after I send a text I get a grey area in the message box.

Im Having issue as well.

Same here after updating to OS9... The Microphone for text switches on by itself and I have to restart the phone to get rid of the greyed audio box which sits itself over the message area so you cant see what you typed. How do you turn off the mic for text messages? iPhone 4s BTW

Here is a screen shot of a text with my kid; who has imessage. I held the mic down and a drop 'up' window came up with an arrow, I swiped up to the arrow and the gray area with clock was gone.

My other kid, doesn't have imessage:

Good luck!

I have a 5c and am also having this problem. I have found powering down phone for a few seconds and turning back on does get rid of the grey text box, but that gets frustrating. It has been happening quite frequently. I have had no luck trying the microphone trick. Today, when it happened I responded to the person by just starting a new text and the grey area was gone and my text stream was still there.

below correct except I didn't need to do a hard reset on my 4s or g/f's 5c (both w 9.02)

we're all being Beta tested now.....

"indi_iOShelperOct 6, 2015 3:26 PM Re: after I send a text I get a grey area in the message box.
Re: after I send a text I get a grey area in the message box.in response to squadFifty1

Hi Everyone

For this issue, go to settings>general>keyboard>turn off enable dictation

After you do that, turn off the device, then do a hard reset. Hold down the power button and home button at the exact same time until the apple logo comes up.

Then after it restart, go to messages and see"

Excellent! This issue happened with a text to someone who doesn't have messenger (sans the mic next to the text window) and I couldn't figure it out. I switched to someone else and was able to use your tip!

Thanks!

The mic next to the window shows up for those who have imessenger, only. My text was to someone who doesn't have imessenger and the mic was not next to the text window. Switch your text contact to someone you know has imessenger, and you'll see the mic next to the text window.

I'm having the same issue! In searching the forums it appears as though many others are as well. I'm not getting the microphone option that others are mentioning, even with contacts using iMessage.

It seems we are stuck until Apple can figure something out. I've tried calling support and they only made it worse for me.

So frustrating!!!

I'm using an iPhone 4s. My phone is still on iOS 8xx and works fine. My wife's is on the latest (9.0.1) and has the same problem. Resetting the phone takes away the grey blob, but lifting it to her ear activates the "raise to speak" feature that creates the 0:00 bubble again. No option found in "messages" to remove the voice text feature, no way to disable the lift to speak feature (that I've found). We do not use iMessage, SMS only. Tried turning off Siri, no luck. Next step is to roll back, but that's a pain. Fortunately I think our latest backup on her phone was still in the 8xx iOS.

I agree. This is totally frustrating! What is Apple doing to address the problem....anybody know? I've tried everything and still the only solution is to power off/power on the phone...every time it happens...which means I'm powering on and off dozens of times a day. iphone 5s for me.

I'm using an iPhone 4s. My phone is still on iOS 8xx and works fine. My wife's is on the latest (9.0.1) and has the same problem. Resetting the phone takes away the grey blob, but lifting it to her ear activates the "raise to speak" feature that creates the 0:00 bubble again. No option in messages to remove the voice text feature, no way to disable the lift to speak feature (that I've found). We do not use iMessage, SMS only. Tried turning off Siri, no luck. Next step is to roll back, but that's a pain. Fortunately I think our latest backup on her phone was still in the 8xx iOS.

Update 10/05/15 Just updated OS to 9.0.2 - same problem. Every fix that seems to make the problem go away (restart, reset, add subject line, remove subject line, update OS, etc.) is only temporary. As soon as the phone is lifted (to the ear) with the message app open the voice box returns again to obscure the text entry field. Need a way to disable "lift to speak" feature somehow. (Yes, have also disabled Siri).

Fascinating. This might work - I don't use iMessage, but I turned it back on to see if the settings options would change. Lo and behold the "raise to listen" option appeared along with other audio and video options as soon as iMessage authenticated my Apple ID. I've turned off "raise to listen" and then turned off iMessage and I see that the setting "holds" (when I turn iMessage back on the feature is still turned off). Fingers crossed that this will fix our problem. I'm probably in a small subset of message users that does not use iMessage so I can see how this problem might only present itself to a few of us.

Hi Everyone

For this issue, go to settings>general>keyboard>turn off enable dictation

After you do that, turn off the device, then do a hard reset. Hold down the power button and home button at the exact same time until the apple logo comes up.

Then after it restart, go to messages and see

If you don't see the microphone next to the grey area (and the timer), go to your "Setting", then "Messages", turn on "iMessage", then choose a person you know who use iMessage (basically a person who use Apple device, iPhone or iPad). Then you should see the microphone next to the grey area. You follow earlier other's suggestion, press the microphone and swipe it out to get rid of the grey area.

I think this is a bug that Apple introduced with recent upgrade that Apple tried to let you record a message and sent it to other people. But the problem is user should have a easy way to enable or disable the recording function. Blocking the text entry area is just a bad design.