This hidden iPhone feature lets you record and transcribe, but it’s still not as good as Android Voice Recorder

In the 1980s, I recorded telephone interviews by connecting a tape recorder to the back of my analog handset via a small black suction cup. These days, virtually all of my interviews are conducted via Zoom or Google Meet; but even though both are capable of recording and transcribing, for convenience I still like to record on my iPhone, and lately I’ve been using a little-known Notes feature.

While some of you may be familiar with the recording feature on the best iPhones (hidden under the “Attachment” paperclip icon), you may not realize that since iOS 18, Notes is also capable of automatically transcribing the conversation. Even when I’m conducting a video interview, I place the iPhone near my laptop and let it record the audio conversation while I speak freely and don’t get too distracted (or distract my subject) by typing furiously.

During in-person interviews, Notes is a great backup for my note-taking, and with Apple Intelligence, it can also quickly produce a summary of the conversation – it recently reduced a recent 29-minute recording to three paragraphs. This can be useful, however, for my purposes I need the full conversation so I can find all the juicy quotes.

With all the text available on the screen, I can tap any word to jump to that specific moment in the conversation. This is essential because transcription is not always 100% accurate. And there’s another crucial reason to check the tape.