Google Recorder's website has a new feature you don't get on the Pixel mobile app

Playback speed adjustments as much as 3 times fast are now available

The Google Recorder app records audio and is able to convert it into real-time transcriptions. This Pixel-only app was last updated in March when it received Material You upgrades and a landscape mode. Now, the Recorder website that lets us play audio from our Pixel smartphones has recently added the ability to control playback speed.

Earlier, the Recorder website would allow users to play or pause an audio recording and make a 5-second rewind or a 10-second forward jump. Now, in addition to these options, 9to5Google has confirmed that users can control the playback speed thanks to new audio controls at the bottom. Five options are currently available for playback speed adjustment — 0.5x, 1x, 2.0x, 2.5x, and 3.0x. 3.0x playback speed is hard to find on music or recording apps, but can be a useful rate for scanning for major errors or speed "reading." Additionally, the slower playback speed is essential for editors who can correct errors on the fly and catch back up to real time.

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It's not clear exactly when playback controls came to the web version of Google Recorder, only that they came after the March update for the Pixel app. Oddly enough, we think it's weird that they didn't come to the mobile app itself and would like to see them there soon.

Google introduced its Recorder app with the Pixel 4 series in 2019. The Recorder website made its debut much later in March 2021 as part of adding cloud backups to the Android app.

The Recorder app and website are great audio editing and listening tools, but they also have a few shortcomings. One request that users have been piling onto is for a search feature in the web version. At the moment, Google Recorder only supports audio in some English dialects, as well as a few other languages such as Japanese, German, French, Italian, and Spanish. Obviously, the more languages the app can support, the more people that can use it. That's generally a good thing.