Voice-to-Text poor functionality on Galaxy S20
Not sure if this is a SwiftKey problem or a Messages problem or a Google problem but here it goes.......
I just got this Galaxy S20. On my previous phone (Galaxy S9), when I hit the little "microphone" button on my SwiftKey keyboard to do voice to text when using the Messages App for texting, I would simply start talking and the words I was creating by voice would populate the text field in Messages. I could easily see the words as I spoke. After I was done taking, I'd just hit the send button and I was good to go.
With this S20, when I hit the little microphone button on SwiftKey, a window pops up. It is super annoying for a few reasons. One, that stupid grey box that says "Your audio Will be sent....." blocks the first several words that I am speaking, so I can't see that the text to words is translating correctly. Second, if I stop talking for around a second, the voice to text assumes I'm done speaking and closes, preventing me from adding more words if I hesitate to complete a thought. Third and worst of all, after I'm done talking the words I just spoke don't transfer to the text field in Messages. If I tap the empty text field in messages, SOMETIMES the words I just spoke suddenly appear in the text field- maybe 50% of the time. Supper annoying as half the time I have to repeat the whole voice-to-text process or revert to typing.
On my S9, when I hit the microphone button, I got a different pop-up that didn't block my words as they were spoken, and my words simply transferred directly to the text field in Messages, where I could clearly see them and simply hit "send" when done speaking.
When I use Facebook Messenger and do voice-to-text, I still get the pop up box with the annoying grey "Your audio will be sent......" blocking my words, but when I'm done speaking, at least my words transfer into the empty text box automatically and edit/send as required.
Anyone else having this problem? I'd post the pictures of the pop up windows but I don't see a way to do that with this forum.
Thanks!
Hi Steve,
Were you using the beta version previously?
Which version of your Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard are you currently using?
Thanks.
Speech recognition is magic when it works, but it can instantly become a sign of our awful web dependence when it fails. Sometimes it fails because of network connections or computer oddities. Often times, though, it fails because of us. Our speaking, our word choices, our failure to check the microphone port for bread crumbs.
I'm having issues with an update to how SwiftKey handles voice typing too. It seems like there was a change with Google Voice Typing built into the OS that makes voice typing significantly worse. Now when you pause while speaking, voice input will capitalize the next word you speak whether you use punctuation or not. Also, predictions have gotten worse and you can no longer select individual words for correction.
Steve appears to be using another type of Google voice typing that is handled from the Google app, not the one from Android OS. I can access this voice input too by disabling Google voice typing in the OS and hitting the voice input key on SwiftKey. This Google voice input is even more buggy, and pops up a window like what Steve is seeing. Most of the time, this Google window fails to input text into apps and after I am finished inputting, the SwiftKey keyboard stays open.
I am using a galaxy S10e, version 7.7.1.8
Hi, thanks for the information and sorry to hear that you are experiencing issues. Your Microsoft SwiftKey Keyboard utilizes Google Voice technology to power this feature so any changes connected to the voice to text feature will be via done via Google. Unfortunately the accuracy of the words generated when using voice to text is not controlled by Microsoft SwiftKey, and not based on our predictions.
For any Voice to text settings, please download the Google app. You can find more information here: How do I use Voice to Text with Microsoft SwiftKey on Android? – SwiftKey Support.