Review: Transcribe - A Free Browser-Based App to Make Audio Transcription Easier

The original post is found here.

Antoinette Siu takes a look at a new free app which promises to make transcribing audio easier.

Transcribing audio is one of the most time-consuming tasks in a journalist’s job. Switching between the audio player and the text editor, rewinding every 20 seconds in, typing frantically to catch every syllable—repeating these steps back and forth, and back and forth… in an age of so much automation, something isn’t quite right.

A new Chrome app tool called Transcribe lets you do all that in one screen. With keyboard shortcuts and an audio file uploader, you can easily go back and forth between your sound and text.

The basic version is (and likely always will be) free; the pro version goes for $19/month on the Solo plan or $29/month on the Premium plan. With both, a 30-day free trial is included with no credit card necessary.

Just from testing the basic app, there seems to be a huge potential in a free reporting tool like this. Another upside is, even when you lack internet access the app will continue to work.

With the upgrade to pro, the developers offer options to save your transcripts, export the documents, and other sweet features like the full screen mode—so you can really focus on getting that transcription done free from distractions.

Overall, the app is not only intuitively simple to use, but audio uploads are fast, the design is simple and without clutter, and, most of all, free from advertising at this point.

The tool is definitely off to a promising start, considering it’s still a work in progress.