The Voice Memos app that is installed by default on every iPhone is a useful basic tool for recording conversations or audio notes, but there are many other apps on the Apple App Store that have advanced features like editing, different quality recording options, and multi-track recording for musicians. Some of the best audio recording apps in the Android ecosystem are also available for iPhone, like Dolby On, which is free and has effects, an editing interface, and the ability to stream live to Facebook and Twitch or upload directly to SoundCloud. There is also the MOTIV application of Shure Audio, a manufacturer of audio devices. MOTIV has many of the same features as Dolby On plus a high resolution decibel meter.
If you plan to use your iPhone to record lectures, interviews, or meetings, you’ll want to try the Otter app. Otter uses AI to create a transcription of everything you record, making it a valuable tool for students, journalists or business people. This app has an average rating of 4.8 out of five stars from 35,000 reviewers on the Apple App Store, and a quick test session showed it to be quite accurate at transcribing spoken audio. For recording and mixing multi-track music files, check out Roland’s Zentracker or Apple’s own GarageBand app.