I make ScribeKit, one of those apps, so I'll be clear about where Apple's free option is enough and where it isn't.
Should a meeting recording be uploaded at all?
Meetings are full of things that aren't yours alone: a colleague's salary, a client's plans, a patient's name, an unannounced product. A cloud transcription service keeps that audio and its transcript on its servers. There, its staff, its subprocessors and legal requests can reach it.
Transcribing on the phone narrows that list to you. The audio and the text sit on your iPhone, where your passcode protects them, until you choose to share the transcript.
Before you record, ask. Recording laws differ by country and state, and many require everyone's consent. Saying "I'm recording this so I can transcribe it on my phone" is also good manners.
Can Voice Memos transcribe a meeting?
Often, yes, and it's the first thing to try. Apple's Voice Memos guide says: "Audio transcription is available on iPhone 12 or later in English (all variants), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese. It's not available in all countries or regions."
Record the meeting in Voice Memos. Afterwards, open the recording, tap the More button and choose View Transcript or Copy Transcript. The Notes guide offers the same for audio you record inside a note, "when the device language is set to" one of those ten languages.
It falls short in three common meeting situations:
- An older iPhone. An iPhone 11 runs iOS 18 but doesn't get audio transcription.
- Another language, or a mix. A meeting in Polish, Dutch or Ukrainian, or one that switches languages, is outside the ten, and there is no language picker.
- A file from someone else. Apple documents no way to import an audio file into Voice Memos for transcription on iPhone. So a recording a colleague sends you, or the audio exported from a video call, can't be transcribed there.
How do I transcribe a meeting recording on the phone instead?
With ScribeKit, the speech model ships inside the app, so this works from the first launch, even in Airplane Mode:
- Record or import. Record the meeting in ScribeKit; Pause and Stop sit on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, so you can put the phone face down. Or import an audio file from Files: m4a, mp3, wav and anything else iOS can play. You can also share a recording into ScribeKit from Voice Memos.
- Let it transcribe. The built-in Parakeet model detects the language among its 25 and writes a timestamped transcript on the phone.
- Check the quotes. Tap any segment to hear the audio behind it before you quote someone. Edit a segment to fix a name or add who was speaking.
- Share only the text. Copy the transcript, or share it to Notes, Mail or a document. The audio stays on the phone unless you share it.
- Delete when done. If the recording was sensitive, delete it from the app once the notes are written.
ScribeKit imports audio, not video. If your meeting was saved as a video file, export its audio first.
How long a meeting can I transcribe?
| Voice Memos | ScribeKit Free | ScribeKit Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the text is made | On the iPhone | On the iPhone | On the iPhone |
| iPhones | iPhone 12 or later | Any iPhone with iOS 18 | Any iPhone with iOS 18 |
| Languages | 10 | 25, detected automatically | 25 built in, 100+ with an optional one-time Whisper download |
| Import an audio file | Not documented | Yes | Yes |
| Length | Not stated by Apple | Up to 30 minutes, 10 a month | Up to 3 hours (90 minutes with Whisper), no monthly limit |
| Price | Free, built in | Free | $1.99 a month, $9.99 a year or $19.99 once |
For a weekly one-hour meeting, the free tier's 30-minute limit is the deciding factor, which is exactly what Pro is for. For a quick stand-up in English on a recent iPhone, Voice Memos does the job.
Can it tell who said what?
No, and it's worth knowing before the meeting. ScribeKit doesn't label speakers, write a live transcript while you record, or summarize the meeting. You get an accurate, timestamped transcript you can search, tap and edit. For the names, tap a segment to hear who it is.
A tip that helps any transcriber: put the phone in the middle of the table, not in front of one person. And ask people not to talk over each other for the parts you will need word for word.
How can I check that nothing is uploaded?
Turn on Airplane Mode before you start, record a minute of conversation, and transcribe it. If the transcript appears, the work happened on the phone. Our guide to checking whether a transcription app is really offline goes further. For long recordings, see transcribing an audio file on iPhone.