Voice to text on an iPhone

A930Rocket · 05-31-2023, 05:34 PM

In order to speed things up when I email/text/etc, I use voice to text quite a bit. For the most part, it works well but there are times I'm wondering if I'm having a stroke, because it's totally wrong.

I read the text as I speak and it looks good but then when I finish, it changes some words to something different. I try to proofread before sending, but sometimes words slip through.

I Google searched on how to improve it and have yet to come up with an answer.

Anyway, what do you guys do?

masraum · 05-31-2023, 05:57 PM

I'm not sure if tweaking Siri would help with the text feature, but it's worth a shot.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/apple-siri-tips-and-tricks

masraum · 05-31-2023, 05:58 PM

It could be worse.

A930Rocket · 05-31-2023, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum

I'm not sure if tweaking Siri would help with the text feature, but it's worth a shot.

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/apple-siri-tips-and-tricks

I don't think I have Siri turned on. At least I never say the name or ask it for anything.

juanbenae · juanbenae's Garage

I read an article a few months back in the AARP news letter if I recall correctly that banging out a text on the tiny keyboard is a good mind exercise thing. Keeps ya sharp with the vision, finger and thought process of it all.

they had a list of like 10 everyday tasks that can exercise the mind. i don't do puzzles.

masraum · 06-01-2023, 05:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

I don't think I have Siri turned on. At least I never say the name or ask it for anything.

I don't either, but it seems possible that the voice dictation and Siri share the same voice recognition software that's built into IOS, and so anything that you do to make Siri work better with your voice may extend to voice recognition elsewhere. And unless you specifically, intentionally turned Siri off, I think it's on. Apple has it enabled by default, even if you don't use it.

wilnj · 06-01-2023, 05:17 AM

It’s not perfect but try to use punctuation.

For example, “Honey please take out the steak for dinner period I am stopping at the bar for one hour comma so I will be home after that period.”

Names really trip it up.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

masraum · 06-01-2023, 05:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by juanbenae

I read an article a few months back in the AARP news letter if I recall correctly that banging out a text on the tiny keyboard is a good mind exercise thing. Keeps ya sharp with the vision, finger and thought process of it all.

they had a list of like 10 everyday tasks that can exercise the mind. i don't do puzzles.

That sounds like the kind of thing that would be helpful for decrepit OOOLD folks. I can't imagine that most of us should consider that mental exercise. But then I suppose that continuing to do normal stuff is what helps you ticking over in a normal fashion. When you decrease activity for whatever reason it's probably a quick and easy for your capacity to decline. And I forget that in some ways, I feel like I'm one of the younger fellas here. I believe that there have been many of us that have advertised as being in our 70s. Fortunately, I think most of us are still getting around and pretty active. Several folks are starting to work/fight through some effects of getting older.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

I was working with an 20 something IT specialist as a large company that did some work for my tiny company as a side job. He did not want to talk on the phone, just text. I would tap out a short question, and in seconds he would reply a paragraph of text. I would ask another short question, and bam another paragraph appeared. He was super human at texting. All done with thumbs. It just blew me away. He set up our new email domain and all the mail boxes on our Office 365 in no time and I was happy to pay him and not spend a month trying to noodle my way through it.

On occasion while driving I can have my phone on the seat, say Hey Siri, send a message to my wife, but I use her name. Siri will reply what to you want to say, and say the short message and Siri asks if I want to send it, and I say send.

I did send one message that was really garbled gibberish and my wife's reply was what? So I pulled over read it and giggled for 10 minutes.

masraum · 06-01-2023, 05:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

I was working with an 20 something IT specialist as a large company that did some work for my tiny company as a side job. He did not want to talk on the phone, just text. I would tap out a short question, and in seconds he would reply a paragraph of text. I would ask another short question, and bam another paragraph appeared. He was super human at texting. All done with thumbs. It just blew me away.

If he's got an iPhone AND an Apple/Mac PC, then when he receives a text, it also shows up on his PC, and he can use his full keyboard to respond. I have both, and it makes "text" messages work like a chat client at least on my end.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by masraum

If he's got an iPhone AND an Apple/Mac PC, then when he receives a text, it also shows up on his PC, and he can use his full keyboard to respond. I have both, and it makes "text" messages work like a chat client at least on my end.

That may well be true, but I was next to him when someone texted him. His thumbs were flying when he replied. He said he grew up texting and was sending 10,000+ texts per month as a teenager.

Nickshu · Nickshu's Garage

It is not great. I just switched to iPhone 14PM from years of Galaxy/Android phones. One of my hopes was that the voice text would be better on iPhone, but it's about equally crappy.

masraum · 06-01-2023, 08:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

That may well be true, but I was next to him when someone texted him. His thumbs were flying when he replied. He said he grew up texting and was sending 10,000+ texts per month as a teenager.

That's a lot of texts!

id10t · 06-01-2023, 09:05 AM

Just imagine there is a little imp in your phone transcribing for you.... but he's drunk.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

He said his high school friends all communicated constantly via text. His parents would take his phone and put it on the charger in the living room so he would not text at night. He was enough of a geek to know to take the sim card out, and put it in his old phone he kept hidden, and text late into the night.

He said parents had no chance then, they had to outsmart the combined brains of hundreds of kids in one area all communications with other kids all over the country. They had all sorts of parent workarounds.

LWJ · 06-01-2023, 09:21 AM

one of my favorite "hacks" is to email myself notes when driving. Also, I dictate texts when driving. SIRI is passable but I think the article posted in #2 might make it much better.

Thanks!

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Siri can be helpful, but sometimes obtuse. On one of my road trips I was on I-40 and wondering how much further it was to Tucumcari, New Mexico. She kept telling me how much can two men carry. I tried every possible way to ask the question. No luck. And how much two men can carry would vary on the load, and the size of the men.

I finally saw a road sign with the mileage and had my answer and was happy to give up on Siri.

masraum · 06-01-2023, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Siri can be helpful, but sometimes obtuse. On one of my road trips I was on I-40 and wondering how much further it was to Tucumcari, New Mexico. She kept telling me how much can two men carry. I tried every possible way to ask the question. No luck. And how much two men can carry would vary on the load, and the size of the men.

I finally saw a road sign with the mileage and had my answer and was happy to give up on Siri.

I use Waze for navigation. Waze displays the distance remaining to the final destination, distance until the next turn, and ETA at final destination. If you don't want/need the audible navigation prompts, you can turn that off, but still have the info display.