Hear2Text
For Journalists

Transcription software for journalists: every quote, timestamped

On deadline, transcription for journalists has to be fast and it has to be checkable. Upload the recording or paste a link, and the interview comes back as text with a time on every line and each voice on its own, so you can lift a quote and jump straight to the second it was said.

Start Free - 120 Minutes WeeklyView Pricing

Three hours of tape, four hours to deadline

You do every interview twice, once with the source and once with the scrub bar. The second pass is where the day goes, and it always lands on the day the story is due.

  • Transcribing eats the reporting day

    A 45-minute interview takes three to four hours to type out, and you play the same ten seconds five times over to be certain of one phrase. That is most of a working day on the part of the job nobody ever reads.

  • A quote you are not quite sure of

    You remember the sentence roughly. Getting it word for word means scrubbing back through the audio while the desk asks how long you will be, and roughly is how corrections start.

  • The line is in there somewhere

    You know it came about twenty minutes in, or was it thirty. Finding it again means sitting through the recording a second time, hunting one sentence in two hours of talk.

  • Six recordings, one story

    One piece can mean a press conference, three phone calls and a doorstep, each on a different device in a different format. Keeping straight who said what, and where, becomes its own job before you write a word.

A transcript you can quote from

Send the file or the link and the recording comes back as text, every line stamped with the time it was spoken and every voice labeled, with names on the paid plan. You find the sentence, play it back at that mark to be sure of it, and paste it into the draft with the attribution already settled.

What transcription software takes off your desk

Before
  • ✗Record Interview
  • ✗Spend Hours Transcribing Manually
  • ✗Struggle To Find Key Quotes
  • ✗Risk Misquoting Sources
  • ✗Feel The Deadline Pressure
After
  • Record Interview
  • Get Transcript In Minutes
  • Search and Extract Quotes Instantly
  • Verify With Timestamps
  • File Story Faster

AI transcription for calls, doorsteps and press conferences

Phone calls, doorsteps, press conferences, the video call you exported afterwards: upload mp3, wav, m4a, mp4 or mov, or paste a link to something already online. Language detection is automatic across 100 languages, so an interview in the source's own language needs no setup. Each file is transcribed in one language, so cut a two-language interview into two files. Clear audio comes back 95-99% accurate, and where the room was against you, the timestamps take you straight back to listen.

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Pull the quote with its timestamp

Search a transcript for the word you remember and every line holding it is marked where it falls in the conversation. Each line shows the moment it was spoken, so a quote arrives with the place in the audio it came from, and playback picks up right there when you want to hear the delivery again.

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Check it before the desk does

Play the line a quote came from and hear it in context, the question that set it up and the qualifier that followed. Speaker labels keep the interviewee apart from the press officer who cut in, so an attribution cannot drift onto the wrong person. None of this is a certified transcript: the recording stays the record, and the text is the fastest route back to it.

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Use Cases

  • Source interviews

    A ninety-minute one-on-one comes back as a document you can skim instead of a file you have to sit through, your questions kept on separate lines from their answers so nothing you asked is ever attributed to them.

  • Press conferences

    Record the whole room and get every answer in the order it was given, timed, so you can quote the minister and the two follow-ups that walked the answer back.

  • Investigation research

    Each recording becomes a document you can read and search on its own, so the interview from March is text you skim for the name you are chasing instead of an hour you would have to sit through again.

  • Podcast episodes

    One transcript gives you the show notes, the pull quote for social and SRT or VTT subtitles for the video cut. Subtitle, Word and PDF exports come with the paid plan; the free plan exports TXT.

  • Breaking news

    A statement drops at four and the wording has to be exact. Upload the clip, read it as text minutes later, and file while it is still the story.

Key Features

  • Who said what

    Voices are separated and labeled, so the interviewee, the press officer and your own questions land on different lines, on every plan. Naming each voice comes with the paid plan.

  • A time on every line

    Every segment carries the moment it was spoken, so a line in your notes always points back at a spot in the recording you can play.

  • Find the sentence you remember

    Search inside a transcript and every hit is highlighted in place, with the time beside it, ready to copy into the draft along with where it came from.

  • You decide what gets uploaded

    There is no off-the-record switch, and nothing is transcribed but the file you send us. Stop the recorder, trim the section before uploading, or delete the whole transcription once the story is out.

  • Interviews in 100 languages

    100 languages, detected for you, one language per recording. A paid plan also translates the finished text when the story has to run somewhere else.

  • Your recordings stay yours

    Files travel to us over an encrypted connection and stay private to your account, no human transcriber hears them, and you can delete a recording and its text whenever you want. We claim no certification, so for a source whose safety rides on it, keep the audio off cloud services altogether.

Frequently Asked Questions

How accurate is AI transcription for interviews?
Between 95% and 99% on clear audio, so a long interview comes back needing a proofread rather than a retype. Crosstalk, street noise and phone-line compression all pull that down, and unfamiliar names are where it slips first. Because every line is timestamped, checking a quote against the recording takes seconds instead of a second listen.
How do I transcribe a phone call recording?
Upload the recording as an mp3, wav, m4a, mp4, mov, webm or mkv file, or paste a link if it is already online, and the transcript comes back in minutes. We do not dial or record anything for you, so the recording itself, and the consent rules where you and your source are, stay your call. Phone audio is narrower than a room recording, so expect a little more cleanup than the 95-99% you get from clear audio.
Is AI transcription secure enough for confidential sources?
For most interviews, yes; for a source who could be identified and put at risk by the audio, keep that file off every cloud service, ours included. Your recordings travel over an encrypted connection and stay private to your account, no human transcriber ever listens to them, and deleting one removes its transcript at the same time. We hold no security certification and make no compliance claim, so judge us as you would any other cloud tool.
How do I handle off-the-record portions?
There is no off-the-record mode, so the control is what you choose to upload. Stop the recorder when the conversation turns, or cut that stretch out of the file before you send it, and none of it is ever transcribed. If it is already in a transcript, deleting the transcription takes the text and the audio you uploaded with it.
Can I search across all my interviews?
Not in one search, no. Search runs inside a single transcript, marking every match where it sits in the conversation, while your library search matches the titles you gave your recordings. On a long investigation, name each file with the source and the date and the library search takes you to the right transcript in one step.
Do you offer team accounts for newsrooms?
There is no newsroom or enterprise plan and no shared billing, but the desk can still work in one place: shared workspaces are free on every plan. Reporters move their interview transcripts into the desk's workspace, and colleagues join as admins, editors or viewers. Every reporter keeps their own account: free with 120 minutes a week, or $9.99/month, or $89.99/year, which comes to about $7.50 a month. On a paid plan a transcript can also leave as a Word, PDF, TXT, SRT or VTT file.

A transcription app for journalists who are done retyping

Start with 120 free minutes every week, about two long interviews, and no credit card. Unlimited minutes, speaker names, translation and every export format are $9.99/month or $89.99/year.

Start Free - 120 Minutes WeeklyView Pricing