Recording and Playing Audio

In Notability, audio recordings are linked to your annotations. While playing the audio, you can tap anything in a note to jump to that point in the recording. Annotations you add while playing a recording are also synced to the recording.

Recording Audio

  1. Tap/click  to start recording. An input meter and timer will appear.
  2. Tap/click  to stop recording.

iPad models from 2020 and later include a security feature that mutes the microphone at the hardware level when the cover/folio is closed.

Because of this, Notability isn't able to record audio if the cover/folio is closed.

Playing Audio

  • Tap/click  to enter playback mode.
  • Tap/click  to play a note's audio, and watch your notes unfold as you listen.

Navigating a Recording

  • During playback, select . Then tap/click any part of a note to jump to that point in the recording.
  • Tap/click and drag  to scroll through a recording.
  • Drag  down to slow how fast it scrolls left and right.
  • Tap/click  to change the audio's speed.
    • Audio Speed Options: 0.7x, 1x, 1.25x, 1.5x, 2x.
  • Tap/click  to rewind 10 seconds.

Playback Settings

  • Go to  to access your Playback Settings. 
  • Toggle Note Replay on to see your notes animate with the audio. 
    • When Note Replay is toggled on you can also enable Animation Preview.
      • When Animation Preview is turn on, you'll see the transparent preview of the note before it plays. 
      • Toggling off Animation Preview will hide all of the ink until the ink is drawn animated. 

Editing Audio Recordings

  • Select voice_icon.jpg to open your list of audio recordings and edit them.
  • Press Edit next to a recording name to trim or split a file. 
    • The black bars can be dragged to trim the recording.
    • Tap Split to split the recording and then drag the bars to edit each portion.
    • From this menu, you can can tap on the recording name to rename it. Tap Done to finalize those changes.
  • To split a recording into multiple sections, name the first piece and use the second piece to make an additional edit.
  • Tap Select to take action with specific audio files. 
    • Tap Merge to combine audio recordings into one file. Please note: imported audio can not be merged at this time.
    • Tap Delete to remove the audio recordings from the note. 

Fine-Tuning Playback

  1. Select  and select Equalizer to tune audio.
  2. Adjust frequency as desired.
  • Click/tap  and adjust Voice Boost to amplify voices recorded from a distance.

Exporting Audio

When sharing a note, there are two ways to export the note's audio:

  1. Under "Format", tap "PDF" or "RTF" and turn on the "Recordings" toggle. This shares your note as a .zip file that includes your recordings.
  2. Under "Format", tap "Note". This shares your note as a Notability file that includes your recordings.