By Jason Snell
January 25, 2024 1:26 PM PT
Full, automatic podcast transcripts coming to iOS 17.4
Among the changes in iOS 17.4 is one that’ll be an enormous improvement in podcast accessibility: transcripts in the Podcasts app.
When a podcast episode has a transcript available, an icon resembling a speech bubble appears in the bottom left corner of the playback screen. Tapping it brings up a transcript, highlighted in real time—very much in the style of Apple Music lyrics, but with smaller text. You can search transcripts, select text, and tap on text to jump to that point in the podcast.
Apple has detailed how this will work on the creator side: By default, Apple’s backend systems will find a new episode of a podcast and transcribe it. When a new podcast episode drops, the transcript won’t be available right away—but will appear once Apple has had a chance to consume it.
Transcripts will be done by Apple by default. Podcasters will also be able to use their own transcripts, rather than Apple’s, by opting in to that feature in Apple Podcasts Connect and then supplying a transcript (in VTT or SRT format) and embedding the transcript URL in a <podcast:transcript> field in their podcast RSS. (It appears that private podcasts—like our own Six Colors podcast for members—won’t be auto-transcribed by Apple, but they should be able to still provide their own transcript and have that picked up by Apple.)
Speaking as a prolific podcaster, I’m really happy that Apple has provided this feature because it dramatically improves the accessibility of our podcasts. Transcription technology has only recently gotten good enough to make automated transcripts readable, but the ideal solution to the problem was always to have platform owners like Apple build in this technology themselves.
iOS 17.4 is in beta now and should be out for everyone by March.
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