How to transcribe a voice memo
- Move the memo to your computer. iPhone: Share, then AirDrop or Save to Files. Android: USB cable, Google Drive or Quick Share. WhatsApp: share the voice note and save it as a file.
- Drag it into Scrieb. When it asks what the file is, choose "Voice memo". That picks the Voice memo summary type and how many speakers to look for.
- Let it transcribe. Whisper runs on your Mac or PC. Silent stretches and background noise are skipped, so pauses don't turn into invented sentences.
- Use the text. Copy it into notes or an email, or export as Word (.docx), PDF, plain text or Markdown.
Getting the memo off your phone
| From | To a Mac | To a Windows PC | File type |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone Voice Memos | AirDrop, or drag it out of Voice Memos on the Mac (iCloud sync) | Save to Files → iCloud Drive, then iCloud for Windows; or email it | M4A |
| Android recorder | Google Drive, Quick Share or email | USB cable, Google Drive or Quick Share | M4A, MP3 or 3GP |
| WhatsApp voice note | Share → AirDrop or Save to Files | Share → email or a cloud folder | Opus (or M4A) |
| Telegram, Signal | Save or share the audio file | Save or share the audio file | Opus, OGG or M4A |
Share the original file rather than forwarding it through another messenger. Every forward compresses the audio again, and Whisper hears the difference.
Built-in phone transcripts vs your computer
| Transcript in the phone app | Scrieb on your Mac or PC | |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Fine for short notes | Long memos, interviews and lectures |
| Speakers | One block of text | Labelled by speaker, renamable |
| Summary | No | Voice memo, interview, lecture or your own type |
| Export | Copy and paste | Word, PDF, text, Markdown |
| Many memos | One at a time | Batch import, search across all of them |
| Languages | Depends on phone and region | Whisper languages, detected from the speech |
What people transcribe from voice memos
Interviews
The phone on the table is the most common interview recorder. Choose "Interview" on import to get speaker labels and quotes by topic.
Ideas and drafts
Talk through a draft on a walk and pick it up later as text, with a short summary on top.
Lectures and talks
A memo from the back row becomes a searchable transcript and lecture notes.
Voice notes from clients or patients
Messages that should not go through an online converter stay on your computer and go into the file as text.
Better transcripts from a phone recording
- Keep the phone close to whoever is speaking, not in a pocket or on a windowsill.
- Use Whisper Large v3 Turbo for accents, noisy rooms or mixed languages. Small and Medium are faster on older laptops.
- Add names and terms to the custom vocabulary, so people, places and product names come out spelled right.
- Set the language under Transcribe again if a short memo was detected as the wrong one.
Recording on the Mac instead? Scrieb records a voice note from the menu bar, microphone only. More on files in general: audio to text and transcribe MP3.
Pricing
Free plan: 1 hour of recording per day with speaker labels and summaries. Pro: no minute limits, one licence for Mac and Windows.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I convert a voice memo to text?
- Get the memo onto your computer (AirDrop or Files on iPhone, USB or a cloud folder on Android), drag it into Scrieb and choose "Voice memo". Whisper transcribes it on your computer, and you get the transcript and a short summary that you can copy or export as Word, PDF, text or Markdown.
- Can iPhone Voice Memos transcribe by itself?
- Recent iOS versions can show a transcript inside the Voice Memos app for some languages. It is useful for a quick look, but it stays in the app, has no speaker labels and no export to Word. For interviews, long recordings or several memos, transcribing on your Mac or PC gives you a full document you can keep.
- How do I get a voice memo from my iPhone to my computer?
- In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the three dots and choose Share. Send it by AirDrop to a Mac or choose Save to Files and put it in iCloud Drive. On a Mac with iCloud, the Voice Memos app shows the same recordings, and you can drag one straight out of it. The file is an M4A, which Scrieb reads directly.
- Does it work on Windows?
- Yes. Save the memo to iCloud Drive from the iPhone and open it on the PC through iCloud for Windows or icloud.com, or email it to yourself. Android phones connect by USB and show up as a drive. Scrieb for Windows works the same as on the Mac.
- Which formats can I import?
- M4A (iPhone), MP3, WAV, AAC, OGG, FLAC, Opus (WhatsApp and Telegram voice notes), 3GP (older Android recorders), WMA and AIFF, plus video files. No conversion step is needed.
- Can I transcribe several voice memos at once?
- Yes. Drag them in together. Scrieb works through them one after another in the background, replaces names like "New Recording 23" with a short title based on what was said, and search then finds a phrase across all of them.
- Does it recognise two people in one memo?
- Yes. Speaker identification runs locally. Choose "Interview" instead of "Voice memo" when you import a conversation, and the summary groups the questions and answers by topic.
- Is it free?
- The free plan includes 1 hour of recording per day, which covers most voice memos, with no card needed. Pro removes the limit and covers Mac and Windows with one licence.