Google’s Pixel 4 Voice Recorder app will automatically transcribe notes for you

For the longest time, I used this application called Otter Voice Meeting Notes to help me transcribe lengthy interviews. The app could search through my audio recordings and arrive at the exact phrase I was looking for. It was truly a godsend and saved me the pain of physically transcribing each and every word. Looks like Google has taken note and is now making its voice recording app capable of the same, if not more.

As discovered by XDA Developers, Google’s new Pixel 4 Voice Recorder app will be able to transcribe audio recordings and make them searchable. The app will enable users to find words, music, and even sounds like laughter within audio recordings.

An APK teardown of the updated app further revealed that it will recognise sounds of birds, cats, dogs, roosters, and more. Additionally, there’s an option to upload the transcribed text to Google Drive as a .txt file.

Google’s updated Voice Recorder app was first discovered by 9to5Google alongside a set of other Pixel 4 apps. At the time, it seemed like any other voice recording app with the ability to capture audio and save it. However, after downloading the APK for the app, XDA Developers’ Mishaal Rahman mysteriously received an update bringing in the transcription feature.

He was able to capture a screenshot (see above) of the update changelog from the Google Play Store. Although, if you go looking for the app right now, you will not find it. The changelog mentions the addition of transcription, exact match search, and audio classifiers. Within the app itself, Google says that the transcription is done offline and on device.

We downloaded the new Google Voice Recorder on a OnePlus 6

Since Rahman uploaded an APK for the updated Google Recorder app, we downloaded it on a OnePlus 6. Interestingly, the welcome screen on the app details the new audio transcription and search features, but they don’t work as intended on the OnePlus phone.

We were able to view a fairly accurate transcript (it messed up my name) of our recording while it was paused. However, after the recording was saved, the transcript refused to appear. As you can see in the screenshots above, the app currently only recognises English (US). 

Things could become smoother once the app is officially released. We expect Google to announce it during its October 15 Pixel 4 launch event. Until then, if you want to check out the app for yourself, you can download it from the button below.