Rev Voice Recorder App Review: Free Recording, Paid Transcripts

The app most people still call the Rev voice recorder has been replaced. On October 30, 2026, Rev released a new app, Rev: Recorder & Transcription, for iPhone and Android. Rev's own page says the older app "will retire on October 31" and come out of the stores.

So which app do you install, and what does it cost? Install the new one.

Downloading it and recording are free, and recording works with no signal. The transcript is where money comes in: Rev's Free plan includes 45 AI minutes a month in English, a paid plan starts at $29.99 a month, and a human transcript costs $1.99 a minute, ordered on rev.com.

Most reviews of this app are out of date. One popular page still says the iPhone app records phone calls and that the free plan has 300 AI minutes. Rev's pages say neither today.

A note on method. We didn't test the app hands-on. Every fact below comes from Rev's website and help center, the App Store and Google Play listings, and public store reviews, all read on November 12, 2026. Prices are US prices as of November 2026 and can change.

We make ParrotNotes, a different kind of recorder app, so our product stays in one section near the end.

Rev voice recorder at a glance

"Rev voice recorder" can mean five different things. Here's each one and where it stands.

Sources: Rev's voice recorder app page, online recorder page, pricing page and help center, plus the App Store and Google Play listings. Read November 12, 2026.

This page covers the recorders only. For the service behind them (plans, add-ons, accuracy claims, turnaround), see our Rev transcription review. Still choosing between recorder apps in general? Our roundup of the best voice recorder apps with transcription covers the field.

Which Rev voice recorder app to install on iPhone and Android

Search either store for "Rev" and you may see two apps from Rev.com, Inc. They look alike. They aren't the same.

The old app's last iPhone release note (version 7.4.0) says it plainly: "Once it's available, this app will be retired and will stop getting updates."

Rev's page gives the retirement date as October 31. That date has passed, yet on November 12, 2026, both old listings could still be opened. Don't take "still listed" to mean "still supported."

Switching from the old Rev app: a short checklist

Picture Lena, a freelance reporter in Denver (an illustration, not a real customer). She has about 40 interviews in the old app, and six of them were never uploaded. They live only on her phone.

Those six are at risk. Rev's release note warns users to "make sure any recordings saved only on your phone are uploaded to your Rev account." Here's the order to do it in:

1. Open the old app and upload every recording that exists only on the phone.
2. Sign in at rev.com in a browser and check that each file is listed there.
3. Install Rev: Recorder & Transcription from the App Store or Google Play.
4. Sign in with the same Rev login. Rev says everything uploaded to your account "appears in the new app automatically", and your subscription comes with you.
5. Only then delete the old app.

Lena counts 40 files on rev.com before she removes the old app. Nothing lost.

Recording interviews on your phone and mostly want the summary afterward? ParrotNotes is built for that job, and the free plan covers 100 minutes a month.

What's free in the Rev voice recorder app, and what you pay for

Free: the app and the recording

Rev's pricing page lists a "Mobile app for dictation and recording on the go" on the Free plan. These parts cost nothing:

• Downloading the app on iPhone or Android.
• Recording, including with no signal. Rev publishes no time limit for recordings.
• A live transcript on screen while you record.
• 45 AI transcription minutes a month, in English only, for one user.
• 5 uses a month of Rev's AI Assistant and AI Prompts combined.

Rev's pages don't say what the app does with a recording once a Free account has used its 45 minutes. We couldn't confirm it, so check before a long recording day.

Paid: the transcripts, and what a 45-minute interview costs

Source: rev.com/pricing and Rev's online recorder page, November 12, 2026; the last column is our math. The pricing page showed no per-minute AI price that day; the $0.25 figure is from the online recorder page.

Two steps happen on the web, not in the app. You can't order a human transcript inside the new app yet: Rev says to order at rev.com, and that in-app ordering "is coming soon." Plan upgrades are done in a browser too.

The old iPhone listing still shows credit packs, from 1 credit for $1.99 to 100 for $149.99, without saying what a credit buys. The new iPhone listing shows no in-app purchases.

Now a month of six such interviews, 270 minutes in all. The Free plan covers the first 45. The other 225 minutes cost $56.25 at $0.25 a minute, or nothing extra on Essentials at $29.99.

So past about 120 AI minutes a month, Essentials is cheaper than paying by the minute. Temi, Rev's older pay-per-minute service, also charges $0.25 a minute; see our Temi transcription review. Human transcripts for all six would be $537.30.

What the new Rev app does, according to its listings

Here are Rev's claims, in its own words where quoted:

• It keeps recording when the phone interrupts. "An incoming phone call, an alarm, a notification. None of them will stop a recording."
• It records offline. Audio "saves to your phone as it's captured rather than streaming to a server", then uploads on its own, with retries, when you're back online.
• You can check it from the lock screen.
• Transcripts arrive without ordering. With "Auto Transcribe with AI" turned on, every recording and upload is transcribed once it reaches your account. Transcripts are searchable, with speakers labeled.
• AI on top. Ask a recording a question, or run a template. The three Rev names are a witness interview synopsis, an incident timeline and a case note.
• Sharing and video. Invite people as viewers or editors, and watch an uploaded video beside its transcript.

Those template names tell you who Rev is building for: attorneys, investigators and paralegals first, then journalists and researchers.

What we couldn't find for the new app: bookmarks while recording. Rev's Mobile App help article describes them, but it was written for the earlier app. Both store listings also show English as the only app language.

Phone calls and consent

The Rev app isn't a call recorder. The old listing says "Call recording not supported," and Rev's help article says: "Phone calls cannot be recorded using the Rev App." The new listings promise something different: a recording of the room keeps running while a call comes in.

If you need both sides of a call, see our guides to recording a phone call on iPhone and to call recorder apps for iPhone.

Whatever you record, consent rules apply. Some US states need everyone's permission, and our overview of one-party consent states explains the US rules. It's general information, not legal advice. Tell people you're recording, and never record someone secretly.

Rev online voice recorder: the free browser option for Mac and Windows

No app at all? Rev's Online Voice Recorder runs in a browser tab on a Mac, a Windows PC or a phone. Rev recommends Chrome on desktop and Android, and Safari on iPhone.

The page calls it "100% free to use." You click Record, speak, pause, preview and trim, then download an MP3. Rev also says it "does not collect your recordings or upload anything to our servers."

A Transcribe button adds the recording to a Rev cart, at $0.25 a minute for AI or $1.99 a minute for a human. That step is optional.

Rev has a second browser recorder inside a Rev account, and the two behave differently:

Source: Rev's online recorder page and its Account Based Voice Recorder help article, read November 12, 2026.

Rev's own advice for "longer or important recordings" is the mobile app, because it doesn't need a connection to record.

Already have a file and want text from it? Our free audio to text tool takes an upload.

What happened to Rev Call Recorder

It's gone. Rev's help article, titled Rev Call Recorder App Discontinued, states: "Support for the app ended on October 31st, 2025."

The same article says the app "will not restore on new phones," that recordings without an order can be lost if you uninstall or change phones, and that "no new token purchases are available."

So any review that lists free call recording as a reason to pick Rev is describing an app Rev no longer supports.

What users say about the Rev voice recorder

Public reviews are almost all about the old app, so read them as history.

On Google Play, the old app has 4.2 stars from 3.18K reviews, and the most-liked reviews show both sides. One from November 2, 2020 (178 people found it helpful) says "there's no recording limit." One from August 15, 2022 (132 found it helpful) says "all the sharing functions were faulty," and the writer couldn't get recordings off the phone.

The new app has 2 ratings on iPhone and 500+ downloads on Google Play. That's too few to judge anything.

A fair reading: people liked the old app as a simple free recorder and complained when files got stuck on the phone. The new app's automatic upload is aimed at that complaint, and only real reviews will show whether it works as described.

Rev voice recorder app vs ParrotNotes: two different jobs

Rev's app is the front door to a transcription platform built for case files, evidence and quotes that have to be exact. ParrotNotes is a phone note taker for conversations in the room: record, then get the transcript, a summary and next steps.

Rev facts from Rev's pages and listings; ParrotNotes facts from parrotnotes.app/pricing. Checked November 12, 2026.

The trade is plain. ParrotNotes doesn't sell human transcripts, legal templates or team evidence review, so it can't replace Rev for a paralegal.

Consider Maya, a paralegal at a four-lawyer firm (an illustration). She records two 50-minute witness interviews a week, and a lawyer may quote them later. She needs Rev's human transcripts.

Now consider Daniel, a field sales rep (also an illustration). He has five customer visits a day and needs the next steps in his CRM by evening.

He doesn't need a verbatim record. He needs the summary, the action items and a follow-up email draft, which ParrotNotes Pro writes from each recording.

Is your day more like Daniel's? Get ParrotNotes free on iPhone or Android, and record your next in-person meeting with everyone's OK. Want more options first? Our guide to Rev alternatives compares six tools.

The verdict on the Rev voice recorder app

The Rev voice recorder is still a free way to record on a phone, and on paper the new app is a real step up: offline saving, recording through interruptions, automatic AI transcripts. Three cautions before you rely on it:

• It's brand new. Version 1.0 arrived on October 30, 2026, and three updates followed in about a week. For a one-shot interview, run a second recorder beside it.
• Free means 45 AI minutes. That's one interview a month. Past about 120 minutes a month, the $29.99 plan beats paying by the minute.
• Some things moved to the web. Human transcripts and plan changes happen on rev.com for now.

Pick Rev if your recordings end up as evidence, quotes or case notes. Pick a note taker if you need the summary and the to-do list. If that's you, ParrotNotes is free to start, with 100 minutes a month.