Voice Notes: Record a Spoken Note on a Response

Can I record a spoken note on a response?

Yes. A Voice Note question records a spoken note of up to three minutes that you can play back from the response. Survtapp does not transcribe it: the audio is stored and played back as recorded. If you need the words as searchable text, use a Long Text question instead or alongside it.

A Voice Note question lets whoever is collecting record a short spoken note instead of typing one, and play it back later from the response. It is the fastest way to capture the sentence somebody actually said while it is still fresh — the aside after a site inspection, the reason a customer gave for cancelling, the thing that did not fit any of the other questions.

What it is not

Survtapp does not transcribe voice notes. There is no text version of the recording anywhere — not in the response, not in an export, not in a report. The audio is stored and played back exactly as it was recorded, and nothing else is done with it. If you need the words as searchable text, ask the question as a Long Text question instead, or type a summary into one alongside the recording.

That also means a voice note is not counted, charted or summarised the way a rating or a choice is. Reports show that a recording exists; listening to it is how you find out what it says.

The three-minute limit

A voice note can be up to three minutes long, and you can set a shorter maximum on the question if you want to keep notes tight. Recording stops at the limit. Three minutes is a deliberate ceiling rather than a technical one: a voice note is a note, and anything longer is an interview that belongs in its own file.

Recording and playing back

1. Open the form in the Survtapp mobile app and reach the Voice Note question.
2. Record. The first time, the device asks permission to use the microphone; it records only while you are answering this question and never in the background.
3. Play it back before submitting, and re-record if it did not come out.
4. Once the response has synced, play the recording from the response detail in the dashboard.

Retention and plans

• Voice notes are kept on every plan, including the free plan. Nothing is deleted after a period that is different from the rest of the response.
• The recording is kept for as long as the response it belongs to is kept, under your plan’s retention period, and is removed with it.
• Audio counts towards your account’s storage the same way a photo or a signed waiver does.

It needs the mobile app

A Voice Note question can only be answered in the Survtapp mobile app. A form containing one is still perfectly shareable as a web link — every other question works normally, and the web page shows a short note in place of the recorder rather than a control that cannot be used. If a form must be completed entirely through a web link, leave the Voice Note off it.

See Question Types & Form Components Reference for the full list of question types, and Plan Limits & Credits for how storage is counted.