Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT

Newsroom Update

Apple is introducing a new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, matching watch face, and dynamic iOS and iPadOS wallpapers as a way to champion global movements to protect and advance equality for LGBTQ+ communities. Learn more >

iPhone Voice to text issue on iOS 17

Since updating to IOS17, when I use voice to text, it often cuts out the beginning of what I dictate, or leaves out whole words, or does not translate the last sentence. Its like it cant process the full sentences or starts dictating 3 words into what I am saying.


[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Posted on Oct 20, 2023 10:09 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Feb 9, 2024 1:43 AM

This started after last nights update 17.4. Idk why they do updates knowing things that people use daily won’t work. This is upsetting to me in alot of ways. Being disabled dictation is sometimes the only way I can talk to people.

87 replies

Feb 2, 2024 1:42 PM in response to chowda169

I have a disability where it’s very difficult for me to type and I rely heavily on the dictation feature. All the same issues. It is even worse when using a browser for some reason. It is delaying, cutting out words, replacing words with things that make absolutely no sense. Like others have said I used dictation with no issues at all for years; now it is a source of constant frustration.


Of course, as I create this reply the dictation has been very speedy. It’s still made some very strange word choices. I found if I wait a few seconds it will sometimes correct those choices.


This is a huge problem with texting as I often hit send immediately and then my text is just gibberish.

Jan 16, 2024 1:53 PM in response to chowda169

I am having this issue now after updating to 17.2.1 yesterday. The voice to text in messaging is horrible. Even worse than it had been before 🙄 It is now skipping words and phrases entirely, as well as refusing to put in the punctuation when I say it. If I try to manually insert punctuation while voice to text is open it won't let me. I hope they come up with a fix for this very quickly! I use voice to text so much that I am actually thinking of trying to figure out how to revert back to the previous version of iOS to regain functionality.

Feb 12, 2024 12:57 AM in response to chowda169

I have a workaround that works 100%, as far as I know.


  1. First you need to go onto your keyboard settings and add another of the English keyboards, it doesn't matter which country.
  2. Then you have to select the new EN (insert country name here) keyboard and delete the broken US English keyboard.
  3. Go back to 'settings/general/keyboard' and select 'dictation languages' and MAKE SURE THE (EN-US) KEYBOARD IS DISABLED and the new EN keyboard for another country is enabled.
  4. Finally, go back to "settings/general/keyboard' one last time and totally disable/reenable dictation for good measure.


This fix worked for me regardless of the alt EN keyboard used. Just as long as the EN-US keyboard is deleted and the dictation language is totally changed to a different country's version of English - you'll be gtg!


Get with the program Apple. Certainly no time wasted at the opportunity to take my money, but let's just let all of these $1500 iPhones just be crippled until you decide to "update" again. Whatever.


Feb 11, 2024 6:52 AM in response to chowda169

Dictation doesn't work anymore, iPhone 13 Pro Max. Even apps like Duolingo don't recognize my voice. Siri hears me fine.


Everything done so far:

  1. If it occurs in a specific app, force close it: Close an app on your iPhone or iPod touch
  2. Then: Restart your iPhone
  3. Make sure your iOS is fully updated to iOS 17.0.3: Update your iPhone or iPad
  4. Then test Siri and work through these steps if Siri also delays: If Siri isn't working on your iPhone


Oct 21, 2023 3:50 PM in response to Soosie_J215

There is not a delay. The dictation is leaving out words and whole sentences. Or its completely not translating all the words in the sentence. For example, I hit the dictation button, waited for it to display and said "We will move the girls to midfield to balance out the attack". This is what actually displayed "Will move the girls to field balance out the attack'. It lopped off "The" , "mid" and to at the end.

Mar 29, 2024 11:30 AM in response to chowda169

I have every single issue discussed in this thread since updating from iOS 16 (which I would take back in a heartbeat) to 17.4 (and then 17.4.1). Many other issues too—but once I got through the no cellular service for 2 days til I erased and reinstalled (also a known issue, per Senior Support), the dictation degradation is the most egregious loss of functionality. There are several issues notes in this thread and i have them all. This thread reps a significant swath of users with these issues so it's not isolated. Reddit has a few threads on same stuff as well.


Alas,, the NZ or AU keyboard trick didn't work for me—I still have all the issues and just ended up with spellings like "realise" and "centre" so I went back. (I'd have dealt with the spellings if it had fixed the other stuff.)


iPhone 14 here, but I've read all 5 pages of this thread and it's clearly on all phones.


My feedback to Apple was thus (handily summarizing ALL of our issues as described here):


PLEASE fix dictation in iOS 17. (.4.1) With the microphone active , you can no longer place the cursor where you want, it won’t place and/or it jumps to the end of the body of text (incredibly frustrating if the text is long), (2) it’s randomly missing words at the beginning and/or middle and/or end of the sentence, (3) it’s missing easy ordinary words that USED to capture fine, (4) it wrongly capitalizes any word after a new mid-sentrence insertion point, which it didn’t do before

In iOS 16 dictation was 90-95% accurate which was great, in iOS 17 I’d say 60%. This is a massive degradation. I don’t know what you did to it but please fix. This is an incredibly important feature! 


Please also return the ability to scroll up to View previous messages even when you’re typing a text in the text window (Messages).


See how many people have same issues: (And then I shared the link to this thread)


---


May they deign to address this sooner than later.


iPhone Voice to text issue on iOS 17

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.