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Binding a Plaud device involves two steps:
  1. Cloud bind: registers the device/owner association in the Plaud registry so you can track Connected Device state remotely
  2. Local device bind: triggered over BLE by the Embedded SDK, which verifies and generates the key pair on-device
The /bind, /unbind, and /binding are used to update the Plaud registry to keep your local device state and remote device state in-sync at all times.

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Using the Device Binding APIs

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Prerequisites

The Device Binding APIs authenticate with a User Token. Use the Authentication API if you don’t have a User Token or need a new one.
Try the Plaud Embedded API Playground to see every step of the transcription process with your own client credentials.End-to-end, from authentication to recording audio to uploading to transcription.

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Binding a Plaud Device to a User

Binding a Plaud device generates a key pair using the User Token and creates an ownership lock on your users’ Plaud device. This makes sure their files on device are always encrypted and can only be decrypted with a valid User Token by your application. The POST /sdk/bind endpoint registers the device/owner association in the Plaud registry.
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string
required
Device type string derived from the SN prefix (881 → notepro, 882 → notepins).
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string
required
Device serial number.
After the cloud bind succeeds, run the local bind over BLE with the Embedded SDK. See iOS or Android for the SDK side of the flow.
Plaud devices can only be bound to one mobile application. If a user is uninstalling your mobile app, make sure to unbind their Plaud device.

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Unbinding a Plaud Device to a User

When a user wants to unbind a Plaud device (whether to use with another Plaud Embedded app or the core Plaud app), unbind over both cloud and BLE. The POST /sdk/unbind endpoint removes the device/owner association in the Plaud registry.
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string
required
Device type string derived from the SN prefix (881 → notepro, 882 → notepins).
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string
required
Device serial number.
Pair this call with the SDK’s depair over BLE, which clears the pairing/handshake on the device itself. See iOS or Android for the SDK side of the flow.

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Recovering a Plaud Device

In certain situations, the cloud and local bind state can go out-of-sync, causing the device to lock. Device recovery re-handshakes with each previously bound client ID until one matches the lock on the device, at which point the stale ownership lock is wiped and the device can be bound to the current user. The GET /sdk/binding endpoint returns the remote binding state of a device along with every client ID it has previously been bound to, including bindings made in other apps.
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string
required
Device type string derived from the SN prefix (881 → notepro, 882 → notepins).
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string
required
Device serial number.
Response:
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boolean | null
true = bound to another account (stop — recovery is not possible), false = unbound, null = signed but never bound. Run Device Recovery only when this is not true.
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string[]
Previously bound client IDs, newest first.
bind_history records one entry per bind event, so the same client ID can appear more than once — de-duplicate before using it for Device Recovery.
Recovery only applies when the cloud reports the device as unbound (is_bind is false or null). If is_bind is true, the device is genuinely owned by another account and that owner must unbind it first. The SDK cannot override an active binding.
Pass each client ID from bind_history to the SDK’s recovery connect, which uses that ID as the handshake token and connects with force-clear. See iOS or Android for the SDK side of the flow.