As someone who regularly needs to review recorded videos and meetings, I was excited to try out Fireflies AI Super Summaries. The idea of getting AI-generated summaries instead of watching hours of footage seemed incredibly appealing as a time-saving measure. However, after using the tool extensively, I have to say my experience has been somewhat mixed.
The Pros
Let's start with the positives. When the transcriptions are accurate, the summaries can indeed provide a helpful high-level overview of key discussion points and action items from meetings. I've found this useful for quickly getting up to speed, especially when I've missed a meeting or need a refresher. The ability to ask follow-up questions using the "ChatGPT for meetings" feature is also valuable for digging deeper into specific topics.
The Cons
Transcription Accuracy
However, the issues I've encountered are hard to overlook. Transcription accuracy is wildly inconsistent - sometimes it's perfect, other times it completely misses or mangles entire sentences and exchanges. This is a major problem because if the transcription is flawed, the summary becomes unreliable. I've been burned too many times by missing or incorrect information in the summaries.
User Interface
The user interface also leaves a lot to be desired in my opinion. It feels cluttered and unintuitive, to the point where I sometimes struggle to find the information I need. With so much going on visually, it can be overwhelming rather than streamlining my workflow.
Summary Length
But my biggest gripe is actually with the summaries themselves. Even when they are transcribed accurately, I often find them too long-winded and lacking the degree of concision I truly want from a summary. I'm looking for bite-sized bullet points that get to the crux of the matter - not paragraphs of text that still require too much parsing. The goal should be to make my life easier, not create another piece of lengthy content to pore over.
A Better Alternative
Which brings me to an alternative tool, ScreenApp Video Summarizer. While not necessarily focused solely on meeting recordings like Fireflies, its advantage is its ability to summarize any type of video content - meetings, tutorials, interviews, lectures, you name it. And from my experience so far, its summaries manage to be significantly more concise and digestible.
User-Friendly and Flexible
What I really appreciate about ScreenApp is its simplicity and ease of use. Rather than navigating a clunky interface within a meetings platform, I can simply record any video (whether that's joining a virtual meeting or capturing my own screen) and upload it to get a summary. The process is seamless, and I'm not locked into any single app or use case.
Reliable Transcriptions and Concise Summaries
Importantly, the transcription quality seems more consistent with ScreenApp, and the summaries do a far better job of distilling the core insights into clear bullet points without excess verbiage. I've found myself actually reading and acting on the summaries regularly rather than glazing over them.
Not Perfect, But Preferred
Of course, no tool is perfect, and ScreenApp has occasional hiccups. But for my needs, it has proven to be a more user-friendly, flexible, and reliable solution for quickly summarizing video content of all kinds through AI.
Final Thoughts
Don't get me wrong, Fireflies AI Super Summaries have their strengths, and the technology is impressive. But from my experience, the flaws in transcription, UI design, and summary brevity hinder its true potential as a productivity booster. If you're looking for AI-powered video summaries that just work without the bloat, I'd recommend giving ScreenApp's offering a try.
