Backtrack

Name: Backtrack
Price: 1.99 USD
Rating: 4.0 (1 reviews)

Record audio from the past

4.0•1 review•

16 followers

Record audio from the past

4.0•1 review•

16 followers

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Backtrack lets you record all those conversations, you forgot to click the record button for, by over-writing a 60 minute window of audio over and over throughout the day, locally on your Mac

Launch tags:Mac•Productivity•Menu Bar Apps

Launch Team

Framer AI AgentsDesign and publish professional sites with AI

Promoted

Maker

We started building Backtrack on a flight home from San Francisco after a brutal VC meeting. We walked out of the office and all we could think was "Damn, wish we'd recorded that.". Thus, the idea for Backtrack was born. What if you could record conversations you forgot to hit the record button for? This happens a lot around the office when we are brainstorming ideas or whiteboarding. We went from idea to working app in 2 weeks, and we use Backtrack internally all the time now. 1. It's 100% private and local to your Mac. We don't even have analytics in the app. That's how private it is. 2. It works by always recording the last 60 minutes of audio your Mac hears. If you never tell it to save, it'll just keep deleting that running recording. 3. We borrowed a page from Gestimer with a cool pull down yo-yo style interface. Pull down to the time you need to backtrack to, and the app will let you name and save a file of the last x minutes of audio. 4. Yes we know about 2 party consent laws around recording. This app is for teams that already record a lot of calls or meetings. If you're going to use it for recording someone without their permission...don't do it. We hope you all find some utility in this. It's great for capturing those moments around the office that happen naturally, without the pressure of a mic in front of you. We also use it to catch each other up on calls that one of us maybe missed. Backtrack is an extension of our other audio product, https://yac.chat. If you dig using voice as a way to communicate with your team, check that out too.

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7yr ago

SeekWell

@jmitch this is cool, how did you guys think about prioritizing this against improving YAC?

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7yr ago

Maker

@mike_seekwell Well it started as a feature for Yac. We didn't want to muddy the codebase or distract the team by integrating it without validating it first. So as we get feedback on this, we'll see how it fits into the larger ecosystem of our products.

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7yr ago

Maker

@owenfar1 Ha well actually it DID, but we removed it because it was preventing your Macbook from sleeping properly which drained the battery. So no, it only records when it's awake.

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7yr ago

Maker

@owenfar1 Good idea. If we can detect that easily I don't see why that shouldn't be an option for the user!

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7yr ago

@jmitch this is great. genius. please do also an ipad / iphone version! :)

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7yr ago

Timestripe

How about recording of what comes out of the system? On meeting there is still no consumer easy app for it.

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7yr ago

Maker

@vladkorobov yep this is a planned upgrade. We’d basically be making a software “mic” that includes both input and output. I think this is the next update for me.

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7yr ago

@vladkorobov @jmitch When will this feature be available? And thanks for a great product!

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6yr ago

Maker

@vladkorobov @fredrik_wilhelmsson Super soon. Turns out Apple's APIs for this are a bit weird, but it's under way and a priority for us.

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6yr ago

Huddle

@vladkorobov @fredrik_wilhelmsson @jmitch Maybe I am missing something, but I still don't see this feature in the app. For me it feels a bit useless because it doesn't record what comes out of the system.

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5yr ago

Maker

@vladkorobov @fredrik_wilhelmsson @sa1k0s Unfortunately Apple made this stupid difficult for users on M1 chips. Involves a bunch of crazy steps and tbh anyone can just install soundflower and achieve the same thing with Backtrack installed already.

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5yr ago

One of the smartest and functional app that I discovered last 3 months...I hope that you will be always serious about privacy. Do you have any plans how you are going to monetize your application, can you share with us? @jmitch

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7yr ago

Maker

@ahmet_bektes We have some ideas around transcription or instant sharing links (in which case that WOULD upload the recording if you chose to share). Honestly, this was a little experiment to drive traffic to the mothership product https://yac.chat. We may never choose to monetize this. Most of the stuff I've built over the last 5-6 years I've given away for free.

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7yr ago

@ahmet_bektes @jmitch How about sharing in a P2P WebRTC way where your server is only used as relay to connect sender to receiver? Something like magic-wormhole or Firefox Send.

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7yr ago

Maker

@ahmet_bektes @zeid_marouf having worked with that tech a ton before, it’s honestly just way too unreliable. Most of the services that use p2p just end up connecting over a server anyway in order to initiate the p2p session.

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7yr ago

@jmitch Cool product too! really good job and you can create price tiers for length of the recording...

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7yr ago

Great idea! Is it any chance adding a feature where recordings only take place during work day (9to5)? A tick box or setting customized time for it? @jmitch

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7yr ago

Maker

@gaurav_monga that makes total sense. I think that’s a super easy add.

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7yr ago

I love this app! Can you keep the buffer in memory only though? I don't want this to affect the life of my SSD since writing a recording file continuously will surely add to the wear and tear of the drive...

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7yr ago

Maker

@alexandru_mincu3 this is interesting feedback. I’ll look into the possibility. I’m not sure it will wear the SSD down anymore than say running Photoshop does with the swap files it creates.

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7yr ago

Yes would use it! To be able to capture those aha moments you really only experience through spontaneous conversation? Brilliant.

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7yr ago

Backtrack 2.0

Maker

@monika_norwid Egg Zactlyyyy! 🥚

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7yr ago

Playeasy

Great idea! How do you set 60 minute recording? Because now it looks like every time i am trying to pull it down it only counts seconds

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7yr ago

Backtrack 2.0

Maker

@sonya_eldarova Great question. If you just downloaded and launched the app, it will have only 10-20 seconds of recording. But if you left it running for an hour, then it would let you go back the full 60 minutes. Does that make sense?

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7yr ago

Playeasy

@huntermoonshot makes total sense! Thank you :)

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7yr ago

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