Google has released a sound recording application for its newly released Pixel 4 smartphone. Simply called Recorder, the app recognizes speech and uses artificial intelligence to produce a written transcription of the recording.

Users can search for words and phrases as well as other sounds such as music and applause in recordings.

The new Recorder app uses speech recognition and AI to transcribe lectures, meetings, interviews and more—and makes them easy for you to find later. (English only right now, with more languages to come.) #madebygoogle pic.twitter.com/fdKRItuS4b — Google (@Google) October 15, 2019

Why we should care

At Google I/O in 2017, CEO Sundar Pichai declared that the company was shifting from “mobile-first” to “AI-first.” The newly unveiled Recorder app showcases the headway the company has made with AI and implementing it into products and services.

Voice recognition and AI are critical components of the Google Assistant. As these technologies continue to develop, they’ll undoubtedly affect the way users discover and interact with our brands.

More on the news

The Recorder app is only available for the Pixel 4 and in English, to start. The transcription process happens directly on the device, meaning that no internet connection is required.

start. The transcription process happens directly on the device, meaning that no internet connection is required. Duplex, another Google technology that powers some of the Assistant’s features, also makes use of speech recognition and AI to interact with human service representatives and book reservations.

Google first integrated on-device speech recognition into its Gboard keyboard in March.

In July, the company began replacing traditional voice search on Android with the Google Assistant