ReferatHow to transcribe Voice Memos on iPhone
Open Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button (…) and choose View Transcript or Copy Transcript. The transcript is built in on iPhone 12 or later, in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean and a few other languages. If there's no transcript, or you want to see who said what, share the memo to a transcription app instead.
With Voice Memos itself
- Open Voice Memos. It's in the Utilities folder if it isn't on your Home Screen.
- Tap the recording.
- Tap the More button (…), then choose View Transcript to read and select text, or Copy Transcript to copy all of it.
- Paste the text into Mail, Notes or a document.
While you record, you can swipe up from the top of the waveform and tap the transcript button to watch the text appear live. The search field in Voice Memos also finds words inside transcripts. Apple's guide
When there's no transcript
Apple lists three limits:
- Your iPhone: transcripts need iPhone 12 or later.
- The language: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (simplified and traditional). Danish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian and many others aren't on the list.
- Your country or region: the feature isn't available everywhere.
Older recordings made with iOS 17 or earlier are transcribed when you open them, as long as they contain speech.
With speaker names and a summary: Referat
Referat is a free iPhone app for meetings, interviews and lectures. It writes down who said what and makes a short summary with action items, all on the phone: no account, no upload, no minute limits.
- In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button (…) and choose Share.
- Choose Referat in the share sheet. Not there? Scroll the row of apps to the end and tap More.
- Open Referat. The memo is transcribed on your iPhone and each speaker gets a number. Tap Rename speakers to give them names.
- Copy the summary into an email, or export the transcript as text, PDF or subtitles.
Referat transcribes English, Danish, German, French, Spanish, Japanese and Korean and finds the language by itself. The first time, it downloads its speech model once; after that it works offline. Summaries need iOS 26 and an iPhone with Apple Intelligence (iPhone 15 Pro or newer); transcripts work from iOS 17.
Which one to use
For a short note in a supported language, Voice Memos' own transcript is the quickest. For a meeting, an interview or a lecture with several people, or a language Voice Memos doesn't transcribe, Referat gives you the speakers and the summary too. Haven't recorded yet? Read how to record a meeting on iPhone.