As of 12 October 2026 Macdio makes a transcript for any podcast episode on the iPhone, iPad or Mac that plays it, using Apple's on-device speech recognition, in the episode's language where the device supports it. The audio is not uploaded, there is no account and no server of mine. When a show publishes its own transcript, Macdio uses that instead. The transcript follows the audio line by line, is searchable across your whole library, and is the source for the chapters, the summary and the song list of the episode.
How it works
Press play, or ask for the transcript from the episode. Macdio decodes the audio and hands it to Apple's speech recognition on the device. The text is saved with the episode and synced through your iCloud, so an episode transcribed on the Mac is already in text on the iPhone. On Apple TV the transcripts made on your other devices arrive through iCloud, since the TV cannot run the recognition itself.
Publisher transcripts first
Some shows ship a transcript in the feed, in SRT, WebVTT, JSON, HTML or plain text. Macdio reads those, shows them in the same panel and follows them during playback, so a professionally transcribed show keeps the names and spellings its producers chose.
What the text is used for
- Search: a word typed in Podcasts finds every sentence that contains it, across all transcripts, and plays from that second.
- Chapters: publisher chapters when they exist, generated ones from the transcript when they do not.
- Summary: a short written summary of the episode, made from the transcript by Apple's language model, on the device where it can run and through Apple's Private Cloud Compute on OS 27.
- Highlights: a marked moment saves the sentence being spoken, not only the timestamp. How highlights work
- Songs: a music podcast's songs are identified from the audio and listed with the time they play.
Languages
Transcription runs in the language the episode is in, when the device supports that language on its own. The set depends on the device and OS version; the app lists what is available. A show in a language the device cannot transcribe still plays normally and still shows a publisher transcript if there is one.
Where transcripts are made, app by app
| App | Macdio | Apple Podcasts | Pocket Casts | Overcast | Snipd |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Transcripts | Any episode, made on your device | Provided by Apple for supported shows | With Plus | Mentioned in release notes | Made on Snipd's servers |
| Audio uploaded to make them | No | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Yes |
| Search across your library | Yes | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated |
| Price | 14.99 USD once | Free | Plus 39.99 USD a year | Premium 19.99 USD a year | Premium 6.99 USD a month |
Based on each app's own site and US App Store listing, read on 12 October 2026. "Not stated" means the page did not say. Features and prices change; check the App Store for current details.
Common questions
Does Macdio upload the audio to make a transcript?
Does it work for every podcast?
Does it work on Apple TV?
Can I search inside episodes?
Does this cost extra?
Try it
Macdio is on the App Store. The podcasts page has the rest of the podcast side, and the comparison with Apple Podcasts puts the two transcript approaches side by side.