Apple Podcasts isn't the best podcast app for iPhone, but teeth What comes pre-installed. For many of us, this means it's the only podcast app we'll ever care about, and the more improvements Apple makes to Podcasts, the better they'll get. Luckily, the company's latest changes introduced in iOS 17.4 are actually quite good.
In a new iOS update, Apple added transcript functionality to podcasts. The results are honestly impressive. Transcripts not only allow you to read them alongside specific podcast episodes, but they are also automatically available to you. all New podcasts on the app – only if your podcast is in English, French, Spanish, or German. This means that from now on, Apple will add transcripts to episodes immediately after they are removed. For older episodes, the company says transcripts will be added “over time.” Even though it's worth it, The Daily As of this writing, we have transcripts for episodes dating back to May 4, 2023.
As a side note, in every podcast I checked for this feature, I saw transcripts of very popular shows such as: The Dailyeven more niche podcasts. segment. As far as I know, the transcript itself is accurate. The only problem occurs when multiple people are talking at the same time. The transcript looks like he's fixed on one voice, one voice only. This means that if you rely solely on transcripts, you may miss some context.
How to access transcripts in Apple Podcasts
Credit: Jake Peterson
After you update your iPhone to iOS 17.4 (available on iPhone XS and later), the first time you open a podcast, you'll see a splash screen announcing that Transcript is launching. From here, just select your podcast and start playing. In your podcast player, press the transcript button in the bottom left corner and the transcript will fill the screen.
Transcripts work in a very similar way to Apple Music's Live Lyrics feature. (The same goes for the button.) Apple Podcasts highlights words in the transcript as the speaker speaks, making it super easy to follow. The transcript itself is divided into smaller paragraphs, unless the spoken sections are just sentences or words. Tap on any of these moments in the transcript to jump to that point in the episode.
Search for words and phrases in podcast episodes using transcripts
You can also search for any word or phrase within the transcript, just like you would with a regular text file. While scrolling through the transcript, searchClick and enter the content you want to search for.
If you want to share part of your transcript with another app, long press on any section and tap text selection. This opens the full transcript in another part of the podcast, allowing you to copy selected text or other parts of the transcript. (Tap her three dots at the top right of the player window, then click[View transcript. There is also a search function here. )