Google’s Recorder app with live transcribe coming to older Pixel phones

At the Pixel 4 launch, Google unveiled a new Recorder app which can transcribe audio recordings. The new Google Recorder app which seemed to be exclusive for the Pixel 4 series is now confirmed to arrive on the older Pixels as well.

First spotted by Android Police, the official Google Pixel Community confirmed in a Reddit comment the new Recorder app will come to older Pixel phones through a software update. Google also confirmed the same to The Verge but details of when it will launch and which Pixel will get it are still unknown. But it is quite likely that the Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL will get the new Recorder app.

Google demonstrated the transcribe feature of the Recorder app at the Pixel 4 launch event. The app will also live transcribe as the audio is being recorded on the phone. This feature will work even in offline mode and show the exact time stamps of words searched on the Recorder app. Google says that all of this will happen on the device and no data will be sent to the internet. Auto transcribing on Google's Recorder app isn't accurate though and can misinterpret some words.

While there are apps like Otter which offer live transcribing, Google will be the first to introduce it as a built-in feature on the phone. Also, this will be the first Recorder app from Google for its Pixel smartphones.

Google usually rolls out the same camera and software features for all its Pixel devices. The Recorder app will however be different for a market like India where the Pixel 4 smartphone isn't available. Google couldn't launch the Pixel 4 series in India due to regulatory issues with its Soli radar chip.