**Transcription for Newsrooms and Reporters | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/business/newsrooms/

Newsrooms

# Interview transcripts for reporters, with quotes you can check against the tape

Record in the field, record a call without a bot, or upload the file. Every line has a speaker and a timestamp, in 99 languages.

[Transcribe my interview free](https://web.sozai.app/)

## The short answer

A reporter records an interview on an iPhone or Android phone, records a video call in Chrome or Edge without any bot entering the call, or uploads a file up to 500 MB. SozAI returns a transcript with speakers told apart by voice and a timestamp on every line, in 99 languages, and can translate it. For calls in desktop apps, the Mac app's Meeting mode transcribes on the Mac itself, so that audio never reaches our servers. A desk buys seats on web.sozai.app at $12.99 a month or $99.99 a year per reporter; each reporter's recordings stay private to them. SozAI does not produce certified transcripts and does not record phone calls on the phone itself.

## Four ways an interview gets in

| The interview | How to record it | What to know |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Face to face | SozAI on the phone, set on the table between you | Keep the phone close to the person speaking. A phone in a pocket on a loud street will lose words. |
| A video call in Meet, Zoom or Teams open in the browser | web.sozai.app in Chrome or Edge, audio source "Both" | Records you through the microphone and the others through the tab. Nothing is added to the call. Up to 3 hours per recording. |
| A call in the desktop Zoom, Teams, Slack or any other app | The Meeting mode of SozAI for Mac, source "You and the others" | Transcribed on the Mac itself; the audio is not uploaded and the meeting doesn't use your minutes. The app deletes the audio file from the Mac once the text is saved. macOS 14 or later. No AI notes are made automatically for these meetings. |
| A phone call | Put the call on speaker in a quiet room and record with SozAI on a second device | SozAI on a phone can't capture the audio of a call happening in the phone's dialer or in another app. |

Files you already have (from a recorder, say, or a press office) go in by upload in the app or on [the web version](https://sozai.app/web-version/). A one-hour file is usually ready a minute or two after the upload finishes.

![SozAI for Mac recording a meeting, with the transcript appearing while people speak](https://sozai.app/wp-content/themes/sozai/assets/images/screens/en/mac-meeting-live.webp)

## Recording a video interview in the browser

1. Open the call in Chrome or Edge on a computer, not in the desktop app.
2. In another tab, open web.sozai.app and go to Record.
3. Under "Audio source", choose "Both". "Tab audio" alone records only the other side.
4. Tell the person you are recording, and ask again once it's running so their answer is on the tape.
5. Press "Start recording", pick the tab with the call, and turn on "Also share tab audio".
6. When the interview ends, press "Done — transcribe".

Keep the SozAI tab open until the upload finishes: the recording lives in that tab until then, and if the upload fails you can save it as a file. If you press "Stop sharing" by mistake during "Both", the microphone keeps recording and nothing already captured is lost. Firefox, Safari and mobile browsers record only the microphone.

## Checking a quote before it runs

Machine transcripts are good at the bulk and weakest exactly where quotes live: names, numbers, a word swallowed at the end of a sentence. Treat the transcript as a finding aid for the tape.

1. Rename the speakers once ("Speaker B" becomes the source's name). It works in the phone app and on the web, and the names carry into PDF, TXT, VTT and JSON exports.
2. Search the transcript for a word you remember instead of scrubbing through the audio.
3. Jump to the timestamp and listen from the sentence before the quote, so the context comes with it.
4. Fix the wording in the phone app if the machine got it wrong. Text corrections are saved to the transcript and travel into later exports; the web, Mac and iPad versions can't edit text yet.
5. Write the timestamp into your notes next to the quote. When a source disputes it, you'll find the second it was said.

Summaries and notes are useful for the editor's first question ("what did she actually say about the budget?"), but never quote a summary. It condenses, and it can attribute a point to the wrong speaker.

![SozAI web app: an interview transcript where a speaker label is being renamed to a person's name](https://sozai.app/wp-content/themes/sozai/assets/images/screens/en/web-meeting-rename-speaker.webp)

## Sources who speak another language

SozAI detects the language of each recording on its own, across 99 languages, so a reporter doesn't have to know in advance which language the source will answer in. The transcript can then be translated, with its notes.

Two cautions. Recognition quality varies a lot by language: in our [published test](https://sozai.app/sozai-accuracy-test-10-languages/) on short read sentences, the word error rate was 1.8% in Spanish and 5.5% in Russian, 19.6% in Arabic and 50% in Kazakh. And a machine translation is a lead, not a quote. Before a translated line goes into a story, have someone who speaks the language check it against the original audio. Interviews that switch language mid-answer haven't been measured, so try one on the free minutes first.

## Exports for the desk

| Where | Formats | Typical use |
| --- | --- | --- |
| iPhone, Android, Mac, iPad | PDF, TXT, SRT, VTT, JSON | PDF for the editor, TXT for the story draft, SRT or VTT for video |
| web.sozai.app | TXT (with or without timecodes and speakers), SRT, VTT; one TXT for several recordings | Working from a newsroom computer without installing anything |

SRT subtitles never carry speaker names. There is no Word export, so paste the TXT into your editor.

## Protecting a source

Know where the tape goes before you upload it. Files and recordings are stored on our servers in Germany (Hetzner). Speech recognition for them runs at AssemblyAI in the US, and every company that processes them is on the [sub-processor list](https://sozai.app/subprocessors/). A reporter can delete a recording or the whole account at any time; that removes it from our servers, but encrypted database backups are kept up to 12 months and the recognition partner's copy is not removed.

The Mac's Meeting mode changes part of this: the audio is transcribed on the Mac and never uploaded. The text is still saved to the reporter's account, so it sits on our servers like any transcript.

So our advice is plain. When the identity of a source is itself the secret, don't upload that recording to us or to anyone else, and keep its transcript off any cloud service too.

## Buying for a desk

An editor buys seats on web.sozai.app, names the team ("North Desk", say) and invites reporters by email. Each reporter gets Premium with up to 700 hours of transcription on their own account and every device. The editor manages seats and doesn't see anyone's recordings, which protects reporters' material and also means there is no shared newsroom archive: a transcript reaches a colleague when its owner exports it. Freelancers who pay for themselves are better off with Pro at $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year. Invoices and VAT are explained in [how to buy for a team](https://sozai.app/business/buying/).

## When SozAI is not the right tool

- You need a certified or court-ready transcript. Use a human transcription service.
- The newsroom needs one archive where editors search everyone's interviews, with permissions. SozAI has no shared workspace yet.
- Your IT department requires SSO for every tool.
- You want to record a mobile call on the same phone it's happening on. SozAI can't capture another app's call audio on iPhone or Android.

More on interviews in general is on [interview transcription](https://sozai.app/interview-transcription/), and how other teams use SozAI is on [SozAI for teams](https://sozai.app/business/). Research groups have their own page: [SozAI for research teams](https://sozai.app/business/research-teams/). If you're comparing tools for the whole newsroom, start with [how to choose transcription software](https://sozai.app/business/choose-transcription-software/).

Updated October 27, 2026 By [Merey Tleugazin](https://sozai.app/about/merey/)

Answers

## Frequently asked questions

What is the best way for a reporter to transcribe an interview?

Record it on your phone or in the browser, upload it to a transcription app that labels speakers and timestamps every line, then check each quote against the audio at its timestamp. SozAI does this in 99 languages, with 30 free minutes once to try it.

Can SozAI record a Zoom interview without a bot?

Yes. Open Zoom in Chrome or Edge and record the tab on web.sozai.app with the audio source "Both", or use the Mac app's Meeting mode for the desktop Zoom app. Nothing is added to the call, so tell the person you're recording.

Can SozAI record phone calls?

No. SozAI on a phone can't capture the audio of a call happening in another app. Put the call on speaker in a quiet room and record it with SozAI on a second device, or take the call on a computer in the browser and record the tab.

Does SozAI transcribe interviews in other languages?

Yes. It recognizes 99 languages and detects the language itself, and the transcript can be translated. Accuracy varies by language, so check quotes against the original audio and have translated quotes checked by someone who speaks the language.

Can editors see their reporters' transcripts?

No. On a SozAI team each person's recordings are visible only to them; the editor manages seats and invitations. Reporters share a transcript by exporting it.

Is it safe to upload a confidential source's interview?

Not if the source's identity is the secret. Uploaded audio is stored in Germany and processed by our speech recognition partner in the US, and backups keep data up to 12 months, so keep such recordings off every cloud service.

Turn your next recording into text

Record, upload a file or paste a link. You get the transcript, speakers and a summary back.

 [Transcribe my interview free](https://web.sozai.app/)

Free on iOS and Android. No account required for YouTube transcripts.


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