Apple Voice Memos review
7.2/10★★★★★Free, private transcripts built into Voice Memos on iPhone, iPad and Mac
- Best for
- iPhone and Mac owners who want quick, free transcripts of personal voice notes
- Price
- Free
Free: Built into iPhone, iPad and Mac at no cost - Platforms
- iOS, Mac
- Made by
- Apple, Cupertino, USA
What it is
Apple's Voice Memos app transcribes recordings on the device, live while you record or afterwards, and lets you search and copy the text. It is free and private, but has no speaker labels and only basic copy-and-share export.
What the AI does
- On-device speech-to-text
- Live transcript while recording
- Search recordings by transcript text
- Summaries with Writing Tools on supported Macs
Pros and cons
- Completely free and already on your device
- Transcription stays on the device
- Fast, with a live transcript while recording
- No speaker labels: interviews come out as one block of text
- Only copy-and-paste or share, no TXT/DOCX/SRT export
- Supports far fewer languages than dedicated apps
How it scores
A free, private starting point for personal memos; too basic for interviews, meetings or subtitles.
Feature checklist · 2 of 9
- Transcribes uploaded audio and video files (no)
- Records audio in the app or on its own device (yes)
- Labels different speakers (no)
- Transcribes 50+ languages (no)
- Can transcribe on your device, without uploading audio (yes)
- Exports subtitles (SRT or VTT) (no)
- AI summaries or Ask AI about recordings (no)
- Translates transcripts into other languages (no)
- Optional human-checked transcripts (no)
Alternatives
See all Apple Voice Memos alternatives, ranked →
- MacWhisper 8.1/10Mac users who transcribe a lot of files and want privacy and a one-time price
- Happy Scribe 7.8/10Video teams and researchers who need accurate transcripts and subtitles in many languages
- Rev 7.8/10Journalists, lawyers and researchers who sometimes need a guaranteed-accurate transcript
- Plaud 7.7/10People who record in-person meetings, lectures and phone calls and want a dedicated recorder
MacWhisper vs Apple Voice Memos