Here are a few tips to make dictation more efficient.
SIRI TEXT TO SPEECH IPHONE 5SE HOW TO
If you’re familiar with dictating into software such as Nuance Software’s $160 Dragon Dictate, you already have an idea of how to dictate into an iPhone or iPad. For this reason, dictating to an iOS device works best when you’re using Wi-Fi it also works well with a 3G connection but anything slower is hit or miss, in my experience. You might find that the Apple earbuds that come with an iPhone-which have an inline mic-offer better speech recognition, as do third-party headphones with mics, as long as you hold them fairly close to your mouth.ĭictate when connected to Wi-Fi: Dictation to an iOS device requires that your voice be sent to a server, where it is recognized and transcribed, and then sent back to your iOS device. The iPhone also has a noise-canceling mic, which filters out background noises. You’ll find dictation in noisy environments works much better with an iPhone, because it’s easier to speak close to the microphone. Speak into the tiny hole at the top of your tablet. It’s not easy to speak directly into the iPad mic while looking at the screen. There are two microphones at the bottom of the iPhone, and a single microphone on iPads, located at the top of the device. Talk into the microphone: You don’t need to speak very loudly but you should keep your iPhone close to your mouth, especially if you’re outdoors. The louder you speaker, the wider the wave. This great feature is useful for many obvious reasons, whether for educational purposes, or perhaps you can’t quite make out if what you’re reading on the iPad or iPhone screen is supposed to. When you begin talking, you’ll see a feedback pane with a wavering line showing the volume of your speech. The iPhone and iPad have a little known text-to-speech functionality that will verbally spell out a selected word or string for you.
(If you’re using iOS 6, or you’re using an app that hasn’t been updated for iOS 7, you’ll see a microphone as you speak, the microphone will fill with purple light.) The louder you speaker, the greater the amplitude of the wave. Stay in the zone: If you’re using iOS 7, when you begin talking, you’ll see a feedback pane with a wavering line showing the volume of your speech. Whenever you see the microphone icon (circled), you have the opportunity to dictate. It can take a few seconds for text to appear. When you’re finished, tap Done and then wait for your words to be processed. Just tap anyplace you can type text, and then tap the microphone icon to start dictating. For example, you can compose emails, dictate texts, and even dictate search terms in Safari’s search field. Any time you see the small microphone icon next to the spacebar on the iOS keyboard, dictation is available. Hopefully after you've done that once you'll remember, but there should still be some kind of confirmation dialog asking you if you're sure you want to delete everything you just dictated.Īdd to all this the fact that, by using this app, you're probably sending your voice dictation to yet another remote place to be interpreted, thereby reducing still further what little privacy you already have, and the case against using this app becomes very strong indeed.You can dictate anywhere in iOS where you can enter text. You invoke Siri with your home button you invoke Voice Dictation with the microphone button on the keyboard).Īnyway, as I say, this app is no better at recognizing what I say than Voice Dictation is, and it might be worse at it (try dictating the word "temptation" for example neither this app nor Voice Dictation will get it right.) Also, this app's "erase" button has an icon (is that a paintbrush?) that doesn't make it clear what it is, and you only find out what it is once you deleted your entire message. Siri responds to commands and requests, but she doesn't take voice dictation. It's no better at voice recognition than my iPhone's built-in voice dictation function (which, for those millions who don't understand the fact, is not Siri. I don't understand the purpose of this app.