What is a good AI lecture assistant app for iPad?
Praesto is an AI lecture assistant that runs on iPad as an App Store app, on iPadOS 17.0 or later. You write on slides and notes with Apple Pencil while a live transcript runs beside them. After class it turns the lecture into practice and review. There is a free plan, so you can try it in a real class.
In the App Store, look for Praesto: AI Lecture Assistant, made by Praesto Logica.
Can I take notes with Apple Pencil in Praesto?
Yes, on iPad. In a note card, switch to Write mode and write by hand. Open a slide or a PDF and mark it up page by page, with pen, pencil, marker and highlighter in one toolbar. Your handwriting is read on the device and becomes text you can search and ask Chat about.
- Tap Aa in the pen toolbar and a handwritten block becomes typed text you can search and copy.
- Lasso handwriting to move it or resize it, and change the color of ink you already wrote.
- Sketch in one corner and drop a typed text box beside it, on the same page.
- Export a marked-up document or a handwritten note as an ordinary PDF.
Handwriting and document markup are on every plan, the free plan included.
Are my handwritten notes tied to what the professor said?
Yes. Lasso a piece of your own handwriting and a callout shows the time you wrote it and what was being said then. You can also pin a note to a transcript line, a slide or a topic, and open it from any of them, so a page of notes points back to the moment it came from.
Can I see the live transcript next to my notes on iPad?
Yes. In Lecture mode, a drawer lists your slides, documents and notes. Whatever you open sits in the middle, ready to mark up, while the live transcript runs on the right, with tabs for Chat, Research and Flow. Drag the divider lines to give either side more room.
Quick start in the sidebar makes a new session and begins recording in one tap. While you mark up a slide, Chat can answer in the pane beside it.
Can I photograph a slide with my iPad?
Yes. The Capture slide button, a small viewfinder at the top, photographs the slide in front of you. The picture is read on your device, and the text it finds is added to the session, so Praesto can use what was on the slide as well as what was said. Captured slides sit in one list.
Can Praesto make practice questions from my own lecture on iPad?
Yes. Practice sets are built from your own transcript, notes and documents, and each question is cited and graded, with a pointer back to the moment it came from. Every quiz and practice question you answer comes back on a spaced schedule, and Review lists only the ones that are due.
Type your answer on a card and Praesto grades it with one line of feedback. Review mode arranges the screen for after class: your notes, transcript, Flow and Summary on the left, practice in the center, and Chat on the right.
Practice sets are on every plan, with a monthly allowance that grows with the plan.
Questions
Which iPadOS version does Praesto need?
Praesto runs on iPad as an App Store app, on iPadOS 17.0 or later. Search the App Store for “Praesto: AI Lecture Assistant”. The same listing covers iPhone and Mac. Recording in a browser needs Chrome or Edge on a computer, so on an iPad you record with the app.
Is Apple Pencil support on every plan?
Handwriting and document markup are on every plan, the free plan included. Plans differ in AI limits, such as practice sets and chat messages each month. They do not change whether you can write on a slide with Apple Pencil.
Can I use the web app on my iPad?
You can open the web app in a browser on an iPad to read and chat, but a browser on a tablet cannot record. Recording in a browser needs Chrome or Edge on a computer, so on iPad record in the App Store app.
Can I type my notes instead of writing them?
Yes. In a note card, the control at the top left switches between Type and Write. Type mode has a formatting bar for paragraph styles, bold, italic, lists and quotes. You can keep several note cards per conversation, and your work saves on its own as you go.
Can I mark up my professor’s slides?
Yes. Add the deck in Docs, open it, and write on it page by page with Apple Pencil. The marks stay with the file. You can add PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, CSV, plain text and Markdown. Only upload files you have the right to use.
Does my audio leave my device?
When you record with the microphone on iPhone, iPad or Mac, Apple’s speech recognition turns speech into text on your device; in the web app, speech models run in your browser. Our servers receive the text, not the audio, and Chat and the other AI features work from that text on our servers. We do not use your content to train AI models, and our AI provider is contractually prohibited from training on it.
How accurate is the transcript?
It depends on the room. A clear voice near the device transcribes best; noise, distance, fast speech and rare terms make mistakes more likely. You can edit any line yourself, or ask for a correction pass: every suggested change arrives with a checkbox and an editable box, and only what you tick is applied.
Will Praesto distract me in class?
You decide how much appears. Quiz cards are short, and in Settings you choose how often one can appear during a long session, or turn them off. Clever questions wait in their own tab until you look. Praesto does the writing, so you can listen and glance down only when you need to.
More about Praesto
Free to start. For iPhone, iPad and Mac, or Chrome or Edge on a computer.