Dictation accuracy over the past few years has been abominable for a great many people. iOS 17 seems to have slightly improved it on my XS, but it's still so inaccurate that correcting its mistakes takes more time than typing it all out myself. Does the dictation model use the more capable machine learning accelerators on newer iPhones to improve accuracy? I'm wondering if a newer phone would help.
iPhone XS, iOS 17
The dictation software on my iPhone 15+ is absolutely horrible. And it says if it is trying to write what I’m trying to say for me by putting words in there I never said and taking out the ones I did. It makes words that don’t even exist in the English language. It’s absolutely horrible
It was never that good but I remember a few years ago it wasn't that bad and I found it quite helpful to use at some points.
However it is now completely unusable on my iPhone 15, and MacBook pro. It's hard to even use it for a coherent short sentence. It's slow, inaccurate and often duplicates entire paragraph. What happened?!! Given the large advance in these technologies and hardware it should have improved over last few years, not massively regressed..
Dictation frequently makes up words I did not say, or misses words I did say, even on the built in microphones. This issue is widespread and common knowledge, so I know troubleshooting won't help (I actually did read the article you linked and it wasn't helpful). I just want an answer to the question I asked. An acknowledgment of the problem from Apple, an explanation for why it exists, and a public roadmap for improving the feature would be nice too but that's probably not going to happen. I recently tried the openAI Whisper speech recognition model (on the same iphone) and was blown away at how much better it is than Apple's. It makes almost no errors.
MegPaltz wrote:
I so agree!! I often have to ask why my Smartphone is SO DUMB! If my life depended on voice dictation on my phone, I would certainly be dead. Even when I try to speak clearly and annunciate it comes up with ridiculous (often embarrassing) choices. With all the bells and whistles Apple puts in to new phones, you would think that improving this technology would be top of the list.
Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user forum for feedback or suggestions. You can, however, let them know your thoughts here:
LondonGirl51 wrote:
I am sick of the dictation on my iPhone it is absolutely abysmal.
I just typed something and it replaced the word drastic with dressed stick. That is just one of hundreds of ridiculous errors. It often puts swear words in, really bad ones, that I have not said and one of these days it will get me into big trouble! It cuts big chunks out of sentences and chops off the beginning of sentences. It puts the correct word for a second then changes it to the wrong word, so sometimes I've sent a message before I've realised that it's changed the correct word for the incorrect one! Grrrrrr!!!! They need to do something about it because it is totally unacceptable.
Tell Apple:
Personally, I find it works quite well.
It's unfathomable how bad iOS speech to text is, on even the latest iPhone. Apple claims to be interested in machine learning, neural chips, etc. (Whisper is even open source now, so they could perhaps just implement that.)
The only thing I can think of is the reverse of Hanlon's Razor: Why assume incompetence for such a highly-capable tech company? There must be some deep "reason" whereby Apple executives have decided that having awful voice dictation somehow helps their business model.
Hello,
Welcome to Apple Support Communities. We're glad to hear that updating to iOS 17 enhanced dictation on your iPhone.
We want you to a great experience with your iPhone. What are the exact issues you're having currently with dictation? Is it happening both when using the built-in microphone as well as headphones? The more details, the better we can help.
In the meantime, please check out this helpful information: Dictate text on iPhone
We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.
The iPhone has been the worst product on the entire market for voice dictation accuracy. It is absolutely abysmal and it has been that way since 2009. In fact it has gotten worse. Not better. Whoever’s running that department needs to fire everyone and start over. Google has been miles ahead of Apple with accuracy for literally years already. They’ve done nothing whatsoever to improve this problem since the first iPhone came out
KR989 wrote:
The iPhone has been the worst product on the entire market for voice dictation accuracy. It is absolutely abysmal and it has been that way since 2009. In fact it has gotten worse. Not better. Whoever’s running that department needs to fire everyone and start over. Google has been miles ahead of Apple with accuracy for literally years already. They’ve done nothing whatsoever to improve this problem since the first iPhone came out
Do you have a technical support issue that we, your fellow users, can help you resolve? If so, please explain what it is.
I so agree!! I often have to ask why my Smartphone is SO DUMB! If my life depended on voice dictation on my phone, I would certainly be dead. Even when I try to speak clearly and annunciate it comes up with ridiculous (often embarrassing) choices. With all the bells and whistles Apple puts in to new phones, you would think that improving this technology would be top of the list.
Dictation on this iPhone is horrendous.
I recently jumped back to the iPhone after eight years on a droid thinking that improvement had probably been made.
$1500 for this iPhone 14 Pro Max with 256 GB and I'm sitting here very disappointed.
Why on earth can't these phones be trained to learn your voice like most dictation software packages do and have done for years with the kind of money people are plunking down on these phones it seems warranted to invest some effort into this.
I am sick of the dictation on my iPhone it is absolutely abysmal.
I just typed something and it replaced the word drastic with dressed stick. That is just one of hundreds of ridiculous errors. It often puts swear words in, really bad ones, that I have not said and one of these days it will get me into big trouble! It cuts big chunks out of sentences and chops off the beginning of sentences. It puts the correct word for a second then changes it to the wrong word, so sometimes I've sent a message before I've realised that it's changed the correct word for the incorrect one! Grrrrrr!!!! They need to do something about it because it is totally unacceptable.
Dictation is now so bad that that it's almost unusable on the iPhone, I was trying to use it today to do some sort of dictation. It started going on about doctors and cats and dogs. I don't even know what it was waffling on about to be quite honest it's become an absolute joke. It really has and I really don't like this phone much to be honest. I can guarantee that no matter what they put on this phone in terms of AI. My next phone will not be made by Apple.
Hillbillycarrotcruncher wrote:
My next phone will not be made by Apple.
You should always buy the tool that best meets your needs. No one here in this user-to-user forum has any vested interest in your choice. I hope you find one that works better for you, though.
Are you kidding me? This is the answer to someone who says dictation is slightly better with 17 but is still horrific?
I have been buying iPhones since the very first one and the fact that this dictation is getting worse by the year means I’ll be looking at better options.
People have been screaming about this for years and Apple has done nothing to resolve it.
I’m convinced that it’s developed in a place where English is not the first language.
It learns absolutely nothing. I have two friends named Dana and the iPhone dictation spells it Dena every… single… time… for years. Pathetic.
And I completely agree with the person who said that it takes more time to correct the iPhone mistakes than it does typing the entire message with your fingers.
I corrected probably 10 to 15 mistakes the iPhone made in this message.
Is dictation more accurate on newer iPhones?
