How to enable voice to text conversion on Android?

How to enable voice to text conversion on Android?.

Modern smartphones can harness the computing power of giant data centers. This is why voice recognition and transcription on modern smartphones are accurate, easy to use, and often the fastest way to send a text message, email, or instant message.

If you haven’t used Android voice typing for text input yet, you should really try it. For those of us with thumbs, this is a big improvement. If you don’t mind that someone within earshot knows what you want to say, that is.

A Quick Explanation of Android Voice to Text

We’ll assume you already know that Android converts voice (or speech) to text in practice. You talk to your device and it records what you say as text. You might not know that this is incredibly difficult to do. Home computers have been able to convert speech to text since the 90s, but they had to speak incredibly slowly, monotonously.

Modern voice-to-text apps will understand you at normal speed, with normal voice dynamics, and with almost any accent. You also don’t need to train the software on the uniqueness of your voice.

The only real drawback is that for a long time, voice input required an active internet connection. This is because your phone transmits audio data so that ultra-fast computers in the data center can do the actual recognition.

This is still true for many modern phones, but if you have the latest high-performance model, you can take advantage of the benefits of offline speech recognition.

Offline Speech Recognition

So, before we look at how to activate Android Voice to Text on your phone, let’s first check if your phone has an offline voice recognition package installed in the correct language:

Open the Google App
Select “Advanced”, then select “Settings”.

Select a vote

Select offline speech recognition.

In the Installed section, check if your language is installed.

If not, go to the “All” section and install your preferred language pack.

By using the offline speech option, you will save on data and possibly save a little on battery. The language pack will also help you when you go offline. If your phone is suitable for this, we recommend that you use this option.

How Is Voice Input Different From the Voice Assistant?

Voice input in this context refers specifically to using your voice to enter text into a text field. This is different from your voice assistant, which listens to your voice commands and requests and then tries to do what you ask or answers your question.

The voice recognition technology is the same in both cases, but the only purpose of the voice input system is to turn the words you say into written text. Don’t understand what you want to achieve.

How to Use Gboard for Voice to Text

Gboard is a touch keyboard from Google. You can of course use any keyboard you like, and many will also allow you to convert speech to text, but Gboard is the basic option we’ll be working with and should be available through the Google Play Store for all users. Android. Well, except when you are using Huawei or any other brand that is prohibited from using Google apps.

If you would like to learn how to use the Speech-to-Text feature with the onscreen keyboard of your choice, you will need to find it in the documentation for that keyboard. However, we suspect that most of them will work this way.

After installing Gboard and setting it as your preferred keyboard, just tap anywhere you would normally enter text. Whether it’s a web search, instant message, or a text editor.

The keyboard should pop out as usual. All you need to do to activate voice input is click on the microphone icon in the upper right corner of the keyboard.

As soon as you see that the screen displays â€œspeak now,â€ say what you want to record and you will see how it is transcribed in real time. Tap the microphone again to stop.

Tips for Getting the Best Speech to Text Results

While modern text dictation works incredibly well, you will still run into problems when the software mishears you or otherwise fails to create the text you want. Although it is usually faster to edit text than typing it with your thumbs, here are a few things you can do to get it right from the start:

Don’t go too far with your phone arm length is good for most phones.
Take care to speak and speak at a natural pace.
Choose a language pack that matches your accent, if available.

You really can’t do more. The software is reliable and most people will be happy with the quality of the transcription.

If you run into problems, try these solutions to fix Gboard and get it working correctly again.

Useful Voice Input Commands

While voice typing on Android doesn’t yet allow you to edit text with your voice, you have some voice control when you dictate. You can simply say the following phrases and Google software will add the appropriate punctuation mark:

Period
Comma
Exclamation point
Question mark.
New line
New paragraph

It’s simpler compared to the desktop dictation program, but perfect for messaging and email.

While you cannot edit using your voice, you can use your voice to correct words that were misheard. All you have to do is:

Press and hold the word you want to replace until it is highlighted.
Click on the microphone.
Say a new word

With these basic commands, you have a versatile text-to-speech solution right in the palm of your hand!

Combining Google Assistant With Voice to Text for Hands-free Voice Typing

At the time of writing, you still need to press a button to start the voice input process. However, Google is working on a hands-free voice input solution where the Google Assistant handles the start of speech for text input. This feature has only been tested on select Google Pixel devices, but by the time you read it, it might be something that will be rolled out to the Gboard app for everyone.

However, you can already ask Google Assistant to, for example, send a text message to someone on your contact list. You will need to dictate the message to the assistant and ask him to read it before confirming.

Dictated But Not Read

I hope you’ve seen how useful Android voice can be for entering text. This is usually the fastest way to get long and complex messages on your phone without worrying about repeatedly tapping the wrong letters to get words so garbled that even autocorrect can’t handle it.

It’s true that it’s probably not all that useful when other people are around, but in your car or at home alone it’s a pretty handy feature that more people would appreciate if they just gave it a chance.

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