5 Best Speech-to-Text Apps in 2026: Which Dcard-Favorite Tool Is Best for Chinese Meetings?

The meeting just ended, and there's a 47-minute recording sitting on your phone. You open a note window, and the cursor blinks for ages without a single word typed.

This is the kind of plea that pops up on Dcard every few days. The comments are usually enthusiastic but also divided—some recommend built-in system tools, some suggest online tools, some say the free version is enough, and others insist you need to pay.

This article doesn't pile on specs. First, I'll put together a positioning table of the most frequently mentioned tools in Dcard discussions, then use a real meeting recording to walk through 5 steps of a smoother workflow. The example uses Tinrec.

Before You Start | What You Need to Prepare

• A phone or computer. Tinrec has an app, web version, and desktop version, and works on iPhone and Android.
• A recording you want to convert to text, or start a new recording directly.
• A stable internet connection. Real-time transcription requires connectivity.
• First, figure out what you want as output: just a transcript, or a summary, action items, and meeting minutes you can send directly to your boss. This will determine how much time you spend later.

The 5 Tools Frequently Mentioned on Dcard and Their Positioning

Tool	Role in Dcard Discussions	When to Consider It First
iPhone/iPad Notes	Built-in, free, supports real-time dictation in Chinese and English, iOS only	For jotting down a sentence or two, very short occasions
Yating Transcription	Supports simultaneous recording + real-time transcription, can also transcribe audio files directly, storable	For classes, interviews—when you just need a transcript
MyEdit/NotebookLM	Often compared with Yating Transcription on free quota, Chinese recognition, and AI summary capabilities	When you want to understand free limits first, or already have a transcript to organize
Tinrec	Real-time recording, online meeting recording without bots, all the way to summaries, action items, and team spaces	When meetings require not just transcription but also minutes and follow-up actions

Below, we'll walk through these 5 steps using Tinrec. The operational logic of other tools is similar; the difference usually lies in whether AI takes over in the later steps.

Step 1 | Record What You Want to Convert to Text

The goal of this step is simple: get a clean recording. All subsequent recognition quality depends on this.

Open Tinrec and start recording from the main screen. Just place your phone on the table, but make sure it's close to the speaker—for one-on-one interviews, place it between the two people; for multi-person meetings, place it in the center of the table.

Why emphasize this? Because transcription heavily depends on audio quality. Noisy environments, long distances, and multiple people talking over each other can't be saved by even the best engine. Rather than spending half an hour proofreading later, spend 30 seconds confirming the position before recording.

After recording, the audio stays in Tinrec, with the duration displayed next to it. You can come back anytime to listen again, re-transcribe, or ask questions directly.

(Scenario: A phone placed in the center of a long table in a meeting room, with real-time text scrolling in a corner of the screen)

Step 2 | Let AI Transcribe for You

After recording ends, Tinrec converts the audio into a transcript. For long meetings, it automatically organizes chapters so you don't have to read from the first minute to the last.

If you have pre-recorded files, you don't need to re-record. Just upload the audio or video file, and you'll get a transcript.

For online meetings, you don't need to record the screen either. The Tinrec desktop version directly captures your computer's system audio, compatible with Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and Webex, and no meeting bot is required—without the "XX bot has joined the meeting" notification, most participants will feel more at ease.

What you get is searchable text, not audio you have to listen to from the beginning.

(Scenario: A laptop running an online meeting, desktop version recording in the background, and the full transcript appearing afterward)

Step 3 | Quickly Proofread the Transcript

AI transcription isn't perfect. Names, company names, and proper nouns are the most error-prone. The goal of this step is to catch key errors in the least amount of time.

My approach is to scan the summary and chapters first. If the summary reads reasonably, it usually means the main content was captured correctly. Then search for a few words that are bound to be wrong, such as client company names, product codes, or colleague names.

If you're using the team version, you can add frequently used terms to team hotwords, so the same group won't make the same mistakes next time. This is also what I find more thoughtful compared to pure transcription tools.

After proofreading, the transcript is ready for further processing.

(Scenario: A person wearing headphones, listening to the recording while marking a few keywords on the transcript)

Step 4 | Let AI Generate Meeting Minutes

Most people get stuck not on transcription, but on how to turn those 8,000 words into something others can understand.

Tinrec generates summaries, chapters, and key points based on the transcript, and also organizes follow-up actions mentioned in the discussion into to-dos.

Even better is AI Q&A. You can directly ask "What was the conclusion about the budget in this meeting?" or "What concerns did the client raise?" and it will search the meeting content for answers. This is much faster than flipping through the transcript from the beginning, especially for a meeting from three weeks ago.

At this point, what you have is no longer just a recording, but material substantial enough to report back with.

(Scenario: After the meeting, the screen shows a summary, bullet points, and a to-do list side by side)

Step 5 | Export and Share

The final step: send the results back into your original workflow.

Tinrec supports export in multiple formats and can also bring content to Notion, Google Docs, OneNote, Dropbox, and other tools for further editing. Reports for your boss and meeting notes for your team don't need to be retyped.

If this isn't just your task, consider the team version: meeting data is centralized in a team space, new colleagues can see historical records, and administrators can manage members, roles, and seats, as well as view usage and activity logs. Pricing: team monthly is USD 29.80 per paid seat per month, annual is USD 199 per paid seat per year (about USD 16.58 per month); the first eligible trial is 7 days, 1 free seat, 300 minutes of shared import quota. Paid seats provide 2,000 minutes of shared import quota per month. Real-time recording under active plans and seats is currently not deducted by minutes. Actual prices and benefits are subject to the official purchase page.

Note that active team members can view and play team data even without a seat; however, a seat is required to record, upload, edit, and export. This is the division of roles and seats, not per-file permission settings.

FAQ and Troubleshooting

Q: Is the free version enough?

The Tinrec free version provides a basic quota, enough to run through a complete workflow once and confirm whether the output is what you want. If you only occasionally organize a recording, the free version is usually sufficient; for short-term intensive use (e.g., three interviews a week), consider a weekly card; for weekly meetings, consider Pro; for long-term data accumulation, consider the annual card. Actual quotas and plans are subject to the official website.

Q: What if there are many typos in the transcription?

First, check the recording environment. Too far away, noisy surroundings, and multiple people speaking at the same time are the three main causes of typos. Confirming the phone position before recording is much more effective than proofreading word by word afterward. If you're a team version user, adding frequently used proper nouns to team hotwords can also reduce repeated errors.

Q: Can it record Zoom and Google Meet?

Yes. The method is to open the Tinrec desktop version and let it capture the system audio played by the computer. The meeting proceeds as usual without inviting an extra bot. Note that this does not mean an official partnership with these platforms; platform interface changes may still affect capture.

Q: How accurate is Chinese? Can you promise 98%?

It's not advisable to look at fixed numbers. Actual performance is affected by recording quality, accent, noise, overlapping speech, and technical terminology. A more realistic expectation: in a quiet environment with clear audio, Tinrec can significantly reduce manual typing time, and important content can be verified by replaying at specific timestamps.

Q: Can I record meetings freely?

No. Recording and transcription involve local regulations and participants' rights. In practice, it's recommended to inform and obtain consent at the start of the meeting, and to pay attention to the scope of storage and sharing for sensitive content.

Advanced Tips | 3 Ways to Double Tinrec's Efficiency

1. Recording without entering the meeting room The desktop version directly captures system audio. The advantage is that no bot joins the meeting, which is especially friendly for meetings with external clients. Most tools that rely on meeting bots find this difficult to achieve.

2. Treat AI as a second reader of the meeting Instead of rereading the transcript yourself, ask questions directly. Tinrec supports follow-up questions about meeting content, either for a single meeting or multiple meetings together. Pure transcription tools give you a text file, and you have to figure out Q&A on your own.

3. View bilingual comparison while recording For cross-language meetings, you can switch between original text, translation, or bilingual view during recording, so you don't need to find someone to translate afterward. This is especially convenient for meetings with overseas colleagues or listening to foreign-language interviews.

If You Don't Use Tinrec, Here Are Other Options

Yating Transcription: Offers real-time Chinese transcription and audio file transcription, suitable for classes and interviews where you just need a transcript; if you also need summaries, action items, and team sharing, you'll need additional tools.

iPhone/iPad Notes: Free, built-in, supports Chinese and English dictation, convenient for jotting down a sentence or two; but iOS only, and not suitable for long meetings and multi-person conversations.

Both of these still have a final gap to close when it comes to "turning recordings into usable meeting materials."

Conclusion

Broken down, it's really just 5 steps: record clearly, transcribe to text, proofread keywords, let AI organize into minutes and action items, and export to your workflow.

The real time-consuming part is never transcription, but the organization after transcription. That's why Tinrec is used as an example here—it connects the later steps.

If you happen to have a meeting recording sitting on your phone, start with the free version and run through the complete workflow once to see if it saves you time.

References

• Expert-Reviewed Top 10 Audio-to-Text Recommendations | mybest
• Real-time Speech-to-Text APP Recommendations 1. iPhone/iPad "Notes" APP Supports real-time conversion to text Cost: Free Supports Chinese, English
• Sharing 'AI Speech-to-Text' Tools - NCKU Forum | Dcard
• [AI Voice Notes] Top 5 AI Transcription Tools! Generate Transcripts and Meeting Notes Highlights, Free vs Subscription, Pros and Cons Comparison | 104 Career Power
• 2026 Meeting Notes App Dcard Popular Recommendations: 3 AI Speech-to-Text Tools Tested and Compared - Tinrec Blog