How To Record Audio On An iPhone – My New Microphone

Whether you are journalism, the music industry, or just wanting to record a conversation or lecture, iPhone has multiple audio recording apps perfect for capturing audio segments. But how do you record on an iPhone?

How to record audio on an iPhone: To record an audio segment on an iPhone, open the Voice Memos app and press the large red button at the bottom of the screen. Notice that sound waves will appear as the recording starts. Then press the square red button on the bottom of the screen to stop the recording.

There are many different apps to utilize besides the Voice Memos, so if you are looking for an app that comes with your iPhone, or another app from the App Store, take a look at which app would be best suited for you.

Voice Memos App

One of the apps that comes with your iPhone made specifically to record your voice is the Voice Memos App. This is probably one of the easiest ways to record an audio segment. Open up the app, and one of two different pages will appear: the “Voice Memos” page or the “Recording” page.

Voice Memos Page

Your app might pull up the “Voice Memos” page, which will have two different tabs labelled as “All Recordings” and “Recently Deleted.” There is a little folder at the bottom right of the screen with a plus sign. This is just a button to create another tab. For example, if you are doing multiple interviews with the same person, you might want to label the file under the person’s name.

Recording Page

Another screen that might pull up when you open the Voice Memos app is the “Recording” page. On this page, it might have a list of all the recording samples you have created, or it might read, “Tap the Record button to start a Voice Memo” if you don’t have any previous recordings.

How To Start And Stop A Recording

If you want to record a new audio segment, click the large red button at the bottom of the screen. You will notice that a timer starts, and red lines, or sound waves, will appear once you start recording. Whenever these sound waves are showing, it means that you are recording. The longer the lines, the louder the audio source. If your sound is too quiet, the sound waves will make little to no movement.

To stop recording, press the red button underneath the sound wave bar. Your recording will save either as the name of your current location (i.e. the street name or business) if location services are on or “New Recording.” You can change the name of the recording at a later time.

The Voice Memos app will not record any audio while you are on a phone call. Although it might look like the phone is recording, the audio segment will be silent during the phone call.

How To Edit Your Voice Memo Recording

You will notice that when you finish a recording, a series of symbols will show up underneath the title of the recording. First, there are 3 blue dots on the left side of the screen. If you press these dots, a list will pop up. It will give you the option to copy, share, edit, duplicate, favourite, or save the recording.

If you want to edit the recording, press the “Edit Recording” tab. On the top left side of the screen, there is a button that looks like a little wand with lines around it. This is the enhancer button. If you click on it, it will enhance the sound.

While you are on the editing page, you can drag the blue line to a spot that you would like to record over. Once you have found the spot in the audio segment that you would like to record over, press Replace. To stop replacing the audio, press the “Pause” symbol. If you want to trim the recording to make it shorter, press the small blue square located above the sound waves.

Once you press this button, you will notice that a condensed sound wave sample will appear at the bottom of your screen highlighted in yellow. To make the recording shorter, move one of the arrows, either at the beginning or end of your recording. Moving these arrows will shorten the length of your audio segment.

When you are satisfied with the amount you have trimmed, press the trim button. If you want to lengthen or shorten the audio segment, drag the arrow to the desired location of the recording. You can always press the white “play symbol” to ensure that you like the recording before trimming it. Once you are done trimming, press the blue “Save” button at the top right of the screen.

How To Delete Or Recover A Recording

If you are not satisfied with your recording, click on the blue trash can symbol on the right side of the screen, and the audio file will be deleted. If you realize that you deleted the wrong file, there is no need to fear! Press the blue arrow on the top left of the screen to go back to the different audio tabs.

There is a file tab titled “Recently Deleted,” which lets you recover the deleted audio files. Click on the tab, click on the audio file that you want, and then press the word “Recover” and then press “Recover Recording.” Use the back arrow on the top left of the screen to go back to the “Voice Memos” page, and you should see that your recovered file is back in the “All Recordings Tab.”

Sending Audio Messages Via The Messages App

Although you have the option to send audio files from Voice Memos to others, there is also a feature on the Messages app that allows you to send audio messages to other phone numbers via the Messages app. Open up the app or the green square with a speech bubble icon. Choose someone you would like to send an audio file to and click on their contact information.

Once you do this, you will notice a little message bar on the bottom of the screen. There is a gray circle on the right side of the bar with black lines on it. This is the audio file recorder. Tap that icon and hold it down to start recording. To stop recording, take your finger off of the button.

If you want to record the audio hands-free, hold down the icon and slide your finger upwards so you can record an audio file without having to hold the button for the duration of the recording. When you want to stop recording, press the red square button on the right side of the screen.

When you finish your recording, you have the option to send the audio file, listen to it, or delete it. If you are satisfied with your message, you can send it. If not, you always have the choice to re-record another audio message. Be aware that Apple deletes audio messages after two minutes to save space on your phone, but the audio message recipient can press “Keep” to save the audio message indefinitely.

Other Apps For Recording Your Voice

The Voice Memos and Messages apps are convenient and simple to use, but you might feel like these apps are limiting your creativity. Thankfully, other apps allow you to add more bells and whistles to elevate your recording skills. The apps below are great for those who want to edit audio clips, warp sounds, add music, and more.

Other notable apps for recording audio on iPhones include:

Dolby On: Record Audio And Video

One of the highest-rated audio and video apps is the Dolby On app (link to check it out at the App Store). It is completely free to iPhone users and has several functions, including:

• Noise Reduction
• Compression
• Easy Fades
• Normalization
• Six different sound styles
• Live Stream with animated visuals or with your own videos
• Import sounds from other apps
• Share your audio or video files with your followers on SoundCloud, Facebook, and Instagram.

Many users highly regard this app. Dolby On has a 4.8-star rating on the app store with positive reviews from over 3.2K users. If you are looking for an app to be more creative with your audio files, you should consider looking at this app. It might not be as simple as the Voice Memos app, but there is a lot of room to grow in the Dolby On App.

AudioShare

Although the AudioShare app (link to check it out at the App Store) isn’t as widely popular as the Dolby On app, users complement this app’s ability to record high-quality audio files. This app is more advanced and more specific to users trying to record music. Some of the features on this app include:

• Files and folders for different audio files
• Using external microphones within the app
• Ability to record audio at different sample rates
• Built in Dropbox client
• Import songs from your iPhone’s music library
• Add notes to audio files
• Send sounds on email and SoundCloud

Purchasing this app on the app store will set you back about 5 USD, but the many features are worth it if you are recording music. 639 AudioShare users give this app a 4.7-star rating and highly recommend the AudioShare app.

EZAudioCut – Audio Editor Lite

If you are looking for an app that records audio and has the ability to edit the sound waves precisely, the EZAudioCut app (link to check it out at the App Store) is a great choice. Some of the features include:

• Edit with precision
• Record your voice and/or music
• Merge audio
• Export your recordings with multiple formats such as m4a, aac, mp2, mp3, wav, mov, mp4 and more
• No limitations on how much you can record (as long as your phone doesn’t run out of storage)
• Noise Reduction
• Audio Enhancement
• Share audio files with others

This is a great recording app for free from the App Store, although there are some in-app purchases. EZAudioCut – Audio Editor Lite has raving reviews from 2.6K users and has a 4.9-star rating.

To learn about digital audio formats in much more detail, check out my article Complete Guide To Digital Audio Formats (MP3, WAV, & More).

GarageBand

When you first got your iPhone, you might have noticed an array of apps that already came with the device. One of the apps that come pre-installed on your phone is the GarageBand app (link to check it out at the App Store). It’s a great app if you want to record audio and add in instruments or other types of background sounds. There are many features on this app, including:

• Add background music with instruments on the app
• Record your voice
• Create layers of audio files
• Download any instrument
• Edit and place audio files in any arrangement
• Create live loops
• Ability to hook up a guitar or bass

Whether you are just looking to record your voice or make music on your iPhone, this is a tremendous app to have downloaded on your iPhone. The app is free for iPhone users, and there aren’t any in-app purchases. Out of the 65K ratings, the GarageBand app has a 4.1-star rating, which isn’t as high as some of the other voice-recording apps, but you don’t have any monetary limitations on this app.

Recording Audio With External Microphones

Although newer iPhone models have great internal microphones, you still have the option to purchase external microphones for an even better audio outcome. Some headphones, like the AirPods Pro (link to check the price on Amazon), have their own microphone built-in, which can help eliminate background noises and create clearer audio segments.

Apple AirPods Pro

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If you are looking for some high-quality iPhone external microphones, take a look at the table below:

Each of the external microphones above is compatible with Apple Products and sold on the Apple website (although they aren’t Apple products). If you are looking for a new microphone for your iPhone, consider looking at the above options to create clear and concise audio files.

For a more in-depth take on my opinion of the best external microphones for iPhone, check out My New Microphone’s Top 4 Best External (Lightning) Microphones For iPhone.

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This article has been approved in accordance with the My New Microphone Editorial Policy.