The always-listening pendant market just went through a shakeout — Meta bought Limitless, Amazon bought Bee. Here is what's actually left on the shelf, what the spec sheets mean, and the questions that matter more than any spec.
If you researched memory pendants a year ago, your notes are already out of date. In December 2025, Meta acquired Limitless — the best-known pendant on the market — and sales of the device stopped immediately. Existing owners were promised at least a year of continued support and free access to the Unlimited plan, along with tools to export or delete their data, but service had already ended on December 19, 2025 for users in the EU, UK, Brazil, China, Israel, South Korea, and Turkey. Earlier in 2025, Amazon acquired Bee, the maker of a roughly $50 always-listening wristband.
Two of the category's most visible independent companies were absorbed by giants within months of each other. That matters to you for one practical reason: when a recorder company is sold, your recordings go with it. New owners bring new privacy policies, new terms of service, and sometimes regional shutdowns. Whatever you buy in 2026, buy it with an exit plan — we cover that in our privacy and lifelogging guide.
| Device | Price (advertised) | Battery (claimed) | Processing | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plaud NotePin / NotePin S | $159 / $179 | Up to ~20 hrs recording, 64 GB onboard | Cloud transcription; monthly minute allowance on the free tier, paid plans for more | Actively sold |
| Omi (Based Hardware) | ~$89 | Roughly a day of ambient use | Cloud by default; open-source app, developer-friendly | Actively sold |
| Bee | ~$50 wristband | Multi-day ambient use | Cloud summaries and transcripts | Acquired by Amazon (2025); sold under Amazon's roof |
| Limitless Pendant | was $199–$399 | ~100 hrs was its headline spec | Cloud | Discontinued — Meta acquisition, Dec 2025; no new sales |
| The Keeper (Memsist) | waitlist | All-day wear; storage lives on your home equipment | Local-first — transcripts stay in your house | In development — join the waitlist |
| Your phone + a recorder app | $0–10/mo | Limited by phone battery and pocket muffling | Varies by app | Always available — good way to test the habit |
Prices and specs are manufacturers' advertised figures as of mid-2026 and change often — verify on the maker's site before ordering. Battery claims are for recording/standby under ideal conditions.
"Up to 20 hours of recording" (Plaud's claim) is a full waking day if you charge nightly and nothing goes wrong. The discontinued Limitless pendant advertised around 100 hours, which is why owners loved it — and why its discontinuation left a real gap. For a memory aid, a dead battery is a lost day, so nightly charging has to become a routine, ideally tied to something you already do (dinner, brushing teeth). If the wearer lives with memory loss, assume a family member owns the charging routine.
Dual-microphone pendants like the NotePin quote an effective pickup of roughly 3 meters in quiet rooms. Real kitchens, cars, and restaurants are worse. A chest-worn pendant reliably captures the wearer's own voice; the other side of the table is a bonus, not a promise. Clip placement matters more than brand — fabric rubbing on the mic ruins more recordings than any spec difference.
This is the fork in the road. Cloud devices (Plaud, Omi, Bee) upload audio to the company's servers for transcription and summaries — convenient, and the AI features are strong, but your most private conversations live on someone else's computers under terms that can change (see: the 2025 acquisitions). Local-first setups keep transcripts on equipment you own. That is the whole design premise of the Keeper, and you can build a DIY version with a phone plus open-source transcription. Our privacy guide walks through the trade-offs.
Most cloud recorders are cheap hardware attached to a subscription. Free tiers typically include a limited monthly transcription allowance; heavy use means a paid plan. Before buying, total the first-year cost (device + 12 months of the plan you'd actually need), not the sticker price.
An always-on recorder records other people. Eleven US states require everyone's consent in private conversations. Read our recording-laws guide for lifeloggers before you wear one out of the house.
Independent hands-on reviews — not manufacturer ads.
Our plain-language look at what a recorder can and cannot do for memory loss.
Read more →One-party vs. all-party consent, state by state, plus the etiquette that keeps friends.
Read more →Who owns your memory? Cloud vs. local-first, and ten questions to ask any vendor.
Read more →What Pendant owners can do now — export steps and replacement paths.
Read more →The Keeper is a private memory pendant: it writes your day down on your own home equipment, and nothing leaves. Join the waitlist and we'll write when it's ready.
Meet the Keeper Read the FAQ