Turn off audio messaging

Everyone keeps saying to press and hold the microphone icon. There is no microphone icon, just the red scribbly line to record an audio message. I want to turn that off and go back to dictation. If I press and hold, it just starts recording

I want to disable this entirely, not just per conversation. Is there a way to do that?

This is one of the most assinine features I have ever had force-implemented by Apple. In the past few weeks I have sent no less than 5 voice messages to folks inadvertently and never even knew it because it was done by fat fingering. There were plenty more that, thankfully I caught before they inadvertently got sent. The issue is the button is right where my thumb sits naturally and usually the damage is done as I am putting it back in my pocket after sending a message (it rests on the screen long enough to activate the record function).

I will never use this feature. Forcing us to leave it turned on won't ever get me to use it. I am sure someone out there can benefit from voice text - but it isn't me and this one is almost annoying enough for me to go to a different brand.

Even the option to disable per-message thread doesn't work on my phone. I have no choice but to live with this.

I don’t have a microphone — mine just has the sound waves icon for messages. I’ve also gotten rid of the diction feature, but I’m sending audio messages way too frequently.

I had the same problem.

Try tapping the message field which brings up the keyboard. BELOW the keyboard on the left is the globe and on the right is the mike icon. Press and hold that mike icon and it seems to reset the message field. i.e. the red lines are replaced by the mike icon.

This worked for me.

I think the answer to this issue is, no, there's not a manual fix. Forget about microphone icons, we're talking about getting rid of that bloody annoying red audio wave at the right end of the iMessage box. This is an Apple issue and they should fix it. Surely, they can come up with an opt in or out fix.

I think I may have figured this out. Tap the microphone icon on the bottom right of the keyboard, underneath the “Return” button. The microphone is now listening for you to speak. Tap it again and the sound waves icon went away for me. I’m on an iPhone 13 Pro.

This orange audio feature is the most infuriating thing I've come across. There appears to me to be no way to easily remove it permanently. I've just come back to iPhones after a decent spell with Android and I'm beginning to wonder why. I guess the best way is to get as many of your contacts as possible using WhatsApp.

I have been dealing with this issue for a while. Today I went to General> Keyboard and disabled dictation. Then, I re-enabled dictation and the red sound wave went away. Not sure why that worked.

To disable the red sound wave icon, press and hold in the empty part of the text message where your typed message would go. The microphone will pop up for you to dictate a message using voice to text. Record yourself saying anything then delete the message and the red sound wave icon will be replaced with the microphone.

This doesn't work as of 1/23/2024 on iOs 17.2.1. When I hold down on the mic icon on the right side of the text input field nothing happens. When I release pressure it begins recording. No menu ever comes up

I totally agree. This forced feature is ridiculous and totally unwanted on my device. Hopefully apple will provide an option for users to disable it or totally remove it.

It takes literally 5 seconds to read the first post and understand that we aren’t talking about voice dictation here. No offense to you but you are the 800th person to get downvoted because they are telling us how to turn off the wrong thing because they aren’t reading and just assuming they know the answer.

Downvote applied….

The above answer does NOT WORK.