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Use Text Dictation on iPhone, Watch and Mac. It's efficient and safer behind the wheel

Ondrej Holzman
31

The ability to dictate text in iOS, watchOS and Mac is nothing new, but still many users do not know about it. Since it has been possible to dictate Czech without problems for a few years now, system Dictation can become a very effective everyday helper. In the car, it is a fundamentally safer way of interacting with the phone.

Although we have all been waiting for Czech Siri for several years, Dictation is the proof that Apple products can understand our mother tongue very well. You just have to turn it on in the settings, and then it will convert the spoken word to text on the iPhone, Watch or Mac very quickly and by itself.

For many users, it may represent - as in the case of Siri - a certain psychological block that it does not feel natural to us to talk on a computer or phone, but the future is clearly heading in this direction. In addition, by dictating you do not give any instructions to any device, you just say what you want to have written. If you don't have any such problem, Dictation can be a really good helper.

Dictation on iPhone and iPad

In iOS Dictation, you turn on v Settings > General > Keyboard > Turn on dictation. In the system keyboard, an icon with a microphone will then appear on the left next to the space bar, which activates Dictation. When you press it, a sound wave jumps up instead of the keyboard, signaling dictation.

In iPhones and iPads, it is important that Czech dictation works only with an active Internet connection, just like Siri. If you use English text dictation, it can be used in iOS and offline (on iPhone 6S and later). In the case of Czech, server dictation is used, when recordings of your speech are sent to Apple, which on the one hand converts them to text and, on the other hand, evaluates them together with other user data (names of contacts, etc.) and improves the dictation based on them.

Dictation learns the characteristics of your voice and adapts to your accent, so the more you use the feature, the better and more accurate the transcription will be. The possibilities of use on iPhones and iPads are wide. But usually dictation should be faster than typing text on the keyboard. In addition, Apple does not allow access to dictation by third-party developers, so, for example, in the popular SwiftKey you will not find a button with a microphone and you have to switch to the system keyboard.

When dictating, you can also use various punctuation marks and special characters with relative ease, because otherwise iOS will not recognize where to put a comma, period, etc. Dictation is especially useful when driving, when you want to reply to a message, for example. All you have to do is open it, click on the microphone and you will speak the message. If you are already working with your phone behind the wheel, this method is much safer than tapping on the keyboard.

Of course, everything would be even more efficient if the Czech Siri also worked, but for now we have to speak English. However, you can (not only behind the wheel) open notes, tap the microphone and dictate the current idea if you want to avoid English, for example with the easy command "Open Notes".

Say the following commands in iOS to insert a punctuation mark or special character:

  • apostrophe '
  • colon :
  • comma ,
  • hyphen –
  • ellipsis...
  • exclamation mark !
  • dash –
  • full stop.
  • question mark ?
  • semicolon ;
  • ampersand &
  • star *
  • at-sign @
  • back slash  
  • slash /
  • full stop
  • cross #
  • percentage %
  • vertical line |
  • dollar sign $
  • copyright ©
  • is equal to =
  • minus -
  • plus +
  • laughing smiley :-)
  • sad smiley :(

Do you use any other commands that we forgot? Write to us in the comments, we will add them. Apple in its documentation it lists several other Czech commands for Dictation, but unfortunately some of them do not work.

Dictation on Mac

Dictation on Mac works very similarly to iOS, but there are a few differences. You can activate it in System Preferences > Keyboard > Dictation. However, in contrast to iOS, on Mac it is possible to turn on "enhanced dictation" even in the case of Czech, which allows both to use the function offline and to dictate unlimitedly with live feedback.

If you don't have enhanced dictation turned on, everything is again the same as on iOS online, the data is sent to Apple's servers, which then convert the voice to text and send everything back. To turn on enhanced dictation, you just need to download the installation package. Then you set up a shortcut to invoke dictation, with the default being double-pressing the Fn key. This will bring up the microphone icon.

Both variants have pros and cons. If the voice-to-text conversion takes place online, in our experience the results are slightly more accurate in the case of Czech than when the entire process is done on a Mac. On the other hand, dictation is usually quite a bit slower due to the data transfer.

In any case, it is important that you dictate as clearly as possible and articulate correctly, only then the results are almost error-free. Plus, Dictation is constantly learning, so it gets better over time. Nevertheless, we recommend always checking the dictated text. In case of its own ambiguity, Dictation will offer a blue dotted underline where a mistake may have occurred. The same goes for iOS.

If the dictation takes place online, there is a 40 second limit on both Mac and iOS. Then you have to activate dictation again.

Dictation on Watch

Perhaps the most convenient thing is to talk to the watch, or dictate to it the text you want to write down. That's when speaking, for example, a reply to a message turns out to be really effective, because all you have to do is raise your wrist and make a few clicks.

However, in the Watch app on iPhone, you must first set up how the watch will work with dictation messages. IN My watch > Messages > Dictated messages are options Transcription, Audio, Transcript or Audio. If you don't want to send dictated messages as an audio track, you must choose Transcription. When Transcript or Audio after dictation, you always choose whether you want to send the message converted to text or as audio.

Then, after receiving a message or an e-mail, for example, you just need to tap the microphone and speak just like you would on an iPhone or Mac.

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