Dictation App for iPhone?

November 16, 2015 7:49 AM

I've been doing a lot of hands-on failure analysis and inspection for my work, and I need a good way to dictate inspection notes using my iphone. You know in TV when the coroner describes the autopsy as he's doing it? Like that. I'd really prefer it to be an iOS app, but some kind of laptop app would be vaguely acceptable. Specific Required features inside.

-(Required) Ability to selectively record. I need to be able to press a button to record a single note or finding and then again to stop. It should all stay on the same file so I don't have dozens of 10-second recordings. I work in a busy lab and I'm not alone, so the mic can't be on all the time.
-(Nice to have) That feature to be integrated into the iphone headphones built-in remote/play-pause button, so I can leave my phone in my pocket while inspecting.
-(Required) Some type of time logging so I know when an individual note was spoken.
-(Really nice to have) Automatic transcription so I can just paste a written version of the notes into a log without having to transcribe it myself.

If there's not an ios app that does this and I'll have to download a laptop app, what's the best wireless mic? Can I use a bluetooth headset like for a phone?

posted by nickhb to Technology (5 answers total)

Is there a reason you're not just looking to use a standard 2-button dictaphone?

And FYI were the recordings you see on TV real, they would be going off to a medical transcription; automatic transcription isn't where you'd want it to be at this point, sorry.
posted by DarlingBri at 8:25 AM on November 16, 2015

This is not exactly a dictation app, but the Day One app might work for this. You can use the iPhone's automatic text-to-speech feature, and each new entry will automatically be dated and timed, plus you have the option of adding photos, location info and more. The entries will appear as a list on a calendar, so all entries from one day will show up together. You can use traditonal tags for entries and hashtags within the text. You can also set up a "new entry" button on the Today screen in Control Center so it'll be easy to access when your phone is locked. One more bonus is that the app is synced to the cloud, so you can install it on a Mac laptop/desktop/iPad and have your notes there automatically.
posted by Brittanie at 12:39 PM on November 16, 2015

Actually now that I type that out you could do a lot of the same in Evernote, but I find Day One to be a LOT less clunky. Evernote has the advantages of text recognition in photos though.
posted by Brittanie at 12:53 PM on November 16, 2015

iPhone has a built-in voice memo app that is probably in your cruft folder. You can start and stop a recording and even go back to an old one to add something. It adds a date stamp, but not a time stamp. I don't have my headphones with the remote handy, but I would guess that it's likely to work if anything will. In any case, it would be free to try this to see if it worked for you.
posted by Night_owl at 3:08 PM on November 16, 2015

I don't think it does the time stamping but have you looked at Dragon Dictation for IOS?
posted by eatcake at 8:36 AM on November 17, 2015