How to transcribe a voice memo on iPhone (free and offline)

We built Linen because we kept watching people pay by the minute, or upload a private recording to someone’s server, just to read back what they had said. A voice memo is often personal: a doctor’s appointment, a family story, a half-formed idea. We wanted the transcript made on the phone, kept private, with no minutes to buy.

The good news is that your iPhone can already do a lot of this for free. Here are the built-in ways first, then how Linen handles it.

Option 1: Use the transcript inside Voice Memos

Since iOS 18, Voice Memos turns speech in your recordings into text. According to Apple, it works on iPhone 12 or later in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese. It isn’t offered in every country or region.

1. Open Voice Memos. It lives in the Utilities folder if it’s not on your home screen.

2. Tap the recording. Pick the memo you want as text.

3. Tap the More button (the three dots). You’ll see two choices.

4. Choose View Transcript or Copy Transcript. View Transcript lets you select just part of the text and tap Copy. Copy Transcript grabs the whole thing in one go.

5. Paste it where you need it. A note, an email, a message, a document.

A few extras worth knowing:

• You can watch it live. While recording, swipe up from the top of the waveform and tap the transcript button to see words appear as you speak.
• Search works on the words. Tap the search button in Voice Memos and type a word. The list shows recordings with that word in the title or the transcript.
• Old memos count too. Apple says recordings made in iOS 17 or earlier are transcribed automatically when you open them, as long as they contain speech.

For most quick memos, this is all you need.

Option 2: Record straight into Notes

If you’re recording something new and want the text to live next to your notes, the Notes app can record audio with a transcript, on iPhone 12 and later with the device language set to one of the same supported languages.

1. Open a note and tap the attachment button (the paperclip).

2. Tap Record Audio, then the record button.

3. Tap the transcript button to see the words live, or just keep talking.

4. When you’re done, tap the audio in the note, then the transcript button to review it. From there you can tap any line to hear that moment, use Find in Transcript, or choose Add Transcript to Note or Copy Transcript.

Notes is lovely for lectures and meetings where you also want to jot your own thoughts. It works with recordings you make in Notes, so for a memo you already have, Voice Memos is the simpler route.

What about Dictation?

Dictation is the microphone on your keyboard. Apple says it’s processed on your iPhone in many languages and needs no internet connection. It’s great for speaking a message or a note as you go, but it’s meant for live speech into a text field, not for turning an existing recording into text.

When the built-in options aren’t enough

Apple’s tools are good and free. People usually look further when they want:

• Timestamps. A transcript you can scan by time, so you can find the part at minute 12 without scrolling.
• A file, not just copied text. A TXT file to keep, or SRT subtitles for a video.
• Audio from somewhere else. A recording in Files, or the sound from a video.
• One private place for all your transcripts, searchable together.

That’s the gap Linen fills.

How to transcribe a voice memo with Linen

Linen uses Apple’s own on-device speech engine (SpeechAnalyzer, new in iOS 26), so it needs iOS 26. Your audio is never uploaded, and once a language is downloaded it works in airplane mode.

1. Share the memo to Linen. In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button, tap Share, then choose Linen.

2. Let it transcribe. It happens on the phone, usually well under a minute on a recent iPhone. The first time you use a language, Linen downloads it once.

3. Read it in paragraphs. Each paragraph has a timestamp. Tap a paragraph to play the audio from that point, and the playing paragraph is highlighted so you can follow along.

4. Check the tricky parts. Play at 1x, 1.5x or 2x, and skip back 10 seconds when a name goes by too fast. Use find to jump to a word inside the memo.

5. Take the text with you. Copy the text or export a TXT file. With Linen Pro you can also export SRT subtitles or share the audio together with its text.

You can also record right in Linen. It keeps recording with the screen locked, which helps in long meetings or lectures.

Tips for a cleaner transcript

• Get close to the speaker. Distance and echo cost more accuracy than anything else.
• Pick a quiet spot. Music, traffic and clattering cups all compete with the voice.
• One voice at a time. People talking over each other is hard for any speech engine.
• Skim with the audio. Tap the paragraphs that look odd and listen, rather than rereading everything.

What it costs

Voice Memos and Notes are free. Linen is free for your first 3 transcripts, up to 5 minutes each, with no card needed. Linen Pro removes the limits (unlimited transcripts of any length) for $29.99 a year with a 3-day free trial, or $4.99 a week.

Want the text from a video instead? See how to get a transcript from a video on your iPhone. Not sure which tool fits you? Read Notes, Voice Memos or an app.