Voice recording in Google Keep

[fountaindroid]

Just wanted to make sure I'm not imagining things, but it seems like as of the recent April 2015 update, Google Keep no longer allows you to record voice notes? I know there is a little microphone icon there, but all that does is transcribe what you say into a text note. You cannot play back your own voice recording and listen to it. Am I missing something?

And, more generally, I've always just wanted to ask any developers out there, why do you ever remove features like this? I can understand if perhaps it was causing some kind of technical problems, but it always just makes me feel like the application now packs less value. Why not have all features available and leave it up to the user whether they find it useful or not?

 

[B. Diddy]

I believe you're right--there used to be a voice recording option, but now it's just transcription. Older articles about Keep (and even the cached description of the Keep support site from Google) mention that it used to keep the actual voice recording as an attachment, but that no longer seems to be the case.

I can't speak for Google, but I would guess that the function may have been removed as a result of user feedback, or possibly from data they received about how often people were using that function. They have added a number of new features to Keep over the past few months, but I agree, the voice note would have been nice to keep.

 

[fountaindroid]

I see. Thanks for confirming. I used voice recording as a quick way to make sure my microphone sounds ok. Guess I gotta find a 3rd party app for that now.

 

[fountaindroid]

Well, that's strange. All of a sudden the voice recordings are back. I'm pretty sure there was an application update today. Maybe it was removed by mistake.

 

[B. Diddy]

I'll be danged, I see it now as well! I wonder if it was a Google Play Services update, because I haven't gotten any Keep updates recently. Last update to Keep was 4/23. All's well that ends well. Google works in mysterious ways.

 

[mulquinaaron]

Just wanted to make sure I'm not imagining things, but it seems like as of the recent April 2015 update, Google Keep no longer allows you to record voice notes? I know there is a little microphone icon there, but all that does is transcribe what you say into a text note. You cannot play back your own voice recording and listen to it. Am I missing something?

And, more generally, I've always just wanted to ask any developers out there, why do you ever remove features like this? I can understand if perhaps it was causing some kind of technical problems, but it always just makes me feel like the application now packs less value. Why not have all features available and leave it up to the user whether they find it useful or not?

Oh, that is really a sad news that we can no longer record our voice and use voice recorder apps. But do you know any alternatives?

 

[B. Diddy]

Oh, that is really a sad news that we can no longer record our voice and use voice recorder apps. But do you know any alternatives?

Look at post #4. Voice recording is back.