Dictation is unusable

[bzwht]

When I was using the demo iPhone 8 model in the Apple store, the dictation was very good. It was able to pick up what I was saying with impressive accuracy despite background noise.

On the iPhone 8 I purchased, though, dictation is horrible. It can barely understand a word I'm saying even when I speak slowly and clearly. Then, after mis-hearing me, it makes automatic corrections that result in even worse translations. I am on Wi-fi and logged into an iCloud account.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I tried an OS update but it did not help.

 

[44267547]

When I was using the demo iPhone 8 model in the Apple store, the dictation was very good. It was able to pick up what I was saying with impressive accuracy despite background noise.

On the iPhone 8 I purchased, though, dictation is horrible. It can barely understand a word I'm saying even when I speak slowly and clearly. Then, after mis-hearing me, it makes automatic corrections that result in even worse translations. I am on Wi-fi and logged into an iCloud account.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I tried an OS update but it did not help.

One thing you need to remember, is Siri is server-based, not iOS based. So responses and delivery expectations from the dictation can vary.

What I would suggest doing, is disable Siri, power off your iPhone, power back on your iPhone then re-enable Siri.

 

[bzwht]

One thing you need to remember, is Siri is server-based, not iOS based. So responses and delivery expectations from the dictation can vary.

What I would suggest doing, is disable Siri, power off your iPhone, power back on your iPhone then re-enable Siri.

I tried again today after a restart. The transcription is slightly better, but still nowhere near the quality it was for the store model.

 

[MacBreezy]

Works perfect for me... always has.

 

[alightstone]

I find Siri to be far too impatient. The slightest pause... and I mean the slightest pause... will cause Siri to stop receiving dictation and move onto the next step. (Ex. "Okay, would you like me to send this message now?"

You can't practically dictate a message off the top of your head. You would need to have it written or typed out first so that you could say the entire message without any pauses... and what would be the use of doing that?

Siri is a wonderful idea, but I find it very hard to believe that anyone actually tested out Siri features before bringing them to market.

 

[Tibits]

Works perfect for me... always has.

same here

You can't practically dictate a message off the top of your head. You would need to have it written or typed out first so that you could say the entire message without any pauses... and what would be the use of doing that?

huh? i exclusively dictate messages off the top of my head. other than a few minor clean ups to go back over annually, this has always worked for me.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I use Siri to make notes all the time. If you pause and she stumbles, just hit the mic button again.

 

[Wackery]

No siri, I said ‘create a reminder’ not ‘Craighton minder’

 

[617660]

Google dictation works much better for me.

 

[rockitdog]

I have always struggled with dictation myself. I think I must talk funny.

 

[ed.]

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I tried an OS update but it did not help.

it might not be your case, but if you have multiple language keyboards installed sometimes the dictation doesn't pick up the language you're using and tries to work it out anyway. also, make sure that in settings the right languages are activated (you can check under settings > general >keyboards > dictation)

 

[Vermifuge]

When I was using the demo iPhone 8 model in the Apple store, the dictation was very good. It was able to pick up what I was saying with impressive accuracy despite background noise.

On the iPhone 8 I purchased, though, dictation is horrible. It can barely understand a word I'm saying even when I speak slowly and clearly. Then, after mis-hearing me, it makes automatic corrections that result in even worse translations. I am on Wi-fi and logged into an iCloud account.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? I tried an OS update but it did not help.

Do you have a case on? There have been reports that the folio case causes terrible muffled audio.

 

[ed.]

I always had a case on but my problem was instantly solved by manually switching the dictation language. after that was matching the language I was speaking, everything worked well.

 

[SallyMJ]

One thing you need to remember, is Siri is server-based, not iOS based. So responses and delivery expectations from the dictation can vary.

What I would suggest doing, is disable Siri, power off your iPhone, power back on your iPhone then re-enable Siri.

[doublepost=1533602002][/doublepost] Doesn’t work. I’ve tried probably a couple hundred times in the past year. Siri/ iPhone dictation is definitely worse, and getting worse every day. It was better on my 5C than this SE. in fact, it was phenomenal on my 5C. It got used to how I said things, and I had very few incorrect words.

Now, I still use dictation, because it’s still better than typing all the letters myself. One of the weird things is that it will often write the correct word, and then changes it after the fact, to the wrong one. I have to slow down when I dictate, because Siri can’t understand the spaces between syllables. When I said “husband,“ Siri wrote “has-been.“ Yesterday, trying to capitalize the word, I dictated “CAP something.” Siri wrote “Capitalism.” Siri tries to correct my grammar. I don’t need – I’m an English major, thank you very much! Siri writes “apparently“ as “parent Lee.“ And the capital letters at odd places in the middle of a sentence remind me the way Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.

This will definitely make me change away from iphone. I use dictation more than any other feature on my phone. It’s supposed to be artificial intelligence. It is artificial, but it’s not intelligence; it’s dumber than a brick.

If Apple doesn’t care to update their Siri/dictation, I understand Alexa is not perfect, but is better. Better is good enough for me.

 

[Gathomblipoob]

I don't use dictation too often, but when I do it's pretty good.

 

[Reno Raines]

I have always struggled with dictation myself. I think I must talk funny.

Amen! I have thought that too I have what can be best described as a mid Atlantic/southern accent and Siri comes up with some crazy stuff when I use dictation.

 

[44267547]

Siri/ iPhone dictation is definitely worse, and getting worse every day. This will definitely make me change away from iphone. I use dictation more than any other feature on my phone. It’s supposed to be artificial intelligence. It is artificial, but it’s not intelligence; it’s dumber than a brick.

I have to disagree with you. I understand Siri is not the most influential when it comes to dictation, where as Google is much superior in many different ways. But I use dictation all the time on iOS for the AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, etc. and I would rather have dictation with Siri enabled than not, because it is fairly convenient and mostly accurate for my experiences, maybe not for everybody else’s. But I don’t see how it’s becoming ‘worse every day’, that seems a bit exaggerative. I also think it plays a role with everyone using Siri may have different results based on how they pronounce a word, the speed at which they are dictating, specifically what are they dictating, ecf, those are *all* variables that affect Siri and in the same respect, need improvement as well.

 

[elf69]

my fiancee has an 8 plus and iwatch.

siri is terrible for sending texts/imessage.
sometimes i really cannot make out what arrives in my android phone from her.

Siri misses words out or tries fix it by itself.
She given up mostly using it and types the sms or imessage out now.

but siri is great for her if she want know weather in xxxx location, etc....

 

[rugmankc]

Siri is always excellent for me

As I am sure you all do, I always say the word "period" at the end of my sentences. Gives that needed time to get my next sentence out.

 

[Shanghaichica]

Works well for me on the HomePod. I send a lot of messages dictated to my HomePod and it works well.

Today I accidentally hit the dictation key and having a conversation with somebody else and it picked it up word for word and this was unintentional.

 

[elf69]

Well my fiancee spoke to apple tech on phone.
He said if having issue with watch or phone force shut down.

So she held power button until it was off then wait 10 seconds and power on.
touch wood siri has been much better, still not perfect but way better.

try a forced power off.

 

[wshilling101]

Works perfect for me... always has.

Seriously, why even chime in then. Bully for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when someone asks, "Does anyone else have this problem?" what they are asking for is help solving that problem. They are not taking a poll. Everyone who answered the equivilant of "works great for me, never once had an issue" is being incredibly rude and insensitive to those who have the problem outlined in the orginal post. It's particularly disheartening to have such a frustrating issue, come to these boards for the hope of an answer, but it turns out to be, "I don't know what you're talking about, dude, mine works perfectly!" thanks, genius, but that's not what we're looking for here.
[doublepost=1538294829][/doublepost]

I have to disagree with you. I understand Siri is not the most influential when it comes to dictation, where as Google is much superior in many different ways. But I use dictation all the time on iOS for the AirPods, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, etc. and I would rather have dictation with Siri enabled than not, because it is fairly convenient and mostly accurate for my experiences, maybe not for everybody else’s. But I don’t see how it’s becoming ‘worse every day’, that seems a bit exaggerative. I also think it plays a role with everyone using Siri may have different results based on how they pronounce a word, the speed at which they are dictating, specifically what are they dictating, ecf, those are *all* variables that affect Siri and in the same respect, need improvement as well.

"Worse every day" is NOT an exaggeration, trust me. It is maddening how much worse my new iphone 8 plus handset is at dictation than it was on my iphone 7 plus. I can only surmise it's either the software update or the handset itself, if others are not having the same issues on a mass scale. I am going to ask for a replacement, this is a deal breaker for me, for sure. Here's the example I will give you, on my very first try just now, I spoke at a fairly slow and enunciated pace, a bit more effort than I'd like but I wanted to give the phone a shot. Here is what I dictated into the phone:

"Why can't my new iphone take dictation as well as my last one did? It's really weird."

Here was what the phone's dictation typed it as:

"Why can’t get sound tasty tasty as well as my wife I found it really weird"

It's that bad more than 75% of the time. It's ridiculously incompetent.
[doublepost=1538294956][/doublepost]Can I teach it learn to take better dictation?
[doublepost=1538296280][/doublepost]" everyone using Siri may have different results based on how they pronounce a word, the speed at which they are dictating, specifically what are they dictating, ecf, those are *all* variables that affect Siri "

But why would it work so well for my voice and rate of speech, etc. on one phone but then completely go haywire wrong on the upgraded iphone?
[doublepost=1538296917][/doublepost]

Google dictation works much better for me.

This thread is not a poll, it's a request for helpful information. If you don't have any, kindly don't waste our time with answers like this. It's particularly maddening to those of us so desperate we have resorted to discussion boards for help, and you chime in with your completely useless poll answer.

 

[cleanleslie]

Hee! "Bully for you!" I love it. (Why even concern yourself with this thread is you're NOT having the issue?! We ARE!) I'm ready to throw in the towel on Apple between my iPhone 8 that butchers most of my attempts at dictation (whereas my daughter's SE interprets flawlesly! [And please don't glibly suggest I get an SE...]), to the inexplicable inability to adjust the "snooze" duration on an alarm (that's fodder for another thread). These phones are simply too expensive for this many of us to struggle with the number of issues we do. This is my last iPhone.

Seriously, why even chime in then. Bully for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when someone asks, "Does anyone else have this problem?" what they are asking for is help solving that problem. They are not taking a poll. Everyone who answered the equivilant of "works great for me, never once had an issue" is being incredibly rude and insensitive to those who have the problem outlined in the orginal post. It's particularly disheartening to have such a frustrating issue, come to these boards for the hope of an answer, but it turns out to be, "I don't know what you're talking about, dude, mine works perfectly!" thanks, genius, but that's not what we're looking for here.
[doublepost=1538294829][/doublepost]

"Worse every day" is NOT an exaggeration, trust me. It is maddening how much worse my new iphone 8 plus handset is at dictation than it was on my iphone 7 plus. I can only surmise it's either the software update or the handset itself, if others are not having the same issues on a mass scale. I am going to ask for a replacement, this is a deal breaker for me, for sure. Here's the example I will give you, on my very first try just now, I spoke at a fairly slow and enunciated pace, a bit more effort than I'd like but I wanted to give the phone a shot. Here is what I dictated into the phone:

"Why can't my new iphone take dictation as well as my last one did? It's really weird."

Here was what the phone's dictation typed it as:

"Why can’t get sound tasty tasty as well as my wife I found it really weird"

It's that bad more than 75% of the time. It's ridiculously incompetent.
[doublepost=1538294956][/doublepost]Can I teach it learn to take better dictation?
[doublepost=1538296280][/doublepost]" everyone using Siri may have different results based on how they pronounce a word, the speed at which they are dictating, specifically what are they dictating, ecf, those are *all* variables that affect Siri "

But why would it work so well for my voice and rate of speech, etc. on one phone but then completely go haywire wrong on the upgraded iphone?
[doublepost=1538296917][/doublepost]
This thread is not a poll, it's a request for helpful information. If you don't have any, kindly don't waste our time with answers like this. It's particularly maddening to those of us so desperate we have resorted to discussion boards for help, and you chime in with your completely useless poll answer.

 

[617660]

Seriously, why even chime in then. Bully for you. Correct me if I'm wrong, but when someone asks, "Does anyone else have this problem?" what they are asking for is help solving that problem. They are not taking a poll. Everyone who answered the equivilant of "works great for me, never once had an issue" is being incredibly rude and insensitive to those who have the problem outlined in the orginal post. It's particularly disheartening to have such a frustrating issue, come to these boards for the hope of an answer, but it turns out to be, "I don't know what you're talking about, dude, mine works perfectly!" thanks, genius, but that's not what we're looking for here.
[doublepost=1538294829][/doublepost]

"Worse every day" is NOT an exaggeration, trust me. It is maddening how much worse my new iphone 8 plus handset is at dictation than it was on my iphone 7 plus. I can only surmise it's either the software update or the handset itself, if others are not having the same issues on a mass scale. I am going to ask for a replacement, this is a deal breaker for me, for sure. Here's the example I will give you, on my very first try just now, I spoke at a fairly slow and enunciated pace, a bit more effort than I'd like but I wanted to give the phone a shot. Here is what I dictated into the phone:

"Why can't my new iphone take dictation as well as my last one did? It's really weird."

Here was what the phone's dictation typed it as:

"Why can’t get sound tasty tasty as well as my wife I found it really weird"

It's that bad more than 75% of the time. It's ridiculously incompetent.
[doublepost=1538294956][/doublepost]Can I teach it learn to take better dictation?
[doublepost=1538296280][/doublepost]" everyone using Siri may have different results based on how they pronounce a word, the speed at which they are dictating, specifically what are they dictating, ecf, those are *all* variables that affect Siri "

But why would it work so well for my voice and rate of speech, etc. on one phone but then completely go haywire wrong on the upgraded iphone?
[doublepost=1538296917][/doublepost]
This thread is not a poll, it's a request for helpful information. If you don't have any, kindly don't waste our time with answers like this. It's particularly maddening to those of us so desperate we have resorted to discussion boards for help, and you chime in with your completely useless poll answer.

Perhaps my post offered a real solution to the problem? Instead of coming up with a solution for a problem that should have never existed in the first place and lingered on for years ( Siri dictation never works for me). My post offered an alternative solution to the problem. If you dont like it hey go ask apple to fix it in the first place.

 

[cleanleslie]

Perhaps my post offered a real solution to the problem? Instead of coming up with a solution for a problem that should have never existed in the first place and lingered on for years ( Siri dictation never works for me). My post offered an alternative solution to the problem. If you dont like it hey go ask apple to fix it in the first place.

Agreed: you were offering a solution. I'm commenting on (and in agreement with wshilling101 regarding) posts in which one merely responds "I don't have that problem!". Er.... I do, hence the post and inquiry! I don't want to attach meaning to said posts, but they occur as a defense of the feature in question, instead of an answer to the very real issue for posters struggling. Sigh.