Can Apple Notes transcribe audio recordings?

Yes. The Notes app can transcribe audio that you record inside a note, on an iPhone or iPad with iOS or iPadOS 18 or later. A university help article says that this version is the one that added on-device transcription of recordings ¹. A recording made in Notes is different from one made in Voice Memos, so check which app you used before you look for the transcript.

The steps for a live recording in a note

A university IT help article describes the steps for recording in Notes on iPhone:

1. Open the Notes app and open a note.
2. Tap the paperclip icon, then tap Record Audio.
3. Tap the red start button to record, and tap the red stop button when you are done.
4. Tap the chat bubble icon to see the transcript. Spoken words in supported languages are transcribed automatically ².

The guide to transcribing voice memos and voice notes explains how to check a draft against the sound before you rely on it.

Notes or Voice Memos: which to choose

Choose Notes when you want the recording and its transcript in the same note as your other writing. Choose Voice Memos when the recording should stand alone, or when you already have a recording and want its transcript. The two routes have different requirements. The Notes route needs iOS or iPadOS 18 or later, according to the university article ¹. Apple says Voice Memos transcription is available on iPhone 12 or later ³, so check the requirement for the route you choose.

When the chat bubble does not appear

If the chat bubble icon is missing, the cause is one of two things. The phone either does not meet the minimum requirements, or it does not detect a supported language ⁴. Check these in order:

• The iOS version. Look in Settings for the software version. A phone that cannot run iOS 18 does not meet the minimum requirements, so the chat bubble may not appear.
• The language. A language the feature does not detect as supported can also hide the icon.

The article does not list the minimum models or the supported languages, so check Apple's current pages for those details.

Transcribing an existing recording

A recording you made earlier in Voice Memos uses a different route. Open the recording, choose Edit Recording, and tap the speech bubble icon in the bottom left to generate the transcription ⁵. The Voice Memos steps are explained in the guide to voice memos. If the recording came from another app, export the audio file and transcribe it with a file tool, as the same guide describes.

What we could not verify

We could not open Apple's own Notes support page from this check, so the steps above come from a university help article, not from Apple. We also did not verify how a Notes transcript is exported, so copy the text out of the note and check it against the audio before you use it.

For the wider subject, see our overview of transcription, and for the built-in options on phones, dictation on iPhone. The question on Android recordings covers the same job on a Pixel or Galaxy phone.