OBJ Symbol Appears on Non-Apple Devices after iOS Voice Dictation

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8 points

OBJ Symbol Appears on Non-Apple Devices after iOS Voice Dictation

Hello,

I'm experiencing an issue with iOS voice dictation in a React Native app I'm developing. When users compose a post using voice dictation on iOS devices and submit it, an [OBJ] symbol appears at the end of the post but only when viewed on non-Apple devices. The symbol does not appear when the post is viewed on Apple devices. The app handles emojis and other UTF-8 text without any problem.

This isn't just happening with my app, it seems to happen with posts to other apps too when the post is composed using voice typing.

It seems like iOS voice dictation is appending a non-standard character or symbol at the end of the dictated text, which non-Apple devices are unable to render, resulting in the display of an OBJ symbol.

I have seen others talk about this in another thread but that one seems to be closed now.

Is there a recommended method for handling these characters in a cross-platform context to ensure consistent display across all devices?

Thanks

Posted on Jun 25, 2023 3:20 AM

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Answer 1

s_t_harvey Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2023 3:51 AM in response to s_t_harvey

Hello again,

I wanted to provide some additional details about how I am handling this issue - I've been removing the characters server-side using the following PHP function:

function removeUfffc($text) {
  $text = str_replace("\ufffc", "", $text);
  $text = str_replace("", "", $text);

  return $text;
}

This is a workaround rather than a solution, and I'm curious about why this issue is occurring in the first place.

Thanks

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Answer 2

s_t_harvey Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2023 10:50 AM in response to MrHoffman

Thanks for taking the time to reply to me.

This doesn't appear to be an issue that is limited to React Native applications. From what I can tell this is an iOS issue where voice typing is inserting this non-standard character at the end of dictation - it's just not noticed very often because iOS/MacOS don't display these characters - so it is only noticed when a post that has been dictated using voice typing on iOS is viewed by a user on an Android or Windows device.

When I get a chance I'll create some examples using various other methods that don't involve React Native to demonstrate this issue.

This is happening quite widely, e.g.: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254165340

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Answer 3

Keezl

Level 1

31 points

Mar 29, 2024 7:38 PM in response to s_t_harvey

I'm not a developer. I'm an iPhone user. Thought this might be helpful:

If on Facebook using my iPhone, I dictate a comment for Facebook, and then see my comment on Facebook on a Windows computer (a non-Apple device, of course), I will see the OBJ symbol on the PC. But I don't see it if I view the Facebook comment on my phone.

My cumbesome workaround is this: After dictating the Facebook comment on my phone, I select all, delete and then paste the comment back into the comment space. Then, if you view the comment on a PC you won't see the OBJ symbol.

Sure wish Apple of Facebook would fix this so I wouldn't have to do this workaround.

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Answer 4

MrHoffman

Level 10

146,755 points

Jun 25, 2023 10:17 AM in response to s_t_harvey

You might be using an iPhone or iPad or whatever, but you’re writing your app to a very different platform. Best use the React forums for assistance with and issues with React Native, and discuss this with the people familiar with and maintaining the platform you’re writing your apps for.

Here, React on iOS seemingly needs some updates.

And React familiarity around here is ~non-existent, based on the replies in recent years.

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Answer 5

MrHoffman

Level 10

146,755 points

Mar 29, 2024 7:51 PM in response to Keezl

Keezl wrote:

I'm not a developer. I'm an iPhone user. Thought this might be helpful:

If on Facebook using my iPhone, I dictate a comment for Facebook,…

For issues with Facebook and its apps and services, please contact Facebook.

Even if this might be an Apple problem somewhere underneath React somewhere, Facebook is still best positioned to discuss it with Apple.

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Answer 6

s_t_harvey Author

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2023 4:20 AM in response to s_t_harvey

In case you are viewing this thread on an Apple Device then this is what the function should look like as Apple doesn't appear to display the [obj] symbol:

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OBJ Symbol Appears on Non-Apple Devices after iOS Voice Dictation

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