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Why does voice to text change to wrong words

When I use voice to text to dictate on my iPhone, the words will change after I hit done. It shows the words correctly while I dictate, then changes the words completely. Why does it do this and what can I do to fix it? It has done this through several iOS updates so is not specific to the current install.

Posted on Sep 27, 2017 5:46 AM

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Posted on Oct 4, 2017 4:04 AM

Yes. This is exactly what I’m experiencing! It is so frustrating and seems to make more errors (aka corrections) now than it did previously.

4 replies

Oct 4, 2017 4:03 AM in response to Pegles10

Yes, this is exactly what happens to me. I think if you watch carefully, what you voice-to-text may appear correctly as you speak. But it may be correct only for the first half of your sentence. As you speak the second half of the sentence it seems to sometimes rewrite the first half of the sentence as if it is re-interpreting the meaning of what you intended to say in the full sentence.


This is AI at its worst. It is too smart for it’s own good. By this I mean it accurately transcribes the words you intend to use, but then changes them according to a meaning that it calculates must’ve been your intention.


I believe this results from the program mis-hearing one of the words you used which causes it to proceed to re-interpret your full meaning based on the wrongly heard word.


In the process of doing this, it actually goes back and rewrites the early part of your sentence to conform to the new interpretation of your meaning.


This is AI based on very poorly formulated rules.

Nov 27, 2017 1:45 AM in response to sterling r

Thanks for trying to help. I have this problem and have tried all the above already.


But this doesn’t address the main issue here:


Both dictation and predictive text are getting WORSE not better with each update.


There is another thread about this which seems to be in the wrong place, so the “me too”s here are not alone!


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7445742


There are also mentions of this issue outside Apple’s forums too.


It’s important to understand that this issue is NOT a simple “it’s not working now” problem. It’s a more gradual but significant worsening of something that wasn’t broken before. For me iOS 11 (on my SE) has produced a significant jump in predictive errors (random Capital letters appearing in the Middle of sentences) and dictation occasionally turning English into idiotic nonsense (repeated words, an apostrophe messing up eg we’ll done). To the extent that I don’t use dictation at all now.


Is this Apple’s AI that thinks it has a better grasp of what we’re trying to say than we do? Because if so, Houston, we have a problem....

Sep 27, 2017 6:07 PM in response to Pegles10

Hello Pegles10,

Welcome to Apple Support Communities.

I understand from your post your issue to be with the voice to text feature. You can say one sentence and see if on your screen but when you hit the done it changes some of the words in that sentence.

It sounds like you are having issues with predictive text when using dictation with Siri. Take a look at the resource below for some steps to try to resolve this issue.

Use Siri on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Get help with Siri

  1. Make sure that your iOS device has an Internet connection through Wi-Fi or cellular data.
  2. On your iOS device, make sure that Siri is turned on under Settings > General > Siri.
  3. Restart your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
  4. On your iOS device, go to Settings > General > Siri and turn off Siri. Then turn it on again.
  5. Make sure that the microphones on your device aren't blocked. For example, if your device has a protective case, remove it.
  6. If you're using an iOS device, try to use Siri with a headset. If Siri works, get more help with the microphones on your device.
  7. Contact Apple Support.

Get help with the keyboard on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Turn off predictive text

To turn off predictive text tap User uploaded file or press and hold User uploaded file and tap Predictive.

User uploaded file

You can also turn off predictive text in Settings > General > Keyboard > Predictive.

Give those steps a try and let us know if this was helpful.
Enjoy your day!

Why does voice to text change to wrong words

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