X
Tech

Speech-to-text comes to Evernote for Android

Speech-to-text capability comes to Evernote for Android. Will it eat into the profits of business transcription services?
Written by Andrew Nusca, Contributor

I hate the term "killer app" as much as you do, but it's safe to say that speech-to-text capability for Evernote for Android will have a major impact on the way you use the software.

The company unveiled the new feature in a blog post this morning, along with new features for its Widget app, from custom colors to a snapshot feature.

But speech-to-text is the main event. Here's how it works: tap the speech bubble icon, start talking, and the words appear in the body of the note as text. Bingo bango.

(If you're wondering how it really works, our siblings at SmartPlanet have a detailed answer.)

When you’re done recording, Evernote also attaches the audio to the note. (You have the ability to capture audio without speech recognition, if you so desire.) It's powered by Google Android’s text transcription service, and requires an Internet connection and Android 4.X and above.

Which makes me wonder: if you're an enterprise spending a ton of cash on transcription services, would Evernote do the trick? I suppose scale and importance matter -- you'll still need a human to review the results for errors -- but services like these are quite useful for businesses. (And certainly for the executive on-the-go.)

Any ZDNet readers responsible for transcription services at their organization? How's Evernote looking to you?

Editorial standards