Recording spoken notes with the Voice Memos app

Introduction

The Voice Memos app lets you record spoken notes and offers  similar features to pocket note takers. The app should be mostly self explanatory to both low vision and VoiceOver users but some hidden controls in the iPhone version of the app can be difficult to find and are explained here along with some other notes and hints. No controls are hidden in the iPad version of the app. 

 When you record voice notes you may often wish to pause the recording think about what you want to say next, and then resume the recording. The pause and resume buttons are hidden in the iPhone version of Voice Memos. 

Revealing the pause and resume buttons in iPhone Voice Memos - non VoiceOver users

When a recording is in progress on an iPhone, you will see a wave form displayed above the stop button. To reveal the hidden controls, swipe up from this waveform. This will reveal several buttons, including a pause and done button. The pause button will become a resume button when tapped and the Done button can be used to end the recording session.

Revealing the pause and resume buttons in iPhone Voice Memos - VoiceOver users

In recent versions of iOS, VoiceOver's focus doesn't seem to behave consistently in the Voice Memos app. It used to land automatically in convenient places. I've written these instructions without any assumptions as to where VoiceOver focus lands after various double taps.

VoiceOver users start recording by double tapping the record button at bottom centre of the screen. Recording will start and the button will then become a stop button. If you want to reveal the pause button, swipe left until you hear "sheet grabber" and double tap. This should expand the controls to full screen. VoiceOver will probably be focused on the pause button and will probably speak its name.  Otherwise, the pause button is easy to locate near bottom centre of the screen. Double tap with one finger to pause and this button will become a resume button. If you swipe right, you will find the done button to end the session.

If you want to make a recording in one take, locate the record button near bottom centre of the screen and begin recording with a one finger double tap.  Make the recording and then locate the stop button at bottom centre of the screen and double tap with one finger to end the recording.

VoiceOver speech in recordings

If VoiceOver speaks while the app is recording, VoiceOver's speech will become part of the recording unless you are wearing headphones or some other kind of headset. If you aren't wearing headphones, it may be helpful temporarily to reduce the volume of VoiceOver's speech with the volume buttons or by instructing Siri to set the volume low. Instructing Siri to "set volume 30" or "set volume 20" may be about right.

General comments

By default, Voice Memos names recordings using your location and time of recording.  This can be turned off, if you wish, in Settings/Apps/Voice Memos. If you do this, then your memos will be named something like "New Recording 4". Although voice memos can be fantastically useful, they can be difficult to locate again if you build a large collection. You may find it helpful to rename the notes as you record them to help you locate them later. VoiceOver users can edit a voice memo title as follows; locate the title in the top half of the screen and double tap; you should hear its name, followed by text field. You could double tap again to edit the text field but, in my experience, this fails to select the current title so that it can be replaced.  Instead, after you hear "text field" I recommend swiping up with one finger until you hear "edit title" and then double tap. This always seems to select the current title and it will be replaced by any new title you dictate or type. When you have dictated or typed your new title, locate the return button at bottom right of the screen and double tap.

Unfortunately the only order in which recordings can be displayed is in recording date and time order. If you want to build a large collection of recordings, it may be helpful to organise your recordings into folders. If you use the Voice Memos back button at the top left of the recording screen you will find buttons to create new folders. When you return to your list of recordings, recordings can be moved to folders by locating them and then swiping up until you hear "move to folder", double tapping with one finger, selecting the folder and double tapping.

On devices which support Apple Intelligence, transcriptions are automatically generated and searches include the transcription which could assist in retrieving specific recordings.

Of course, you can record any sound with the Voice Memos app. By default, the sound quality is set to a compressed quality suitable for speech in order to save space. If you want to record your performance of a violin sonata, you should go to Settings / Apps / Voice Memos and set the recording quality to lossless.

The Voice Memos app is excellent on both iPhone and iPad for sighted and blind users so long as they only want to make recordings in one take. If you need to be able to pause and resume while making recordings, the iPhone app makes this unnecessarily difficult for both sighted and blind users. VoiceOver users may experience inconsistent behaviour which can make things even more difficult. Read on for a suggested alternative app that may be a better choice for those who need to pause and resume while recording voice memos.

Just Press Record

Just Press record is an inexpensive charged app that may assist iPhone users who like to pause and resume during recording sessions. This app always offers both a stop and pause button during recording sessions. It also has an automatic transcription feature that will probably be set by default to transcribe short recordings. The transcription feature works on all iPhones and iPads and does not require Apple Intelligence. The transcriptions can be useful since a snippet from the transcription appears in the list of recordings and this can help identify recordings. The app works well for both low vision and VoiceOver users.  It supports your larger text setting but, as always, a very large text size may render some screens difficult to use. The main snag I've discovered so far is that some settings and transcriptions  in the list of recordings are not accessible to VoiceOver users.  This is an irritation but not a serious issue in my opinion. 

Back to navigation page