While third-party phone makers have been including voice memo apps on Android phones for years, Google didn’t get around to launching its own voice recorder for Pixel phones until the Pixel 4 launched in 2019. But it was almost worth the wait — Google Recorder isn’t just a free app that lets you save voice notes. It can also transcribe them in real-time, letting you dictate notes that are saved as text.

Now Google has released an update that could make the app even more useful: cloud backup.

Google Recorder 2.2 is starting to roll out to Pixel phones, and it has an option to back up your recordings to your Google Account. If enabled, you’ll be able to access recordings by visiting recorder.google.com in a browser, where you can play audio files and read transcripts.

There’s a two-pane view on the website, with a list of files on the left and a player on the right, with playback controls including a play/pause button, skip ahead and back buttons, and a time slider.

image: 9to5Google

Backing up your recordings to the cloud also allows you to:

  • Access your audio files and transcripts across multiple Pixel devices
  • Get a shareable link to any recording, allowing you to let other folks hear/read a specific recording

One down side of the cloud backup option? It counts against your Google storage limits. So if you have a lot of recordings, Gmail messages, Google Drive, and Google Photos content, you may want to keep your files offline and/or consider paying for a Google One storage upgrade.

via 9to5Google

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3 replies on “Google Recorder Android app can now backup your recordings (and transcripts) to the web”

  1. I think it’s really great Pixel has been taking the lead on the audio recording front.

    I’m guessing Google kept files locally for privacy reasons and there was a lot of debate in regards to how cloud backup should work & still remain secure.

    I want to change the Google account Recorder backs up to – it looks like old recordings stay in the previously configured acct.

    Are there steps to switch Google accounts & bring all recorder data with it?

    The scenario is moving from a G Workplace account to a personal acct & vice versa.

  2. Now, how many of these recordings were already being backed up somewhere else for Google to spy on? 🤔

  3. Still waiting on a usable audio-only recorder
    on Android. The app would record any
    sound being played on the Android device.
    Have tried a few and they’re mostly screen
    recorders (which I don’t need) and seem
    kinda kludgy and user-unfriendly.

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