Phone conversation transcribing app for android

Is there an app that can transcribe phone conversations to a text file?
If not, could it be done?

I’m going to guess no - only because the legality of recording phone conversations is iffy in most places, and an app developer would be nuts to take on that liability.

The technology is coming along - Google Voice will transcribe a voicemail with varying degrees of success. But leaving a voicemail implies consent that might not be present in a live telephone conversation.

but but, my old phone could record conversations, or at least I think it could…

If you use Google Voice, press ‘4’ during a call to record it. An an automated verbal announcement is made to all parties informing them of the start and stop of the recording.

I do not know if they transcribe it too, but that would be trivial for them. They already transcribe voice mails, so all the software is in place.

Thanks Revtim.

Why? The app wouldn’t be recording a call, simply processing a file that already exists. The challenge of doing voice to text conversion and the legality of recording conversations are two different issues which don’t intersect at all.

The transcription in Google Voice is pretty good, but it only works on files recorded in Google Voice. You can’t upload an existing sound file.

There is some software that will transcribe your dictation – I use a Dragon app on my iPhone. It’s pretty good, and overtime it learns the nuances of my voice. It does much worse transcribing other people, or multiple people in a conversation. I’m not aware of any software apps that do that well. If anyone is aware of something that works well, I’d love to know about it. I typically either transcribe my interviews by hand or just make rough notes. When I was working on my book, I paid a service to do transcribed hours and hours of interviews.

There are numerous apps to allow you to record phone calls on an android phone. I haven’t seen any that transcribe.

There are PC software products like dragon naturally speaking premium that will transcribe digital audio files. It is a little pricey.

I have had to review transcriptions of recordings made on an iPhone. Trust me, a human has enough trouble deciphering poorly-miced speakers amidst background noise. An app designed to work within a smartphone’s processing limitations is going to give you gibberish.

Lost my connection right as I tried to make an edit. I managed to misunderstand the OP, and the recordings I’ve listened to were of external conversations. A conversation over the phone would probably be clearer and easier to transcribe, but I don’t believe an app could do it.

I haven’t tried this yet, but maybe ClearCaptions? http://www.clearcaptions.com/

I’ve been meaning to try it, and find out if you’re able to capture the conversation afterwards.

I did some tests with this, and they do not transcribe recorded calls. And, you can only record calls you receive. So, kind of disappointing.