How to record and send audio on iphone

We all send text messages and make phone calls to communicate. But, what if you want to share something with a friend, family member, or even a coworker in spoken words that they can save? For example, maybe it’s your toddler who’s just beginning to talk, a direct quote from an important interview, or just a heartfelt message that you want your recipient to actually hear.

Table of Contents Show

Send voice messages with the Messages app
Send voice messages with the Voice Memos app
How do you record and send an audio file?
How do I record audio and send it in an email?

For things like this and so much more, you can send a voice message. You can easily record your own words or those of another and send them via text that the other person can save. Here’s how to send voice messages on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

Send voice messages with the Messages app

The first, fastest, and most obvious way to send voice messages is directly from the Messages app. Here’s how:

Open a message to your recipient.
On iPhone or iPad, running the newer versions of iOS, like iOS 16, tap the blue audio icon and then tap or hold to record. On older versions of iOS, tap and hold the microphone icon to record your message and release it when you’re done. On Mac, click the audio note icon in the typing box to start and stop the recording.
Tap the send button when you finish.

One important note on sending voice messages this way is that they will disappear after your recipient listens to them. So, you may want to remind them to tap the Keep option below the audio message to save it.

Besides that, you and the recipient can also set your iPhone and iPad to not delete the audio messages after two minutes.

Send voice messages with the Voice Memos app

Another way to send a voice message is with the Voice Memos app. If you’re doing this on your Mac, you will need macOS Mojave or later, which is when this app made its way onto Mac.

Open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
On iOS, hit the record button, record your message, and then hit the record button again. On Mac, click the record button and then click Done to stop recording.
Share the voice memo by tapping the More button and then tap Share (on iOS) or the Sharing button (on Mac).
Select Messages, and then when the Messages app opens, enter your recipient, and send it.

The nice thing about using the Voice Memos app to create and share your message is that you can take your time with it and have it saved within the app for yourself as well.

Related: 6 ways to transfer voice memos from your iPhone to your computer

There are many instances when recording and sharing voice messages is a great idea. And, if you’ve never tried it before, give it a go and let us know if you have trouble with it.

If you need help with sharing other types of media in the Message app, here’s a tutorial on ways to share YouTube videos, another for sharing Google Photos, and one for sharing ZIP files and PDFs.

Related tips:

How to send an audio message with Siri
How to save your iPhone voicemails to the Voice Memos app
How to fix voice memos not syncing via iCloud from iPhone to Mac

How do you record and send an audio file?

Just like iPhones, Androids come with default voice recording apps. On your home screen, navigate to the built-in Voice Recorder app. Hit Record, speak your message and send the audio clip to a friend. If you don't want to do this every time, you can also try to use your smartphone's built-in helper.