Can you use a voice recorder for dictation?

Yes. A voice recorder can capture dictation, and a phone or a pocket recorder is enough for the speaking part. What a recorder cannot do is turn your speech into text. Someone or some software has to do that afterward, or you have to use live speech recognition instead. Whether a plain recorder is good enough depends on who will type the words and what they need from the file. The dictation machine guide covers the wider set of devices.

A voice recorder stores speech, and text comes from a separate step

Recording and typing are separate steps in dictation. A recorder saves audio, and a typist, a transcription program or a built-in transcript feature turns that audio into words later. That is the split of the twentieth-century office, when business people recorded voice letters and a secretary typed them up from the recordings ¹.

The split also explains the difference between a recorder and a dictation tool. A recorder is judged on how clearly it captures a voice. A dictation tool is judged on whether the words come out right. Our guide to dictation microphones explains why the first affects the second.

Built-in transcription on recent phones can turn a recording into text

Some phones and tablets can already transcribe recordings. On an iPad, Apple says Voice Memos can produce a transcript on supported models, in English and nine other languages ². Apple also says transcription is not available in all countries or regions, so check Apple's note for yours ³.

On an iPhone running iOS 18 or later, a university help article gives the steps. Open the recording, choose Edit Recording, then tap the speech bubble icon in the bottom left to generate the transcription ⁴. The same article says iOS and iPadOS 18 added on-device transcription of recordings ⁵. Menu names change between versions, so check Apple's current iPhone guide if a step does not match your screen.

This is the simplest route for personal notes. For a document that a typist must correct, a transcript from a phone is a draft, and the errors still need checking.

A dedicated dictation recorder adds file features that a typist needs

Dictation recorders save audio in formats designed for dictation. Philips says its DSS format was designed for digital voice recorders and gives a high compression ratio with little loss of quality ⁶. OM System describes the same format as suited to dictation because it can record in two modes: overwrite and insert ⁷. Those two modes suggest the format was meant for revising dictation, although the page does not explain them in detail.

The formats also differ in quality claims. OM System says the DS2 format's better sound quality improves speech recognition results ⁸. It also provides file encryption at 128-bit or 256-bit AES ⁹. That is the vendor's claim, and the page does not give accuracy figures, so test it on your own files before relying on it.

Recognition depends on the input too. Bauer and colleagues state that dictation and other large-vocabulary applications principally use a sampling rate of at least 16 kHz, especially in noisy environments ¹⁰. A recorder that captures audio below that rate may give a worse transcript, whatever its file format.

A phone can be the recorder in a law firm's workflow

Dedicated hardware is not required for every workflow. A 2014 trade report described a Pennsylvania law firm whose lawyers recorded notes on smartphones and uploaded the audio files to the firm's data center ¹¹. The report describes one firm, so it shows the workflow exists, not how common it is. The phone captured the audio, and the firm's data center received the files directly.

Use a phone or laptop when the recording is for you, when you can check the words yourself, or when a transcript feature on the device is accurate enough. Consider a dedicated recorder when a typist will work from your files, when the office already uses a dictation format, or when you need a physical button to control playback.

What to do if you want to dictate with a recorder

1. Record close to the microphone. A recorder left across the room picks up the room more than your voice. The question on microphone distance covers the practical distances.
2. Test the transcript before you rely on it. Record one passage you already know, transcribe it, and count the errors.
3. Transcribe an existing file on the web. The free in-browser audio to text tool converts a recording you already have.
4. Pick a dedicated recorder only for a typing workflow. If a typist needs the file, match the format to what their software accepts before you buy.

The terms are explained in the dictaphone glossary entry and the digital dictation entry. Related questions are what is a dictation foot pedal, is there a device that types what you say, and is a laptop microphone good enough for dictation.

For the whole subject, see the dictation overview.