I’ve been experimenting with various transcription services for quite a while. Transcribing an audio recording — of a meeting, telephone call, or interview — has always been a bit expensive. In the past, I’ve used platforms like Upwork to have a human-based transcription completed. This cost anywhere from $30-$60 per hour.

There are some services and apps that have sprung up over the last few years that use machine-learning techniques to transcribe human voice and create automated transcriptions. The less expensive options have not delivered a very accurate text version of the conversation.

In my continual quest to find a reasonable solution, I have come across a new app called Otter.

Transcribe Via Otter

The Otter app is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. It launched in February 2018 and converts audio speech to text on the fly using voice recognition algorithms.

You can use the app itself to record a meeting and have the transcription converted automatically. You can also use the website interface to upload a previously recorded audio file and have it transcribed.

The app uses speech recognition to create transcripts automatically, even identifying multiple speakers and picking out keywords. If you’re using the website interface, you can listen to the recording, and the words that were transcribed are highlighted so you can follow along to see how accurate the transcription is. Your transcriptions are stored online so you can access them from anywhere.

A free version of Otter is available that provides up to 10 hours of recording transcriptions per month.

A Premium Version is also available and provides:

• 6,000 minutes of transcription per month (100 hours)
• Prioritized email support
• Additional playback speeds
• Connect to your Zoom account to transcribe video meetings
• 10 billed monthly or $80 billed annually

Subscriptions will be charged via Stripe. Your subscription will automatically renew unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

Next time you need to transcribe a meeting, phone call or interview I suggest give the Otter app a try.

What tools do you use to automate transcriptions?