Speechnotes

Speechnotes is a web-based speech to text tool that has been running since 2015. It does two things: it takes live dictation through your microphone, and it transcribes audio and video recordings you upload. Voice commands cover punctuation and formatting so you are not saying the words comma and full stop constantly, capitalisation happens automatically, and files import and export without friction. The pitch is a reliable, low-effort way to get words on screen, and the site claims millions of users over the years.

- Dictate text live through your microphone

- Transcribe audio and video recordings into text

- Use voice commands for punctuation and formatting

- Import existing files and export the finished transcript

- Students turning lectures and seminars into notes

- Podcasters producing transcripts of episodes

- Writers and professionals who think better out loud

Speech recognition is not perfect. Names, technical vocabulary, acronyms, overlapping speakers, and background noise all produce errors, so budget a proofreading pass for anything that will be published or submitted. Long recordings take real time and a dropped connection can interrupt a session, so keep local copies. Free tier limits and browser support vary, and microphone permissions are required, which means it will not work in a locked-down environment. Check the privacy terms before dictating anything confidential. For team use, agree on naming and editing conventions in advance to avoid version conflicts or duplicated work. Name and archive exported files consistently so you can find and reuse them, and keep a backup copy of key data. Save a backup of the original file before large batch jobs, and keep an exported copy of key results in case the page or service becomes temporarily unavailable.