Speak AI is one app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Get it from the App Store or Google Play. Use it for your own workspace on a phone, and to collect recordings straight into a recorder.
Speak AI, for your own recordings
Download it from the App Store on iPhone and iPad, or Google Play on Android. It gives you the same transcripts and analysis you get on the web:
- Record meetings, interviews, lectures, and notes with the microphone button
- Upload audio and video files from your phone’s storage
- Read and search transcripts, with speaker labels; AI Chat and insights are on the web
- Organize recordings into folders
- Get a push notification when a transcription finishes
A new look
The app has a new design. Choose Light, Dark or System in the Profile tab under Appearance, along with an accent colour and a font. When you are signed in, your accent colour and font also apply to Speak AI on the web.
Manage a saved recording
Every recording in Saved recordings has a ⋯ button. Tap it to open a menu for that recording:
- Save a copy keeps a copy of the file outside the app. On iPhone it goes to the Files app. On Android you choose a folder.
- Share sends the file to another app, such as Mail or Messages.
- Show in Files opens the Files app at the folder that holds your recordings. This option is on iPhone only.
- Rename changes the recording’s name.
- Delete removes the recording from your phone after you confirm.
On iPhone, your recordings also appear in the Files app, under Speak AI › Recordings.
Install and sign in
- Install the app from the App Store or Google Play.
- Sign in with your Speak AI account, or create one. See account setup.
- Allow microphone access when the app asks for it.
- Tap the microphone to record, or import a file from your phone’s storage.
Agree before your first upload
Nothing leaves the phone until you say so. The first time you send a recording, Before you upload sets out what is sent, who receives it, and the third-party AI services that transcribe and analyze it. Select Agree & upload to go ahead, or Cancel to keep the recording on the phone.
Speak AI remembers the answer, so it asks once rather than on every recording. To check it or take it back, open the Profile tab and select AI data sharing, under About. It reads Allowed once you have agreed, and selecting it offers Withdraw.
Withdraw and nothing uploads until you agree again. Recordings already in your library stay there, recordings on the phone stay on the phone, and auto-upload switches off.
Upload every recording automatically
Auto-upload sends every recording you finish with Done to one folder and transcribes it, so nothing waits on the phone for you to remember it. It is off until you turn it on, and it only covers recordings you make in the Speak AI app while you are signed in.
- Open the Profile tab and select Auto-upload, under Recording.
- Turn on Upload after each recording. If you have not agreed to AI processing yet, Before you upload opens first: select Agree & turn on. The folder picker opens next, because auto-upload needs somewhere to send recordings before it can run.
- Check Folder and Language. Language is the language each recording is transcribed in, and it starts from your account default.
Record after that and the record screen reads Auto-upload on with the folder name, so you can see where the file is going.
Worth knowing:
- Everything it uploads is transcribed, so it spends transcription minutes exactly as an upload on the web does.
- Recordings made through a recorder link or a paired recorder are never auto-uploaded. Those still go to the recorder they belong to.
- A recording made offline waits and goes on its own. It sits in Saved recordings reading Waiting to auto-upload to your folder, and the app tries again when a connection comes back, when you sign in again, or when you reopen the app.
- Auto-upload gives up after a few failed attempts, or straight away on a failure that retrying will not fix. The row then reads stopped · use Upload to send it, and Upload on that row sends it by hand.
- Deleting the folder switches auto-upload off rather than sending recordings somewhere else. The Auto-upload screen tells you why, and choosing a new folder switches it back on.
- Auto-upload will not send anything without your agreement to AI processing. Withdraw it and auto-upload switches off, and a recording already queued waits in Saved recordings instead of going. See agree before your first upload.
- The setting belongs to the account that turned it on and lives on that phone, so signing in as someone else reads as off.
- A recording recovered after the app closed is never auto-uploaded either. A take that stopped early is worth checking first, so it waits in Saved recordings for you to send it. See if a recording is interrupted.
If a recording is interrupted or the app closes
A phone call, or another app taking the microphone, pauses the recording instead of ending it. The screen reads A call or another app interrupted the recording. Tap Resume to continue., and the take stays paused until you resume it: it never starts again on its own, so you do not lose the part already recorded and you do not get silence in the middle of it.
A recording the app was still making when it closed is recovered the next time you open it, and the app says so as it opens: Recording recovered, with a View button that takes you straight there. It appears in Saved recordings named Recovered recording with the date and time it started, and holds the audio up to the point it was cut off. Recovered recordings are never auto-uploaded, so listen to one before you send it, then select Upload on the row.
Going back does not abandon a take either. While one is recording, paused, or waiting for Done, the Android back button and the iPhone back swipe both keep you on the recorder and show Finish your recording, so a recording cannot be left running on a screen you cannot get back to.
If the app hits an error it cannot draw a screen for, it shows Something went wrong with a Try again button rather than closing. Nothing already in Saved recordings is affected.
Collect recordings into a recorder
The same app records straight into one recorder. The people you collect recordings from do not need a Speak AI account: they install the app, enter your recorder’s code, and record.
- Open your recorder in Speak AI on the web, go to the share options, and open the app tab to find the 6-digit code.
- Install Speak AI from the App Store or Google Play.
- Enter the recorder code in the app to link it to that recorder.
- Record. Files go to the recorder, not to anyone’s own workspace.
A recording made without a connection waits on the phone and uploads once there is one, so it suits fieldwork and anywhere the signal is poor. You can also share the recorder link or embed, which works in any browser.
Record better audio on a phone
- Put the phone in the middle of the table. In a meeting, that picks up every speaker rather than the person sitting closest.
- Record somewhere quiet. Background noise costs you accuracy more than anything else does. How accuracy works
- Use a Bluetooth microphone in a large room. An external microphone connected to your phone gives much better results than the built-in one.
- Check your free storage first. A long recording needs room on the device before it uploads.
Sync with the web app
Your phone and the web share one account and one library. Anything you record on your phone appears in your dashboard, and anything you upload on the web opens on your phone.
A recording you make in the Speak AI app is saved to the phone first, and its row in Saved recordings says so: Saved on this phone. It reaches your library when it uploads, so turn on auto-upload to have that happen on its own, or open Saved recordings and select Upload on the row to send one yourself. Retry upload replaces that button on a recording that failed. Either way the first one asks you to agree to AI processing before it sends anything.
Sending one again is safe. Before it uploads a recording to your own library a second time, the app looks for that recording in your account, so an earlier attempt whose reply was lost does not leave you with two copies of the same file. A row the app was part way through uploading when it closed goes back to waiting as soon as you open Saved recordings.
Evaluating Speak AI for a team? Book a demo and see your own recordings analyzed.
Related: Getting started · Account setup · Desktop app · Recorder