Review Insights · App Store
Whisper Notes - Speech to Text
SmashMelon LLC · 424 ratings · ★ 4.6
4.6
★★★★★
424 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 25 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"work"
8 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "didnt work for persian. i buy this app for persian language but transcription is very awful" - mostafa7s7
2
"audio"
7 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work on iPhone SE. I wish I had read all of the reviews before purchasing. This does not transcribe even very short (5-second) audio clips on my device. It sounds like other people have had the same issue." - Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
3
"recording"
6 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Piece of Garbage - DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE. Very disappointed by the performance of this software. Did not work at all, even with the more advanced model option. My entire audio file simply imported as “Thank You” over and over again (not anything like the audio in the recording). …" - RPNUser
4
"crashes"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unsupported bait and switch. For some reason it waited until after I purchased the app to tell me my device wasn’t fully supported (the app page says that my iPhone and iOS is supported). The app has instructions for scrolling down to a link to request a refund, but th…" - 57monkeys
5
"transcription"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "didnt work for persian. i buy this app for persian language but transcription is very awful" - mostafa7s7
6
"does"
5 negative reviews mention this · 20% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work on iPhone SE. I wish I had read all of the reviews before purchasing. This does not transcribe even very short (5-second) audio clips on my device. It sounds like other people have had the same issue." - Chestnut-Backed Chickadee
7
"transcribe"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Definitely should not be a paid app…. Was able to transcribe some files, but the app is inconsistent in its ability to identify speakers, regularly crashes over and over, and I was also never able to download the larger language model despite having enough RAM and storage space…" - MFrazi11
8
"does work"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
9
"doesn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why use this over notes app?. Bought this thinking it would be better than just using the voice recording in the notes app. It’s not. The actual transcription doesn’t seem any better than the built in Apple one - in fact, it seems worse. There is no speaker diarization,…" - xdiegofuego
10
"device"
3 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unsupported bait and switch. For some reason it waited until after I purchased the app to tell me my device wasn’t fully supported (the app page says that my iPhone and iOS is supported). The app has instructions for scrolling down to a link to request a refund, but th…" - 57monkeys
11
"iphone"
3 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Unsupported bait and switch. For some reason it waited until after I purchased the app to tell me my device wasn’t fully supported (the app page says that my iPhone and iOS is supported). The app has instructions for scrolling down to a link to request a refund, but th…" - 57monkeys
12
"language"
3 negative reviews mention this · 12% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Definitely should not be a paid app…. Was able to transcribe some files, but the app is inconsistent in its ability to identify speakers, regularly crashes over and over, and I was also never able to download the larger language model despite having enough RAM and storage space…" - MFrazi11
📋 All 25 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Unsupported bait and switch
For some reason it waited until after I purchased the app to tell me my device wasn’t fully supported (the app page says that my iPhone and iOS is supported). The app has instructions for scrolling down to a link to request a refund, but the app always crashes before I can reach it.
Errors in Farsi dictation
Not useful for Farsi dictation at least as of now
Definitely should not be a paid app…
Was able to transcribe some files, but the app is inconsistent in its ability to identify speakers, regularly crashes over and over, and I was also never able to download the larger language model despite having enough RAM and storage space on my device. The app crashes every time the download gets to 99%. This was a real disappointment.
didnt work for persian
i buy this app for persian language but transcription is very awful
Does not work on iPhone SE
I wish I had read all of the reviews before purchasing. This does not transcribe even very short (5-second) audio clips on my device. It sounds like other people have had the same issue.
Transcribed a meeting into gibberish
Whisper transcribed my meeting with various measurements in centimeters. No centimeters were mentioned in the meeting. The audio is perfectly audible.
Piece of Garbage - DO NOT BUY THIS SOFTWARE
Very disappointed by the performance of this software. Did not work at all, even with the more advanced model option. My entire audio file simply imported as “Thank You” over and over again (not anything like the audio in the recording). Save your money. Do not buy this software.
Why use this over notes app?
Bought this thinking it would be better than just using the voice recording in the notes app. It’s not. The actual transcription doesn’t seem any better than the built in Apple one - in fact, it seems worse. There is no speaker diarization, so all speakers get merged into one and there is no distinction between who said what. Has a hard time with accents and non-American names. Overall, seems like an overpriced, less useful version of voice memos.
Crashes on Tahoe
The release before the latest one was great. But the one that is now available in the Apple Store (early 2026) crashes upon opening. Removing and reinstalling does not help.
Total Crash
Bought it for my MacBook Pro. Wouldn't get past an opening screen. Then later, would'nt even open. It just crashes every time. It won't even let me uninstall it. Bummed
Doesn’t work
I didn’t know if it’s just iPhone or what but this app does not work.
crashes all the time
not responsive nor snappy at all and crashed multiple times when playing the audio right after I downloaded it. The UI seems outdated as well(personal opinion) This app is definitely overrated.
Lost 2 of my hours long recordings
After I click end it doesn’t show up in the main screen. Also the app is broken after that happens, I wasn’t able to do any recording, restarting doesn’t help.
Does not work
I bought the app and recorded a 20 minute call. No matter what I do it will crash trying to process the transcript. Wish I didn’t buy the app.
Pésima herramienta para español
Traduce incorrectamente . Nunca me permitió hacer una prueba antes de cobrar los 4.99. Scam
Не работает
Я купил но приложение не работает
Not working
Only worked well for a few days. After that, the transcription produced mostly gibberish in the form of place holder text for noises despite the fact that speech was clear in the recording. Even audio that had previously been transcribed well produced the same when re-transcribed.
Disgusting
Completely useless app. Don’t waste money on it.
disappointed
im so sad. I was so excited to find this app as a way of writing a book through voice memos and exploration. most other transcription apps punctuate poorly or record in note taking styles/bullet points.
I recorded close to thirty minutes of audio yesterday and when I completed it, it began transceibing. The app warns that it starts slowly and learns to get faster, so after a couple of monutes and it only having transcribed 2% of my recording, I switched to another app to focus on in the meantime. I then went to bed forgetting to check it back on my recording. Today I opened whisper to see no record of the recording, as if it never happened; not even a blank audio or failure message. This literally made me cry, as I can never repeat or fully remember the narration of the ideas I recorded. I am so disappointed, this app has lost my trust.
I recorded close to thirty minutes of audio yesterday and when I completed it, it began transceibing. The app warns that it starts slowly and learns to get faster, so after a couple of monutes and it only having transcribed 2% of my recording, I switched to another app to focus on in the meantime. I then went to bed forgetting to check it back on my recording. Today I opened whisper to see no record of the recording, as if it never happened; not even a blank audio or failure message. This literally made me cry, as I can never repeat or fully remember the narration of the ideas I recorded. I am so disappointed, this app has lost my trust.
Only for Real Geeks
This app does not work without a lot of old school out-of-date help. Like you need to install ffmpeg using Homebrew (whatever that is) and then specify the file to transcribe using command line input. Way too complicated for 2024.
just a blank screen
can’t get it to transcribe anything??? looking for how to….
Misleading....not a working app
I paid the money and installed on my iMac. It doesn't do a thing. Not usuable in this state. From what I now see is this is just the frame work. Not clear in the app description. Wasted 2.99!
Refunding it
I’m talking but it still gets things wrong. Maybe it’s my southern accent…
No camera roll uploads?
Just purchased because it said you can upload videos but it only allows from the files not your camera roll.
Transcription issues make reliable
I’ve been using Whisper Notes for extended recordings and keep running into major problems.
In 10+ recordings the transcript is one sentence followed by [Inaudible] [Inaudible] [Inaudible] for the pages and pages .
Start of recordings get randomly cut off ( 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes) with no error message or notification.
No settings changes fixed it, and this happens even with the built-in mic, Bluetooth off, skip-silence disabled, and language set correctly.
Bugs make the app unreliable for serious note-taking. If the raw audio is intact, the transcription engine is failing badly; if the audio is missing, the recording feature itself is broken. Either way, until these issues are fixed, I can’t trust it for important work.
In 10+ recordings the transcript is one sentence followed by [Inaudible] [Inaudible] [Inaudible] for the pages and pages .
Start of recordings get randomly cut off ( 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes) with no error message or notification.
No settings changes fixed it, and this happens even with the built-in mic, Bluetooth off, skip-silence disabled, and language set correctly.
Bugs make the app unreliable for serious note-taking. If the raw audio is intact, the transcription engine is failing badly; if the audio is missing, the recording feature itself is broken. Either way, until these issues are fixed, I can’t trust it for important work.
Sentiment summary
89%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
6%
Negative (1-2★)