How to transcribe a voice memo on iPhone

A voice memo is quick to make and slow to use. To find one sentence you have to listen to the whole recording again. Text fixes that. You can search it, skim it, paste it into an email, or read it back in a meeting without playing anything out loud.

This guide covers three ways to turn a voice memo into text on iPhone. Two of them use Memo, a free app for iPhone on iOS 26 or later. One of them never sends the audio anywhere.

Option 1: the transcript built into Voice Memos

iOS includes a transcript feature in Apple’s Voice Memos app, so you can read the words of a recording without leaving that app. It gives you the words and nothing else, which is fine when a plain copy of what was said is all you need.

If you want a summary, a title, or a way to ask questions about what was said, use one of the next two options.

Option 2: share a Voice Memos recording into Memo

You do not need to record anything again. Memo appears in the iOS share sheet for MP3, M4A and WAV files, so a recording you already have in Voice Memos, or any audio file in Files, can be shared straight into Memo.

1. Open the recording in Voice Memos and choose Share.
2. Pick Memo from the share sheet.
3. Memo takes the file from there and starts processing it.

When it finishes, you get a transcript, a summary, a title and an emoji. You can also open a chat about the memo and ask questions, such as “what did we agree about the deadline?” or “which names were mentioned?”

What happens to the audio depends on the engine you have chosen in Memo. With On-device AI, the file is processed on your phone and never leaves it. With Cloud AI, the app asks before it uploads the file to Memo’s servers, and nothing is sent until you say yes. The section on engines below explains the difference in full.

Audio files can also be imported from inside Memo, which is useful for recordings that arrive by email or in a messaging app. Save the file, then share it into Memo or import it.

The same route works for a phone call. Memo does not record calls itself. On iPhone you start a call recording from the Phone app during the call, iOS announces to everyone that the call is being recorded, and the recording is saved in the Notes app. Share it from Notes into Memo, or use the import step in Memo’s ”+” menu, and you get the transcript and the summary the same way.

Option 3: record directly in Memo

If you have not recorded yet, skip Voice Memos and record in Memo. Start a recording, then carry on using your phone. Recording keeps running in the background while you use other apps, so you can check a calendar or look something up without stopping it.

When you stop, Memo produces the transcript, the summary, the title and the emoji, and the original audio stays available from the memo menu. Everything about that memo is in one place.

Memo is free on the App Store. On the free tier, Cloud AI recordings can be up to 30 minutes long and there is a daily allowance. A Memo Pro subscription lifts those limits. On-device AI has no upload limits, because nothing is uploaded.

On-device AI or Cloud AI: what happens to the audio

Memo has two engines, and you choose which one to use.

On-device AI uses Apple’s speech model for the transcript and Apple Intelligence for the summary. The audio never leaves your iPhone. You do not need an account, and it works without a connection, so it is the right choice on a plane, in a basement, or whenever the recording is sensitive. It is available on iPhones with Apple Intelligence: iPhone 15 Pro and later, and every iPhone 16 and 17, with Apple Intelligence turned on. It works in the languages Apple supports on the device.

Cloud AI works on every iPhone running iOS 26 and handles more than 99 languages. The audio is uploaded to Memo’s servers and processed by AI providers. You need to sign in with Apple or Google, and the app asks before every upload. Memo never uses your audio or your text to train AI models. The full details are in the privacy policy.

A simple way to decide: if your phone supports On-device AI and your language is one Apple supports on the device, start there. If you need another language, or you have an older iPhone, Cloud AI is the option that works everywhere.

Whichever engine you pick, Memo’s own interface is available in English, Arabic, German, Spanish, French, Japanese and Brazilian Portuguese.

What to do with the text

Once a memo has a transcript, the text is yours to use. From the memo menu you can:

• Copy the text and paste it anywhere.
• Share it to another app, a message or an email.
• Print it, or save it as a PDF for a file that is easy to send and keep.
• Download the audio if you want the original recording as a file.

You can also ask questions in the chat instead of reading the whole transcript. Ask for the decisions, the names, or the one number you cannot remember, and Memo answers from the memo.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need an account to transcribe a voice memo?

Not with On-device AI. It works without an account and without a connection, and the audio stays on your phone. Cloud AI needs Sign in with Apple or Google, because the audio is processed on Memo’s servers.

Can I transcribe a recording that is not from Voice Memos?

Yes. Any MP3, M4A or WAV file can be shared into Memo from the iOS share sheet, or imported from inside the app. That covers files in Files, email attachments, and recordings made in other apps.

Why does my memo say “No speech was detected”?

The recording was silent or too quiet for a transcript. Record again, closer to the microphone. If the problem continues, the support page explains how to get in touch.

Turning a voice memo into text takes one share, or one tap to record, and you decide whether the audio stays on your phone. If you have an iPhone on iOS 26 or later, get Memo on the App Store and try it with the last memo you recorded.