How to transcribe iMessage audio messages on your Mac

iMessage audio messages disappear two minutes after you listen, unless you change one setting. Keep them, and InkSaid turns each one into text on your own Mac, filed by who sent it.

First, stop them disappearing

By default, an iMessage audio message expires two minutes after you play it. On your iPhone, open Settings, then Messages, and under Audio Messages set Expire to Never. You can also tap Keep under any single message.

Without this step there is nothing left to transcribe.

Doesn't the iPhone transcribe them already?

Recent versions of iOS show a transcript under some audio messages. It is useful for reading one message, but it depends on your language and region, you cannot search it across chats, and you cannot keep it anywhere outside Messages.

Turning them into text you keep

Get the audio message onto your Mac as a file, by saving it from Messages on the Mac or sharing it from your iPhone, then drop it on InkSaid, or save it to Downloads while InkSaid is open. iMessage audio arrives as a .caf file, which InkSaid reads.

InkSaid transcribes it on your own Mac with the Whisper model. The audio is never uploaded, to us or anyone else.

Keep every note in one place

Your iMessage notes probably sit beside WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram notes from other people. With InkSaid Pro, every transcribed note goes into one private archive on your Mac, filed by person, whichever app it came from. Search a word and find the note.

Next step

Single notes are free to transcribe. Founding members get Pro, with the archive, for $39 a year instead of $79.