Best Speech-to-Text app: for Android, iPhone

If you work as a journalist and often take long interviews or study at university and record lectures, you have probably dreamed that it would be great to have someone transcribe your recordings, like Rita Skeeter's magic pen from the Harry Potter saga. Luckily, in this article, we selected the best speech-to-text apps to help you transform long audio recordings into text in minutes.

Speechnotes

The best for interviews and lectures

Speechnotes is perfect for writers, journalists, and students since it transcribes the speech fast and has two cool features: it doesn’t stop recording even if you make pauses or take a breath, and you can insert punctuation marks verbally so your text looks easy to read after. Another perk is that it supports many languages, including English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, etc. The app has free and Premium ($6.99/month) subscription plans and is only available for Android mobile devices and on the web.

You can download Speechnotes for Android here.

Otter Voice Notes

Ideal for meetings

Otter Voice Meeting Notes is specifically designed for real-time transcription that can come in handy during long meetings and conferences with many participants. It identifies speakers and highlights the key points of the discussion for your ease. The free version of the app lets you use up to 600 minutes of transcription per month and allows you to export your notes in PDF format. The Pro ($8.33/month) and Business ($20/month) let you use unlimited minutes, set the timecodes, and add the specific group vocabulary.

You can download Otter Voice Meeting Notes for Android and iOS/iPadOS here.

Transcribe

For video transcribing

Transcribe is strong in transcribing audio and video into text in more than 80 languages. It can be helpful during an interview in a foreign language or if you need to get the text out of the video. After the AI converts your audio or video into text, you can export it to any text editing program and manually correct it. Although this app is highly noted for its accuracy, it can be pricey: one hour of transcribing costs $4.99, and 10 hours of transcribing – $29.99.

You can download Transcribe for your iPhone/iPad here.

Dragon Anywhere

For the pros

Dragon Anywhere is a complete professional transcription manager: you can dictate long and complicated text and expect 99% accuracy from the program. It gets used to your voice with time and becomes faster, learning new specific industry words you are using. Its monthly price is $15, though you can pay a yearly fee of $150 and save $30. The app supports UK English, American English, Canadian English, and German.

You can download Dragon Anywhere for Android and here for iOS/iPadOS devices.

Google Assistant

The best for emails and messages

Google Assistant is not a classical speech-to-text app that you can use to transcribe long speeches and interviews. However, it can come in handy if you are always in a hurry and want to facilitate several operations using just your voice. You can dictate emails and messages without using your keyboard, you can also set essential alarms and reminders as well as handle several applications on your cell phone.