Transcribe a Research Interview, Get the Text with Speaker Labels
Upload a recording of a research interview, or paste a link, and ScreenApp turns the conversation into a transcript with each speaker labeled and timestamped. Record the session in the room with the browser recorder or the iOS and Android apps, or connect the meeting bot for Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams for a remote interview, then upload the file when it’s ready.
A transcript you can search and quote from replaces re-listening to the recording to find what a participant said.
What you get:
- A transcript with speaker identification, in 100+ languages
- AI chat with any recording, so you can ask what a participant said about a topic instead of scanning the whole transcript
- AI notes: action items with an owner and deadline, and decisions listed separately
- Export as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT
- Free plan: 2 transcriptions of recordings up to 45 minutes each, with AI chat on both
How to Transcribe a Research Interview
- Upload or paste a link: Drag in the audio or video file of the interview (MP4, M4V, MOV, AVI, WEBM, MKV, FLV, TS, MTS, M2TS, 3GP, 3GPP, 3G2, WMV, ASF, VOB, OGV, RM, RMVB, MPG, MPEG, M2V, F4V, MXF), or paste a link. No account setup is needed to start.
- Let it transcribe: The audio is converted to text with a timestamp on every sentence, and speakers are separated into their own labels for an interview with more than one voice.
- Review and export: Read the transcript in the browser, correct a name or a term, and export as PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT to bring into your analysis.
Accuracy depends on the audio. A clear recording with the microphone close to both speakers transcribes best; a noisy room, a phone call, or heavy cross-talk will produce more gaps. See how we measure accuracy.
Research Transcription vs Other Apps
| Feature | ScreenApp | Otter.ai | Rev | NVivo Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 2 transcriptions, up to 45 min each | 300 min/month | 45 min/month (AI) | 15-min one-time trial |
| Transcription | Included | Included within the minute cap | $25.49/mo (AI, billed annually), $1.99/min (human) | Not stated (annual subscription or pay-as-you-go credit) |
| Speaker identification | Included | Basic | Included | Included |
| AI notes | Included | Pro, $8.33/month billed annually, or $16.99 monthly | Not stated | Not stated |
| Export formats | PDF, DOCX, TXT, SRT and VTT | mp3 and txt on the free plan, plus pdf, docx and srt from Pro, with bulk export from Business | Not stated | .docx and .txt, or import into NVivo |
| Languages | 100+ | 6 | Not stated | 43 |
| Paid plan | $19/month annual | $8.33/month annual | $25.49/month annual | Not stated |
Sources, checked 2026-09-16: screenapp.io/accuracy#languages, ScreenApp pricing, otter.ai/pricing, rev.com/pricing, lumivero.com/products/nvivo-transcription/
- vs Otter.ai: Otter’s free plan caps you at 300 minutes a month, and its speaker identification tier on the free plan is Basic. ScreenApp includes full speaker labels on every plan.
- vs Rev: Rev’s free tier gives 45 AI minutes a month, then charges $25.49/month (billed annually) per minute for an AI transcript or $1.99 per minute for a human one. A study with many interviews adds up fast at either rate.
- vs NVivo Transcription: NVivo’s trial is a one-time 15 minutes, not a plan you can keep using, and it states 90% accuracy on quality recordings. Transcripts export as .docx and .txt or straight into NVivo for coding; ScreenApp’s exports go into whatever qualitative analysis tool you already use.
Who Uses Research Transcription
PhD and graduate students transcribe interviews for a thesis or dissertation, then quote directly from the transcript with a timestamp when they write up findings.
Academic researchers record interviews for studies in sociology, psychology, health, and education, and work from the transcript instead of field notes.
UX researchers transcribe user interviews to pull direct quotes into a research report or a product brief.
Market researchers transcribe one-on-one interviews about products or brands, then search the text for the exact phrases participants used. When the session is a group discussion instead of a one-on-one interview, see focus group transcription.
Journalists and authors record source interviews and need a searchable transcript to find a quote quickly while writing.
Research assistants transcribe a batch of interviews for a supervisor or a lab, then hand off a clean transcript for the lead researcher to code.