Boost your productivity with the latest voice-to-text apps and software

Find the perfect voice-to-text tool to boost your productivity with this comprehensive look at the latest apps and software.

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      Are you tired of typing? Voice-to-text software and services are here to save the day! With the right tools, you can easily convert your – or anyone else’s – voice into text on both desktop and mobile devices.

      Voice-to-text apps and software are used for everything from transcribing meetings and providing accurate records of interviews to logging medical observations and creating YouTube video descriptions for SEO purposes. The possibilities are huge.

      Before deciding which speech-to-text tool to choose, it's important to consider your specific needs. Free and budget options may provide the basic features, but if you require more advanced tools, a paid platform may be the better solution. Some programs use machine learning to continually improve accuracy, while others may only be as good as their latest update.

      Whether you're a busy professional or someone who would simply prefer dictating over typing, there's a speech-to-text program out there for you. So, here, in no particular order, are some of the best voice-to-text tools currently available.

      Full audio and video transcription solutions

      Voice-to-text Apps for iPhone and Android

      Alrite

      Alrite is an AI-powered app that provides accurate automated audio transcriptions with a 95% accuracy rate for spelling and punctuation. It differentiates between speakers in the same audio or video and can recognise different accents and languages. Alrite transcriptions can be integrated into videos or presentations, and users have complete control over fine-tuning the transcriptions with caption editing. It is available on popular browsers and has a mobile app for your on-the-go transcription needs. Alrite offers various packages for personal and professional use, making it a valuable tool for anyone who needs efficient audio transcriptions.

      Dragon Anywhere

      Dragon Anywhere is a cloud-based mobile app that offers full dictation capabilities on Android and iOS devices. The app supports boilerplate text insertion and custom vocabularies, with documents shared across devices via Evernote or cloud services. The app has a slight delay due to cloud processing but offers the same speech recognition as the desktop software. However, users cannot dictate directly into another app, and it requires an internet connection to work. The app is available through a subscription model, and Nuance Communications offers a 7-day free trial for users to test the app. Despite these limitations, the Dragon Anywhere app offers powerful voice recognition of the same quality as its desktop software, making it a valuable tool for dictation on the go.

      Otter

      Otter is a cloud-based voice-to-text app that provides real-time transcription for meetings, interviews and lectures. It offers keyword summaries, a wordcloud feature and 600 minutes of free service with the ability to search, edit, play and organise transcriptions. It assigns different speaker IDs for better understanding. Otter has three payment plans, including Premium, which offers advanced features such as bulk export, syncing with Dropbox, and up to 6,000 minutes of speech-to-text. Its Teams plan offers user management, two-factor authentication, centralised billing and live captioning. Otter is user-friendly, accurate and accessible to individuals and teams with different needs. It provides collaboration tools, making it a powerful app for anyone who needs rich notes during meetings, lectures, or interviews.

      Verbit

      Verbit is an AI-powered transcription and captioning service for enterprises and educational institutions. The app uses neural networks and algorithms to reduce background noise, differentiate between speakers and provide contextual accuracy. It offers a live transcription feature with human editors to ensure full accuracy and quick turnaround time. Verbit has multiple pricing plans, including API access and custom models, making it a valuable tool for businesses with unique requirements. Its integration with other systems and automation of workflows make it an efficient and effective tool for teams.

      Amazon Transcribe

      Amazon Transcribe is a cloud-based speech recognition platform that can convert audio to text with high accuracy. The platform uses deep learning algorithms to add punctuation and formatting to the transcribed text, and can handle low-fi and noisy recordings. It offers livestream and batch processing options, and time stamping for individual words to make searching easy. The platform can identify different speakers and channels, and annotate documents accordingly. Amazon Transcribe provides features for editing and managing transcribed texts, including vocabulary filtering and replacement words. It is aimed primarily at businesses and enterprises, but can also be used by individuals. Overall, Amazon Transcribe is a powerful platform with comprehensive capabilities, making it a top choice for accurate speech-to-text transcription services.

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      Microsoft Azure Speech to Text

      Microsoft's Azure cloud service offers Azure Speech to Text, an advanced speech recognition feature that creates text from various audio sources. It uses deep neural network models to recognise multiple speakers and can be customised to handle different speech patterns and background noise. Azure Speech to Text provides a free container with a single concurrent request for up to five hours of free audio per month, specialist vocabularies and integration with other Azure services, such as Azure Cognitive Services and Azure Media Services. It is available in the cloud, on-premises, or in edge computing, making it a versatile solution for different uses. Azure Speech to Text is a powerful and customisable speech recognition service that can help businesses and developers create more sophisticated and efficient applications that can analyse and process audio and video content.

      IBM Watson Speech to Text

      IBM's Watson Speech to Text is a cloud-based solution that uses AI and machine learning for real-time and batch audio conversion to text. It offers customisation options for language, audio frequency and output, as well as speaker labels, timestamps and smart formatting. The solution is easily deployable on-premises or in the cloud and can be integrated with other IBM Watson services such as Natural Language Processing. Watson Speech to Text is also known for its enterprise-level security, ensuring data privacy and security. The solution offers competitive pricing, including a free trial for up to 500 minutes of transcription per month and affordable monthly subscription plans based on usage. IBM's Watson Speech to Text is a customisable and accurate solution for businesses looking to convert audio to text.

      Google Gboard

      Google Gboard is a free voice-to-text app available for Android mobile devices that offers accurate and speedy transcription capabilities with its speech input option. It also offers a range of additional features, such as swiping for input, voice command image insertion and integration with Google Translate, supporting over 60 languages. Although not a dedicated transcription tool, it offers all the basic transcription functionality needed and works seamlessly with any software on Android devices. Its straightforward user experience and easy integration with other Android applications make it a powerful yet basic voice-to-text app, without any advertisements.

      Just Press Record

      Just Press Record is a user-friendly mobile app that offers one-tap recording, unlimited recording time and iCloud syncing across devices. It has a powerful transcription service that supports over 30 languages and punctuation command recognition. The app also allows for in-app editing of transcribed files and provides comprehensive file views for organising recordings. Users can share audio and text files to other iOS apps, making it easy to work with transcriptions across multiple applications. Just Press Record is an excellent option for users who require a dedicated dictation app with powerful transcription capabilities and cloud syncing.

      Speechnotes

      Speechnotes is a user-friendly dictation app that uses Google voice recognition technology and requires no account creation or setup. Users can dictate punctuation marks through voice commands or a built-in punctuation keyboard. The app includes custom keys on the built-in keyboard for adding frequently used text, and automatically capitalises words. Changes to notes are saved to the cloud and users can customise notes with a range of fonts and text sizes. Speechnotes is available as a free download from the Google Play Store, with premium features available as in-app purchases. There is also a browser version of the app for Google Chrome. Overall, Speechnotes is a simple and intuitive dictation app that is ideal for users who need to take quick notes on –the go with easy-to-use features.

      Transcribe

      Transcribe is an AI-powered dictation app for converting videos and voice memos into text files. The app offers high-quality transcription capabilities with support for over 80 languages and the ability to import files from Dropbox. Users can export raw text to a word processor for editing after transcription. Transcribe is free to download, with a 15-minute free transcription time trial available. The app is only available on iOS. Overall, Transcribe is a versatile tool for users who need to transcribe videos or voice memos, and its free trial option allows users to test the app's capabilities before committing to a purchase.

      Voice-to-text software

      Rev.ai

      Rev.ai is a suite of speech-to-text APIs that businesses can use to create downstream applications. Its speech engine has been trained to transcribe content on a variety of topics with a variety of accents across various industries. Rev is one of the most accurate AI transcription services available and it can be used by businesses of any size to maximise the value of content and grow their audience. Rev has trained its speech models on over 5.6 million hours of transcribed data, delivering the most accurate speech recognition engine. Users can scale up to 31 languages to meet a global audience. Rev offers a wide range of services such as human and automated transcription, video captions and subtitles and more.

      Rev's documentation is easy to follow and many users report that the API works flawlessly. The process is straightforward, making it useful for every type of user. The tool offers various features like global translate subtitles, live Zoom captions and the ability to transcribe in 31 languages. Rev has been used by some of the biggest names in the game, such as Spotify. To sum up, Rev.ai is a powerful tool for businesses looking to optimise their content and improve accessibility for their audience.

      Fireflies.ai 

      Fireflies is an AI voice assistant that provides powerful transcription capabilities to help users take notes and complete actions during online meetings. It offers user-friendly software that allows for easy uploading of live meetings or audio files for transcription. Fireflies includes a collaborative feature that lets users add comments or highlight specific parts of calls for their team, and it provides integrations and APIs, a Chrome extension and an intuitive dashboard to facilitate collaboration. The tool also has a meeting bot that can automatically join calls, as well as features such as instant meeting recording and skimming transcripts while listening to audio. Fireflies is ideal for businesses, teams and individuals who want to boost productivity and save time. A free trial version is available and users can upgrade to the paid version for more advanced features.

      Dragon Professional

      Dragon Professional is a dictation application designed for professionals who prefer to dictate documents, create spreadsheets and browse the web using their voice. With a 99% accuracy rate and a typing speed of 160 words per minute, Dragon Professional's speech recognition capability is out-of-the-box and does not require prior training to adapt to the user's voice. The software includes an intuitive interface, custom word lists and a mobile app that allows users to transcribe audio files. Dragon Professional is available for a one-time fee and is comparable to paid-for subscription transcription services. The software is ideal for professionals and freelancers due to its speed, flexibility and ease of use. Nuance is currently offering 12 months' access to Dragon Anywhere at no extra cost with any purchase of Dragon Home or Dragon Professional Individual.

      Speak AI

      Speak is an AI transcription service that helps collect audio and video data by building custom recorders, recording in-app or uploading files. It automatically transcribes and identifies important keywords, topics, and sentiment trends to ensure valuable information is not lost. Speak offers features such as custom shareable media repositories, named entity recognition, deep search, APIs and integrations, media management, dashboard reports, and audio capture. It's useful for qualitative, academic, marketing research, digital marketing and other crucial functions of an organisation. Speak can help streamline data collection and analysis, improve collaboration and save time and effort. It's an effective tool for anyone who needs to transcribe, analyse and share audio and video data.

      Speechmatics

      Speechmatics is an advanced speech-to-text transcription tool that can transcribe audio and video files with high accuracy in real time. It can recognise and transcribe various British accents without extra charges. The software can convert call centre phone recordings into searchable text or Word documents and work with videos and other media for captioning purposes. It also allows keyword triggers for efficient management. Speechmatics offers a flexible and comprehensive speech-to-text service that is cost-effective and competitive compared to other providers. It is suitable for businesses that need to transcribe audio or video content, particularly those with international clientele or employees with diverse accents. With Speechmatics, users can be confident in the accuracy of the transcriptions and the ease of use of the software.

      Beey

      Beey is an automatic voice-to-text software that converts audio and video files into text, with the added ability to create high-quality captions and subtitles for videos. The platform supports more than 20 languages and includes a machine translation tool for multi-lingual content creation. Beey's automatic speech recognition solution is highly accurate and can handle large volumes of content, with manual editing available to correct any errors. The software is intuitive, well designed and fast, making it a useful tool for businesses and individuals who need to transcribe audio and video content quickly and accurately. Beey's support for multiple languages and the ability to create professional-quality captions and subtitles make it ideal for content creators looking to reach a global audience.

      Braina Pro

      Braina Pro is a speech recognition software that doubles as a digital assistant to help users perform tasks on their PC. It supports dictation in almost 90 languages and has customisable commands. Its Android app allows remote control of a PC via a local Wi-Fi network. While there is a free version with limited functionality, the speech recognition function can be tried for seven days before subscribing. However, Braina Pro is only available through a subscription model and Google's Chrome browser needs to be installed for speech recognition to work. Braina Pro is a powerful and versatile tool for users looking for a speech recognition software and virtual assistant combination.

      Sonix

      Sonix is an AI-based transcription service for businesses to transcribe and organise video and audio files. The software features fast transcription, with 30 minutes of audio or video transcribed in three to four minutes. Users can review and edit transcripts for accuracy using an online editor that highlights low confidence words. Sonix supports drag and drop functionality, multi-user collaboration and text and audio synchronisation. The software automatically identifies speakers and separates exchanges into different paragraphs. The platform is ideal for industries that require quick and accurate transcription. In summary, Sonix is a powerful and versatile transcription service that offers speed, accuracy and a range of features to ensure efficient and high-quality transcription.

      NOVA AI

      NOVA AI is an online tool that automatically generates captions and subtitles for videos, as well as providing video translation services. The software supports both open and closed captions, which can be hardcoded into the video or downloaded as a separate file. It also allows for manual captioning and supports a range of subtitle formats. In addition, NOVA AI offers basic video editing functionalities, including trimming, cutting and colliding video clips. The platform is easy to use and accessible through any web browser, without the need for installation. NOVA AI is an ideal choice for content creators looking for a fast and efficient solution to create engaging captions for their videos.

      Google Docs Voice Typing

      Google Docs offers a free built-in speech-to-text software that allows users to work more efficiently without typing. With over 100 voice commands, users can easily make edits and formatting changes. Simply go to Google Docs, click on Tools and select Voice Typing to start. This software is perfect for individuals who want to save time or have difficulty typing and it can recognise a wide range of accents and transcribe up to 120 languages, including English, Spanish, Chinese and Arabic. Overall, the Google speech-to-text software is an excellent tool that can increase productivity and is a must-have for those who rely on voice recognition technology.

      NaturalReader

      NaturalReader is a versatile text-to-speech software available in both online and downloadable versions, with support for a wide range of text and document formats. It converts text to audio files and allows users to modify the pronunciation of individual words. While a free version is available with limited features, users can upgrade to the paid version for access to tools such as text highlighting and note-taking. NaturalReader is an excellent tool for those who prefer an audio-based approach to reading and need to convert text into audio.

      Sobolsoft

      Sobolsoft is a speech-to-text software that provides a simple and efficient way to convert audio files to text. The software allows users to upload multiple audio files and convert them into text files simultaneously. Sobolsoft offers a free version that allows users to convert up to 500 minutes of audio every month. After the installation of the software, users can easily upload their audio files and start the conversion process by clicking on the convert button. Once the transcription process is completed, the text can be edited and saved. It is important to note that only MP3 files can be converted using Sobolsoft. To sum up, Sobolsoft is a user-friendly and effective tool for those who need to convert audio files to text on a regular basis, but it has limited features compared to some of its competitors.

      Scribie.com

      Scribie is a transcription software that offers AI-powered accuracy and various services such as confidential access and add-ons. The four-step transcription process achieves a 99% accuracy rate and the online editor allows for quick review and changes to transcripts. Add-ons include SRT/VTT files and audio time coding. Users upload files, choose automated or manual transcription services and use the online editor to check and download transcripts. Scribie boasts a low error rate (<1%), fast service and confidentiality, and it has been used by well known business and tech brands, such as Oracle, Google, Airbnb, Stripe and Netflix.

      Technology + humans: The ultimate in voice-to-text services

      Service providers can offer clients the benefits of cutting-edge voice-to-text software alongside the benefits of experienced linguistic experts. A voice-to-text service provider can leverage the strengths of both technology and humans by using the software to produce a first draft transcription and then having an expert linguist review and edit the document. While voice-to-text software can provide fast and accurate transcriptions, it may not capture nuances in language or cultural references that a linguistic expert can recognise.

      This approach can save time and reduce costs while providing businesses with high-quality transcriptions that accurately capture the intended message. Additionally, the use of both resources can ensure that transcriptions are culturally sensitive and appropriate for the intended audience.

      By offering the benefits of both voice-to-text software and linguistic expertise, Semantix can meet your diverse and changing needs with bespoke solutions. Contact Semantix now for the very best in transcription services.

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