iOS 7.1 and dictation

By Reebok, 4 April, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS
Hello, I'm really scratching my head on this one. Ever since I updated to iOS 7.1 I've had issues with the dictation. Any time I use the feature that allows me to dictate text into an edit field I'm unable to enter a period. Instead of the actual period getting entered, I get the word "period" entered into my text. It's driving me nuts. All the other punctuation are entered correctly except for the period. I've searched Google up and down and haven't found anyone else who is encountering this problem. This was not an issue for me when I was using iOS 7.0. Has anyone else here experienced this problem and if so have you been able to correct it? Thanks. BTW, I'm using an iPhone 5s. Thanks.

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Comments

By Zack on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

I'm afraid I don't know what's going on there. The only thing I can think of is to be careful to say the punctuation Close to the end of the word, so the system doesn't think that you are starting a new one. On the other hand, given that you have used this successfully before, you probably know what I'm talking about. Suffice to say don't know what's going on, and I wish I can help.

By Seanoevil on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

Hi, When using Dictation on My iPhone 5, speaking the word "Period" also result sin the insertion of P e r i o d and not the punctuation mark. A simple work around is to speak "Full Stop" or "Dot" instead. Still weird though... HTH Sea No Evil.

By Serena on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

hi. i have not had this exact problem, but i have a similar problem to saying new line. this command should, note the word, should, add a return. but in stead, it prints the words, new line. lol. very annoying. still not sure why this changed in iOS 7. but it has. and it was doing this from 7.0.

By KE7ZUM on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

Odd. I so far under 7.0.6 do not have this problem I cannot update to 7.1 due to some keyboard issues that i hope apple fixes before the next iOS release, that is, ios8 or what ever will be next. I guess we'll have to see in june.I would just maybe say the command or what ever you want a bit faster then normal. I'm just coming up with some ideas that might or might not work.

Good luck.

By Roxann Pollard on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

Regarding dictation and pauses, what I have found is that, for example, if you are creating a text message, instead of activating Siri with the home button, if you go into the message body itself, where you can see the keyboard, there is a dictation button located in the lower left corner of the keyboard next to the more numbers button. You can either single finger double tap the dictation button or two finger double tap the screen anywhere to begin and end dictation. Both methods are successful in activating and deactivating the dictation button. The dictation button will not turn off until you deactivate it yourself. I don't know how long it may stay this way, for example, if you were to dictate for 30 minutes, but so far it's quite affective for me. This avoids the auto-cut-off thing that Siri does.\ Hope this helps you.

Living in the UK I don't have this problem because we say "full stop" at the end of a sentence. However, the error mentioned above intrigued me so I did a bit of investigating and think I may have found the solution. Sorry, but it's a bit involved. Go into Settings > General > Keyboard Flick right until you hear "Keyboards button. A number may also be spoken here. One finger double tap. Flick right. If "English" is not spoken then continue flicking until "Add new keyboard." Double tap. Now flick right until you hear "English" then one finger double tap. On the next screen flick right past the Hardware Keyboard Layout heading then one finger double tap on "U.S." Go back a screen and delete any keyboards you don't want. If you have or need more than one keyboard, some people use the Emoji keyboard for emoticons, then when the keyboard is displayed there is a button just to the right of the "more numbers" key. This will cycle through all the keyboards you have enabled. Choosing English U.S. will, hopefully, have the dictation working as it should. Hope this helps. Andrew

By Justin on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

I've seen various results. For example, I usually just say full stop, since that seems to work most of the time, however, I have said the word "period" and it entered the "period sign" I think you have to say "full stop" as others have said on here.

It's 30 seconds which is enough time for at least sentence if you are slower, a few if you are faster. I've tested this. lol!

By Reebok on Saturday, April 5, 2014 - 23:11

Hello all. Thanks so much for all your help and suggestions. I've found that saying "full stop" seems to be the most reliable means of entering the period punctuation mark. Saying "dot" seems to work ok as well, provided I'm using the American English Voiceover voice. Not entirely sure why the text to speech voice would matter in this situation but it does. I use the Daniel UK voice as my default. Because of some of your suggestions, the thought finally did occur to me that my Voiceover selection might be the reason I'm having the difficulties that I'm having. However, regardless of the Voiceover voice I use, I continue to have issues with the period. I did try switching my keyboard, but that didn't have any affect. I guess using "full stop" will have to be my solution. It's just puzzling to me why there are only a select few of us who are having this issue.

Roxanne… If I had to guess at how long you could dictate to the iPhone without any interruptions I would say it's about 1 to 2 minutes. Please keep in mind that I have not timed this out myself but I just tried to dictate for as long as I could and I would estimate my full length of time to be somewhere between one and two minutes.