How to Transcribe Voice Notes and Audio Memos

Introduction to transcribing voice notes

To accurately capture your thoughts, meetings, and ideas, they need to be captured in real time with precision and accuracy. Voice notes and voice memos offer a way to record information without interrupting your workflow.

Managing and retrieving information from audio recordings has traditionally been so challenging and time-consuming that the effort wasn’t really worth it. AI voice note transcriptions have transformed how we can record our thoughts.

By converting your voice recordings into text, you can easily search, organize, and reference your notes and thoughts. OpenAI’s Whisper, the technology Reflect uses for its voice note transcriber, is so accurate that the process is seamless and natural.

Whisper automatically converts your speech to text, meaning you don't have to do a manual import. You don't even have to focus on perfect dictation!

After fully adopting voice note transcriptions, you’ll find yourself typing less and less.

Applications of Voice Note Transcriptions

What kinds of things should you use voice note transcriptions for?

Almost anything you would spend time writing or typing is worth transcribing with your voice. In that sense, the applications are almost endless.

Here are some ways people are already using voice note transcriptions:

Quickly capturing ideas

Daily Reflections

Mind dumps and streams of consciousness

Daily task lists or priorities

Transcribing thoughts for an article or book

Get summaries of complex ideas

Brainstorms

Meetings and interviews

Chat with your voice note transcriptions

Taking meeting notes using Reflect’s voice transcriber

Why use a Voice Note Transcriber?

Humans have been able to record audio for a long time now. Voice notes, as an audio recording, are certainly not new. So why transcribe them?

Transcribing audio notes instead of typing or writing has a few key advantages:

Speed and productivity: You can speak your thoughts much faster than you can write or type them.

Thinking: Record text that more closely matches the way you think than typed notes would.

Writing: Things you write will more closely match your actual tone of voice.

Information: Capture more thoughts and ideas.

Productivity: Save time by skimming transcriptions instead of replaying lengthy audio files.

Communication: Quickly share transcribed notes with colleagues or team members.

AI’s Impact on Voice Transcription Accuracy

OpenAI’s Whisper technology completely changed voice transcriptions by making them nearly 100% accurate. Accuracy is absolutely essential for the mass adoption of transcribed voice notes.

Reflect uses Whisper to power its own AI voice transcriber. That means it has:

Human-Level Accuracy: Advanced AI that understands natural speech patterns, ensuring precise voice note transcriptions.

Ease of Use: Record and transcribe with a single click or tap from any device.

Efficiency: Fast processing times, even for longer recordings like meetings or lectures.

Cross-Platform Accessibility: Available on both desktop, mobile applications and even Apple Watch.

Transcribing a voice note from Reflect’s Mobile app

How to organize voice notes after they’ve transcribed?

After you’ve transcribed a voice note, you’ll notice the transcription as a large block of text in your daily note. Particularly if it’s a longer voice note, you’ll likely want to organize this text into lists, takeaways or other useful notes.

For this we have an AI assistant. Simply highlight the voice transcription and pull up the AI assistant using cmd J or clicking on the ✨ icon. You will then be able to choose an AI prompt to organize the note for you.

Organizing a voice note transcription using Reflect’s AI assistant

What kinds of things can the AI assistant do with your voice transcriptions?

Summarize the text

Find key takeaways

Pull out the action items

Structure the text into paragraphs or lists

Re-write text in another tone of voice or in an email format

Generate an article or article outline

You can find out more information on what Reflect’s AI assistant can do here.

Getting Started with Reflect's Voice Note Transcriptions

Accessing the Transcription Feature

On Desktop:

Open Reflect.

Click on the microphone icon located at the top left corner next to the search box.

On Mobile:

Tap the plus sign (+) icon in the bottom right corner.

Select the microphone option to begin recording your voice memo.

In both cases, record as long of a voice note as you’d like and push the stop button. If you’re recording on an iPhone, Reflect now displays the active recording from the lock screen.

Once finished, the transcription will land on the current day’s daily note. This usually happens within a few seconds or minutes depending on how long the recording was.

We have a video walkthrough of this process here on our YouTube page.

If you want to start transcribing even faster, try these shortcuts:

iPhone Lock Screen Widget

Set your iPhone action button to start transcribing

Set up an Apple Watch shortcut

Reflect’s lock screen widget that shows recording activity

Tips for Recording Your Voice Notes and Voice Memos

Speak as fast or slow as you’d like. Everything you say will be transcribed so feel free to pause and think if you need to.

Use natural language: Don’t use special commands or verbal punctuation as these will also be transcribed.

Use a tool you trust: Don’t spend time recording something important thinking it may be lost.

Practice to make it more natural: Recording your first audio note might feel a bit odd, but this will quickly pass.

Remember, Reflect's voice transcriber is designed to interpret natural speech, including pauses and inflections. Be sure not to vocalize your punctuation like Siri requires.

Common questions for transcribing voice notes

Can I keep using other apps while recording?

Yes! Just make sure you aren’t using an app that will interfere with the audio input.

Can I transcribe back-to-back voice transcriptions?

Yes, as soon as you finish transcribing one voice note, you can start transcribing the next. There is no need to wait for the first one to upload before starting the next one.

Is there a maximum length I need to worry about when transcribing a voice note?

Not really, people regularly transcribe hour-long calls, although it’s not recommended to leave it on indefinitely.

Why did my voice note transcribe nonsense I don’t remember recording?

When the transcriber doesn’t pick up an audio source, it will “hallucianate”. If you get bizarre text you didn’t record, it means there was trouble with the audio source. Always make sure you see sound levels when you start transcribing.

Why did my voice note transcribe come out in another language?

This is also a hallucination. Reflect lets you set the language in your preferences to prevent this.

My voice transcriber has trouble with unique names or words.

If you regularly use a name or something the transcriber struggles with, Reflect lets you put in “helper” text within the preferences. Just type the word or person’s name and it will recognize it going forward.