Switching between typing and dictation has never been easier with iOS 16

Apple’s Dictation Tool for iPhone is a useful way to enter hands-free text without manually typing anything. While its transcription isn’t always accurate, it’s better than manually typing long messages, emails, and notes – and it just got a massive improvement in iOS 16.

When typing in iOS 15, tap the microphone icon on your keyboard to start dictation. It will immediately open the listening interface, where instead of buttons instead of keys, a responsive sound wave will appear that will give you a visual indication of how well it hears you. To add text manually, you must tap the keyboard icon to end your dictation session and return to the keyboard. To start dictating again, tap the microphone icon again.

Dictation and typing at the same time on iOS 16

With the new iOS 16 update, you can easily switch between dictation and typing in any text field without having to tap the microphone or keyboard icon every time. Once you tap the microphone icon to start speech-to-text, a context menu will appear in the text box with a mute microphone button, and the entire keyboard will remain in place, ready to use.

You can alternate between dictation and typing as much as you want. For example, you can start speaking, tap to delete the last word spoken, continue speaking, manually enter a name that is difficult to pronounce, continue speaking, go back and manually correct a previous mistake, move the cursor, continue speaking, etc., and so on – until until the text is exactly what you were going to say.

When dictation is enabled, you can use the keyboard to:

Enter text.
Click anywhere in the text field.
Highlight the text.
Move the cursor.
Insert QuickType suggestions.

There is another way to start dictation in messages

In the Messages app, you can also start dictating from the text box itself, where a new microphone icon takes the place of the old signal button that lets you record audio messages.

Stopping the dictation tool from listening

When you’re done using the dictation tool, you can wait for it to expire, tap the microphone icon on your keyboard, or tap the text box to bring up the context menu, and hit the end dictation button.

Using the Dictation tool to enter emoji

While dictation is active, you can manually enter emoji characters using the keyboard, but iOS 16’s speech-to-text tool can insert emojis for you. Like the first emoji below, my brain is blown!

To insert an emoticon, say the name of the emoticon followed by the word “smiley”. For example, “crazy emoji”, “smiling emoji”, “sad emoji”, “cat emoji”, “cactus emoji”and so on.

Learn more about the updated iOS 16 dictation tool

As you dictate, your iPhone will automatically insert punctuation where needed. This means you don’t have to manually insert a period, comma, or question mark as you type, or say “dot”, “comma”, or “question mark”out loud. He may skip one from time to time, but it is easy to enter during the indication.

The best thing about the new update is that it uses on-device intelligence so your iPhone won’t send your transcription data anywhere. In terms of compatibility, it’s available on iPhones with the A12 Bionic processor and later, including: