Extract Text From Video
Video to Text: OCR vs Transcription — Which Do You Need?
Search "video to text" and you'll get two completely different kinds of tools mixed together, because the phrase describes two different problems. Picking the wrong one wastes your time, so here's the thirty-second version: transcription converts what is said; OCR converts what is shown.
Transcription: speech → text
Transcription (speech-to-text) listens to the audio track and writes down the spoken words. You want transcription when your goal is:
- Meeting notes or interview quotes from a recording
- Subtitle files (SRT) generated from narration
- A written version of a podcast or voiceover
The Extract Text From Video app does not do this — and we'd rather tell you plainly than let you download the wrong tool. If the words you need were spoken aloud and never appear on screen, look for a transcription app.
OCR: on-screen text → text
OCR (optical character recognition) reads the pixels of each frame and recognizes the text that is visible in the video. You want OCR when your goal is:
- Code, commands, and URLs shown in a tutorial (YouTube guide)
- Slide bullets from a recorded lecture or webinar (screen recording guide)
- Overlay captions in TikToks and Reels — recipes, lists, itineraries (TikTok guide)
- Burned-in subtitles with no subtitle file (subtitle guide)
- Signs, menus, and documents that appear in footage — including translating them
This is exactly what the Extract Text From Video app does: on-device AI OCR across the whole video, with copy, translation, and TXT and SRT export.
The one-question test: could you point at the words on a paused frame? If yes, it's OCR. If the words only exist in the audio, it's transcription. Some jobs need both — a lecture's narration (transcription) plus its slides (OCR) — in which case you use one tool of each.
Why OCR jobs shouldn't go to transcription tools (and vice versa)
Transcription tools ignore the screen entirely: feed one a silent tutorial full of on-screen code and you get an empty transcript. OCR tools ignore the audio: feed one a talking-head video with no overlays and you get almost nothing. The mislabeled "video to text" converters online cause most of the frustration here — check which track (audio or pixels) a tool actually reads before uploading anything. And for on-screen text specifically, an on-device app means the video never needs uploading at all: the full method comparison is in how to extract text from a video.
Need the words on the screen?
Extract Text From Video: on-device AI OCR for videos and photos, translation, TXT and SRT export. Free on the App Store.
Download for iPhone free