Voice Message to Text for Telegram

Someone sent a three-minute voice message and you are on the subway, in a meeting, or simply dislike listening to speech. Voice message to text turns such recordings into plain text: forward a message to the bot and read the reply. 🎙️

You can also add the bot to a group so it transcribes everyone's voice messages.

How it works in practice

The scheme is dead simple. You forward a voice message to the bot's chat or send a recording directly, and the bot returns the text of what was said.

It also recognizes video messages, the round clips in Telegram. The same action is enough for them.

• Private chat. Forward a voice message and get a transcript.
• Group. The bot transcribes voice messages from all members.
• Round videos. Video messages turn into text as well.

Pick the language first

Speech recognition depends heavily on the language the system expects. If the bot hears Russian speech as English, you get mush.

The /lang command switches the recognition language. Do it right after /start, and switch back when your chat language changes. 🌍

Your first transcript in a minute

1. Open the bot and press /start.
2. Set the language with /lang.
3. Forward any voice message to the bot's chat.
4. Wait a few seconds and read the text.
5. For a group, add the bot to the chat.

If the bot will run in a work chat, warn your colleagues: their voice messages will be processed too.

What can go wrong

Any automatic transcription makes mistakes. Background noise, fast speech, accents, and rare words reduce accuracy.

• Names and terms. Often distorted, so double-check them.
• Numbers and dates. Do not trust them blindly if money or meetings depend on them.
• Quiet recordings. Clear speech without noise is recognized better.

Privacy of other people's voices

A voice message is the speaker's personal data. When you forward someone else's recording to a transcription service, remember it is processed on the service's side.

Do not send recordings that contain passwords, bank details, or other people's secrets. 🔒

The bot has /support and /donate commands. The first shows help links, the second lets you back the project with money. Project news comes out in a separate channel.

If the bot helped you, a donation keeps it running, but paying is not required to use it. 🙂

When text beats sound

Text can be skimmed, searched for a phrase, and copied into notes. Audio does not allow that: you have to listen from the start.

A transcript helps when the voice message holds an agreement, an address, or a to-do list. Read it, pick out the point, reply. No scrubbing, no headphones. 📝

Who needs it

People who often get long voice messages, people with hearing difficulties, those who work in noisy places, and anyone who skims text faster than they listen.