Speech-to-Text refers to AI that documents spoken words. These documentations usually occur real-time, or as you speak.
This feature is quite useful for those who either don’t have time to note down speeches, or struggle to type. The Speech-to-Text feature is available across different platforms, and can vary in quality. In this articles, we’ll be focusing on apps that offer the Speech-to-Text function.
Best Speech-to-Text App – The top 3 options
A good speech-to-text software should give you the ability to input simple voice commands and output written documents. Though some prefer to use a virtual assistant for this kind of task, speech recognition software is becoming more popular.
This is likely due to the success of speech to text software like Otter AI, which is our favourite option when it comes to accurate speech recognition. You can transcribe audio files quickly, or use it to type up a document on your laptop pretty easily.
Though Otter is not the only choice available on the market. We’ll go through three of the best Speech-to-Text apps, keeping in mind price, and features available.
#3 – Speechy Lite
Price: £6.99 per month.
Speechy Lite is free to download and use, but you can purchase a subscription for no ads, no limitations, and access to all features. The only ads are static, so they don’t disrupt the user experience much at all.
Speechy Lite is a simple, free Speech-to-Text app. The AI transcribes speech quite accurately, but it doesn’t take into account punctuation. Luckily, you can save the voice recordings along with their transcriptions, and edit the transcriptions post-recording.
You can share recordings, or save them onto your device as text files. You can also import audio files into the app to transcribe them.
Additionally, you can translate your saved transcriptions into over 30 different languages. The translations can be read aloud by the app. This can be useful in certain situations, such as when trying to breach language barriers.
Overall, Speechy Lite is a nice and simple Speech-to-Text app with flexible usage. In addition to transcribing speech, the app can translate the transcriptions and vocalise them. Speechy Lite also allows you to edit your transcriptions in case there are errors that need fixing.
#2 – Transcribe
Price: £11.49 per month, or £89.99 per year.
Transcribe is free to download and use, but you can purchase the pro version by subscribing to their monthly plan.
The pro version offers unlimited cloud storage for audio files (max. 500 hours), synchronisation across devices, an additional 5 hours of transcription time per month, more export file formats (TXT, PDF, SRT, DOC, etc.), and the ability to edit transcriptions in web browsers (Mac or PC).
Transcribe is a fairly intricate Speech-to-Text app. The AI documents speech quite accurately and efficiently, but has no regard for punctuation. However, it does take into account sentences. The app starts transcribing text on a new paragraph when a long pause occurs.
Transcribe allows you to save voice recordings along with their transcriptions, and lets you edit them post-recording. You can also edit the name of your saved recordings, but this seems to be a pro feature.
Transcribe rates each paragraph of text according to the AI’s accuracy when transcribing. The more you edit a paragraph, the lower the rating drops. This allows you to easily see how accurate the AI is in general, and could tell you when or if you need to speak more clearly.
The app also has a tab for viewing information about a transcription. Such information includes the word count, symbol count, reading time, revision history, and creation date.
Overall, Transcribe is a great Speech-to-Text app for those more detail-oriented. The app offers various different features, including exporting files, editing transcriptions, viewing AI accuracy, and more.
#1 – Otter
Price: £12.99 per month, or £90.99 per year.
Otter is free to download and use, but you can purchase the premium version by subscribing to one of their plans.
The premium version allows you to connect to cloud storage, show talk times, unlimited imports, and more minutes (for recording) per month.
Otter is a great, free Speech-to-Text app. There are many features available for free users, and the limitations or locked features are no necessary to the purpose of the app.
The AI is quite accurate and quick at transcribing speech, and takes into account punctuation. It adds commas and full-stops depending the on pauses between talking.
It also starts a new paragraph if the pause is too long. This makes formatting your notes much easier, as it requires less work.
We also like Otter because it helps to minimise background noise – something too common with speech-to-text software. This enables you to use simple voice commands without having to worry about mistakes.
Otter saves your recordings along with their transcriptions, and lets you edit them post-recording. You can edit the text, highlight or unhighlight text, copy/cut them, or add comments to them. You can also add photos, or share your transcriptions.
Furthermore, there’s a vocabulary tab where you can input uncommon phrases or words you use quite commonly. This will help the AI learn to recognise these words when they come up in recordings.
Unfortunately, there’s no way to teach the AI how the words or phrases sound. This means that there’s no guarantees that the AI will recognise the words in future recordings, but it does increase the likelihood of it doing so.
Overall, Otter is a great Speech-to-Text app for non-paying users. You can access all the basic Speech-to-Text features as well as some additional features, such as highlighting text.
You can transcribe speech, save recordings, playback recordings, and edit transcriptions; all for free. You can read our full Otter review for a more in-depth analysis.
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are quite a few Speech-to-Text apps available these days. Most of them cost money to use effectively, but there are some apps that are usable for non-paying users.
Otter and Speechy Lite are two of the best free Speech-to-Text apps, so give them a try if you don’t wish to spend money before fully testing the features.
