Where to Find a Transcript of Your Favorite Podcast on Your iPhone

Apple announced on its World Developers Conference in June that it will be released iOS18 in the fall. The company also announced that it will bring new features to your iPhone, such as the ability to customize House AND lock screen. But when Apple released iOS version 17.4 In March, the tech giant made Apple Podcasts available to more people by introducing podcast transcripts directly in the app.

“The launch of transcripts in Apple Podcasts builds on Apple’s commitment to building products and services for everyone,” Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s senior director of global accessibility policy and initiatives, said in a statement. “We’re excited to make transcripts broadly available to everyone, adding an additional layer of accessibility to the Podcasts experience.”

Here you will find podcast transcripts and learn what you need to know about this feature.

Read more: An expert’s guide to all the features in the iOS 18 beta

Finding a podcast transcript

Here’s how to enable transcripts so you can read them while your podcast plays in real time.

1. Open the Podcast app.
2. Start playing the podcast.
3. Click the media player at the bottom of the screen.
4. Click the symbol in the lower left corner of the screen that looks like a speech bubble with quotation marks inside.

Now you can follow the transcript while your podcast is playing. You can also scroll through the transcript while it’s playing—but be careful. If you tap a word or phrase while scrolling, your podcast will fast-forward or rewind to that point. There’s also Search bar at the bottom of the screen that you can tap to search for words or phrases in the podcast.

When this feature is on, it also carries over to other podcasts you listen to. So any time you open the media player while listening to a podcast in the future, you’ll automatically see the transcript. However, to turn off the transcript in this view, tap the podcast graphic in the upper left corner of the screen and the feature will turn off.

If you want to read a transcript, such as an article, and don’t want to or can’t listen to the podcast, here’s how to do it.

1. Open your Podcast app.
2. Under In the futureClick the three dots in the corner of the podcast title.
3. To obtain View transcript.

From here, you can read the transcript at your own pace. If you tap the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the screen, you can also search for words and phrases from the podcasts.

How good are Apple Podcast transcripts?

Although I’ve only listened to podcasts in English, the transcriptions are quite good. The transcription ignores most instances of stuttering by the host or guest, which is nice, and in my experience it doesn’t confuse homonyms. It also transcribes accents and dialects based on English well.

Most proper names, such as names and companies, are capitalized and spelled correctly. There were instances where names, such as Yvette Pierpaoli, or diseases, such as bubonic plague, were misspelled in episodes of Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff and Scam Goddess.

The main problem I have with transcripts is that there is no indicator of who is saying what at any given time. When someone else starts talking, the transcript skips a line but does not tell who is speaking. If you are relying on a podcast transcript and there are two or more speakers, it can be difficult to keep track of who is saying what. If three or more guests are talking at once, good luck figuring out who is speaking in real time.

The search function is a nice touch. I’ve used the search function several times to find quotes and book titles rather than skimming through the podcast and hoping to hear them again.

Overall, the transcripts are mostly well written and easily searchable, but it would be nice if there was some indication of who is speaking in the transcript.

To learn more about iOS 17, here’s what might be included in iOS 17.6 and our iOS 17 cheat sheet . You can also check out what’s worth knowing about iOS 18 so far and ours iOS 18 cheat sheet.