How to Convert Recordings to Text in 2026? 5 Steps to Organize Interviews and Meetings with Yating

What You Need Isn't Another Recorder—It's a Way to Skip the Replay

Many people handle interviews or meeting notes like this: record first, then at home, open the audio, play 10 seconds, pause, type, play 10 seconds, pause, type. A 1-hour interview can easily take 3 hours just to transcribe.

What's worse is content that mixes Chinese and English. The speaker might say, "We'll deploy this feature next week," then switch back to Chinese. This kind of dialogue is tough for typical speech recognition tools, and you end up having to listen again anyway.

If you often run into these issues, this article starts with PTT users' real reviews of Yating, shows you how much time such tools can save, and compares them with other AI meeting tools to see where they fit best.

Before Choosing a Speech-to-Text Tool, Think Through These 3 Things

Are you dealing with live recordings or existing audio files?

Yating's core is "turning speech into text," suitable for live recording or importing audio files. But if you need "automatic meeting summaries and action items after recording," check whether the tool offers post-processing features, not just a transcript.

Do you mostly listen to pure Chinese, or mixed Chinese-English?

PTT users mention that Yating performs well with Chinese, but accuracy drops with mixed-language content. If you frequently use English terms, this limitation will directly affect your efficiency.

Are you using it solo, or does your team need shared access?

Individual interview transcription and team management of meeting data are different needs. The former focuses on transcription itself; the latter requires member permissions, shared spaces, and historical data search.

Yating—A Taiwan-Made Speech-to-Text Tool from the PTT Creator's Team

Yating was developed by Taiwan AI Labs, founded by Du Yi-Jin, the creator of PTT, and launched in 2018. It supports both Android and iOS. It focuses on Traditional Chinese, Taiwanese terminology, and local accent recognition, which was rare in the speech recognition market at the time.

The earliest recommendation on PTT highlighted a clean interface, no ads, intuitive editing, and the option to export text or audio files. The poster tested it and found Chinese recognition accuracy at least 90%, but mixed-language performance was less impressive.

In 2019, Yating partnered with the National Theater & Concert Hall for real-time text assistance during performances. Liu Yi-Wen, the artistic director at the time, said that after about 6 months of testing, accuracy improved from 60% to 85%. This shows Yating's applications go beyond meeting notes to include arts accessibility and inclusive communication.

Pros

• Developed in Taiwan, friendly to Traditional Chinese and Taiwanese expressions.
• Simple interface with no ad interruptions.
• Free basic speech-to-text functionality.

Limitations

• Recognition accuracy is less stable with mixed Chinese-English content.
• Core capability is speech-to-text; lacks meeting summaries, AI Q&A, team collaboration, and other post-processing features.
• PTT users note there's no sync feature, so data management is relatively basic.

Who It's For

If you only need to convert Chinese interviews, lectures, or meeting recordings into transcripts without automatic summaries or team sharing, Yating is a lightweight choice. But if you want the system to automatically organize key points, action items, or let your team access historical data, you'll need a more comprehensive solution.

What Are the Alternatives to Yating?

Tinrec: More Than Transcription—Turning Meetings into Searchable Team Knowledge

Tinrec is positioned as an AI meeting notes and collaboration tool. It supports live recording, bot-free online meeting recording, audio import, and real-time translation. After transcription, it automatically generates summaries, chapters, action items, and mind maps. Compared to Yating, which focuses on transcription, Tinrec emphasizes "continuing to use meeting content after recording."

For example, you can ask Tinrec, "Who mentioned the budget in the last meeting?" It provides answers based on semantic understanding, not just keyword search. This AI Q&A feature is something Yating currently lacks.

For teams, Tinrec offers a dedicated team space, member roles and seat management, usage analytics, and audit logs. Meeting data belongs to the team, so when a member leaves, the data doesn't disappear with their personal account. This is a clear differentiator for departments or project teams that need to maintain long-term meeting records.

Otter.ai: Mature for English Meetings, but Not the First Choice for Chinese

Otter.ai is well-established in English business meetings, offering real-time transcription, speaker identification, and AI Chat. The free plan includes 300 minutes per month. However, if your meetings are mostly in Chinese or mixed-language, Otter's strengths won't fully apply.

Notta: Similar Transcription and Translation, but Different Team Management Depth

Notta also supports multi-device transcription, translation, and team plans, with a free tier of 120 minutes per month. It overlaps significantly with Tinrec, but Tinrec's bot-free desktop recording and team space design lean more toward managing meeting data as a team asset.

Pitfall Guide: 3 Common Mistakes with Speech-to-Text Tools

Pitfall 1: Downloading Based on "90% Accuracy" Without Considering Your Use Case

The 90% figure varies greatly depending on recording conditions. A quiet interview room, a noisy café, or a meeting with people talking over each other can yield very different results. Test with your own real recordings, not just official demo files.

Pitfall 2: Treating the Tool Only as "Recording to Text" and Ignoring Post-Processing Costs

A transcript is just the starting point. The real time sink is often extracting 3 conclusions and 5 action items from a 10,000-word transcript. If the tool can automatically generate summaries and action items, it saves you that second phase of work. Yating has limited features here, while Tinrec builds the organization process directly into the product.

Pitfall 3: Confusing Personal Use with Team Use

For individual interview transcription, free tools work well. But when a team needs to share meeting notes, track decisions, and manage member permissions, relying on everyone storing their own audio files and transcripts quickly becomes chaotic. For team needs, prioritize shared spaces and management features over transcription accuracy alone.

Summary: Which One Should You Choose?

If you need to "convert Chinese recordings to text," Yating is a lightweight, Taiwan-made option with a clean interface, and PTT users have given positive feedback on its Chinese recognition.

But if you need to "turn meetings into searchable, trackable, collaborative team knowledge," Tinrec is a more complete solution:

• Chinese and multilingual meeting organization → Tinrec (post-transcription summaries, action items, and AI Q&A)
• No bot needed in meetings → Tinrec (desktop version captures system audio directly)
• Team sharing of meeting notes and permission management → Tinrec (team space, seats, and audit logs)
• Occasional Chinese recording transcription → Yating (simple, free, no ads)

Start with free plans. Yating is available for download to try basic transcription; Tinrec's personal plan also has free credits. Record a real meeting and see which transcription quality and post-processing workflow fits your habits better.

References

• 'Yating' Debuts at the National Theater & Concert Hall! PTT Creator Du Yi-Jin Bridges Technology and Art - Business Today
• Recommendation: Transcription App Yating - Android Board | PTT Digital Life
• Recommendation: Transcription App Yating - Android Board - PTT
• Yating
• AI Brings Convenience! This MIT App Helps Many People! @ Python Engineer Married to a UI Designer - Nordic Life :: Pixnet ::