Kalpa vs Limitless: a second memory after the Pendant
Limitless (formerly Rewind) built one of the first true "AI second memory" products: an always-on Pendant that captured your day, plus desktop and web apps that transcribed meetings. The idea resonated — and Kalpa shares the same north star of a memory you can search and talk to.
There's important news to factor in first. In December 2025, Limitless was acquired by Meta, the team moved to Reality Labs, and the Pendant is no longer sold to new customers — existing users had fees waived and the legacy Rewind Mac app was shut down. If you're searching for what to use instead of Limitless, this comparison is for you.
The short answer: The Limitless Pendant is effectively winding down as a standalone product. If you loved the "second memory" idea but need something you can actually buy and rely on today, Kalpa delivers it with no hardware — capture on your iPhone and Apple Watch, transcribed on-device.
Side-by-side comparison
| Feature |
Kalpa
|
Limitless |
|---|---|---|
| Available to new users | Early access now | Pendant sales ended (Meta acquisition, Dec 2025) |
| Hardware required | None — iPhone & Apple Watch | Optional Pendant (no longer purchasable) |
| Apple Watch capture | Tap and speak from your wrist | No watchOS app |
| Transcription | On your device | Cloud ("Confidential Cloud") |
| Capture style | Tap and speak any time | Always-on Pendant; app capture for meetings |
| Organizes into topics & a mind map | Automatic | Timeline & search of your day |
| Ask your memory questions | Chat across your whole life | Ask across your captured day |
| Training on your data | Never | 3rd-party data anonymized, not trained on, deleted 30d |
| Platforms | iPhone, Apple Watch | Web, Mac, Windows, iOS (Pendant winding down) |
Reflects Kalpa's approach and Limitless's publicly described product and acquisition status as of June 2026. Verify current status at limitless.ai before deciding.
What Limitless got right
It's worth being fair: Limitless pushed the category forward. The Pendant proved that ambient, all-day capture could feel natural, and the apps showed that a searchable timeline of your conversations — something you could query in plain language — was genuinely useful. Its "Confidential Cloud" approach, with client-side encryption and anonymized requests, set a high privacy bar for a cloud product. You didn't even need the Pendant to use it: the Mac and web apps captured meetings on their own.
The catch today is simply availability. After the Meta acquisition, the Pendant is no longer sold to new customers, EU/UK service was discontinued, and the roadmap now lives inside Meta's Reality Labs rather than as an independent product you can adopt and depend on.
Where Kalpa fits better
Kalpa carries the same "second memory" idea forward in a form you can start using today — and without buying any hardware at all. Instead of an always-on pendant listening to everything, Kalpa is intentional capture: you tap and speak when a thought matters, from your Apple Watch or iPhone. For many people that's a better fit for privacy and for trust with the people around them.
What you get:
- On-device transcription. Your words become text on your iPhone — they stay with you, and never become training data.
- It organizes itself. Each capture becomes a transcript, summary, topics and people, linked into a mind map of your life.
- A memory you can talk to. Ask "what did I decide about the trip?" and Kalpa answers from everything you've ever said.
Recording and on-device transcription are free and unlimited, in 25 languages, with paid tiers when you want more AI processing.
The honest verdict
If you're a current Limitless user, the practical question is continuity: the Pendant you may have relied on isn't being sold to new customers, and the product's future is now Meta's to define. Kalpa is the natural place to keep the "second memory" habit going — same outcome (a private, searchable, talk-to-able memory of your life), no hardware to buy, and capture from the Apple Watch already on your wrist.
The difference in philosophy also matters: Limitless leaned on always-on ambient capture; Kalpa is deliberate capture you control, transcribed on-device. If the always-listening model never sat right with you, that's a feature, not a compromise.
Frequently asked
Is the Limitless Pendant still available?+
As of June 2026, no — following Meta's December 2025 acquisition, Limitless stopped selling the Pendant to new customers. Verify current status on their site.
What's a good Limitless alternative?+
Kalpa offers the same "second memory" experience — private capture, automatic organization, and a memory you can chat with — available now in early access, with no hardware required.
Does Kalpa listen all the time like the Pendant?+
No. Kalpa is intentional, tap-to-speak capture you control, rather than always-on ambient listening. Many people prefer that for privacy.
Where does transcription happen?+
On your iPhone. Kalpa transcribes on-device; Limitless transcribed in its cloud.