How to transcribe a voice recording to text on iPhone
A transcript turns an hour of audio into something you can skim in two minutes and search in one second. Any recording in your library can be transcribed, whether you made it or imported it.
Transcribe a recording
- Open the recording in the player.
- Tap Transcribe in the tool row.
- Allow speech recognition the first time you're asked.
- Wait while the text appears — a short recording takes seconds, a long one a few minutes.
- Read it through and fix names and technical terms, which are what recognition gets wrong most.
Where it runs
On an iPhone that supports on-device recognition for your language, everything happens on the phone and nothing is sent anywhere. Where the hardware or the language does not support it, iOS uses Apple's speech recognition service, which means audio leaves the device for that request. Nothing is sent to Novaz either way.
Set the language
- Open Settings from the app.
- Under Transcription, tap Transcription language.
- Choose the language actually being spoken in the recording.
- Transcribe again — the language is picked at the moment you run it.
The free allowance
The free version transcribes 30 minutes of audio in total. PRO removes the limit. The counter goes by the length of the recording you transcribe, so trimming a long take before you transcribe it makes the allowance go further.
FAQ
- How accurate is it?
- On a clear recording of one person, very good. Accuracy drops with background noise, strong accents, overlapping speakers and technical vocabulary — which is why the text is editable.
- Does it label who is speaking?
- No. iOS speech recognition returns text without separating speakers, so a meeting comes back as one continuous transcript.
- Can I transcribe a file I imported?
- Yes — anything in the library, in any format the app reads.
Record it properly next time
Voice Recorder — Novaz records meetings, lectures and ideas in M4A or WAV, marks the moments that matter, trims and merges, and turns speech into searchable text — all on your iPhone.
Download on the App Store