Interview transcription for journalists and researchers

Typing up an hour of interview takes four to six hours by hand. Automatic transcription gets you a draft in minutes; the trick is a workflow that keeps every quote verifiable.

Before the interview

• Get recorded consent at the start of the recording: “Is it OK if I record this?”
• Record with your iPhone 30–50 cm from the speaker, or use a clip-on mic.
• For remote interviews, record the call itself rather than a speaker playing in the room.

Transcribe

Import the file or record directly in Transcription, pick the interview language (120+ supported) and choose:

• Online for the highest accuracy, punctuation and word timings, ready in minutes.
• On-device for sensitive material: nothing leaves your device.

Verify quotes in seconds

Every word is linked to its moment in the audio. Tap a sentence to hear it, fix the wording, and keep the timestamp in your notes. When an editor asks “did they really say that?”, you can answer in ten seconds.

Export for your workflow

• DOCX for the newsroom or your supervisor.
• PDF for archives and appendices.
• RTF or plain copy for qualitative analysis tools like NVivo, ATLAS.ti or MAXQDA.

Research with many interviews

Search finds a theme across all your transcripts. For a first pass of coding, connect Claude and ask it to list every passage where participants talk about a topic, with timestamps, then check each one yourself.

FAQ