In March 2024, Apple Podcasts introduced built‑in full‑episode transcripts—auto‑generated for many shows and accessible to listeners and creators alike. As of November 2025, the feature has further matured and here’s what businesses, creators and content teams need to know.
What’s new as of November 2025
- The transcripts feature now covers 13 supported languages, up from the initial 4.
- Apple reports it has processed transcripts for all back‑catalog episodes, totalling over 125 million.
- The transcripts now show up on Mac (via the Podcasts app on macOS) effectively, offering search and interactive navigation within episodes.
- For creators: you can still supply your own transcript (via VTT or SRT and the podcast:transcript tag) and mark speaker names, chapters and other metadata for better quality.
Why it matters for creators and businesses
- Accessibility & audience reach: With transcripts in more languages and the entire back‑catalog covered, you can reach more listeners (including those who prefer reading, are hard‑of‑hearing or using assistive tech).
- Searchability & discoverability: Since text versions are now fully searchable (within the episode and via search engines when hosted on your website), the transcripts help SEO and snippet‑sharing.
- Content repurposing & marketing: The transcript becomes raw material: quotes for social media, blog posts, email newsletters, or blog‑friendly versions of episodes—all easier now that Apple‑generated text is available.
- Efficiency for listeners: Listeners can jump to specific parts of episodes, search within the transcript and resume audio from that point—making your content more “skim‑friendly” for busy professionals.
Key recommendations for November 2025
- Check your show metadata: Make sure the language tag in your RSS feed or in Apple Podcasts Connect is correct—this ensures transcription works.
- Decide whether to provide your own transcript: If you want speaker names, custom formatting, or host multiple guests, uploading your own will give you more control.
- Optimize your website: Since you can download the transcript file (via Apple Podcasts Connect) and host it on your site, embedding the text improves SEO and gives you assets for content repurposing.
- Promote the transcript feature to your audience: Let listeners know that episodes now include transcripts—this improves discoverability and accessibility, which is a brand‑advantage for businesses.
- Be mindful of dynamic content: Note that segments of episodes with dynamically inserted audio (such as ad‑inserts) may not be transcribed.
