3 Ways On How To Transcribe YouTube Videos

Do you need a text file of that YouTube video you’re watching? That’s just easy if you follow this guide on how to transcribe youtube videos.

Let’s face it:

Videos are easier understood when there are captions. The brain can retain things that you read more compared to the stuff that you hear only.

But before we start, you might wonder what transcription is?

Transcription is the conversion of an audio file to text. It is commonly used in meetings so that they can recall the things said in the gathering.

Read more: Live Relay And Captioning Makes Android Devices More Accessible To People With Disabilities.

YouTube is the most popular streaming service today; every kind of content is searchable there.

I mainly use YouTube for entertainment and education. I once tried watching a tutorial video without captions, and it took me a long time to understand the lessons because when I did not understand a thing, I would rewind and rewind until I know what the lecturer is saying.

That sure is annoying, right?

I had a part-time job before in transcription, and an hour video would take me 3-4 hours of hard work. But thanks to technology, there are already numerous ways on how to transcribe easier.

But here’s the catch:

Some automatic transcribing apps or websites are not that accurate, so you always have to recheck the finished product and edit whenever needed. The accuracy of transcription mostly depends on the clarity of the audio.

Fact:

When you upload something on YouTube, it is automatically transcribed into text so that when you need captions, you can activate it with a few clicks. But sometimes, if your audio quality is not that nice or maybe the language spoken in the video is unidentifiable by YouTube, your video will not be automatically converted to text.

Yeah, sometimes it’s all about luck.

If you are not satisfied with the result of the automatic translation to text by YouTube, we will share some other hacks that will help you transcribe YouTube videos in no time. If you want the most accurate transcriptions, you can always hire someone to do them manually for you.

Transcribe YouTube Videos In A Few Steps

Method 1: YouTube Captions

1. Open your browser and type “www.youtube.com“.

2. Find a video you want automatically transcribed by typing on the search bar.

3. After searching, click the video you want. I’ll use this video as an example:

4. Click the button with the three dots icon that is below the bottom left side of the video.

5. Tap on “Open Transcripts.”

6. After clicking, something like this would appear on your screen:

If you reached this part, you’re successful in following our guide! But if you want to change the transcript to your preferred language, here’s an extra step:

7. Do you want to change it to a different language? Click this:

Note:

Not all dialects are available for translation.

Method 2: Google Docs

I’m sure you’re surprised that this website can do this kind of stuff. Now let’s get this going.

1. Open your browser and type “www.youtube.com.”
2. Choose a video you want to convert to text.
3. Open another tab and type “www.docs.google.com.” It would look like this:

4. Click on Blank

5. Return to your YouTube tab. Play the video you want to transcribe automatically.

6. Set the video’s volume to max. Return to your Google Docs tab.

7. The image is below is the blank file we created earlier. Now click on Tools.

8. Click on Voice Typing.

Google Docs will automatically transcribe what it hears from the video, and that’s why we had to adjust the volume to max. We hope this helped you!

Method 3: Android Live Transcribe App

1. Download the app from the Play Store.

1. Download the app from the Play Store.Here is what it looks like before downloading the app:

Here’s a quick link to download the app:

2. After downloading, open the app. It should look like this:

3. Click on settings or the gear icon on the lower-left portion of the screen.

4. You will see a line that says, “Save this transcription.” Turn that panel on by clicking the right part of the text.

5. Put your Android phone beside the speakers of your computer; open YouTube then play the video you want transcribed.

Live Transcribe will automatically convert to text all the audio it hears. Now transcribing is easy as 1-2-3.

I hope you enjoyed our guide!

Frequently Asked Questions

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Do you want to transcribe manually at home?

Here are our suggestions to ease your transcribing experience:

This app has its word processing software built explicitly for transcribing audios and videos. The pedal can rewind and forward the time of your sound using the foot.

Isn’t that convenient?

To lessen the background sounds, you would also need noise-reducing headphones. The quality of the audio will hugely increase while using these too.

This recorder can help you check your final output. It can also automatically transcribe audio files from your computer.

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To Sum It All Up

Transcribing videos the old-fashioned way is harder than we think. Listening to the same audio numerous times until you get the words right can also be a pain to the ear.

The good news is many developers are making more ways to convert videos to text files automatically. Let’s hope in the next few years that there could be more easy methods.

And let’s also hope that more free methods on how to transcribe youtube videos will soon be downloadable in our Android phones.

If you think we missed something, share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

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