How do you turn a voice recording into text on Android?

Use the recorder app that made the recording. On a Pixel, Recorder has a Live Transcription capability and, according to a 2023 report, a Transcribe again option for languages it does not cover ¹. On a Galaxy phone, Voice Recorder can transcribe a saved recording ² with Transcript assist on supported models ³. Only when neither applies should you export the audio and send it to a file transcription tool.

Pixel: Recorder and Transcribe again

Recorder's live feature does not cover every language. If you record in another language, open the recording and choose Transcribe again, then pick the language. A 2023 report on the feature says the option gives a transcript in languages that the live capability does not support ¹.

We could not open Google's Recorder help page from this check, so we do not list the Pixel models or the full language list here. Open the Recorder settings on your own phone to see which languages it offers.

Galaxy: Voice Recorder with Transcript assist

Samsung's steps for a saved recording are:

1. Open the Voice Recorder app and make the recording.
2. Select the recording, then tap the Transcript assist icon, the four stars at the top of the screen.
3. Tap Transcribe ².

Samsung says Transcript assist is on select Galaxy models, and that availability may vary by model and region ³. Its US page lists 16 languages for Transcript assist, including several regional forms of English, Spanish and Portuguese ⁴. If the option is missing on your phone, the model or region is the likely reason. Menu names change with each software update, so match the steps above against your own screen before you rely on them.

Messages: voice messages you receive

Google Messages can transcribe voice messages that other people send you, but it hides the text by default, so you open it by tapping the text ⁵. This route is for messages you receive, not for your own recordings. The guide to voice typing on Android covers the keyboard side.

Any other recording: export and transcribe the file

For a recording from another app, export the audio and check the size before you upload it. OpenAI's transcription API accepts files up to 25 MB, and a larger recording must be compressed or split into chunks of 25 MB or less ⁶. Other tools have their own limits, so check the tool you pick. The guide to voice memos and voice notes walks through the export and upload steps.

Check the transcript before you use it

Every built-in draft needs a check against the audio. In a 2018 study of clinical notes dictated with speech recognition, 96.3 percent of the drafts had at least one error ⁷. Clinical notes are longer and more technical than a phone memo, so your error rate may be lower, but the check is still needed. Read the numbers, names and technical terms against the recording before you rely on the text. The glossary entry on word error rate explains how error rates are measured.

Related questions

If your recording is a call, see how to transcribe a phone call. For Apple devices, see can Apple Notes transcribe audio. For the wider picture on phones, see our overview of transcription.