How to voice record on your phone: iPhone, Android, Samsung and Pixel

You don't need to download anything. Open the built-in app, tap the red record button, speak toward the bottom of the phone where the microphone is, and tap stop. The app saves the recording automatically.

Open Voice Memos and tap the red button. Tap the recording panel to expand it if you want to pause and resume. Tap Done to stop; the memo appears at the top of the list, named after your location or a number, and you can tap the name to rename it. Recording stops if another app starts playing audio, which is the usual reason a memo ends early (more in how long a voice memo can be). For higher quality, set Audio Quality to Lossless in the Voice Memos settings inside the Settings app.

Open Voice Recorder (search for it if it's not on your home screen). Pick a mode if offered: Standard for one voice, Interview for two people facing each other, or Speech-to-text for a transcript. Tap the red button, then the stop square when you're done, and name the file. Step-by-step for every Android phone in how to record audio on Android.

Open the Recorder app and tap the record button. Pixel's Recorder transcribes as you speak, so you can search recordings by what was said later. Tap pause when you're done, then save. With backup turned on, recordings are also available at recorder.google.com on a computer.

Most Android phones ship a Recorder or Sound Recorder app, sometimes inside a Tools folder. If yours doesn't, or you'd rather not install anything, a browser voice recorder works on any phone with Chrome or Safari, and puts the recording straight into an editor when you stop.

The room matters more than the phone. Record in a small room with soft things in it (a closet full of clothes works), keep the phone a hand's width from your mouth and slightly to the side, and switch on Do Not Disturb so notifications don't interrupt. If the room still sounds echoey or noisy, clean it afterwards with noise removal. For your delivery, see how to make your voice sound better.

On iPhone, recordings live inside the Voice Memos app and sync through iCloud if it's on; use Share to send or save one to Files (details in where voice memos save). On Samsung, they're usually in the My Files app under a Recordings or Voice Recorder folder. On Pixel, open the recording in Recorder and tap Share.

Plenty of podcasts start as a phone recording. Students we interviewed recorded on Voice Memos and then spent three to five hours editing each episode. Upload the file to the Hilite editor instead: it cleans the audio, lets you cut mistakes by deleting words, and publishes to Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The full route is in how to start a podcast on your phone.