Reverse a Voice Memo

The Short Answer

The Voice Memos app has no reverse option. It can trim, replace part of a recording, add a second layer and make a copy, but it can't play anything backwards.

You don't need an app for it, though. Save the memo to Files and reverse it in your browser.

Step by Step

1. In Voice Memos, tap the recording, tap the More button (···), then the Share button. Scroll down, tap Save to Files, and save it.
2. Open the Audio Reverser in Safari and tap the file picker. Choose the memo from the folder you saved it to.
3. Tap Reverse Audio and play the result.
4. Tap Download WAV. Safari saves it to the Downloads folder in Files, named after the original with -reversed added.

The recording is reversed on your phone and never uploaded. The same steps work for any MP3, WAV or M4A file, not just memos.

The Reverse Audio Challenge

The popular version of this is a two-step game, and the reverser handles both steps:

1. Record someone saying a short phrase, such as their name or a song lyric. Reverse it and play them the backwards version.
2. They record themselves imitating that backwards sound as closely as they can.
3. Reverse their imitation. If they copied it well, the original phrase comes back out, slightly garbled.

Short phrases of two to four words work best. Longer ones are almost impossible to imitate. If there's a long silence before the speech starts, trim it in Voice Memos first, so the reversed version doesn't end in dead air.

Things That Trip People Up

• The file won't open. If you've set Voice Memos to Lossless (the Audio Quality option in the Voice Memos section of Settings), the recording is stored as Apple Lossless. Safari reads it; some other browsers can't, so use Safari.
• The reversed file is big. The result is an uncompressed WAV, several times larger than the memo. That's fine for listening. Convert it with WAV to MP3 if you need to send it.
• You only want part reversed. Cut that part out with the audio splitter, reverse it, and join it back with the audio merger.
• It's a video. The reverser takes audio files. To reverse a video and its sound together, use a video editor with a reverse option.

Did You Mean Undo an Edit?

Many people searching for "reverse a voice memo" want to undo a trim, not play it backwards. When you edit a memo and tap Save Recording, the edited version replaces the original. Save as New Recording keeps the original as it was, so pick that whenever you're unsure. Reversing the audio won't bring back parts that were trimmed.

On a Mac

Drag the memo from Voice Memos into a Finder folder and open the Audio Reverser in any browser. If you already use GarageBand, it can do this too: select the audio region and tick Reverse Playback in the Audio Editor.