View a Voice Memos transcription on Mac
With macOS 15 or later and a Mac with Apple silicon, speech in your audio recordings can be recognised and transcribed to text in Voice Memos. You can view the transcription while you’re recording or after.
Note: Audio transcription isn’t available in all countries or regions.
If you open a recording made in macOS 14 or earlier, or a recording made on a device that doesn’t support transcription, Voice Memos transcribes the recording automatically if it includes recorded speech.
View a transcription while recording
Go to the Voice Memos app
on your Mac.Click
to begin recording.Click
to watch the transcription live.The waveform at the top of the window disappears temporarily, and the transcription appears with the current word highlighted. To return to the waveform view, click
again.Click
to pause recording; click Resume to continue.To save the recording, click Done.
View or copy transcribed text after recording
Go to the Voice Memos app
on your Mac.Click the recording with the transcript you want to view.
Click
to view the transcript.Select the text you want to copy, Control-click it, then choose Copy.
You can open another document — a Mail message or text file, for example — and paste the text into it.
With Apple Intelligence*, you can use Writing Tools to summarise transcripts with a click, proofread your work, and find just the right wording and tone. See Use Writing Tools with Apple Intelligence.
Search for text in titles and transcriptions
Go to the Voice Memos app
on your Mac.In the search field, enter the text you want to find.
The list shows only recordings with that text — either in the title or in the audio transcription.
Click
to view the transcript.
When you select a term in the transcription, the playhead appears at that location in the audio waveform.