Audio recording lets participants speak their thoughts out loud while completing a task. This gives you richer insights into their thought process, reasoning, and reactions in real time. Audio responses are available on Survey question sections.
Use audio recording when you want to capture why participants take certain actions, and not just what actions they take. It’s especially useful for understanding how people feel about a design choice, or when you want to hear the nuance behind their decision-making.
Creating an audio recording question
In the test builder, add a Survey question section to any unmoderated study.
Choose Audio recording from the question type menu.
Write a clear prompt explaining what participants should talk through. For example, “Tell me about the last time you tried a new product or service. What made you decide to give it a chance?”
Decide whether the question should be required or optional.
Recordings are automatically saved and transcribed in your results. You can review both the audio and the transcript side by side.
Audio recording is available on paid plans and includes an additional recording fee when recruiting from the Lyssna panel. Using transcription will count toward your plan’s transcription limits.
Results
Once participants complete an audio recording question, you’ll see both the recording and its transcript in your results. Each response can be played back directly in the results page, and the transcript makes it easy to skim, search, and highlight key phrases.
This view helps you quickly understand participants’ reasoning, reactions, and any challenges they experienced as they spoke through the task. You can filter, share, or export these results just like you would with other question types.
Best practices
When writing prompts for audio recording questions, keep them short and clear. A simple prompt helps participants focus on the action or decision you want them to talk through, without overwhelming them with too much detail.
Encourage participants to share their thinking as they speak. Instead of only describing what’s on the screen, remind them that you’re interested in why they’re making certain choices or how they feel while completing the task. This gives you deeper, more useful insights.
It also helps to use audio recording alongside written questions. The combination gives you the best of both: the clarity of a written answer plus the added context of a spoken explanation. For example, you might ask participants to first rate how easy a process felt on a scale of 1–5, then follow it with an audio recording question where they explain why they chose that score.
Common questions
Where will I find the recordings?
Audio recordings appear in your test's results page. Each one is automatically transcribed so you can search and analyze responses quickly.
Can participants restart their recording?
Yes. Participants can restart if they want to re-record their answer before submitting.
Do audio recordings affect my plan limits?
Yes. Transcriptions count toward your plan’s existing transcription limits, and recordings incur an additional fee when recruiting from the Lyssna panel.