Turn voice memos into text you can use.

What people use voice memos for

Voice memos are the fastest way to capture something when typing is not practical: an idea while walking, a draft of an email, a to-do list in the car, notes after a client visit, a song lyric idea or a reflection at the end of the day. They are also how many people record lectures, interviews and family stories. A transcript turns those recordings into text you can search, edit and act on.

Dictation vs transcribing a memo

Phone keyboards include live dictation, which is great for short messages. Recording a memo and transcribing it afterwards works better for longer thoughts: you can speak naturally without watching the screen, pause and restart, and keep the original audio to check later. It also works for recordings of other people, such as interviews and lectures, where live dictation is not an option.

Tips for clearer memos

Hold the phone close

A phone held near your mouth, or placed close to the speaker, picks up much clearer speech than one in a pocket or across a room.

Say names and spell unusual words

If a memo contains a name or term you will need later, say it clearly or spell it. Recognition is good with common words but can guess wrong on unusual names.

Mind the wind

Recording outdoors? Wind noise is the most common reason a memo transcribes badly. Turn away from the wind or shelter the microphone with your hand.

Organising transcribed memos

Export Markdown to paste memos into note apps that understand headings and lists, or DOCX when the memo is a draft document. For long memos, search the transcript and click a timestamp to hear the original. With an account, an AI summary can condense a long, rambling memo into key points with references back to the text.

Languages

Media2Text documents 60 transcription languages with automatic language identification, so memos in English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and many other languages can be transcribed without changing settings.

Reviewing the transcript before you use it

Automatic transcription gives you a fast, timed draft. Before you publish, quote or share it, spend a few minutes on the parts that matter most. Rename the speaker labels so every export shows real names. Use find and replace for names, brands and technical terms that appear more than once. Then click the timestamps for the passages you will actually quote and listen to them: overlapping voices, background music and fast speech are where errors cluster. The editor keeps the text and the audio together, so checking a line takes seconds instead of scrubbing through the whole recording.

Plans

The free trial includes up to 2 lifetime transcription tasks sharing 75 minutes in total, with no credit card. Paid plans have unlimited uploads and accept files up to 5 hours 15 minutes long.