Whether you’re a heavy user of Apple Notes or not, you may have missed that iOS 18 introduced a new feature designed to take lots of the work out of note-taking. Thanks to the addition of audio recordings, bolstered by transcripts and summaries, Apple Notes makes it easier than ever to capture notes on your iPhone, iPad, and more.
Audio recordings with transcripts means Apple Notes does the work for you
Apple Notes has grown tremendously powerful over the years.
At one point the Notes app only offered some basic text editing functionality, and not much else. But with more frequent updates it’s become a versatile, feature-packed powerhouse.
There’s one iOS 18 feature in particular that’s proven tremendously useful, despite Apple not surfacing it very prominently in the app.
Inside a note, if you hit the attachment button in the toolbar, you’ll see a new ‘Record Audio’ option.
This offers a convenient way to start recording a meeting, lecture, or maybe even your own dictation.
Once it’s complete, the recording lives in-line inside a note alongside other text, photos, sketches, and other content.
But where this audio feature really shines is with its support for transcription.
In iOS 18, Apple Notes can automatically provide a transcript of your recording—even doing live transcription while the recording’s in progress.
It gets better though. If you have an AI-compatible device, you’ll also get an Apple Intelligence summary of the transcript’s contents for your convenience.
Essentially, Apple Notes now does all the work of note-taking for you.
- it records audio of whatever meeting or class you’re in
- it creates a transcript you can return to later
- and it provides a summary of that transcript
The days of typing furiously to capture all the notes of a meeting are over.
Have you used audio recordings in Apple Notes? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.
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