How to Type by Speaking on iPhone Using Voice Dictation

iPhone's built-in voice dictation lets you speak instead of type — in any app, on any text field. Here's how to use it and get accurate results.

In this guide (5 steps):

1.Enable Dictation in Settings
2.Tap the Microphone on the Keyboard
3.Speak Your Message
4.Stop Dictation
5.Correct Mistakes

Enable Dictation in Settings

~15s

Go to SettingsGeneralKeyboard → toggle on "Enable Dictation." A confirmation prompt may appear. Tap "Enable Dictation" to confirm.

Quick Tip

On most recent iPhones, dictation may already be enabled. If you see a microphone icon on your keyboard, you are ready to go.

Tap the Microphone on the Keyboard

~19s

Open any app and tap in a text field to bring up the keyboard. Look for a microphone icon — on iPhones with a Home button, it is to the left of the spacebar. On iPhones without a Home button (Face ID models), it may appear at the bottom or in the keyboard area. Tap it.

Speak Your Message

~21s

When the microphone is active (an audio wave animation appears), speak clearly and naturally. Say your text out loud. Your words appear on screen as you speak. For punctuation, say "period," "comma," "question mark," "exclamation point," or "new paragraph."

Quick Tip

To dictate a full email: "Dear Maria comma new paragraph I hope you are doing well period I wanted to remind you about Saturday's lunch period..."

Stop Dictation

~15s

Tap the microphone button again (it changes to a stop/done button) or tap anywhere on screen outside the keyboard. Dictation stops and your text is placed in the text field, ready to review and edit.

Correct Mistakes

~16s

Voice dictation is accurate but not perfect. After dictating, review the text. Tap on any word to position your cursor there. Delete and retype any mistakes, or tap a word to see alternatives the dictation engine considered.

Quick Tip

Speak in quieter environments for best accuracy. Background noise significantly reduces dictation accuracy.

You Did It!

You've completed: How to Type by Speaking on iPhone Using Voice Dictation

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Voice dictation on iPhone lets you speak your message instead of typing it. This is available in every app with a text field — Messages, Email, Notes, search bars, forms, and more. You tap a microphone button on the keyboard, speak naturally, and your words appear as text.

Voice dictation is useful for people who find small keyboards difficult to use, those with arthritis or hand tremors, anyone who wants to type faster, or people who prefer speaking over typing.

iPhone's voice dictation is powered by on-device speech recognition on newer iPhones (iPhone 12 and later), meaning it works even without an internet connection and your speech is not sent to Apple's servers. On older iPhones, an internet connection may be required.

For best results, speak at a natural pace and slightly more clearly than you might in normal conversation. Pause briefly between sentences. Dictation handles punctuation if you say the words out loud: say "comma" to insert a comma, "period" to end a sentence, "new line" to start a new line, or "question mark" for a question.

The microphone icon on the iPhone keyboard is always available in any app. On newer iPhones, you can also hold the side button and speak to use Siri for dictation, or enable "Hey Siri" for completely hands-free text entry.

Editing dictated text works the same as editing any text — tap where you want to make a correction and retype or speak the correction.

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