How to Dictate a Text Message Instead of Typing

If your fingers are stiff, your eyes get tired reading the small keyboard, or you have arthritis that makes typing painful, your iPhone can listen to you talk and turn your words into a text message. The feature is called Dictation. It has been on the iPhone for over a decade and the speech recognition has gotten very good. You speak in a normal voice, and your iPhone writes down what you said with surprising accuracy, including names and street addresses. For many seniors, dictation is faster and more comfortable than typing letter by letter on the small keys.

Dictation works inside any app where you can type, not only Messages. You can dictate emails, notes, search bar entries on Google, replies to Facebook posts, and forms inside your bank's app. The microphone button sits right on the keyboard, in the bottom-right corner near the space bar. One tap turns dictation on. Tap it again to turn it off when you are done speaking. There is no time limit. You can speak a few words or several long sentences in one go.

The iPhone handles common punctuation if you say the words out loud. Say "period" at the end of a sentence and a period appears. Say "comma" for a comma, "question mark" for a question mark, and "new line" if you want to start a new line. You can also say "smiley face" or "heart emoji" to add small pictures. The first time you try, the punctuation rules feel awkward, but after a few messages it becomes second nature.

Dictation does make mistakes, especially with unusual names, medication names, or words spoken too quickly. Always read what your iPhone wrote before you tap Send. Mistakes are easy to fix by tapping the wrong word and selecting the right one from the suggestion bar above the keyboard. Background noise also affects accuracy. A quiet room gives the best results. A loud restaurant or a car with the radio on can confuse the microphone. With a little practice and a quiet room, dictation is one of the best features on the entire phone for anyone whose hands or eyes are not what they used to be.