# Recommend me a transcription app **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497 "2019-09-19T13:29:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/1 "2019-09-19T13:29:21Z")
I have a bunch of audio recordings on my phone, generally interviews and such done for work. I’ve been simply listening to them and typing them up on my computer, with frequent short rewinds as necessary, but I’m now looking at one that is, to my mind, way too long for that. Someone at work suggested a transcription app, but, never having used one, had no specific products to recommend. So I need something that will take the audio file on my phone and turn it into a text file that I can then, somehow, open in MS Word on my computer. Does such a thing exist? And if so, can you recommend one in particular? Free would be ideal, of course, but I’m willing spend a few bucks; I’d prefer not to go over 10USD. And I don’t mind if it’s not completely accurate — spending 20 minutes or so fixing errors is much better than spending several hours transcribing. Thank you in advance. ETA: Mods, I just realized this probably belongs in IMHO, not GQ. I apologize. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/2 "2019-09-19T13:36:37Z")
One of the podcasts I listen to uploads their episodes to youtube and uses youtubes auto-caption to generate a rough draft of the transcript which they then manually revise to be correct. Not the most elegant method but it’s free. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/3 "2019-09-19T21:53:56Z")
Far from free, but Dragon Naturally Speaking is the best speech to text software out there. I use it for direct dictation all the time. but it can transcribe as well, once trained. ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/4 "2019-09-20T14:18:46Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > One of the podcasts I listen to uploads their episodes to youtube and uses youtubes auto-caption to generate a rough draft of the transcript which they then manually revise to be correct. Not the most elegant method but it’s free. That’s kinda clever … but I think I’m missing something. Whether I’m typing up the words I hear coming from my phone or the words I see on the YouTube screen, it’s still play - pause - type - play - pause - type - play - pause - type - crap - rewind - play - pause - type. I just spent a few minutes with a YouTube video, and I don’t see any way to grab the captioning as a text file. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/5 "2019-09-20T14:45:09Z")
Sorry, I don’t have practical experience with the process and I suspect you can only do it with videos you upload but here are two links that look like they would get you the text all at once. [Edit or Remove Captions](https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734705) [Export Youtube’s auto-generated captions file](http://titaniumhelp.fullerton.edu/m/FAQ/l/498105-how-do-i-export-the-youtube-auto-generated-captions) ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/6 "2019-09-20T19:14:57Z")
Cool. I’ll look into it. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/7 "2019-09-20T21:43:49Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > and I suspect you can only do it with videos you upload [There are sites that will pull them out of any video for you](https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=save+subtitles+from+youtube). ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/8 "2019-09-23T06:53:55Z")
IMO, [Trint.com](https://trint.com/) is the best for this job. ---
**Author:** ![GMANCANADA](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gmancanada/32/2837_2.png) [@GMANCANADA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GMANCANADA)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2019, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/9 "2019-09-23T11:09:56Z")
When I’ve had to do transcriptions I just use my iPad or my iPhone - no app required, voice dictation (and effectively transcription) are built in. It may also be the case if you have an android. Go to: Settings \> General \> Keyboard \> Enable dictation You can then voice dictate into any app that you would also type into. A microphone will appear in the lower left of your keyboard. Tao that and start talking _or hold your device near the speaker._ I recently did some transcription by opening a new email on my ipad, tapping the microphone, then playing the audio voice through the speaker and letting it transcribe. When I was done I emailed it to myself and copy/pasted it into MS word on my computer. (I think if you had Word on your iPad you could just do it right into Word and share the file to you PC.) The dictation isn’t perfect, but overall I’d say it’s about 90 to 95% accurate (four vs for vs fore?). When transcribing you will still need to add in periods, commas etc. If you dictate yourself, it recognizes punctuation words, so you can say the words “comma”, “period”, “open quote, close quote” etc. You don’t mention what type of PC you have but Mac’s also have dictation built in. You can look into it if you have a Mac. I have mine set up so when I double tap my “Command” key, it opens Dictation. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-transcription-app/840497/10 "2019-10-02T00:50:43Z")
Wonder if [this](https://www.androidcentral.com/pixel-4s-recorder-app-will-feature-transcription-and-audio-search) will eventually reach all Android phones? (Especially useful if your interviews are interspersed with didgeridoo music.)