M4A to text — convert iPhone and Android recordings to text
M4A is what iPhones, Macs and many recorder apps save audio as. Drop one here, or record straight into the page; the guide below opens on the steps for your device, and the card checks live that your browser reads M4A.
Drop an audio or video file here
MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4, OGG, FLAC, WebM — any length
Transcribed in your browser. The file never leaves your device.
Recording 0:00
Click any line to play it.
Getting the recording off your phone
The steps for your device are shown first. On a phone you can also open this page and pick the file directly.
- Open Voice Memos and tap the recording.
- Tap ••• and choose Share.
- Choose Save to Files — or AirDrop it to your Mac.
- Drop the .m4a file into the box above.
- Open your recorder app and find the recording.
- Tap Share (or long-press, then Share).
- Save it to Files, or send it to yourself.
- Drop the file into the box above.
- Open Voice Memos — recordings sync from your iPhone through iCloud.
- Drag the recording out of the list onto the desktop.
- Drop the file into the box above.
- Plug in the phone, or send the file to yourself by email or cloud drive.
- Find it in Downloads or the phone’s Recordings folder.
- Drop the file into the box above.
See also: Voice message to text
About M4A files
- Your browser
- checking…
- Audio inside
- AAC
- Typical size
- ≈ 1 MB per minute
- Length
- Read in one piece: up to about 35 minutes per file
See also: MP3 to text
How it works
- Drop an audio or video file into the box above, or choose one from your device.
- The speech model loads in your browser and the text appears as it is transcribed. The file is never uploaded.
- Copy the transcript, or download it as TXT or as SRT subtitles.
FAQ
- Why would my browser not read M4A?
- M4A is AAC audio, and a few stripped-down browser builds (some Linux Chromium packages) leave AAC out. Chrome, Edge, Safari and Firefox on Windows and macOS all read it.
- How long can an M4A be?
- About 35 minutes per file, because M4A is read in one piece. For longer recordings, save or convert to MP3, which is read in small pieces and has no limit.