Whether you need to make a quick memo, record a lecture, or just want to listen back on your band practice, there are plenty of reasons to record audio on your phone. We here at AP think you shouldn’t have to sort through a sea of apps creatively named “voice recorder” to find the best one for you, though.
There’s no shortage of powerful sound recording apps available right now. Plenty even have features like sound enhancement, silence skipping, or real time transcription. It’s not hard to see why one of these great apps could be replacing your built-in recorder very soon.
Otter is a powerful voice recorder that’s laser-focused on productivity. It records with real time transcription, and can even transcribe imported audio and video. While most of the best features are locked behind a subscription, you still get access to 10 hours of transcribed recordings per month that can be exported as a TXT file for free. If you decide the subscription is worth it for you, though, you’ll get a much larger pool of transcription time each month, along with the ability to export them as PDF or DOCX files, and even automatically transcribe dropbox uploads. If you need to quickly get notes from audio or video, Otter is the app you want. While it doesn’t have any audio quality settings, if you’re turning the audio into text that isn’t a huge issue.
There are other useful features if your business or school uses Otter, like live transcription of Zoom meetings and voice recognition that knows who said what. Otter is still worth a recommendation, even without those integrations.
Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $12.99 to $99.99
Dolby On is targeted directly at amateur and professional musicians alike. What sets it apart from other apps is its built-in Dolby enhancement that instantly makes your audio sound almost like you recorded it in a sound booth. It’s also the only app on this list to record video and give you the ability to live stream, all with that same audio enhancement. The app has a basic editing suite, and the ability to upload directly to social media, as well as YouTube and Sound Cloud. If you want to take your music to the next level, Dolby On might be for you.
Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs
Easy Voice Recorder gives you access to some pretty useful features, like noise and echo reduction, as well as tuned mic profiles for common recording scenarios. It even has a long-press shortcut to start a recording from the home screen or app drawer. While it doesn’t have one singular thing that it’s trying to be the best at, it doesn’t do anything poorly, and it has a user-friendly interface. It feels like the blueprint for the next version of the built-in recording app.
Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $1.49 to $3.99
In addition to the same features found in the free version, the paid version of Easy Voice Recorder Pro has plenty of quality of life and feature upgrades. Automatic cloud backup, silence skipping, gain adjustment, stereo recording, and an easy-to-use editor just to name a few. While there are other recorder apps also have basic editing tools, hardly any of them are as powerful, and even fewer are as easy to use. While the free version is good enough on its own to recommend, the pro version is definitely worth buying.
Monetization: $3.99 / no ads / no IAPs
I don’t like that there’s a generically named app on this list, but Voice Recorder by J Labs is a joy to use. User experience is important, and no other recorder app was as simple or fun as this one. The app is laid out like a vintage cassette recorder, complete with (optional) click noises when you use any of the controls. There are 8 skins for the recorder, dozens of cassette skins, and the logo of the audio file matches the cassette skin you used in your recording. You also save by ejecting the tape. Features outside the esthetics are pretty spartan, only letting you change the recording quality and save location. If you don’t want any features that you don’t get from the built-in recorder, and just wanted something more fun, this app is worth a try.
Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $0.99 to $14.99
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