Sometimes, you need to record a thought quickly or, perhaps, you are interviewing someone and only have your phone on hand.

The Voice Memos app on the iPhone is great for this.

The Voice Memos app allows you to record voice notes, but also edit and share them with others.

The Voice Memos app is professional and high quality. The Voice Memos app on Swift's phone allows her to share song ideas with her friends. Sometimes these snippets are used in finished songs.

The Voice Memos app can be used to record and edit.

The Voice Memos app won't let you record a phone call. If you need to record calls on your phone, there are a number of paid quality apps that you can use.

How to record audio on iPhone with the Voice Memos app

1. The Voice Memos app is located in your phone's extras or utilities folder and has an image of an audio graph.

Screenshot of the iPhone folder containing the Voice Memos app with the app highlighted.
Tap the "Voice Memos" app.
Steven John/Insider

2. Go to the app and look at the red circle at the bottom. A new recording will start when you tap that.

Screenshot of the Voice Memos app.
Tap the red circle to begin a new recording.
Kyle Wilson/Insider

3. The red square at the bottom of the screen is where you can stop recording.

Screenshot of the Voice Memos app actively recording.
Tap the red square to stop your recording.
Kyle Wilson/Insider

That is how you record audio on your phone. The Voice Memos app has more than one thing to explore.

For more advanced audio recordings, particularly those geared toward the production of music, podcasts, and the like, you might try GarageBand for iPhone, which singer-producer Steve Lacy famously used to record a track for Kendrick Lamar.

How to edit and export an audio file on Voice Memos

To change a recording, tap the word and type in a new name.

You can add more to your recording by hitting the three blue dots beside it. The recording can be heard by hitting the resume at the end of the timeline. If you scrolled to the end, you will be replacing audio rather than adding more.

You can crop the edges of the audio file with the same feature. The square icon has two vertical lines at opposite corners on the top right of the window.

Screenshot of the Voice Memos app edit options with the crop button highlighted.
Tap the crop button to trim the recording.
Kyle Wilson/Insider

To share an audio recording, tap the three blue dots beside the recording and click on the Share option.

Screenshot of the Voice Memo app options with both edit and share options visible.
Choose an editing option or export your audio file with "Share...".
Kyle Wilson/Insider