double dictation bug

By Missy Hoppe, 22 October, 2022

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi, all. I'm not quite sure how to explain this one, but I'm wondering if others are experiencing it. I don't use siri to send text messages, but I am fond of dictation. Ever since iOS 16 was released, I've noticed that any time I use dictation, the text I dictate is entered twice. This used to be an annoying bug that occurred only on Facebook, but now, it happens nearly every time I compose a new text message. I always listen back to dictated text to make sure there aren't any embarrassing dictation errors, so if the message I've dictated is fairly short, I'll try to delete the duplicated text, but if I've dictated three or four long sentences, this isn't always convenient or practical. Is this a bug that Apple is aware of, or should I try to report it. More importantly, does anyone know a way to prevent this from happening, or when a fix might come out to eliminate the issue altogether? Thanks!

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Comments

By Lee on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

Hi, Nope, never come across this on any app. I use this option for native text messaging and it has never come up. On 16.1 and still no issue. I'm on iPhone 13pro if that is of any use.

By Ginsenshi on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

I have encountered this on Mac os 13.

But not on iOS 16.

By Lily Rose on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

Try a forcerestart.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

Am surprised, yet glad, I suppose, that no one who has responded to this so far is experiencing this. I've rebooted the phone any number of times since this started, so that's not the problem. Just for the sake of curiosity, I asked one of my sighted friends, and she says that the double di ctation happens to her from time to time, so maybe it's not vo-related? I've never heard it mentioned anywhere, though, but apart from myself, I know of at least two other people who are dealing with it on at least a semi-regular basis. Sounds like I may need to call Apple to report the issue to them, especially if no one out here has any ideas for making it stop. As I said above, it used to only happen in facebook, but now, it's going on pretty much all the time in iMessage. If it isn't any better when iOS 16.1 comes out, I will definitely report it to Apple.

By Roxann Pollard on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

Hey Missy, I'm also experiencing this very annoying double dictation bug. I am using an iPhone SE third generation, and iPhone XS, both of which do the same thing. As near as I can figure, if my fingers are even remotely close to the glass, the heat of my fingers seems to cause it to duplicate the text. I hear a slight, sort of a click and static sound that is blended. It's kind of like the same noise that you hear, when flicking between words of text. I don't know how else to describe that, but I can tell That the double dictating has happened once again. I find it very annoying, very inconvenient. I have never seen this before iOS 16. I also do a great deal of dictation, and hope that Apple fixes this, soon.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

I don't think I mentioned before, assuming it matters, but I have iphone 13 pro. I'm wondering if an alternative method of ending dictation might prevent the bug from happening. As I said, if it is still as prevalent when ios 16 is officially released, I'm definitely going to report it.

By Roxann Pollard on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

As near as I can tell, I don't think it's a matter of having an alternative method, to end dictation. What I have seen is, if the heat of my finger is too close to the device, either while dictating, or just before I execute the two finger double tap, that is what triggers the bug. If I am successful, in doing the two finger double tap, to end dictation, it does not add my text twice.

It's worth noting here, I ensured that my fingers were nowhere near the glass itself, while dictating, or too close to the glass, just before ending dictation, and I had no duplication of text, whatsoever.

By Missy Hoppe on Thursday, October 27, 2022 - 00:27

This is very interesting information. I will try to be mindful of how I'm holding my phone as I do dictation and will see if that makes any difference. I'm still hoping that Apple will eventually fix the problem, though.

By jaxbchkim on Sunday, August 27, 2023 - 00:27

I thought it was me! Has a fix been found for this. It really is pretty frustrating since I constantly use the voice dictation for text and email.

By roman on Sunday, August 27, 2023 - 00:27

Dictation is the life-line for me and I cannot live without it; however, it is keep getting worst and worst.

By Missy Hoppe on Sunday, August 27, 2023 - 00:27

So far as I know, I haven't had the double dictation thing happen in a while, but I agree that dictation in general seems to be getting worse. In fact, I'm gradually becoming thoroughly disenchanted with iOS 16 in general. So many bizarre focus issues. Hoping for better in iOS 17, but everything I've read here has me feeling pretty nervous. I fully intend to update when the time comes, though. I can't imagine how some of the frustrations I'm dealing with could possibly get any worse.

By JDubz on Monday, November 27, 2023 - 00:27

Currently running iOS 17.1 on an iPhone 11.
This started for me with iOS 16 just like the others have reported. I noticed it most often when dictating emails or text messages, because that's what I tend to use dictation extensively for. I was just working around it and deleting the extra text for a while, but that's become really cumbersome. It's especially laborious to do this because sometimes I will dictate some text and only part of what I dictated will be duplicated and the remainder of it will be there only once. so first I have to figure out exactly what's been duplicated before I can delete the extra text.
I'm really hoping that someone here has some tips on how to avoid it. I typically use a magic tap to stop and start dictation because it's more clumsy to use the dictation button at the bottom right of the screen since that requires a lot of repositioning of the VO cursor.
I did send Apple Accessibility an email but the response was generic and gave me no indication that they are either aware of or working on this bug.
Any tips would be appreciated! For example, since there are multiple ways to stop and start dictation, is there one that works best for people here? Thanks!
P. S. Even though it's a giant pain we all need to complain to Apple more about bugs (even when we can figure out workarounds) because the more people they hear from the more likely they are to fix these things. No judgment here for those who don't ā€” I am very guilty of not reporting issues.

By MuseumShuffle on Monday, November 27, 2023 - 00:27

I saw this happening when I was testing my app with both Voice Control and VoiceOver turned on. Now I'm wondering why.