REVIEW: Google’s audio transcript product

It might seem strange that I’m reviewing a transcription product, but I’m all about spreading the love (and I know what The Transcription People is really good at).

The satisfaction of recording an intelligent interview with someone you find very interesting, or collecting your thoughts after a stimulating meeting can only last so long –at some point you need to get those audio files into a text format you can use for that report, article or patient file.

Of course there is always fast and accurate transcription of such files from TTP, but there is also another option: Google’s free audio transcription product. In the interests of checking out what the competition has to offer, I trialled the audio to text feature within Google Docs for speed and quality.

Trial transcription

I created this using a sample medical audio file.

Google Voice Transcription: Thank you very much for asking me to see slobodan anchor she came to see me with her daughter on 6th October. Many years ago slob danca underwent left length great saphenous vein ligation in the groin and stripping by doctorJayneDo. this went very well. Only a few years ago she went back to hospital and have the rights at great saphenous vein operated.

Actual: Thank you very much for asking me to see Samantha. She came to see me with her daughter on 6th October. Many years ago Samantha underwent left leg great saphenous vein ligation in the groin and stripping by Dr Jane Doe. This went very well. Only a few years ago she went back to hospital to have the right great saphenous vein operated on.

Here’s what I found:

• The audio to text transcription is easy to find in Google Docs –click on Tools and then Voice Transcription;
• Transcription speed keeps up with your voice;
• It produced minor typographic errors, but is mostly accurate; and
• It gave helpful hints along the way, like “say period for full stop”.

One downside is you need to have Google Docs open for the duration of the audio recording, but overall this product could be handy in the right circumstances.

My professional opinion is that Google’s free transcription product could be very useful for single-speaker audio to text files, but it doesn’t cope nearly as well with multiple speaker audio, or recordings where one or more people are speaking fast or with different accents.