User Handbook
Dictation - Speech to Text

Important notes !

In iOS 18.0 (and macOS 15.0) the punctuation, formatting and capitalisation features are not working correctly. Please update to iOS 18.1, macOS 15.1 respectively. This will fix many of the problems under iOS 18.0 und macOS 15.0 !

When no text appears during dictation, click here to prepare your device for offline dictation

1. Introduction
2. Getting Started
3. Basic Operation
4. Advanced Topics
5. Frequently Asked Questions
6. Contacting Support

1. Introduction

Overview of the App

"Dictation - Speech to Text" is a powerful application for iOS, iPadOS, macOS and watchOS designed to convert spoken words into text with high accuracy. It leverages advanced speech recognition technology to transcribe your voice into written form, streamlining note-taking, writing tasks, and communication.

Key Features

Real Time Transcription

Instantly converts your speech into text as you speak.

User Dictionary

Dictate offers a user dictionary where you can store words that are special to your business. Dictate incorporates them into your personal language model. This will increase the likelihood that these words are recognized correctly.

Audio Recording

Dictate offers support for storing the input audio along with the text transcription. Each time you append your text by dictation or file transcription Dictate will append that audio to the previous recording. Thus you get a full audio track of all your successive dictation sessions.

Audio File Transcription

Dictate supports file transcription. You can select audio files stored on you device and transcribe them into written text.

iCloud Drive & Device Sync

Dictate offers support to store and access your dictated text via iCloud. Of course your text still can be stored locally on your device. Furthermore using iCloud Drive your iOS & macOS devices synchronise their text. Text that is dictated into one device instantly appears on all other devices where you are logged in with the same AppleID.

Offline Dictation

Dictate has offline support for many languages. The feature is available on newer devices.

More Than 40 Languages

Dictate offers more than 40 languges, including: English, Deutsch, Nederlands, Dansk, Español, Français, Hrvatski, Italiano, Pусский, Magyar, Norsk bokmål, Polski, Português, Bahasa Melayu, Indonesia, Tiếng Việt, Türkçe, Català, Română, Slovenčina, Suomi, Svenska, čeština, 中文, 粵語, ไทย, 日本語, 한국어, עברית, العربية, Ελληνικά, українська

Parallel Dictation and Keyboard Editing

You can now edit while you dictate. This allows to correct small errors immedatelly after the occur.

Independent Text/Language Zones

Dictate offers 3 text zones which you can use for different projects. You can assign each text zone a different language when you need to dictate in different languages. Easily switch between text zones with one click.

Translation

Using the translation feature you can translate your text into any other supported language. Once translated you can send the text as usual.

System Requirements

macos: 12.3 or later
iOS/iPadOS 15.4. or later (iPhone 6s or later, iPad mini (5th generation) or later)
watchOS 8.0 or later
Android 8 'Pie'

Fields of Use

Authors, Medical doctors typically have to write large amounts of text in short time. They benefit in particular from the text zones where they can handle different projects simultaneously.
Blind people are a huge user group of Dictate. They use it to produce written text for others. Dictate has Voiceover support !
Deaf people are also a huge user group of Dictate. They can use it to read what other people say.
Journalists, blogger and any social media user use Dictate to speed up their posts. Since Dictate can send to any other text app there many more possibilities in social media posting.
Everybody who needs to translate text can now use the translation feature, which allows to easily translate the dictated text into another language.

2. Getting Started

Download Dictate App

Use the donwload link below on iPhone, iPad and macos.

Use the donwload link below on Android devices.

Onboarding

After the first Start of Dictate you are guided through an onboarding process. Dictate offers 3 text zones, left, middle and right. If you only need one language, you can choose this language for all text zones. Should you need to dictate in more than one language you can assign these to different text zones. Each text zone has one language attached to it. Text zone languages can be changed later in Setup.

Furthermore, for Dictate to function properly, you need to grant permissions for microphone and speech recognition. You will be asked for those during onboarding. We highly recommend to grant those permissions during onboarding.

User Handbook
Dictation - Speech to Text

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