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Although iOS 18 won’t be released in full until the fall, it’s certainly generating a lot of interest and speculation. AI-powered features are likely to come, and that will happen in a software update.
Much of the pre-release talk about iOS 18 focuses on how Apple will integrate AI into iPhone software. Does that mean auto-generated playlists in Apple Music? Generative creation tools in apps like Pages and Keynote? Perhaps a smarter, more conversational Siri that can handle more complex questions? There is a possibility that
That’s fine with me. But no matter what Apple adds to iOS 18 from an AI perspective, I hope the Voice Memos app gets some love and attention as well.
Yes, that’s right. I think more advanced features are required for voice memos. And if Apple adds the Voice Recorder app to iOS 18, it could become one of the iPhone’s most important built-in tools.
Current status of voice recorders
Currently, iOS voice memos… Are you okay. If you need to record a video narration, launch the app. And I think Apple has equipped the app with useful editing tools that make it easy to trim recordings on the iPhone’s relatively limited screen space.
But if you compare this to similar apps on Pixel and Galaxy S smartphones (Recorder on Pixel, Voice Recorder on Samsung smartphones), you can see how much more Voice Memos can do. You can transcribe recordings on Pixel and Samsung smartphones, and Pixel also lets you transcribe on the fly. Both apps recognize and label recordings when different speakers appear. And starting with the Galaxy S24, Samsung’s voice recorder can now use AI to summarize recordings. (This feature was also extended to last year’s flagship Samsung smartphone through the recent One UI 6.1 update.)
When I need to record an interview or presentation, I don’t reach for my iPhone, I just happen to have a Pixel handy. (I tested Recorder and Voice Recorder first-hand, and found Pixel’s Transcripts to be easier to clean up, and I like how it automatically assigns titles to recordings.) Voice Memos on iPhone is just what you need. It’s a great recording app if you have one. The basic functionality is there, but for more than that, the best recording apps built into his Android phones live up to his Apple efforts.
How AI can help with voice memos
At the very least, Apple should add transcription functionality to Voice Memos. Yes, many third-party apps offer this functionality, but this seems like something Apple should build directly into its own products. Additionally, all transcriptions are done on your device. This is something you would expect a modern iPhone to have enough processing power to handle. (If not, it should be supported by the next iPhone 16 model and its A18 chipset.)
By the way, this is not just a matter of converting audio to text. The transcript must be linked to the recording so that when you tap on a particular word or sentence, you can jump to that location in the audio. This is very important for the transcription feature.
I think voice memos should be able to recognize different speakers and label them as such within the transcript. Again, this is something we’ve seen with recent Pixel and Samsung phones, but Apple has a chance to gain an edge over its competitors. In my testing, I found that the recorder and voice recorder could get confused if there was a lot of crosstalk or a rapid return. Back and forth in recorded conversation. Beating rival recording apps with accurate speaker identification would give the iOS 18 version of Voice Memos a big advantage.
I’m not all that excited about Summarization being a significant AI-powered add-on to Voice Memos. Yes, it’s especially useful for recording brainstorming sessions, lectures, or anything else where you need a quick summary of what was said. But I don’t think it’s a necessary addition.
Instead, what I really want for voice memos is to automatically assign a title based on the content of the recording. Currently, Apple’s apps use the recording location as the title, but it’s up to you to change that. Having many recordings in the same location makes it very difficult to determine which recordings cover which topics. Taking the responsibility of changing titles off your hands and automating it can save you real time.
Outlook for iOS 18
Obviously, Voice Memos isn’t Apple’s main focus with iOS 18. The update’s AI efforts will primarily be an attempt to make up for Apple’s losses as it seeks to catch up with the efforts of other companies that adopted the technology earlier.
But if the purpose of OS updates is to add new features and enhancements that make old apps feel like new, Voice Memos deserves some improvements. And AI could provide many useful features for that particular app.
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