The text box is hidden by a grey thing that has 0:00. what is it and how do delete it?

On my iPhone 4S it is below Filter Unknown Senders.

I still have this question. Now the text message area also has a subject area above and text area below? It was

not like that until today. It was the same as it was before the update and after the update until today. What caused the grey area and is it for speech? It looks like a timer for speech.

Go to Settings/Messages and turn off Show Subject Field and Raise to Listen.

The "grey thing that has 0:00" is invoked when you tap the microphone key that is just to the right of the area to type the message. That display indicates you are ready to begin voice recording for your message.

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) in this OS version. 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).

brucefromgurnee wrote:

No option in messages to remove the voice text feature, no way to disable the lift to speak feature (that I've found) in this OS version. We do not use iMessage, SMS only.

Tap Settings, then Messages.

Scroll down to the bottom and turn off Raise to Listen under Audio Messages. And if you don't use iMessage turn it off.

Thanks Lawrence. But as I mentioned in my post that setting does not exist on my 4s with OS 9.0.2. Or my other 4s with 8.4.1 (which is not experiencing the problem).

See: Iphone 6 gray bar blocking text box after ios 9 update??

Thanks for your effort Lawrence, but it's really not there. The screen shot I posted earlier is my complete "messages" page in "settings." There is no section named AUDIO MESSAGES below the "filter unknown senders" item. It's as if somehow the OS hasn't detected that the phones can do audio messages and therefore doesn't offer the category with options to turn the features on and off. Same in two different 4s phones, one on 8.4.1 and one on 9.0.2. Got me stumped. Keep hoping in the recent flurry of updates a solution would quietly pop up but not yet. Will probably have to roll back to 8.4.1 or else never raise the phone with the message app open.

My 4S has 9.0.2, and it shows the setting, as I posted. If yours doesn't there is likely data corruption in iOS. Have you tried Settings/General/Reset - Reset all settings?

I agree that there is an issue with the OS vs. my phones. It's weird that it's happening on two different phones under two different OS loads but I'll try to reset and roll back to 8. Thank you again for your help.

Same here. I have a 5s and have IOS 9.0.2 and I don't have all of the features Lawrence is showing. If I remember correctly, I think I had the Raise To Listen feature prior to the upgrade. I can't find it anywhere now. 😐

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.

Thanks! I just tried it and it worked! I don't use iMessage either. Not sure why all of these options are "hidden" now. Like you said, keeping fingers crossed.

That did the trick. Per Lawrence we just need to turn off the "raise to listen" option in Settings->Messages. But, if you don't use iMessage then you'll need to turn iMessage on in order to reveal the "raise to listen" (and other) settings. Turn off "raise to listen", then turn off iMessage again if you like. No more grey box. Hoorah!