Customizing Your Summary
Get summaries in the shape you actually want — 31 ready-made templates, your own saved formats, or a rewrite in another language.
Wave's default summary is structured notes with key points and actions. If that's not the shape you need — a board brief, a sales pipeline report, a study guide, or something you describe in your own words — Customize Summary rewrites the summary in that format. You can set a style while you record so the summary comes out right the first time, or restyle any finished session as many times as you like.
Set a Style While You Record
Choosing up front means no regeneration afterwards. The style is saved onto that session and used when Wave writes the summary.
While a recording is running, find the Session tools row under the waveform and tap Summary. The picker has a search box, Default Wave Summary at the top, Your Saved Styles if you have any, then the templates grouped by category. Tap one — the Summary tool highlights to show a style is set.
Restyle a Summary You Already Have
Open the session and go to Customize. On iPhone and Android it's one of the action buttons under the session header; on the web it's in the toolbar above your summary; on desktop it's More actions (the ⋯ button) → Customize summary.
The Style tab is the same everywhere:
Pick a card under Pre-built Templates, or one of your own under Saved Customizations.
Or write your own instructions under Add New Customization — the field reads "Tell Wave exactly how you want it to generate your summaries". For example: "Group by speaker, concise bullet points, action items at the top."
Turn on Save this customization and give it a title to reuse it later.
Tap Apply Style Customization. The screen closes and the session shows a processing state while Wave rewrites the summary. The new summary appears on its own when it's ready.
Applying a style replaces the current summary. If you've hand-edited the summary, those edits are gone once a new style is applied — so restyle first, then edit. See editing summaries and transcripts.
The 31 Pre-Built Templates
Executive Board Summary · Sales Call Analysis · Product Development Sprint Review · Lecture-to-Study Guide · HR Performance Review · Content Marketing Plan · Investor Pitch Summary · Freelancer Client Brief · Team Stand-Up Summary · Customer Support Resolution · Voice Memo Notes · Project Status Report · Quarterly Business Review · Stakeholder Update · Strategy Session Notes · Vendor Meeting Summary · Market Analysis Brief · Product Roadmap Review · Budget Review Meeting · Partnership Review · Operations Review · Legal Client Consultation · Medical Consultation · Creative Brainstorming · Podcast Episode Summary · Crisis Management Meeting · Real Estate Consultation · Research Interview · Training Session Summary · Creative Writing Interview · Legal Deposition Summary
Save Your Own Formats
Anything you save shows up as a Saved Customizations card in every session's Customize screen and under Your Saved Styles in the pre-recording picker, on every device.
Go to Settings → Personalization → Summary Formats to manage them outside a session. Tap + Create New Format, give it a Title and your Summary Instructions, then Create. Saved formats are listed under Saved Formats with Edit and Delete next to each.
Regenerate in Another Language
The Language tab redoes the session in a different language. Pick your language, then decide how far Wave should go:
- Full Audio Retranscription off (the default) — the transcript stays in its original language and only the summary is rewritten. The button reads Regenerate Summary in Spanish, or whichever language you picked.
- Full Audio Retranscription on — Wave re-transcribes the original audio in the new language, then regenerates the summary from it. On your phone and on desktop the button changes to Reprocess in Spanish; on the web it stays Regenerate Summary in Spanish.
Full retranscription needs the original audio. More detail in language and translation.
FAQ
Pick Default Wave Summary — it's the top entry in the pre-recording style picker on every platform. On a session that's already been restyled, write "Use Wave's standard summary format with key points and action items" as a custom instruction and apply that.
No. The Style tab only rewrites the summary. The transcript is only touched by the Language tab's Full Audio Retranscription option.
Not yet — a style is picked per recording. Saving your formats makes that a two-tap job at the start of each session, and saved formats sync across your phone, the web, and desktop.
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