How to transcribe Apple Voice Memos on iPhone and Mac

Yes, Voice Memos transcribes your recordings by itself. On an iPhone 12 or later, or a Mac with Apple silicon on macOS Sequoia or later, open a recording, tap or click the Transcription button, and the text is there. You can copy all of it in one go on iPhone, or select and copy it on a Mac.

If the transcript button is missing, the language isn't supported, or you're on an older device, there are fixes below, plus a way to transcribe any memo locally on your Mac. Requirements and steps come from Apple's Voice Memos guides for iPhone and Mac, checked November 2026.

#Who gets Voice Memos transcripts

Transcription isn't available in every country or region. Old recordings count too: if you open a memo made in iOS 17, macOS 14 or earlier, or on a device without transcription, Voice Memos transcribes it automatically as long as it contains speech.

#How to transcribe a voice memo on iPhone

While you record

1. Open Voice Memos (it lives in the Utilities folder unless you've moved it).
2. Tap the record button.
3. Swipe up from the top of the waveform, then tap the Transcription button.
4. The waveform gives way to the live transcript, with the current word highlighted. Tap Done when you finish.

After you record

1. Open Voice Memos and tap the recording.
2. Open the recording's menu and choose Copy Transcript to copy everything, or View Transcript to select and copy part of it.
3. Paste it into Notes, Mail, Pages or wherever it needs to go.

With Apple Intelligence on a supported iPhone (iPhone 15 Pro or later), you can then use Writing Tools to summarize or proofread the text.

#How to transcribe a voice memo on Mac

1. Open Voice Memos on your Mac.
2. Click the recording in the list.
3. Click the Transcription button at the top of the window.
4. Select the text you want, Control-click it, and choose Copy.
5. Paste it into a document or a Mail message.

Apple's Mac guide only describes selecting and copying, so to grab everything, select the whole transcript before you copy. Clicking a word in the transcript moves the playhead to that spot, which is handy for checking a name you're not sure about.

Recordings from your iPhone show up on the Mac when Voice Memos is turned on under System Settings › [your name] › iCloud › Saved to iCloud › See All and in iCloud settings on the iPhone, with both signed in to the same Apple Account.

#What Studio Voice and Enhance Recording do

Both live in the playback options on the Mac (select a recording, then click the options button):

• Enhance Recording reduces background noise and reverberation.
• Studio Voice appears only for Spatial Audio recordings made on a supported iPhone. Turn it on and move the slider to set how much background noise is removed. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later.

Neither one edits the transcript. They change how the recording sounds when you play it back. If a transcript has gaps because of noise, the reliable fix is recording closer to the mic next time. On iPhone, you can choose Voice Isolation in Control Center while Voice Memos is recording to filter out background sound.

#When the transcript is missing or wrong

No Transcription button. The device or language isn't supported, or transcription isn't offered in your region. On a Mac, check that it has Apple silicon (Apple menu › About This Mac shows "Chip: Apple M…") and is on macOS Sequoia or later. Intel Macs don't get Voice Memos transcription.

A memo in another language comes out as nonsense. Voice Memos only transcribes the languages listed above. Dutch, Polish, Hindi or Arabic recordings need a different tool.

The recording isn't on your Mac. Turn on Voice Memos in iCloud on both devices. On macOS 15.1 or earlier, layered recordings from supported iPhones don't appear on the Mac.

#When the built-in transcript is enough

For a reminder you recorded on a walk, a lecture you want to search, or a quick brain dump, Voice Memos does the job for free. Search alone makes it worth keeping your memos there: type a word you remember saying and the right recording comes up.

It's less helpful when you need the text to be usable. You get every "um" and false start, one long block with no paragraphs, and no way to transcribe a language outside Apple's list.

#Transcribe any memo on your Mac with Sayburst

Sayburst is a Mac dictation app, and it also transcribes files. Drag the recording out of Voice Memos into a Finder window (Apple's guide says you can drag a recording to save it anywhere), then drop that file on Sayburst's History window. It's transcribed on your Mac with the same speech models Sayburst uses for dictation, and the audio never leaves the machine.

That helps where Voice Memos can't:

• More languages. Parakeet v3 covers English and 24 European languages, including Dutch, Polish and Ukrainian. Whisper Large v3 Turbo covers 99 languages, including Hindi, Arabic, Japanese and Korean.
• Video too. Drop a screen recording or a phone video and you get the speech as text.
• Offline. Once a model is downloaded, file transcription needs no internet.

Like Voice Memos transcription, it needs an Apple silicon Mac; Sayburst runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

#Or skip the memo entirely

A lot of voice memos are notes to yourself that you later have to transcribe and tidy. If you're at your Mac, you can cut out that step. Sayburst's notes shortcut appends a timestamped bullet under today's date in a Markdown file you choose.

You hold the notes shortcut and say:

"Remind me to, um, send Priya the venue contract, and the deposit is four hundred, not three fifty"

A timestamped bullet is added under today's date in your notes file:

Remind me to send Priya the venue contract, and the deposit is four hundred, not three fifty.

The cleanup happens on the Mac too: the filler goes, punctuation is added, and the note is waiting in your file when you sit down to work through it. For everything else, holding fn types straight into the document you're working in.

For longer recordings with several speakers, like interviews and meetings, a dedicated transcription app is the better fit. The best transcription software compares them, and dictation vs transcription explains when each makes sense. If you just want a quick way to turn audio files into text, see our audio to text converter guide.

Questions people ask

Does Voice Memos transcribe automatically?

Yes, on supported devices. iPhone 12 or later and Macs with Apple silicon running macOS Sequoia or later transcribe speech in Voice Memos, both live while you record and afterwards. It isn't available in every language, country or region.

How do I get a transcript from a voice memo?

On iPhone, open the recording's menu and choose Copy Transcript, or View Transcript to copy part of it. On a Mac, select the recording, click the Transcription button, select the text, Control-click and choose Copy.

What is Studio Voice in Voice Memos?

Studio Voice is a playback setting on the Mac that reduces background noise in Spatial Audio recordings made on a supported iPhone, with a slider for how strong the effect is. It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later. It changes how the recording sounds, not the transcript.

Which languages can Voice Memos transcribe?

Apple lists English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese on iPhone. For other languages you need a separate transcription tool.

Can I export a Voice Memos transcript as a file?

Apple's guides describe copying the transcript, not exporting it as a file. Copy it and paste it into Notes, Pages, TextEdit or an email.