Transcribe voice memos from your phone on your computer

To transcribe voice memos, get each recording off the phone as a file, open it in a transcription app on your computer, and correct the text against the playback. A phone saves a voice memo as an ordinary audio file, often M4A. TrueScribe accepts M4A, MP3, WAV, AAC, FLAC, OGG and Opus, so a voice memo needs no conversion.

This guide uses TrueScribe on Windows or Linux. Transcribing an audio file is part of the free version, with no time or file limit, and the memo never leaves your computer.

Get the memo onto your computer

TrueScribe has no phone app and does not pull recordings from a phone. Move the file the way you move any file from your phone, then open it on the computer.

• Share or export it. Share the memo to a cloud drive, to a messaging app you also use on the computer, or to an email to yourself, or use the recorder app’s export or save option.
• Copy it over a cable. Plug the phone into the computer and copy the file from the phone’s storage.
• Let a sync client fetch it. If the recorder saves to a cloud drive, or you share the memo into one, the file appears in that drive’s folder on the computer once its sync client has downloaded it. With Pro, that folder can become a watch folder that transcribes each new memo as it arrives.
• Send it over nearby sharing. Your phone and your computer both need to support it.

Put the files where you will find them again, for example a Voice memos folder. TrueScribe reads the original and does not change it.

How it works in TrueScribe

1. Select Transcribe Files on the home screen and pick the memo, or drop it anywhere in the window.
2. TrueScribe detects the spoken language. If you know it, you can select it instead.
3. Wait for the transcript, then open it from the library. Play the memo back against the waveform and correct the text where it differs, with undo and redo.

TrueScribe transcribes with Whisper on your computer. The first run downloads a model that suits your hardware, and after that transcription runs offline. A graphics card is not required.

When the thought comes at the desk, select Record Voice Memo instead. TrueScribe records from your microphone, transcribes the memo and keeps it in the library with the same playback, editing and search as an imported file. This is part of the free version.

With Pro, point a watch folder at the folder your sync client fills with memos. TrueScribe transcribes each new file without you opening the app and writes a TXT or SRT file beside it if you tick the format in the folder dialog.

What you get

• Text you can search (Free). Every memo and its transcript stay together in the library. Search all of them for a name or a number you mentioned.
• Timestamps (Free). Every segment carries its start time, so you can jump to the moment you want to hear again.
• Custom vocabulary (Free). Enter names and jargon once, and TrueScribe steers every new transcript toward spelling them right.
• AI Research (Free). Ask what a memo was about, or what you asked yourself to do, with a local model or a cloud provider you configure.
• Export (Free, more in Pro). TXT, SRT and WebVTT are free. Pro adds DOCX, PDF, Markdown, JSON and CSV. Under Content, Complete gives you the memo as continuous prose.
• Batch and watch folders (Pro). Queue a month of memos as one batch, or let a watch folder transcribe each new one as it lands.
• Translation (Pro). Translate a memo locally into one of 25 languages and keep the original available.

Limits

• TrueScribe does not run on a phone and does not sync with one. You move the file, by any of the ways above.
• Record Voice Memo records from the computer’s microphone. TrueScribe transcribes a memo recorded on the phone from the file you copied.
• Speech recognition makes mistakes, and more of them in a memo recorded in a car, on the street or at arm’s length. Check the text against the playback before you rely on a name, a date or a number.
• The first transcription needs a connection to download the model. After that it runs offline.
• TrueScribe runs on Windows and Linux. It does not run on macOS.

Related guides

To transcribe every memo that lands in a folder without opening the app, read Watch folders: transcribe new recordings automatically. If you already have the memo as a file, Transcribe M4A to text on your own computer covers the format most phones save. If the memos are interviews, see how TrueScribe compares with f4x, which uploads them to the provider’s servers and bills by the minute.

Download TrueScribe to transcribe your first memo, or see what Pro adds for watch folders, batch transcription and translation.