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How do you enable dictation with smart keyboard?

I just purchased an iPad Pro and am now trying to pick out a good keyboard. I use dictation a lot and was wondering if there was a shortcut to enable dictation with the Smart Keyboard. At the Apple Store the staff didn't know how to do this and there is no dedicated dictation button.

iPad, iOS 9.1, IPad Pro model

Posted on Nov 19, 2015 2:35 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 28, 2017 7:17 PM

At the far right of the 'mini bar' that pops up at the bottom of the screen, there's a downward-facing arrow - press and hold it and the software keyboard should pop up, including the microphone dictation button.

37 replies

Apr 11, 2017 7:49 PM in response to pdvjunior

That is absolutely excellent. You have no idea how happy I am that you have posted this simple fix. I bought the iPad pro on the day it came out and I have been frustrated by this lack of functionality until this very moment when I saw your post. It works perfectly now.

Interestingly, I rang Apple support a number of times over the last 12 or 18 months and they didn't know how to fix it and they said it was a shortcoming. They gave me that silly work around with the emoji as well which was more pain than it was worth.


Thank you! 🙂😁

Aug 14, 2017 12:59 PM in response to docsarah

I have a new Logitech Slim Combo. It has a keyboard symbol on the top row, in the 5th position. Pressing it toggles the on-screen keyboard, which makes the dictation key available. I wondered how I would make dictation work since the emoji hack did not seem to work. I finally saw the keyboard symbol, to realize this keypad solves the problem very well.

Dec 7, 2015 12:39 PM in response to Docroyalty

Since iOS 8, 'Allowing custom keyboards' refers to the ability to use other soft keyboards (i.e.: Swyft, etc) created by non-Apple developers. These 3rd party keyboards are a security risk as it can record your keystrokes and you have yo trust that the developer doesn't misuse information collected by the recorded keystroke data. My original post was regarding a need for an EXTERNAL keyboard where the dictation command can be enabled (either via keystroke or the appearance of a soft button the the screen. Right now, the only way to enable dictation is to disconnect the external keyboard and activate the soft keyboard. As a physician who dictates a lot of charts, I use a combination of typing an occasional sentence and dictating longer text as I'm a horrible typist.


Just a thought - does the "Fn Fn" command (pressing the Fn button twice) activate dictation similar to how it works on the Mac. I currently don't have an external keyboard to test out this theory.

How do you enable dictation with smart keyboard?

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