Settings for improved dictation quality?

Sadly, Apple's Speech to text has gone the way of the dodo bird. Though a couple tips that (might) be helpful:

1. Use a headset with built in mic. Dictating with the iPhone's built in mic is a joke, but a good headset/earbud with mic will improve things. A little. . .
2. The quieter the environment, the better. If you are in an environment with (any) background noise, be it music, climate control, people, animals, strong gust of wind, etc, your dictation will suffer. So don't be the person trying to dictate while standing in line in a crowded Starbucks.

HTH.

Agreed: a separate microphone is a good way to get the device to "hear" you better. I haven't had trouble with Dictation on my end for some time, but am fortunate that I'm able to enunciate pretty clearly. I also spend quite a bit of time using Voice Control, and the Voice Control dictation seems to happen a little faster. I don't know if Voice Control dictation uses the same mechanism or not, but might be worth checking out to see if it works any differently? Otherwise, stick to quiet places and avoid slurring or running words together too much and do the best you can; good luck.

Also, I don't know how much good the setting actually does, but if you go into Settings, then Privacy and Security, then Analytics and Improvements toward the bottom of the screen, there's a list of options in which Improve Siri and Dictation is the last item. Turning that option on might help.

Let me start off by saying, I can’t think of any settings that will help to improve your dictation. some people just seem to have better luck with it than others do. I don’t know why this is but it definitely seems to be the case. i’m sitting at McDonalds right now and there’s quite a bit of background noise but everything is still working and my dictation is coming through just fine. I wish I knew why some people have better luck with it than others do. It really doesn’t make any sense. I’m just using the built-in mic on the phone right now. There are times when I use a headset but I don't notice a difference in the quality of dictation. I only had to fix 2 mistakes in this post. I had to fix McDonalds as well as the word do. It thought I said doing so I had to change it to do.

I am a bit old school when it comes to earbuds. I am using a pair of OEM Apple EarBuds with Lightning Connector (came with my old iPhone 8). They work wonders for dictation as well as general use when I am out and about.

You can find these online for a decent price nowadays.

Hello,
for one thing, if you've read any of the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them volume, you'll find that what we called the Dodo bird is actually a derical, which is not ixtinct, just off the map for a while. Anyway, yes, I contacted Apple about their horrible dictation, and they said the case on my phone might be blocking the mike. They recommended a case ... well, almost anyway. I'm still waiting on which case they recommend to not block the mike up too much. Also, is it good to wait until the end of request tone sounds, allowing dictation to end naturally? Hey, even Braille seems to be a bit lagging, but that's not on this post except for where I've put it.

It has been working very nicely for me, on it's builtin mic. I could never relye on Android's Voice dictation to type out texts, on the other side, on my IPhone, voice typing seems much more accurate.

Hello,
I still have an iPhone 8+ but fixing to acquire an iPhone 11 this year some time. both units have cases on them--current phone with life proof, new phone with otterbox. Anyway, what is Voice control, and should it be running when dictation is also used? I've found that turning up the SIRI and Dictation mixer to 100% helps a little bit, and putting the mike, which is right by the charging port at the bottom, up near your face some also does. I bet you didn't know the mixer for VoiceOver seems to be slightly different--can be at one volume while SIRI/dictation mixer can be at quite a higher or lower one. Anyway, I'm finding that doing the mike and mixer workarounds can help a little bit, but it still goofs up some times. I mean, nothing's gonna replace text-typing, but even that screws up sometimes when using Bluetooth, especially Braille displays like Focus 40, Zoomax. typing onscreen is a nightmare for me, so I just dictate or use Braille support. Can someone tell me how to turn voice control on and whether everthing I speak--just without being in a text-edit field--will be recognized somehow? what about the speed of our dictation/does it matter? It's kinda like Dragon Naturally Speaking, I guess--surely, you remember that?
Ashleigh Piccinino