Microphones on smartphones are often much better than people give them credit for being. Whether someone is looking to start a podcast, record some music, or simply find a place to record their thoughts, recording apps will capture whatever sounds you need with relatively solid quality.
The best smartphones today have recording apps preinstalled right out of the box, but sometimes they leave a little bit to be desired for those looking for something more out of a voice recorder. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent apps that you can download that have features that your built-in voice recording app might not.
Obviously, a recording from a smartphone microphone isn’t going to be as crisp and clear as something recorded using higher-quality recording equipment, but given the proper room and setting, a smartphone mic can still produce great audio. Use the best voice-recording apps below to get your audio fix and start recording on the go.
Looking for apps beyond voice recorders? See our picks for the best iPhone apps and best Android apps.
Apple likes to keep things simple, and that applies to its apps as well. The pre-installed iOS Voice Memos app has an easy-to-use interface and is absolutely free. It allows trimming and basic editing within the app. With iOS 14, the app received an update that allowed you to enhance the audio with a button tap, and it eliminates background noise, hums, and echoes from the audio to produce a better overall recording. While the Voice Memos app is pretty impressive, it has limited codec support that includes MPEG-4, AAC (Advanced Audio Codec), or ALAC (Apple Lossless Audio Codec) for compression, so more professional users may want to look elsewhere.
Google’s very own Recorder app is one of the best when it comes to sound recording on Android. The app offers a bunch of interesting features, including transcription and visualizing sounds. It’s worth noting that the transcription process takes place internally rather than online with a constant internet connection. So, you will be able to use the feature even without the internet. While the app has a lot to like, it has a few downsides. For instance, the app works on select Pixel devices, and the codec support is limited as well.
The Voice Recorder and Audio Editor is one of the most sophisticated audio-recording apps. Apart from recording audio, it is capable of dictating and transcribing. You can record as many audio clips as you want, with no paid limits for numbers. That said, there are in-app purchases for features, such as transcribing speech to text and being able to add notes to individual recordings. It can also record calls on your iPhone with a paid subscription. Besides this, the app allows you to password-protect the recordings, change playback speed, trim and loop recordings, etc.
Recorder Plus is another great recording app for your iPhone. The interface is simple, so you won’t be fiddling with menus even if it’s your first time using the app. But what’s great is that recording continues in the background even if you switch to a different app. It also allows you to choose the quality of the sound recording, make basic edits, and use it as an audio player. Moreover, it supports formats such as MP3, MP4, CAF, WAVE, and M4A.
Audio Share is a voice-recording app designed to cater to musicians and other creative artists. It has a large library of supported audio files and a very powerful file management system, and it allows you to record via an external microphone. Plus, you get to choose from a bunch of bitrates, and it can play recordings at different playback qualities. Not an app to miss, this recorder is pretty feature-rich and allows you to trim, fade, convert and normalize recordings.
Easy Voice Recorder is a very popular voice-recording app for Android and iOS. The app brings together handy features like noise and echo reduction, high-quality recording, and playback with codecs like 16-PCM and MP4. You also have the option to set a shortcut for recording. However, the best part is that it supports WearOS, so you can record with your smartwatch.
Dolby On is a sound-recording app that has the ability to improve your sound recording with boosts and filters that help enhance sound quality. The key filters include noise reduction, fade-in, fade-out, etc. It packs a feature-rich editor and lets you upload the recording directly to social media, YouTube, and Soundcloud. Moreover, you can record videos and livestream with the same enhancements that apply to audio.
ASR Voice Recorder is a near-perfect sound recorder with high-end features, and surprisingly, it works for free. The app supports a host of audio codecs, including MP3, FLAC, WAV, OGG, and M4A. It is capable of playback control and skipping silent parts in a recording. Furthermore, you can add notes to the recording and upload them to cloud platforms like Dropbox, Google Drive, and more.
Ayush works as an independent tech journalist. He has been writing since 2018 and has worked with publications like India Today and Pricebaba. When not working, he can be found obsessing over movies and the audio gear he owns. Contact: [email protected]
Merely days after the iPhone Duo hit the shelves, images of broken screens on the phone started popping up across social media. Until now, it’s been unclear what’s causing the line of defective pixels that appears vertically along the crease, as well as horizontally, on the phone’s inner display.
Apple has finally acknowledged the issue, which has shown up on iPhone Duo units owned by customers as well as demo units in stores. In a statement shared with Bloomberg, Apple says that not all iPhone Duo units are affected and that those that are tend to show the display fault early on. The company added that users who experience problems with their iPhone Duo display should contact AppleCare for a replacement.
Not long ago, Apple treated independent repair like an act of outright hostility. The Cupertino giant locked down parts with serial-number pairing, while repair tools remained firmly out of reach of anyone outside its authorized repair network. More importantly, the company waged a legal and lobbying battle against right-to-repair legislation.
I've covered enough of these fights over the years to know what a shift looks like. That's why what happened in October 2026 genuinely caught me off guard. The day the iPhone Duo went on sale, what may be the most mechanically complex iPhone to date, Apple pulled off a surprising about-face. It published teardown-style repair manuals for a handful of major components.
Apple's first foldable phone is now on shelves, in short supply, but with an unreal amount of buzz around it. After all, it's the first foldable iPhone, and there's plenty that this phone gets right. But there's also a lot that is either broken or underwhelming. What's peculiar is the dialogue around this phone, and how it has completely overshadowed every other attempt at making a phone with a similar form factor.
I've spent some time with the iPhone Duo, and I've used the Galaxy Z Fold 8 for almost three months now. In my opinion, Samsung deserves more credit. When the Galaxy Z Fold 8 arrived earlier this year, it was celebrated in some circles and ridiculed in others for supposedly copying what Apple would eventually deliver with the iPhone Duo. The dialogue was pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Samsung has been making foldable phones for years, so claiming that it copied a product Apple hadn't even launched was simply absurd.