Vent
For the thoughts that are too heavy to carry. A hyper-private voice diary — you speak, your phone transcribes, and nothing leaves the device.
What it is
Most people have no sustained practice of reflection. Journalling is effortful and text-heavy, and a general AI assistant is built to answer — which quietly moves you into reacting rather than thinking.
Vent sits in the gap: somewhere to say the thing out loud, with no judgement and no reply. Speaking aloud imposes a structure that silent rumination resists, because speech is linear and you cannot loop back through a sentence the way you can loop through a worry. Vent is built by Workband; we think it is worth knowing about.
How it compares
Same need — somewhere to unburden — with a different architecture, and therefore a different outcome.
| Vent | Cloud AI journal | Phone voice memos | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The input | Low-friction, hold-to-speak release | Often requires typing and formatting | Raw audio only |
| The safety | Encrypted locally, audio destroyed | Data leaves your phone by default | Unsecured, unencrypted files |
| The reflection | An empathetic mirror, stored offline | Generic cloud chatbot | None |
| The outcome | Private unburdening and clarity | Data harvesting risk | A disorganised folder of audio |
Product details may change as Vent develops. The Vent site has the current requirements and FAQ.
Before you start
Vent needs an iPhone 14 or newer, or an Android phone with 6 GB or more of RAM, plus a one-off download of roughly 3.4 GB over Wi-Fi. After that it works offline.
Vent is a reflective practice tool rather than a clinical one. It does not diagnose anything and it does not score your mood. If something you are carrying feels like too much to handle on your own, please speak to someone you trust, or contact local emergency services.
