in our Trust Center.
Spokenly is designed primarily as a dictation app. How Heidi works is that it gives care teams access to the Template Community. Alongside its multi-product care suite, it works with Template’s ready-to-use clinical formats for notes, letters, referrals, summaries, and care plans to support clinicians better.
Nikki Zurbano

Nikki Zurbano
Nikki Zurbano