Whether youre a heavy user of Apple Notes or not, you may have missed that iOS 18 introduced a new feature designed to take lots of the work out of note-taking. Thanks to the addition of audio recordings, bolstered by transcripts and summaries, Apple Notes makes it easier than ever to capture notes on your iPhone, iPad, and more.Audio recordings with transcripts means Apple Notes does the work for youApple Notes has grown tremendously powerful over the years.At one point the Notes app only offered some basic text editing functionality, and not much else. But with more frequent updates its become a versatile, feature-packed powerhouse.Theres one iOS 18 feature in particular thats proven tremendously useful, despite Apple not surfacing it very prominently in the app.Inside a note, if you hit the attachment button in the toolbar, youll see a new Record Audio option.This offers a convenient way to start recording a meeting, lecture, or maybe even your own dictation.Once its complete, the recording lives in-line inside a note alongside other text, photos, sketches, and other content.But where this audio feature really shines is with its support for transcription.In iOS 18, Apple Notes can automatically provide a transcript of your recordingeven doing live transcription while the recordings in progress.It gets better though. If you have an AI-compatible device, youll also get an Apple Intelligence summary of the transcripts contents for your convenience.Essentially, Apple Notes now does all the work of note-taking for you.it records audio of whatever meeting or class youre init creates a transcript you can return to laterand it provides a summary of that transcriptThe days of typing furiously to capture all the notes of a meeting are over.Have you used audio recordings in Apple Notes? What do you think? Let us know in the comments.Best iPhone accessoriesAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel