The Playback Screen
After you record a session in 12scribe, the playback screen becomes your primary workspace for reviewing audio. It is designed around three core elements: a progress bar showing your position in the recording, seek controls for quick navigation, and a marker list that lets you jump to any bookmarked moment instantly.
The layout puts everything within thumb reach. The play/pause button sits at the center, flanked by the seek-back and seek-forward buttons. Below, the marker list scrolls vertically, displaying each marker with its timestamp, title, and type icon. Above the controls, the progress bar spans the full width of the screen, giving you a clear sense of where you are in the recording.
You do not need to listen to an entire lecture linearly. The playback screen is built for non-linear navigation — skip ahead, jump back, tap a marker, drag the progress bar — so you can find the exact moment you need in seconds rather than minutes. This is especially valuable when reviewing long recordings of lectures or meetings that run an hour or more.
Seek Controls
The two most frequently used buttons on the playback screen are Skip Back 15s and Skip Forward 15s. Tap the left arrow to rewind 15 seconds, or tap the right arrow to jump ahead by 15 seconds. These buttons are ideal for quickly replaying a sentence you missed or skipping over pauses and silence in the recording.
The 15-second interval is chosen deliberately. It is long enough to skip meaningfully through audio, but short enough that you will not overshoot the moment you are looking for. If you need to move further, tap the button multiple times in succession — three quick taps move you 45 seconds forward or back.
During playback, the timer updates in real time as you seek. The current timestamp and total duration are both visible at all times, so you always know exactly where you are in the recording.
Progress Bar
The progress bar runs along the top of the playback controls. It serves two purposes: it shows your current position as a filled region and it lets you drag to any point in the recording. Touch the bar and slide your finger left or right to scrub through the audio. The timestamp updates as you drag, even before you lift your finger, so you can see exactly where you will land.
Scrubbing with the progress bar is the fastest way to navigate long recordings. If you know a key discussion happened roughly halfway through a 90-minute session, drag to the midpoint and start listening from there. Combine this with Global Search to find exact words in the transcript first, then use the progress bar to jump to the surrounding context.
Jump to Marker
Every marker you added during recording appears in a list on the playback screen. Tap any marker and playback jumps to that marker's exact timestamp. This is the most precise way to navigate — no scrubbing, no seeking, just one tap to land on the moment you flagged as important.
Markers are displayed with their type (Flag, Favorite, or Fire), title, and timestamp. If you named your markers during recording — for example, "Professor's thesis statement" or "Action item: follow up with client" — scanning the list becomes as fast as scanning a table of contents. Learn more about the different marker types and when to use each in Marker Types and Priority Hierarchy.
You can also filter the marker list by type before tapping. If you only want to see Fire markers (the highest priority), filter the list to show just those. This keeps the list short and focused, especially in recordings with dozens of markers. Once you find the right marker, a single tap starts playback from that moment.
Background Playback
12scribe supports background audio playback. When you press the home button, switch to another app, or lock your screen, the audio continues playing. This works the same way a podcast or music app behaves — the system audio controls on the lock screen and in Control Center let you pause, play, and seek without reopening 12scribe.
Background playback is particularly useful for passive review. You can listen to a recorded lecture while walking, commuting, or doing other tasks. The recording keeps playing until you pause it or it reaches the end. When you return to the app, the playback screen shows the current position accurately.
Combined with the recording workflow, this means 12scribe handles the full lifecycle: record in class, then review the audio hands-free on the way home — all from a single app with no exporting or file management required.