Why I Love The Dictation Feature on iPhone

You can use dictation instead of your keyboard to enter text with many apps and features that use the keyboard on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
With that in mind, here are a few reasons why I love dictation feature on iPhone.

Tap? Only on a keyboard for 10 fingers

The dictation feature on iPhone saves me when I am not sitting in front of a keyboard. Because when I have to type on the iPhone, it drives me crazy. I need the haptic feedback and the comfort of a keyboard with mechanical switches.

My fingers are too thick

While my daughters are typing on both sides of a monkey tooth, I feel like an old man who has missed the connection with an index finger circling the keyboard on the iPhone. If I try too quickly, I keep typing wrong. Then it takes forever to correct all the mistakes. If I type carefully and slowly, it takes way too long for me. So why not just send voice messages?

I hate voice messages

They may be extremely practical for the sender, but for me as a recipient they are agonizing. If one message chases the other in family chat and half of them are voice messages, I am close to despair. I don’t see at a glance what it’s about, I have to put on the headphones in the office every time or walk around with my smartphone. Sometimes I just ignore voice messages in group chats.

My daughters know my dislike. This does not prevent them from continuing to focus on using voice messages. But at least they are now supplementing important messages with the tip that i should listen to them right away. Or mark less urgent messages with the reference that i can listen to them quietly during my free time.

I only allow voice messages to apply in one situation. When the daughters travel abroad for weeks or even months. Admittedly, summaries of their adventures are easier to speak. Then i can hear their voice again. In all other situations, voice messages are devil.

For all of these reasons, I love the iPhones dictation feature. I use the convenience of being able to write messages while walking. But I do not expect the recipient to receive a voice message. The chat remains searchable for keywords and takes up little space.

I usually have to correct a little, but even then dictating and correcting is still faster than typing and correcting. In addition, you are forced to think before you start a message. This is helpful in many ways.

However, you have to make an effort to speak reasonably clearly. Nevertheless, it is much faster than if you had to type all the text.

How to use dictation feature on iPhone

Voice dictation is available for both the iPhone and the iPad.

Follow these steps to use dictation feature on your iPhone:

1. Bring up the on-screen keyboard, then tap the microphone.
2. Start talking. iPhone records your voice and converts it into text as you talk. Use keywords to insert punctuation or paragraph breaks as needed.
3. Tap “Done” to end dictation.
4. Make adjustments to the text as necessary with the keyboard.

Voice dictation is available any time the on-screen keyboard is available, which means no hunting around for it when you really need it. You can use it for text messages, email messages, or taking notes in your favorite app.

Dictate punctuation marks

Of course, I also dictate the punctuation marks. This usually works very well. Speech recognition regularly fails only with a hyphen. You only have the choice between plague and cholera. Either there is an idiot space (test example) or a dash (test example) with a space before or after it. I have not yet been able to dictate the correct hyphen (test example). I would be very grateful for tips on how this works.

Except for the hyphen, it works very well. Not only commas, periods, exclamation marks and question marks are understood. A new line or a paragraph can also be dictated. Likewise, quotation marks below, quotation marks above, (square / curly) brackets opening or closing.

Use dictation function in multiple languages

In addition, voice recognition is not limited to the english language. If you have installed keyboards in other languages, you can change the language by tapping the keyboard icon.

Dictation function can also be used offline – but only from iPhone 6
For iPhone 5S and older,the recording is usually sent to Apple’s servers via the Internet. This is particularly noticeable when the connection is not as optimal. Then you look at the display for seconds without the spoken word becoming visible. As of iPhone 6, it should also be possible to use the dictation feature without a connection to the Internet.

Finally: a question of attitude

This affects the voice message even more, but it has to be said: Smartphones are meant to be held up to the ear. The current trend in posture, where you hold the smartphone horizontally like a tablet to speak directly into the microphone, only leads to audible puffs in speech messages, to patterns in the microphone and then to poorer audio quality.

Here’s how to use dictation on iphone in a more efficient way.
While dictating or voice messages: simply hold your iPhone to your ear and speak. The microphone is designed for this exact position.
Am I an exotic with my preference for the dictation feature or are there more confessing iPhone dictators among our readers? Thoughts in the comments are gratefully received!