Spoken entries & write it out

A spoken entry is one you say instead of write: the recording is the entry itself — "say it now, write it out later". Later, write it out turns the recording into words, on the phone, beside it.

#Start one

1. Hold ✛ in the bottom-left corner of the sky — or tap ✛ on the escritoire — and tap "✛ a spoken entry", "SAY IT NOW · WRITE IT OUT LATER".
2. Compose opens with a line at the top: "a spoken entry · say it now, write it out later", and "✛ a voice note" under it.
3. Tap "✛ a voice note" and speak. It shows "recording ·" and the time, with a line that moves with how loud you are.
4. Tap "■ keep it". The line now reads "◉ the recording is the entry · written out from the reader".

"✕ never mind" while recording keeps nothing. Under one second, it says "too short to keep — hold it a second longer".

Pictures and videos can sit beside the recording, as on any entry.

#Make any recording the entry

On any entry, in compose › "materials", each sound file offers "◎ make this the entry itself". Tap it and it reads "◉ the entry itself · undo"; tap that to turn it back into an ordinary file. If the file was already saved with the entry, the change is kept at once; otherwise with your next save. See Photos, files & voice notes.

#Hear it

Open the entry to read it. The recording comes first, because it is the entry: "◉ said aloud" with its length, and "▶ hear it" / "❚❚ pause". See The reader.

#Write it out

1. In the reader, under "◉ said aloud", tap "write it out" — or "write it out again, below" when it already has words.
2. It reads "listening to it…" while the phone's own speech recognition listens.
3. What it hears is added as a new paragraph after the words already there. It ends with "written out · the recording stays, and the words sit beside it".

• If nothing is heard: "nothing could be heard in it".
• On a phone that can't do this by itself, the button is replaced by the line "this phone can't write a recording out by itself — android 13 and its on-device speech are needed." The recording stays the entry.
• It is offered only on an entry whose recording is the entry.

The earlier words are kept in the entry's history, so you can bring them back. See Save & earlier versions.

#Not the same: the "voice" corner

The "voice" button in the sky's corner ("speak an entry") hands you to the phone's speech recogniser, and what it hears becomes the words of a new entry. No recording is kept.

#Ask the sky

Ask the sky can choose which of an entry's sound files is the entry itself, or make it a written entry again, and write a recording out the same way. Recording stays yours. See What the sky can do — entries & journals.

#See also.

Photos, files & voice notes · The reader · Write a new entry