Voice memo to text

Three steps from memo to text

1. Save the recording as a file on your phone or computer. The steps for iPhone and Android are below.
2. Open the transcription studio in your browser and choose the file. Pick the spoken language, or let StemVocal detect it.
3. Read, fix and download. Click a word to hear it, correct what was misheard, then copy the text or download it as Word or plain text.

The studio opens the formats phones record in, including M4A, MP3, AAC, WAV and Ogg or Opus files, so there is no need to convert a memo first.

From iPhone Voice Memos

Voice Memos can transcribe recordings on its own. Apple lists this for iPhone 12 or later, in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese, and not in every country or region. You can view the transcript while you record or afterwards, and copy part or all of it.

To transcribe a memo here instead, for timestamps, speaker labels, subtitle files or another language, first get the recording out of the app:

1. In Voice Memos, tap the recording, then tap the More button.
2. Tap Share, then Options, and choose Rendered. That makes a single .m4a file with any layers and effects mixed in.
3. Choose Save to Files to keep it on your iPhone, or send it to your computer with AirDrop or Mail.

Choose Rendered rather than Editable: an editable file keeps layers and effects for a compatible Apple device to adjust later, while the rendered .m4a is an ordinary audio file. Exporting to Files also produces .m4a by default, with layered recordings flattened and Spatial Audio turned into stereo.

Then open the studio in your phone's browser, tap the file chooser and pick the memo from Files.

From an Android phone

On Pixel phones, Google's Recorder app makes transcriptions itself, can save and share both recordings and transcripts, and adds speaker labels on a Pixel 6 or later. Other phones come with their own recorder apps. Either way, to transcribe a recording here, use the app's Share option to save the audio file to your phone's files or Google Drive, or send it to your computer, then choose it in the studio.

Long memos, lectures and voice notes

A free job covers a recording up to 30 minutes, and you get 2 a day, shared with the other StemVocal tools. Longer memos, such as a recorded lecture or a long walk-and-talk, can run up to 3 hours with credits, at one credit for each started 30 minutes. Keep the page open until the upload finishes; after that you can come back on the same device within 24 hours.

Voice notes from messaging apps work the same way when the app lets you save the audio as a file. Choose the saved file in the studio as you would a memo.

What you can do with the text

• Search it. Find the moment you mentioned a name or an idea, and click to hear it.
• Fix it in context. Click any word to jump to it in the recording, and slow the playback down to check a word.
• Label speakers. For a recorded conversation, choose up to 8 speakers before you start; labels use credits and are estimates you can rename.
• Take it elsewhere. Copy text, or download Word, plain text, CSV with timings, or SRT and VTT subtitle files.
• Translate it. A paid transcript can be translated from English into 15 languages, or from any of them into English. Review machine translation before you use it.

Finished transcripts stay in this browser under Saved transcripts, so you can reopen a memo later without another job. Recording an interview on your phone? See interview transcription for setting up a clean recording.

Sources: Apple, iPhone User Guide, "View a Voice Memos transcription on iPhone", "Share a recording in Voice Memos on iPhone" and "Export a Voice Memos recording to Files on iPhone"; Google, Pixel Phone Help, "Use the Recorder app on your Pixel device". Checked October 11, 2026.