How to Transcribe Voice Memos on iPhone (Built-in and Apps)

You can transcribe voice memos on iPhone without any extra app: on iOS 18 and later, open a recording in Voice Memos and tap the transcript icon below the waveform to see the text, which you can then copy. That works well for short memos in a supported language. For long recordings, other languages, several speakers, editing or exports, share the memo as an .m4a file and upload it to a transcription tool. Below are both routes, plus how to dictate a text message and what to do with call recordings and voicemail.

Apple's feature details change between iOS releases and differ by region, so where this article says "reported", check Apple's support pages for your device and country.

How to transcribe a voice memo in the Voice Memos app

Built-in transcripts arrived in the Voice Memos app with iOS 18, and third-party guides report that they need an iPhone 12 or later. If your phone meets those requirements:

1. Open Voice Memos and tap the recording.
2. Tap the transcript icon below the waveform. Guides describe it as a small speech-bubble or quotation-mark symbol.
3. The transcript appears and follows along as the audio plays, which makes it easy to find the part you need.
4. To use the text elsewhere, copy it (from the recording's options (…) menu or by selecting the text, depending on your iOS version) and paste it into Notes, Mail or a document.

Transcription runs on the device, so nothing is uploaded to do it.

If you do not see the icon, check these in order:

• iOS is updated to 18 or later.
• Your iPhone is one of the supported models.
• The memo is in a supported language, and your iPhone's language and region settings allow the feature.

What the built-in transcript can and cannot do

Apple's transcript is free, private and fast. It is also deliberately simple, which is fine for a shopping list or a quick idea and limiting for anything bigger.

Languages. The supported set is limited. Reported languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, and availability varies by region. A memo in Polish, Dutch, Arabic or a mix of languages may show no transcript at all.

Summaries. On iPhones that support Apple Intelligence, iOS 26 lets you use Writing Tools to summarise a transcript. Older models and some regions do not get this.

No speakers. The transcript is one continuous block. A memo of a meeting or interview will not tell you who said what.

No timed exports. You can copy the text, but there is no SRT or VTT subtitle export and no DOCX with timestamps.

Limited editing. You are mostly reading and copying. Correcting a misheard name means editing it after you paste the text somewhere else.

If the memo is short, in a supported language and only for you, the built-in route is the right one. The rest of this guide is for everything else.

Voice to text messages on iPhone: dictate instead of typing

Many people searching for "voice to text message iPhone" want to speak a text message rather than transcribe a recording. That is dictation, and it is built into the keyboard:

1. Open Messages (or any app with a text field) and tap where you want to type.
2. Tap the microphone key on the keyboard, or the microphone in the text field.
3. Speak. Recent iOS versions add punctuation automatically, and you can say "comma", "question mark" or "new line" where you want them.
4. Tap the microphone again to stop, check the text and send.

If you do not see the microphone, enable Dictation in Settings > General > Keyboard. The Messages app can also send audio messages, and recent iOS versions show a text transcript of audio messages you receive in iMessage. For dictation on other devices and longer pieces, see our voice to text and dictation guide.

Call recordings and voicemail transcripts

Call recording. Since iOS 18.1, the Phone app can record calls in some countries. Everyone on the call hears a notice that the call is being recorded, and the recording is saved in the Notes app with a transcript. Call recording and its transcripts are limited to certain regions and languages, and reports indicate the feature is not available in some places, including the EU, so check Apple's feature availability page for your country.

Voicemail. Visual Voicemail on iPhone can show a text transcription of voicemails in supported regions, languages and carriers. Live Voicemail, which shows a transcript while the caller is leaving a message, is available in some regions too. If transcripts never appear, it is usually a region or carrier limitation rather than a setting.

Call recordings from third-party apps and voicemail audio you can share as a file can be transcribed like any other recording, using the export route below. Get consent from the other party before recording, and be aware that recording laws differ between countries and states.

When to use a transcription tool instead

Exporting a memo takes an extra minute, and it is worth it when:

• The memo is long. An hour-long lecture or interview needs paragraphs and timestamps to be usable, not a single wall of text.
• The language is not supported, or speakers switch between languages.
• More than one person talks. Speaker labels turn a recorded meeting into something you can read.
• You need to edit against the audio. Clicking a sentence to hear it is the fastest way to fix names and numbers.
• You need exports. TXT for documents, SRT or VTT if the recording becomes a video (all free), or DOCX and PDF on Pro.
• You want a summary on any iPhone, not just Apple Intelligence models.

Audiotexta's voice memo to text tool handles all of these in the browser, including Safari on the iPhone itself. It is not the only choice: Otter, TurboScribe and similar services accept uploads, Apple's Notes app transcribes audio recorded inside Notes on recent iOS versions, and the open-source Whisper model can run on a Mac for free if you are happy with some setup.

How to export a voice memo and transcribe it

Voice Memos saves recordings as .m4a (AAC audio), a format almost every transcription service accepts.

1. In Voice Memos, tap the recording, then the options (…) button.
2. Tap Share, then Save to Files and pick a folder (iCloud Drive or On My iPhone). You can also AirDrop the memo to a Mac or email it to yourself.
3. Open Safari, go to the M4A to text converter or the Audiotexta web app, and upload the file from Files.
4. Choose the language or leave auto-detect on, and turn on speaker labels if needed.
5. Review the transcript with playback, fix any errors, and export or copy it.

If you have several memos from the same project, a week of interview notes or a series of lectures, select them in Files and upload them together rather than one at a time. Keeping the memo name as the transcript name makes it easy to match text and audio later. If Voice Memos syncs through iCloud, the same recordings also appear in the Voice Memos app on a Mac, where you can drag them to a Finder folder and upload them from the computer, which is often quicker for long recordings than handling them on the phone.

For very large files, or if a tool rejects your memo, our guide to audio to text converter formats explains file sizes, limits and when converting to MP3 helps.

Apple built-in transcripts vs a transcription tool

Tips for cleaner voice memo transcripts

Both Apple's transcript and any online service depend on the recording. A few habits help:

• Hold the phone close, with the bottom microphone pointing at the speaker, not lying flat on a noisy table.
• Use the right quality setting. In Settings > Apps > Voice Memos (or Settings > Voice Memos on older iOS), choose Lossless if storage allows; compressed is fine for speech.
• Avoid background audio such as music, traffic and a running dishwasher.
• Name memos straight away. "Client call 18 Oct" is findable; "New Recording 47" is not.
• Say unusual names clearly once, then correct them in the transcript.

For a two-minute idea, tap the transcript icon and copy. For a recording you will quote, share or keep, export the .m4a and give it a proper transcript.