How to send voice messages on iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Learn how to easily send voice messages on your Apple devices with step-by-step instructions for iPhone, iPad, and Mac users.

Audio messages on iPhone

We all send text messages and make phone calls to communicate. But what if you want to share something with a friend, family member, or even a coworker in spoken words that they can save?

For example, maybe it’s your toddler who’s just beginning to talk, a direct quote from an important interview, or just a heartfelt message that you want your recipient to actually hear.

For things like this and so much more, you can send a voice message. You can easily record your own words or those of another and send them via text that the other person can save.

Send voice messages with the Messages app

The first, fastest, and most obvious way to send voice messages is directly from Apple’s Messages app. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Messages app and go inside a conversation.
  2. On iPhone or iPad, tap and hold the red audio icon and then speak what you want to say. You can lift your hold once it starts recording. On Mac, click the gray audio icon in the typing box to start and stop the recording.
  3. After you finish, tap the stop button and hit the send button.
Sending a voice recording via Messages on iPhone

One important note on sending voice messages this way is that they will disappear after your recipient listens to them. So, you may want to remind them to tap the Keep option below the audio message to save it. In addition to that, you and the recipient can also set your iPhone and iPad to not delete the audio messages after two minutes.

Use the Audio app

If you’ve updated your iPhone or iPad to iOS 17 or iPadOS 17, you can also tap the plus button and choose Audio to record and send a voice note.

Tap Plus button Audio in Messages app on iPhone

Extra info: If you receive a voice note, the Messages app in iOS 17 will transcribe it and show the text inside the voice note bubble.

Send audio messages with the Voice Memos app

  1. Open the Voice Memos app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
  2. On iOS, hit the record button, record your message, and then hit the stop button. On Mac, click the record button and then click Done to stop recording.
  3. Share the voice memo by tapping the More button and then tap Share (on iOS) or the Sharing button (on Mac).
  4. Select Messages, and then when the Messages app opens, enter your recipient and send it.
Share voice recording via Messages

The nice thing about using the Voice Memos app to create and share your message is that you can take your time with it and have it saved within the app for yourself as well.

Related: 6 ways to transfer voice memos from your iPhone to your computer

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