Why is iOS voice dictation so awful?

[Rogifan]

I swear nearly every time I use voice dictation it removes words (that it accurately dictated) after it stops dictating. I’ll see the words accurately appear on screen as I’m saying them and once I stop a number of them disappear. Is the in the moment dictation on device and the second pass coming from the cloud? Couldn’t they offer an undo button to revert back to the original dictation (which in my case is usually correct)?

 

[turbineseaplane]

I swear nearly every time I use voice dictation it removes words (that it accurately dictated) after it stops dictating. I’ll see the words accurately appear on screen as I’m saying them and once I stop a number of them disappear. Is the in the moment dictation on device and the second pass coming from the cloud? Couldn’t they offer an undo button to revert back to the original dictation (which in my case is usually correct)?

A very timely post.

I was just getting irritated with dictation about five minutes ago.

I swear it’s gotten worse over the years.

 

[Sully]

Is the in the moment dictation on device and the second pass coming from the cloud? Couldn’t they offer an undo button to revert back to the original dictation (which in my case is usually correct)?

Yes to the first question. That’s exactly what’s happening.

There are third party apps that offer undo buttons so it’s possible. Why Apple doesn’t offer it is anyone’s guess.

 

[Rogifan]

Yes to the first question. That’s exactly what’s happening.

There are third party apps that offer undo buttons so it’s possible. Why Apple doesn’t offer it is anyone’s guess.

Is there a way to turn off the cloud part so it only uses what happens on device?

 

[Sully]

I don’t think you can turn it off. It’s baked into to how the dictation works.

 

[Rogifan]

A very timely post.

I was just getting irritated with dictation about five minutes ago.

I swear it’s gotten worse over the years.

It happens to me every time I use it. It’s so frustrating because I can see it get the words right in real time only to think it got some wrong after the fact. Apple should at least offer an undo button. They do with auto correct but that actually works for me so I don’t ever want to undo what it corrected.

 

[pgoelz]

If speech to text actually involves processing in the cloud.... why does it often get things so spectacularly wrong? It comes up with sentences that don't make any sense at all, often substituting nonsense words (often not even real words) and sprinkling commas everywhere. I swear, Siri must get paid by the comma......

I always assumed that the reason Siri was so much worse than Google speech to text was because the process was local and NOT in the cloud..... ?

 

[Sully]

If speech to text actually involves processing in the cloud.... why does it often get things so spectacularly wrong? It comes up with sentences that don't make any sense at all, often substituting nonsense words (often not even real words) and sprinkling commas everywhere. I swear, Siri must get paid by the comma......

I always assumed that the reason Siri was so much worse than Google speech to text was because the process was local and NOT in the cloud..... ?

It overcorrects to something that contextually fits their algorithm even if what comes out make makes no sense.

It’s many times pretty ridiculous, but when you think about how the AI works, this makes sense.

 

[zenmacx]

I swear it’s gotten worse over the years.

Yes it has. Where once upon a time I was using and enjoying it, recently it seems a bit frustrating and inconsistent. Perhaps Apple will take note and make the necessary improvements.

 

[StumpyBloke]

Same! Along with Siri, this feature has got demonstrably and provably worse over the years. The managers responsible for this along with Siri should’ve been sacked, also along with Tim Cook, years ago.

 

[widget7]

Is there a way to turn off the cloud part so it only uses what happens on device?

You could try Airplane Mode. Some languages should work without Internet, at least they used to.

 

[pgoelz]

I tried speech to text in airplane mode. Works normally, including some visible error correction (didn't get it right). So that would indicate the speech recognition is done locally and NOT in the cloud? That would reinforce my earlier observation that Google speech to text (cloud based) is quite a bit better than Apple. The trade off with Google is of course less privacy and more data mining? Perhaps the solution is optional cloud based "proofreading" that can be disabled?