How to record audio on iPhone

Open a recording, tap the More button and choose Edit Recording, then tap Enhance (the magic wand). It reduces background noise and room echo in one tap, and you can turn it off again. Trim from the same screen.

• Record in a small room with soft furnishings; a bare kitchen echoes.
• Keep the iPhone still on a table rather than in your hand to avoid handling noise.
• For lectures and meetings, put the phone closer to the speaker than to the audience, and ask first.
• Turn on Airplane Mode or Do Not Disturb so a call doesn’t interrupt a long recording.

On iOS 18.1 and later, in supported countries and languages, the Phone app has a record button at the top of the call screen. When you tap it, everyone on the call hears an announcement that the call is being recorded. The recording and a transcript are saved in the Notes app.

That announcement exists for a reason: in many places it’s against the law to record a call without the other people’s agreement. Tell them anyway, and don’t try to hide a recording. A phone call interrupts a Voice Memos recording, and the iPhone’s screen recorder doesn’t capture the other person’s voice on a call.

Android phones come with a recorder too, though the app depends on the maker. Google Pixel phones have Recorder, which also transcribes as you speak. Samsung Galaxy phones have Voice Recorder, with Standard, Interview and Speech-to-text modes (for video of the screen instead, see screen recording on a Samsung). On other phones, look for a Recorder or Sound recorder app, or install Google’s from the Play Store.

In each app, tap the record button to start, pause if you need to, and stop to save. Share from the recording’s menu. Whether and how you can record calls on Android depends on the phone and the country, and the same consent rules apply.

recorder.video works in Safari on iPhone as a voice recorder, with nothing to install. It’s useful when you need a file to upload to a website, or a voice clip as a video with a moving waveform.

1. Open recorder.video, tap Audio only and allow the microphone.
2. Tap the big record button and speak. Pause sits next to it.
3. Tap stop, trim the take, and download it from its menu: Audio only gives an M4A in Safari, and Audio as WAV an uncompressed WAV.

Downloads go to the Files app. Keep Safari open while you record, because switching apps or locking the phone can cut off the microphone. Nothing is uploaded.

Voice Memos shares M4A files (AAC audio), which Windows, Macs, Android and almost every website accept. Some sites and older tools want MP3; neither Voice Memos nor recorder.video saves MP3, so use a converter app or site after you download. For an audio editor, a WAV from recorder.video avoids a second round of compression.