

Then there are those AI assistants built into many of the devices we use each day: Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa, and Microsoft's Cortana. And you may run across companies that provide human transcription services-using real people to transcribe your voice files to text.

Others market themselves as personal AI assistants (performing all computer tasks using speech) and may include a dictation component. But sometimes lumped into a search for these terms are products that provide something else entirely.įor example, some products will transcribe audio files to text, but they don't transcribe your voice to text in real-time. The terms dictation software, speech-to-text, voice recognition, voice-to-text, and speech recognition can all mean a program that converts your voice to text on a screen in real-time. Google Docs voice typing for dictating in Google DocsĪs you search online for dictation software, keep in mind that it can include all different types of apps and services.

Windows 10 Speech Recognition for free dictation software on Windowsĭragon by Nuance for a customizable dictation app

The best dictation softwareĪpple Dictation for free dictation software on Apple devices And, of course, I'll share my selections for the best dictation software with detailed reviews for each app. Here, I'll walk you through the different types of speech-to-text software and provide tips for getting the most out of what you use. And with voice commands, you'll be more productive while doing it. You can speak at your natural cadence, which was unheard of back in the 1990s. While not perfect, it's accurate more than 90% of the time. Supported languages: Bengali (Bangladesh), Cantonese (Hong Kong), Danish, Dutch, English (Australia), English (India), English (United Kingdom), English (United States), Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin (China), Mandarin (Taiwan), Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (United States), Thai and Turkish.Fortunately, we now get to experience dictation technology that actually pays off. Note, on many Android devices, Google Text-to-speech is already turned on, but you can update to the latest version here. Select Google Text-to-speech Engine as your preferred engine. and many other applications in Play Store To use Google Text-to-speech on your Android device, go to Settings > Language & Input > Text-to-speech output. TalkBack and accessibility applications for spoken feedback across your device. Google Translate to speak translations aloud so you can hear the pronunciation of a word. For example, it can be used by: Google Play Books to "Read Aloud" your favourite book. Google Text-to-speech powers applications to read the text on your screen aloud.
