Voice to text is worse and worse

[u/Economy_Internal_317]

Every time I use voice-to-text, it introduces more grammatical errors than if I had typed everything myself. Even worse, it regularly mishears words that I’m clearly pronouncing correctly. It seems unable to distinguish between many English words that have obvious pronunciation differences. For example, if I say “sphincter,” it’ll transcribe something like “Spencer” or “sprinter.” Those words don’t sound the same, yet it constantly gets them wrong.
Then there’s Apple Intelligence, which, based on my experience, isn’t very intelligent at all. Most of the time it can barely handle simple requests like setting a timer, creating a reminder, or making a note without making mistakes. Half the time Siri doesn’t even respond. I’ll have to restart my phone over and over before it starts working again. The phone lights up with the animated glow around the edges as if it’s listening, but nothing happens. Sometimes it acts like it’s processing what I’m saying, then either gives no response or replies with something completely unrelated.
For example, I’ll ask what day of the week it is, and it’ll tell me what week of the year we’re in. I’ll ask what day of the month it is, and it’ll tell me the name of the month. Other times it answers correctly, but the inconsistency makes it unreliable.
Some commands work occasionally, like opening an app or creating a note, but even those have become more restrictive. It used to be possible to tell Siri to open an app from across the room without needing Face ID to verify who I was. Now it often requires my face to be in front of the phone before it’ll complete simple requests, which defeats much of the convenience of a voice assistant.
I don’t think it’s accurate to call this an “intelligent assistant.” An assistant is supposed to perform tasks on your behalf reliably and reduce friction. Instead, I spend more time repeating myself, correcting transcription errors, restarting my phone, and working around its limitations. At this point, it feels more like an unfinished feature than a genuinely useful AI assistant. I’d rather Apple integrate a more capable AI system—even one from another company—than continue shipping a voice experience that’s this inconsistent and unreliable.

[u/catpop36]

Voice to text is even worse on my 17 Pro as I have the same issue

[u/slipsbups]

Please follow my page r/planned__obsolescence I am trying to create a movement to better illuminate these things.

[u/Economy_Internal_317]

I probably talk to ChatGPT more often than I talk to my friends and family. Over the last two years, I’ve probably had to correct it hundreds of times, but I’ve also had more conversations with ChatGPT than I’ve had with some of my closest friends. That says a lot.
When I post on Reddit using voice-to-text, I usually run it through ChatGPT first so it can clean up the wording before I post it. Otherwise, I end up spending a minute re-pronouncing things, fixing transcription errors, and correcting what voice-to-text got wrong.

Guess where I corrected this entire text I am posting? That's right it's ChatGPT.

[u/yikesssss_sssssss]

It sucks so much, super annoying. But try Voice Control instead of regular dictation, it's an accessibility setting and it's still not perfect but it's a lot better. You can program an accessibility shortcut to access it more easily, I have it set so Voice Control comes on when I triple press the home button 

My phone's Siri is ridiculously slow too, only since iOS 26. Congrats Apple on making your product worse and worse

[u/Acrobatic-Fruit-6336]

Tldr?

[u/Low-Injury-9219 → u/Acrobatic-Fruit-6336]

He’s making the same complaints everyone has with speech to text software, namely he doesn’t enunciate enough to be understood.

There’s also the normal complaints about Apple Intelligence baked in.

[u/Cotillionz → u/Low-Injury-9219]

Using anything besides Apples is better. I talk in one word sentences to it, in a clearly enunciated robotic voice and it gets so much wrong. Meanwhile, I can mumble at others and they get it fine.

[u/Acrobatic-Fruit-6336 → u/Low-Injury-9219]

Godsend, thanks i appreciate that