For starters, Otter provides the most generous free allowance of all the apps on this list by giving you minutes to use every month. Unused minutes do not roll over into the next month, but having an allotment of 10 hours to freely use every 30 days makes Otter the perfect companion app for students and professionals alike. Doing so increases your total minutes from to 6, while unlocking numerous features such as Dropbox integration and bulk export.
You don't need to pay for the service to take advantage of most features, however. This is in addition to the fact that Otter comes with the most features out of any apps on this list.
These include native dark mode support for easier nighttime viewing, the ability to import recordings outside the app for transcription, calendar integration, and more. To make the app even more versatile, you can train Otter to recognize your voice for even more accurate transcriptions, thanks to its "Record voiceprint" functionality. This feature is especially important for the app, as unlike other apps like TranscribeMe, Otter solely relies on AI to transcribe speech to text.
For added accessibility, Otter is also features full 3D Touch support so you can start a voice recording or perform a quick search without having to open the app.
And thanks to full Siri integration, you can initiate a recording hands free via Siri, though the option isn't available on Android using Google Assistant. Besides the lack of AI integration and the option for human-based transcriptions, Otter's transcription service only supports English.
As such, you'll need to use another app like TranscribeMe if you need to transcribe in another language like Spanish of French. In all, Otter's intuitive and feature-packed UI completely overshadows the few limitations it has and makes it an ideal app for both professionals and students that need to quickly record and transcribe.
So if you're in the market for an app to reliably convert speeches and voice notes to text, Otter should be on top of your list. TranscribeMe is a great all around speech-to-text app that's sure to meet all your transcribing needs. This app can fit into almost any budget, regardless of whether you're a student with limited finances or a high-powered lawyer who needs the most accurate transcriptions possible. The app is free to download, and gives you the most variety in terms of transcription services.
For payment and security purposes, the app requires you to create an account in order to use its transcription services. Thankfully, TranscribeMe gives you the ability to log in using either your Facebook or Google account, which means one less password to try to remember. In addition to in-app dictation support, TranscribeMe gives you the ability to import audio recordings done within the Voice Memos app, along with other audio files for speech-to-text conversion.
Unfortunately, the "Import Recording" function wasn't functioning during our testing, and had to mark it as such on the chart. As such, this aspect will be updated as soon as we verify its functionality. In terms of service, TranscribeMe gives you a variety of transcription methods to suit almost any budget.
Unlike other apps on this list, the app lets you choose between AI or human-based transcriptions, depending on your needs. Unfortunately, the app doesn't offer any free trials for their service, which means you'll have to pay for transcriptions off the bat.
Of course, you can bring the rates down by either choosing a cheaper service like "First Draft" that only passes through one layer of transcription, setting the turnaround time to a longer time frame, or a combination of both. Bear in mind that in doing so, your transcriptions will take longer to receive. For the occasional dictation user capturing notes and shopping lists, the built-in microphone should work fine. But if you're using it more intensely—consistently writing content, dictating meetings, sending emails—consider something that more effectively nabs the sound waves from your voice.
For determining accuracy fairly, I used the same word script for all tests. It has a variety of sentence lengths, multiple paragraphs, proper names, and a few numbers. And as mentioned, I used a mid-priced headset as a microphone for all but the mobile apps. My testing space had very little background noise. In the initial evaluation of 12 apps, I dictated the script one time while using basic punctuation commands, noted accuracy as a percent of words missed or mistranscribed, and recorded my thoughts on ease of use and versatility.
Once I narrowed the final list down, I retested each app with the same script, recorded accuracy, and tried out other features such as file sharing and using the same software in multiple places e. Keep in mind that many of these apps will become more accurate the more times you use them, so the accuracy numbers mentioned will likely improve with continued use.
Also, because I was reading from a "script," my speech tempo was likely faster than the average person who is dictating their thoughts. Look no further than your Mac, iPhone, or iPad for one of the best dictation tools. Apple's built-in Dictation feature, powered by Siri we'd be unsurprised if the two merged one day , ships as part of Apple's desktop and mobile operating systems. On iOS devices, you use it by pressing the microphone icon on the stock keyboard.
By default, Apple Dictation requires the internet to work and has a time limit of about 30 seconds for each smattering of speech. Enhanced Dictation adds a local file to your device so that you can dictate offline. You can format and edit your text using simple commands, such as "new paragraph" or "select previous word. Apple also offers advanced commands for creating custom ones.
Apple Dictation accuracy: On the word test, 20 words were inaccurate, but note that I was using a borrowed MacBook Pro to perform the test, so it was the first time the Siri speech-recognition engine had heard my voice.
Regular users of Siri would likely experience better results. The standard version is a bit annoying and inconvenient for anything longer than 40 seconds.
For short messages on mobile devices, it works fine. Enhanced Dictation is the way to go for continuous dictating. Apple Dictation supported languages: Enhanced Dictation supports 20 languages. Windows 10 Speech Recognition Windows. Because Windows 11 was recently released October , I decided to test both the new dictation feature renamed "voice typing" and the Windows 10 version "speech recognition".
Both are included in their respective operating systems with nothing additional to install. A microphone icon and gray box will appear at the top of your screen. Make sure your cursor is in the space where you want to dictate. When it's ready for your dictation, it will say Listening. You have about 10 seconds to start talking before the microphone turns off.
If that happens, just click it again and wait for Listening to pop up. To stop the dictation, click the microphone icon again or say "stop talking. In my test, Windows 10 had only three errors, and all were words that every other app missed as well.
Other than that, it provided nearly flawless dictation. By contrast, Windows 11 which I downloaded after testing 10 contained 13 errors for each of the two times I tested it, making Windows 10 the clear winner for accuracy.
Each OS includes about three dozen commands for punctuation, symbols, and for completing actions within a document. Windows 10 includes seven dictation languages, but commands are only available in U. Windows 11 boosts the number of languages recognized to 36 plus a handful of dialects and commands for all these languages. While both versions are easy to use, it's Windows 10 that comes out ahead for accuracy by a large margin.
This makes it the best free choice for Windows users. Windows 10 Speech Recognition price: Included with Windows 10; Speech Recognition included in older versions of Windows and also with the new release of Windows Windows 10 Speech Recognition accuracy: For the word transcription test, Speech Recognition flubbed just three words on the first try, which is a Windows Speech Recognition was one of the best out-of-the-gate for accuracy with only Gboard equaling it.
Recommendation: It worked in any app or browser I tried, which makes it a handy tool to have around. If you're a Windows 10 user and don't mind a voice "training" period, you'll get good use out of this feature. In , Dragon Dictate emerged as the first dictation software. Thirty years later, we have Dragon by Nuance , a leader in the industry and a distant cousin of that first iteration.
With a variety of software packages and mobile apps for different use cases e. For this test, I used Dragon Anywhere, Nuance's mobile app, as it's the only version—among otherwise expensive packages—available with a free trial. It includes lots of features not found in the others, like Words, which lets you add words that would be difficult to recognize and spell out.
For example, if you live on Eichhorn St. It also provides shortcuts. If you wanted to shorten your entire address to one word, go to Auto-Text , give it a name "address" , and type in your address: Eichhorn St. The next time you dictate and say "address," you'll get the entire thing. Press the comment bubble icon to see text commands while you're dictating, or say "What can I say? Once you complete a dictation, you can email, share e. You can perform these actions manually or by voice command e.
Accuracy is good and improves with use: my first test produced 13 errors, and my second test only flubbed nine. Recommendation: Because Dragon is a relatively large investment, you should be seriously committed to using dictation regularly. I recommend trying Dragon Anywhere free for seven days to see how you like it first. Dragon desktop products are available in several languages, which vary by version, and include Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Gboard Android, iOS. Google's excellent Gboard app, which includes dictation, works with both Android and iOS. To use it, go anywhere you can type email, browser, text, document , and the keyboard will pop up. Tap the microphone icon at the top right of the keyboard, and start speaking when prompted. It will very quickly capture your voice into text as fast as you're able to talk.
It's scary how fast it transcribes. Not only that, it's highly accurate. It was the only app that captured "birdcast" albeit uncapitalized , the name of a birding website, and it made only three dictation errors. Note: If you stop speaking for about 10 seconds, the microphone turns off, so you'll have to tap it again.
You have the option to personalize the app, which allows Gboard to recognize your voice usage patterns and improve on them, increasing accuracy over time.
I've dictated texts in the car with the radio on, and it's still nearly perfect. If you want to record and transcribe a virtual call, don't use your headset. That way, the recording can pick up the sound coming out of your device. Wait for the pause icon to be outlined in blue and the timestamp to start incrementing to let you know that recording has begun. Pause recording by selecting the pause icon. Resume recording by selecting the microphone icon.
Transcription may take a while depending on your internet speed. Keep the Transcribe pane open while the transcription is being made.
Feel free to do other work or switch browser tabs or applications and come back later. You can delete them there. Learn more about privacy at Microsoft. You can upload a pre-recorded audio file and then transcribe the recording.
At this time, you're limited to five hours of transcription time per month for uploaded recordings. In the Transcribe pane, select Upload audio. Choose an audio file from the file picker. Transcribe currently supports. Transcription may take a while depending on your internet speed, up to about the length of the audio file.
Be sure to keep the Transcribe pane open while the transcription is happening, but feel free to do other work or switch browser tabs or applications and come back later. If you close and reopen the pane or close and reopen the document, the transcript remains saved with the document. The audio file, whether recorded or uploaded, is saved to the Transcribed Files folder in OneDrive. Use the controls at the top of the Transcribe pane to play back your audio. The relevant transcript section highlights as it plays.
The transcription service identifies and separates different speakers and labels them "Speaker 1," "Speaker 2," etc. You can edit the speaker label and change all occurrences of it to something else. You can also edit the content of a section to correct any issues in transcription. Select the Edit transcript section icon.
Edit the content or change the label. To change all instances of a label, select Change all Speaker [x]. To save your changes, select the Confirm icon. Unlike Dictate, Transcribe doesn't automatically add the audio to the document.
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