How to share a voice note as text with a private link

An audio file is a bad way to share what someone said. The person you send it to has to play it, in order, at the speed it was spoken, and cannot search it. A link to the transcript and the summary is better in every way: it opens on any phone or laptop, it can be skimmed in a minute and it can be searched. This guide shows how to share a voice note as text from iPhone with Memo, a free app for iOS 26 or later.

The three ways to share a memo

Open a memo and use its menu. You can share:

1. The summary as text, for the colleague who wants the decisions and nothing else.
2. The transcript as text, for the colleague who wants every word.
3. The whole memo as a private link, which opens in a browser with the summary, the transcript and the to-dos on one page.

The first two go through the iOS share sheet, so they can land in Mail, Messages, Slack, Notes or any app that takes text. The third gives you a link to paste anywhere.

Step by step: the private link

1. Open the memo.
2. Open the memo menu and choose the share option for a link.
3. Memo creates a private link on withmemo.app. Paste it into a message, an email or a document.

Anyone with the link can read the page in a browser without installing anything. That is what makes it useful for a client, a classmate or a family member who does not have Memo.

What “private” means here

The link is unguessable: it contains a long random identifier, and the page is not listed anywhere, not in search engines and not on the site. Only people you give the link to can open it. It is private in the way an unlisted document is private: share it with care, because anyone who has it can read the memo and forward the link.

A memo processed with On-device AI stays on your iPhone unless you share it; creating a link publishes that memo’s text through Memo’s servers so a browser can show it. Does my audio leave my phone? explains what each engine does with your audio.

When to send text instead of a link

• Send the summary as text when the reader should have it inside their own tool, for example pasted into a ticket or a team chat, and will not need the transcript.
• Send the transcript as text when the words themselves matter, for example a quote for an article or the exact wording of an agreement.
• Send the link when you want to give everything at once and keep one place to point back to. It is also the option that survives a long thread: the link is the same next month.

Export for the record

For a document rather than a link, the memo menu also offers Export as PDF and Print, and you can copy the summary or the transcript to paste anywhere. The original audio can be shared or downloaded from the same menu, for the rare reader who really does want to listen. Export a memo has every option.

Sharing notes from a meeting

The private link is the natural way to send meeting notes: one message with the link, and every attendee has the summary, the decisions, the to-dos with their owners and the transcript to settle any dispute. Record the meeting with the phone on the table, stop when it ends and share the link before you leave the room. How to summarize a meeting recording on iPhone covers the recording side.

Sharing notes with someone who does not speak the language

The page shows the memo in the language it was recorded in. If the reader needs it in another language, ask the chat tab to translate the summary first, copy the result and send that as text. The chat answers from the recording, so the translation is of what was said, not of a guess.

Deleting a shared memo

Delete the memo in the app and the link stops working. Deleting your account removes your cloud memos, their audio and their links; Delete memos and your account walks through it.

The short version

For decisions, share the summary as text. For the exact words, share the transcript. For everything in one place that opens anywhere, share the private link, and treat it like an unlisted document.