Murble is available for iPhone, iPad, Apple silicon Macs, and Android phones and tablets. Get Android from Google Play. Steps and screenshots in this guide show the iPhone version, and a separate section covers the Mac. Engines and system integrations depend on the device and platform. For Android sync and diagnostics, see the Android privacy policy and support.
Can Apple Voice Memos transcribe a recording?
Yes, with conditions. Since iOS 18, Voice Memos turns the speech in its own recordings into text, while you record or afterwards. Apple's guide lists the limits:
- Devices. iPhone 12 or later. On a Mac, Apple's guide for macOS Sequoia names a Mac with Apple silicon.
- Languages. English (all variants), Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.
- Regions. Not available in every country or region.
On the iPhone, open the recording, tap the More button and choose View Transcript, or Copy Transcript to take all of it. On a Mac, select the recording and click the Transcription button. Search in Voice Memos covers transcripts too, and an older recording is transcribed when you open it.
If you only want to read or copy what was said, in one of those languages, Voice Memos is enough and you need nothing else. Apple's guide covers viewing, copying and searching the transcript. It does not describe correcting the text, labelling speakers or exporting the transcript as a file, and that is what the rest of this guide is for.
Convert a voice memo to text on iPhone
These steps start from Voice Memos, but they work for any audio file you have: a lecture a friend sent you, an interview from a dictaphone, or a meeting recording exported from another app.
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Save the memo as a file
In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button, then Share, scroll down and choose Save to Files. Voice Memos exports an m4a file by default. A recording that is already a file, from AirDrop, an email or iCloud Drive, just needs to be in Files.
Sharing the memo straight into Murble does not work: the share extension takes text and web links, not audio.
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Import it into Murble
In the library, tap the + button, choose Import audio file and pick the recording. Murble accepts m4a, mp3, wav and the other audio types iOS can read. One file at a time, so a folder of interviews is a repeated action rather than a batch job.
The first time, a Prepare Murble screen asks you to download the files transcription needs. That happens once.
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Let it transcribe on the device
Transcription starts on its own and runs on the phone, using Apple's speech recognition or the Whisper model you downloaded. Nothing is uploaded. A long file keeps processing inside the app while you read other notes, and Murble tells you when the transcript is ready.
Whisper also covers dozens of languages beyond Apple's list. To set it up for use with no connection at all, see offline transcription on iPhone.
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Correct the transcript
Every line is time aligned. Tap one to jump the audio to that moment, then fix the word that came out wrong. In a conversation, anonymous speaker labels separate the voices, and you can rename, merge or split them.
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Export, or clip a passage
Export the transcript or a summary as PDF, Markdown, RTF, plain text, JSON, SRT or VTT. You can also select a passage and share just that stretch of audio as an m4a clip, which is the fastest way to send somebody the twenty seconds that matter.
Convert a voice memo to text on a Mac
A shortcut first: on a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS Sequoia or later, Voice Memos shows its own transcript, and you can copy text from it. For a transcript you can correct and export, get Murble from the Mac App Store. It runs on Apple silicon Macs, and transcription happens locally.
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Get the memo onto the Mac as a file
With Voice Memos turned on in iCloud settings on both devices, memos you record on the iPhone appear in Voice Memos on the Mac. Drag a recording from the Voice Memos window to a Finder window to save it as a file. AirDrop from the iPhone works too.
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Import it into Murble
In the notes list, click +, choose Import audio file and pick the file. Dragging an audio file onto the Murble window does not import it, so use the menu.
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Correct and export
From here it works as on the iPhone: the transcript appears when processing finishes, and you correct and export it with the same seven formats.
Correcting a transcript is the real work
No speech model gets names, jargon and crosstalk right every time, and a transcript you cannot fix is a transcript you cannot trust. The parts of Murble that matter most for imported files are the boring ones.
- Tap to seek. When a line looks wrong, hearing it again is one tap away rather than a hunt through a waveform.
- Inline editing. Fix the word in place. The timing stays attached to the line, so exports and subtitles stay aligned.
- Speaker labels you can correct. Diarization is best effort. When it splits one person into two, merge them; when it merges two into one, split them.
- Full text search across every note. Once a memo is text, it becomes findable, which is usually the actual reason for converting it.
After the transcript, optionally
An imported recording gets the same treatment as one you made in the app: a summary in one of four styles, automatically detected action items, and, on Pro, a structured report, translations and chat with the note. All of it runs on the device. See on device AI note taking.
Export formats and what each is for
| Format | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Sending a finished, readable document to someone who will not edit it | |
| Markdown | Dropping into Obsidian, a wiki or a repository |
| RTF | Pasting into Pages or Word with the formatting intact |
| Plain text | The lowest common denominator, and the easiest to script against |
| JSON | Keeping structure and timings for your own tooling |
| SRT | Subtitles for video editors and most players |
| VTT | Subtitles for the web |
SRT and VTT carry the line timings, which is why correcting text inline rather than retyping it elsewhere is worth the small effort.
Honest limitations
- No direct share from Voice Memos. The share extension accepts text and links, not audio. A memo goes through Files, or Finder on a Mac, before you import it.
- One file per import. The importer takes a single audio file at a time. There is no bulk queue for a folder of recordings.
- Formats are limited to what the system can decode. m4a, mp3 and wav are the common cases. An exotic container or codec may simply not be offered in the picker.
- Long files take real time. Transcription is computation on your device, so a two hour recording is a wait, not an instant. A phone will warm up, and it is worth keeping it on power.
- Quality in, quality out. A phone in a pocket at the back of a lecture hall produces audio that no model reads well. Distance, echo and overlapping speech hurt far more than the choice of model.
- Timestamps come from the file. If the recording was already edited or has gaps, the alignment reflects the file you imported, not the original event.
- Imported audio counts against your storage. The file is copied into the app so the note stays self contained, which means a large archive uses real space on the device.
Sources
- Polish version of this guide: notatki głosowe na tekst
- Voice Memos transcript requirements, languages and copying, read 17 October 2026: Apple, View a Voice Memos transcription on iPhone
- Voice Memos transcripts on a Mac, read 17 October 2026: Apple, View a Voice Memos transcription on Mac, and the macOS Sequoia version that names Apple silicon
- Saving a memo as a file: Apple, Export a Voice Memos recording to Files on iPhone and Share a recording on Mac
- Memos on every device: Apple, See your recordings on all your Apple devices
- Accepted import types, single file selection and the share extension's accepted content: the library's Import audio file flow and the share extension in the current build
- Export formats: the export screen, and the landing page FAQ
- Offline setup for imports with no connection: offline transcription on iPhone
Turn the archive into text
Import, transcribe and export are free with no caps, and the audio never leaves your device to get there.
More detail on the Murble landing page.