How to transcribe iPhone Voice Memos to text
Voice Memos is the quickest recorder on the iPhone, but searching a 40-minute memo for one sentence is painful. Turn every memo into text you can read, search and share.
Share a voice memo to Transcribe+
- Open the Voice Memos app and tap the recording.
- Tap the ⋯ button (or Share) and choose Transcribe.ai in the list of apps.
- If you don’t see it, scroll the app row to the end, tap More, then Edit, and add Transcribe.ai to your favorites. Next time it will be first in the list.
- Back in Transcribe+, pick the language and tap Transcribe.
You can select several memos at once, which is handy for a backlog of notes or a series of lectures.
What about Apple’s own transcripts?
Recent iOS versions can show a transcript inside Voice Memos for some languages. It is fine for a quick look, but it doesn’t mark speakers, can’t export to PDF, DOCX or subtitles, and doesn’t sync a searchable library to your Mac. Transcribe+ supports 120 languages and dialects and gives you a document you can actually send.
On a Mac
Voice Memos syncs to the Mac via iCloud. Open Voice Memos on the Mac, drag the memo to the desktop (it becomes an M4A file) and drop it onto Transcribe+. Or simply transcribe on the iPhone: the transcript appears on your Mac and iPad automatically.
Ideas for transcribed voice memos
- Ideas and drafts: talk through an article or a plan while walking, then edit the text.
- Diaries and journaling: speak freely, read it back later.
- Doctor, lawyer or coach appointments (with permission): keep an accurate record.
- Song lyrics and rehearsal notes: capture what you sang before you forget it.
- Language learning: transcribe your own speech and check your mistakes.
Find any memo later
Every transcript is searchable inside the app, and on iPhone and Mac it also shows up in Spotlight. Search for a word you remember and jump straight to that moment in the audio.
Try it on your own recording
Transcribe+ turns audio and video into text on iPhone, iPad and Mac. The first 15 minutes are free, no account needed to start.
